Use iTunes Faster With These Keyboard Shortcuts

By
Mark Harris
Mark Harris
Writer
  • University of Wolverhampton
Mark Harris is a former writer for Lifewire who wrote about the digital music scene and streaming music services in an easy to understand, no-nonsense manner.
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Updated on February 4, 2020
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The Windows version of iTunes has an easy-to-use menu system, so why use keyboard shortcuts at all?

Knowing the essential shortcuts in iTunes (or any other program for that matter) helps to speed up tasks. The graphical user interface (GUI) in iTunes may be easy enough to use, but it can be slow if you need to do a lot of music library management tasks.

If for example, you need to create several playlists or need to quickly pull up song information, then knowing specific keyboard shortcuts can really speed things up.

Knowing how to get to a particular option via a keyboard shortcut also accelerates your workflow. Rather than navigating through endless menus looking for the relevant option, you can get the job done with just a few key presses.

To discover the essential keyboard commands to efficiently control iTunes, take a look at the handy table below.

Essential iTunes Keyboard Shortcuts for Managing Your Digital Music Library

Playlist Shortcuts  
New playlist CTRL + N
New Smart Playlist CTRL + ALT + N
New playlist from selection CTRL + SHIFT + N
   
Song Selection and Playback  
Add file to library CTRL + O
Select all songs CTRL + A
Clear song selection CTRL + SHIFT + A
Play or pause selected song Spacebar
Highlight currently playing song in the list CTRL + L
Get song information CTRL + I
Show where song is located (via Windows) CTRL + SHIFT + R
Fast forward search in playing song CTRL + ALT + Right Cursor Key
Fast backwards search in playing song CTRL + ALT + Left Cursor Key
Skip forwards to the next song Right Cursor Key
Skip backwards to the previous song Left Cursor Key
Skip forwards to the next album SHIFT + Right Cursor Key
Skip backwards to the previous album SHIFT + Left Cursor Key
Volume level up CTRL + Up Cursor Key
Volume level down CTRL + Down Cursor Key
Sound on / off CTRL + ALT + Down Cursor Key
Enable / disable mini player mode CTRL + SHIFT + M
   
iTunes Store Navigation  
iTunes Store home page CTRL + Shift + H
Refresh page CTRL + R or F5
Go back one page CTRL + [
Go forward one page CTRL + ]
   
iTunes View Controls  
View iTunes music library as a list CTRL + SHIFT + 3
View iTunes music library as album list CTRL + SHIFT + 4
View iTunes music library as a grid CTRL + SHIFT + 5
Cover Flow mode (version 11 or lower) CTRL + SHIFT + 6
Customize your view CTRL + J
Enable / disable column browser CTRL + B
Show / hide iTunes sidebar CTRL + SHIFT + G
Enable / disable visualizer CTRL + T
Full screen mode CTRL + F
   
iTunes Miscellaneous Shortcuts  
iTunes preferences CTRL + ,
Eject a CD CTRL + E
Display audio equalizer controls CTRL + SHIFT + 2
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