How does one clear the Rhythmbox music library database?

Question

How do I wipe the music database of Rhythmbox? I have imported lots of music into Rhythmbox. Now I want Rhythmbox to forget everything that I've imported.

Answer 1

Close Rhythmbox and delete the Rhythmbox database in ~/.local/share/rhythmbox/rhythmdb.xml.

If you also want Rhythmbox to forget your library paths (the directories where it automatically looks for music), then you need to delete them from dconf:

gsettings set org.gnome.rhythmbox.rhythmdb locations "['file:///dev/null']"

You can then set new paths in the Rhythmbox GUI, under Edit -> Preferences -> Music.

(Note that

gsettings reset org.gnome.rhythmbox.rhythmdb locations

does not work correctly, since then Rhythmbox tries to be "smart" and uses your home directory as a default value. Using /dev/null above prevents this; alternatively you could directly set the library paths using gsettings set).