What happened to "Delete Unused"? Why can't I Select - Unused clips from playlists that have been removed by the new "Delete Playlists" option or were removed manually?
PT 2026.4
macOS 14.8.7
EDIT: I figured it out. It's because Undo is holding on to the clips in case you want to reverse deleting your unused playlists. Interestingly, this seems to be another issue with the documentation as it states:
"Click OK to delete the selected playlists. This operation cannot be undone."
So not only can deleting playlists be undone. It's the ability to undo the deletion that causes Pro Tools to not select clips from deleted unused playlists. The immediate workaround is to close/reopen the session to clear the Undo history and then sure enough, Select - Unused finally selects unused clips. Poor documentation strikes again. This is also a crucial step I've yet to see anyone else mention when discussing this topic. My guess is because it's only an issue if you try to select unused before the undo history has had a chance to forget the deletion from enough new moves in PT. Of course it could be my misunderstanding or I'm missing something, so correct me if I'm wrong.
*What still confuses me is why you can Select - Unused right away to clips you manually delete even though that manual deletion or "Clear" is still present in the Undo menu. So the issue seems to be specific to removing playlists. Idk, either way I have my workaround so I can get on with my work day. Maybe someone smarter than me can chime in, if need be.
ORIGINAL:
I've recently updated from PT 2024.4 to 2026.4. There used to be an option called "Delete Unused" where I would be able to thin projects by deleting all my unused playlists, then (on Mac) Shift+CMD+U to select all unused clips, followed by Shift+CMD+B to clear them all by holding Option when clicking "Delete" from the pop up window. This has now all been changed since updating.
No longer is there a "Delete Unused" but rather just "Delete Playlists", which from what I can tell only shows unused playlists. However, the Pro Tools 2026 manual does still show the now-antiquated "Delete Unused". So I'm not sure if the documentation is not updated or if this is some sort of bug on my system.
Furthermore, using this new "Delete Playlists" option does remove playlists I'm not using, but no longer are those clips on those now-deleted playlists able to be selected with Shift+CMD+U. If I manually delete the clips from the playlists I'm no longer using, only then am I able to select unused. That means I'd have to now manually select and delete all the clips from all my unused playlists (made somewhat easier in Playlist View) and then thin the clips and then select "Delete Empty Playlists". Tedious af and leaves room for user error.
Even if I delete a playlist manually by right clicking and selecting Delete while in playlist view, I get the pop up that mentions how it contains active clips and still, those clips will not become selected with Select - Unused.
I tried in a fresh session with 1 track having 2 different playlists that didn't share the same clips in anyway...same exact results.
Everything I find via Google all points me back to the old way even if I wrap 2026.4 in quotes in with the search.
What am I missing here? I know I jumped 2 years worth of updates so I'm assuming it's just a misunderstanding on how things have changed.