Dumb question about iTunes, but I'm a mac-n000b

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Anyway.. I transferred all my music (about 50 GB) to my iMac the other day. I put 'em under Music -> My Music in their respective folders. (Genres, artists, albums etc)

After I added the files to iTunes' library (which took a small eternity) I noticed they had been copied to the iTunes-folder as well. I did wonder why it's copying things if it just reads the IDTags..

My question is are the files physically in the iTunes folder or is it some kinda "smart folder" thus not actually containing anything?

I wouldn't wanna keep dual copies of my music files cos they do take a reasonable amount of disk space.

I also tried adding files to a playlist simply dragging them from the "My Music"-folder. Yes, it works as expected but then when I checked the files location in iTunes it pointed to the "iTunes"-folder.

Boo-hoo-hoo... I want WinAmp :radioacti
 

dtravis7


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Yes it's coping them to the itunes folders. You can turn off that option though. Here is a Pic. Just uncheck Copy Files to iTunes and it will just use them where you put them.

You can go into username/music/itunes and zap the dupes.

tunes.jpg
 
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Ahh, excellent!

Thanks!

:cool:
 
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Oh wow! I have been cursing that for the last year and a half! Thank you very much!

*does little dance*
 
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One other thing popped into my head while fiddling with the iTunes.

How do I clear the library from all it's contents? Thought I'd reset the whole thing cos now that I have my music in two different places, the media library also shows everything in two.

From iTunes help: "The iTunes Library file is a database of the songs and videos in your library and the playlists you've created. This file is located in the iTunes Music folder inside your Music folder. Do not move this file to another location. If you delete it, iTunes will create a new, empty copy the next time you open iTunes, but any playlists, song ratings, comments, or other information you created will be lost."

Will that do, if I simply delete the database file? Will it erase all media content also? And what exactly is that "other information"?
I'd reckon it's album art and such. Haven't add but couple of album covers so I guess that's no biggie..
 
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High light all of them, right click(right mouse button), or ctrl+click. A menu will pop up, select 'clear'(at the bottom of the menu). Two dialogs will come up after that. First to confirm that you want to clear, second to ask if you want to trash them or keep them. you want to keep them.
 
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My question is are the files physically in the iTunes folder or is it some kinda "smart folder" thus not actually containing anything?

I wouldn't wanna keep dual copies of my music files cos they do take a reasonable amount of disk space.

Why not simply change the definition of the iTunes folder to where you have your music? Then you do not have to copy new music in to that folder and the add it to iTunes, you simply drag new music to iTunes and the files gets copied and organised automatically. Or have I got something wrong here?
 
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Everything's fine. I've deleted the copies from iTunes-folder and changed the default folder to where I have all my music. Just that I don't let iTunes organize the files cos I don't like the way it organizes them.
 

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