iTunes Music folder

jordaneatworld

When you add songs(mp3s) to your itunes library it then puts those songs (mp3s) in the itunes music folder. Now are those songs copied to the itunes music folder or are they just links to the original files? Once I add mp3s to my itunes library, can I delete the original file and the mp3 will still be in the itunes music folder or will both files be erased? I just want to make sure I dont have 2 copies of each one of my mp3s on my computer, because I have about 18 gigs of music, and I just wanna make sure I'm not taking up 36 gigs, because I have all my original mp3s in one place on my computer and also have them all in my itunes music folder. My problem is most music players just play (load) the song from the orignal directory where the song file resides on my computer, but itunes seems to copy every song you add into the itunes music folder and I just want to make sure the files are connected/linked or whatever. Thanks for any help.



-Jordan

chucker

Quote:

Originally posted by JordanEatWorld

When you add songs(mp3s) to your itunes library it then puts those songs (mp3s) in the itunes music folder.

Per default, yes. You can turn that off, however.

Quote:

Now are those songs copied to the itunes music folder or are they just links to the original files?

They're copies. The originals are left alone.

jasondotcom

Have a look at the advanced tab in iTunes preferences. There's a tick box option for "copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library". (You can also change the location of the iTunes Music folder here.) I think it is ticked by default. Untick it to stop iTunes creating a copy of the file everytime you add an mp3 file to the library. Or leave it ticked and delete the "original" file on you've added it to iTunes. That's what I do because I like to keep all my music files together and let iTunes keep them organised, create and name the sub-folders etc. (another option to be found in the advanced preferences tab).