Itunes

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Level 1

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Itunes

I know this question has probably bene asked a billion times but the answer all seem vague, First off the option in preferences to copy your music to your Itunes media folder. I don't understand the benefit of this VS just making the Media folder the same folder as your music. Would the only reason be is that you want your own music separate from Itunes if you choose to let Itunes/Music organize your music?

Also when exporting your library why consolidate ? It pull all your files that are not inside your folder but if you have the option to copy anything into the media folder wouldn't this be redundant ? Is there any speed benefit to having an Music folder that is organized by Music ?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Mar 31, 2022 5:49 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

274,534 points

Mar 31, 2022 7:43 AM in response to ermac4482

Imagine you're using Music and you drag in some content from a USB drive and the Copy files... option is not selected. The music plays perfectly well while the drive remains connected, but won't at some point later. Keeping this option enabled means that all content you add to the library gets placed in the library's media folder, which will make backing it up and migrating it easier to manage.

Consolidating before you move/copy the library achieves the same ends, provided any content currently referenced outside the media folder is still available and not on some disconnected drive, network share, etc. If you've always had Copy files... enabled then there shouldn't be anything connected that isn't in the media folder, although perhaps holding down Cmd while dragging in some tracks might link to the original path rather than make copies. Consolidating before you move/copy is belt and braces and generally won't hurt unless you're deliberately maintaining content outside your media folder for reasons.

Allowing Music to keep the media folder organized doesn't necessarily bring any performance benefits, but it may make disaster recovery easier should something go wrong, e.g. if you delete something in error and have Time Machine set up it should be clear where you need to go in the backup set to find it.

tt2

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