# Why does iTunes save my music twice, taking up twice the space on my HD?



## JoeyDee (Aug 15, 2008)

Hey FOlks.

Here's what I mean... Check it out.










You see how the songs are repeated twice? Why is that? 

-Joey


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Because you are not letting iTunes manage the library. Click "Consolidate" and all will be well.


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## RunTheWorldOnMac (Apr 23, 2006)

Go into your preferences and remove the checkmark from "Copy files to iTunes Muisc Folder When adding to Library".

When you download music to folder A, then add it to the library it also copies it to the iTunes directory. I believe consolidate will just bring the music together but will not do so for anything new that has been added after the consolidation.


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## K_OS (Dec 13, 2002)

Consider yourself lucky my wife wasn't paying attention and deleted some songs from her hard drive and iTunes wouldn't allow her to download the songs again without paying.

Laterz


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## RunTheWorldOnMac (Apr 23, 2006)

... I didn't see the pic b4; did you just add it? Or something was up earlier. I thought you meant it was in 2 locations...


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## JoeyDee (Aug 15, 2008)

chas_m said:


> Because you are not letting iTunes manage the library. Click "Consolidate" and all will be well.


THank you sir - it's consolidating! 

So is that going to fix the prob? What does Consolidate mean? It will bring all the audio into the iTunes music folder?

-Joey


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## i-rui (Sep 13, 2006)

the only reason i can see itunes saving that twice in your music folder would be if you dragged or opened BOTH the m3u and mp3 files for that album in itunes.

You should just drag the m3u file and let itunes do the rest, or just drag all the mp3 files. If you did both itunes would import both, creating duplicates.


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## Wakakanada (Aug 23, 2008)

*Deleting originals?*

Once I consolidate, getting all my music copied into iTunes, is there any reason not to then delete it from the original location so I don't eat up my hard drive with duplicates? I understand that if I don't copy into iTunes there can be problems if the location of the file moves, but I can't see any reason to keep the file in its original location [other than Apple sells hard drives].:greedy:


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

JoeyDee said:


> THank you sir - it's consolidating!
> 
> So is that going to fix the prob? What does Consolidate mean? It will bring all the audio into the iTunes music folder


That's exactly what it means -- it will identify all the music files and move them into the iTunes Music folder. Henceforth, when you drag a music file into the iTunes window, it will copy it (not move, COPY) into the iTunes folder and you can then delete the "original."

This may not do anything with duplicates you already have, but there's a number of really great, FREE scripts from Doug Adams' Applescripts for iTunes that will identify the dupes so you can easily get rid of them.


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