I have just copied all my iTunes files to an external hard drive to free up disc space but I cannot find the iTunes media files on my macbook to delete the originals, How do I go about finding them. Spotlight brings up nothing useful nor does finder search.
MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
An alternative to Frank Caggiano's post above (should you not have your users folder in the sidebar) is to click anywhere on the desktop to make it active and then, from the menubar click on Go and select Home:
technisparc wrote:
I have just copied all my iTunes files to an external hard drive to free up disc space but I cannot find the iTunes media files on my macbook to delete the originals
???
How did you copy these files if you don't know where they are?
However, before you get go further, simply copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to the external drive.
Hold Option, launch iTunes and select Choose library... then select the iTunes folder you moved to the external.
Then you can delete /Music/iTunes/ to free up that space.
I take your point Chris CA, but I did not actually have to locate the files to copy them as I was following the instructions in Article HT1449 where all I had to do was click the button in the change media location screen.
It was only when I got to the end of the instructions which said Locate the original itunes Media folder and drag it to trash that I realised I could not find it and as I said neither spotlight or the Finder search engine can find it either. I know it is still there because iTunes still works with my external hard drive disconnected. It must be hiding somewhere or called something else.
(Incidentally I used the Article HT1449 route in the first place after being unable to find where the iTunes file was stored )
If iTunes still works with the external attached, I HIGHLY recommend you do the steps I mentiopned above.
This keeps all of the iTunes library and media in one location. This will minimize problems, especially if you are unfamiliar wiht the folder structure and how iTunes works..
As noted in step 5 of -> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
the iTunes media folder location is ~/Music/iTunes/.
As noted in step 5 of -> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
the iTunes media folder location is ~/Music/iTunes/.
That is the point exactly. I cannot find any way to find this file on my computor in a form which I can move to trash!
The finder search engine can not find it nor can spotlight, it is as if it just does not exist.
The whole procedure was simple up to this point but the instructions in HT1449 are missing the vital information as to where to find the media files and how to delete them, and I can find nothing in Help or other chat rooms.
It is so frustrating!
You don't need to search or use Spotlight.
Just open a Finder window and go to Music.
"The whole procedure was simple up to this point but the instructions in HT1449 are missing the vital information as to where to find the media files and how to delete them, and I can find nothing in Help or other chat rooms."
??? It's very simple. The media files are in /Music/iTunes/iTunes media folder.
You have never used a Mac before?
Do you know what your user folder is?
Thanks Chris, I have found this screen . I was trying to find a way of deleting all the files in one click in other words a way of deleting my entire music folder rather than deleting it CD by CD which will take a longer.
I have been looking at other chat rooms and it seems that I will have to do it item by item . I found a good video showing someone deleting the cds one by one and I see no reason why I cannot do them in batches using the comand key to batch them up.
To answer yoour question I have been a Mac user for nearly 10 years now since our company went totally Mac, and I am normally very good at sorting out any problems for myself or for others on the firm. This is the first time I have been stumped for years.
"I was trying to find a way of deleting all the files in one click in other words a way of deleting my entire music folder"
Hy would you delete CD by CD?
Just delete the entire music folder.
Select the ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes media/folder and Command Delete or right click - Move to Trash.
Hi Chris,
We have just gone full circle in this thread back to where I came in with the question
Where do I find the ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes media/folder.?
I have 25Gb + of music on my macbook but I cannot find a file with anything like that ammount of music on it wherever I look.
I think it must be hidden deep in some sub-menu , and from the research I have been doing on the net I am not the only one who has come unstuck at this stage in the proceedure, hence the advice I trracked down on a google search on the subject .
It seems that many people are having to delete the cds one by one.
It is a shame that the original Article HT1449 was missing this vital piece of information.
Nothing is missing in that article. It is very, very clear.
Open a Finder window.
Dont do a search.
Can you see Users folder?
Can you see your user folder?
Can you see your Music folder?
Can you see your iTunes folder?
Look in your Music folder. What is in there?
Take a screen shot and past it here.
I have fallen at the first hurdle,
Open a Finder window.
Dont do a search.
Can you see Users folder? NO
I was puzzled by this and checked on my Macbook Pro at work and also on my wife's macbook and it is the same on them as well. I cannot see a Users folder, nor can spotlight or finder search find one.
This seems very strange,
In iTunes, select a song.
Right click > Show in Finder.
Or selec teh desktop.
Finder menu Go > Music
Open a Finder window. In the sidebar you should see an icon that looks like a house labled with your short user name
(this is mine)
Click it. In the list of folders that opens one of them should be labeled Music, click it. Your old iTunes stuff should be in there.
Need to hold down the OPTION key to make the user's Library folder visible in that menubar option (peril of Apple hiding that useful folder from the common folk in Lion & ML).
'cept user is not trying to get to the Library folder, but to the Music folder.
Where is my iTunes media folder
