What are ".itc" files? Keep getting created at every iTunes session

Question

What are ".itc" files? Keep getting created at every iTunes session

I've found out that my computer now holds about 800 files with the extension .itc (the names are all something like 135576F762524B0B-6DBC1D9D023F9661.itc) and this number keeps getting bigger with every iTunes session. These files are created in the My Music/iTunes/AlbumArtwork/Local directory. Also, every iTunes start up takes longer and longer, as every .itc file is scanned during start up while the message "updating iTunes library" is shown".
Can these files be safely deleted? What exactly is going on, as this did not use to happen before?

Windows XP Pro

Posted on Sep 24, 2006 1:20 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 24, 2006 6:57 AM in response to Luciano Guimaraes

OK, I've done my own research and found out that most specialists agree that these .itc files are in fact jpeg files with a modified header and that they refer to album art downloaded through iTunes new feature "get album cover from iTunes Store". I do not think this information is 100% accurate, as I do not have an iTunes Store account (access is blocked to users who do not have a credit card with a billing address in the U.S.) and therefore could not have album covers downloaded; also, I did not choose to download album cover, as I am very happy with the covers I currently have (which have been carefully downloaded or personally scanned from my CD collection).
Still, new .itc files keep piling up in my directory everytime I use iTunes, at a rate of a new file for every new song played (which seems very odd - why store the cover album for each song played in a different location???)
Still puzzled.

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