When I am deleting a movie or TV Show from iTunes, it asks me if I want to move the selected movie/tv show to the Trash or keep it in iTunes media folder. It then says "Only files in the iTunes Media folder will be moved to the Trash."
I am trying to delete movies and this is confusing. What is the difference between Move to trash vs Keep in iTunes Media Folder?
Any insight is helpful, thanks!
iOS 5
What you see in the iTunes window is a list of files added to iTunes, not the files actually on your computer. It should hopefully closely correspond. However, if you delete an iTunes track but elect not to move the file to trash the entry will be removed from your iTunes list but the file will still be on your computer in the Media folder (taking up space but available should you later wish to re-add it to the iTunes display).
What you see in the iTunes window is a list of files added to iTunes, not the files actually on your computer. It should hopefully closely correspond. However, if you delete an iTunes track but elect not to move the file to trash the entry will be removed from your iTunes list but the file will still be on your computer in the Media folder (taking up space but available should you later wish to re-add it to the iTunes display).
I am trying to free up some space on my hard drive. I have copied my movies to an external drive. Now I need to go back and delete the movies from my Mac. So if I want to delete the movies and free up space, I need to click on "move to trash" as opposed to "keep in iTunes Media folder". Is this correct?
And another question. I will need to empty my trash after I move the movies to trash to complete the freeing up of space. In Finder there are two options. one is "Empty Trash" and the other is "Secure Empty Trash" is one better than the other of my intended purpose here is to free up space on my Mac?
Really appreciate the input, I find this forum very helpful.
Yes, correct.
On empty trash, I would do it then check trash and see. I set up my iTunes to work differently and I don't use that method to delete files.
Secure empty is rarely needed by the regular user and probably not at all on very modern computers. Maybe if you were regularly creating files with lists of credit card numbers. With older computer hard drives it is possible bu not easy to recover data from a drive even after the trash has been emptied. With regular empty trash all that takes place is a reference to where the data is located is removed but the data are still there if you run special software to scan the drive. Secure empty trash writes junk data over the old file. I think newer computers with SSD drives don't work the same way and for better or worse data recovery is not possible. I have never once used secure empty in 25 years of using computers.
Limnos wrote:
.. if you delete an iTunes track but elect not to move the file to trash the entry will be removed from your iTunes list but the file will still be on your computer in the Media folder (taking up space but available should you later wish to re-add it to the iTunes display).
How would I re-add the track later? Do I have to go find it in the Finder then add it from there?
Difference between Move to Trash or Keep it in Media Folder?
