Where are music files supposed to be in Windows 10

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Level 1

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Where are music files supposed to be in Windows 10

In Windows Explorer in Windows 10, I have my main Music folder in which there are some folders of albums I've saved from CDs plus an iTunes folder. Within that iTunes folder I have a Music folder and iTunes Media>Music folder. There seems to be some of the same songs (albums) in all three folders, creating duplicates (and triplicates) of music files. There is no easy way for me to compare the three file locations to see which contains all the music, if any one of the locations does.

I really want to clean this up. Where should my music files reside so that there are not two and three copies on my PC? Can't single copies of music files reside in one location for iTunes to use?

Thanks,

Lisa

iPod touch, Windows 10

Posted on Aug 27, 2016 11:16 AM

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Answer 1

ChrisJ4203

Level 10

230,347 points

Aug 27, 2016 11:28 AM in response to Lochkelly

How your music resides on your computer has a lot to do with how you added the music to your iTunes library and whether or not you have selected to have iTunes consolidate or manage your library. If you added music to the iTunes library without having preferences checked in iTunes to manage the library, they will appear in your iTunes library, but still reside in the original locations that the music resided in when you added the file to iTunes. This support document talks about consolidation of your library, so everything is in one place. Manage and back up your iTunes media library - Apple Support

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

Aug 27, 2016 12:36 PM in response to Lochkelly

See the images in Make a split library portable for the standard layout.

See Re: how to get automatically rid of doubles on itunes for advice on duplicates.

tt2

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