iTunes taking up too much disk space

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Level 1

23 points

iTunes taking up too much disk space

My computer is starting to take up disk space as fast as i can transfer files onto an external disk.

I transfered about 20gb which gave me about 25gb of free space, after using the computer for a couple days I'm back at under 5gb of free space, even when working directly from our server and not saving anything to my hard drive.

I also keep my music and pictures on an external drive, then i found this.

When my music is on an external drive, why is iTunes using 30.5gb of my hard drive space?

My co-worker is having the same problem, she stores her music externally but her iTunes is using over 70gb of her hard drive space.

here are my computer's specs. MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) - Technical Specifications

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12.3)

Posted on May 3, 2017 5:42 PM

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Answer 1

Rysz

Level 8

44,531 points

May 3, 2017 5:47 PM in response to dodohead9

If you keep your iTunes Library on an external drive, make sure you follow these instructions, otherwise you'll just end up copying your files back to your start up disk.

iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,981 points

May 3, 2017 6:55 PM in response to dodohead9

In general I would recommend moving the entire iTunes folder to a different drive when the system drive isn't large enough. See Make a split library portable if you've already relocated the media folder independently. There is also an accounting bug with the current build of Sierra that shows the space for the active iTunes library as if it is on the system drive even if it is physically located elsewhere. Here I've temporarily moved a 50Gb iTunes library out of my user's Music folder to an external drive, but it is still accounted for on my system disk.

That said the free space on the drive should reflect what is really free as this rose when I moved the data over, and fell when I copied it back.

tt2

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Answer 3

dodohead9 Author

Level 1

23 points

May 3, 2017 7:01 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks so much Rysz! When I originally put the music on the external drive i copied the entire music folder over, then deleted the contents from my hard drive.

Another thing i did after writing this post was eject the drive then check my storage again and got this.

So I'm guessing i need to do some more cleaning.

By the way, my hard drive's music folder shows it's got 123 k on it.

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Answer 4

May 8, 2017 3:58 AM in response to dodohead9

I have a similar problem but not quite the same. My iTunes is taking up 136G of storage on my start up disk and the disk is only supposed to hold 128G!

My iTunes library is stored on the Data HD drive so I cannot figure out why iTunes takes up so much space on the start up disk and how to reduce it.

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

278,981 points

May 8, 2017 4:13 AM in response to ToCo International

As mentioned previously, there is a bug with the current build of Sierra that causes it to account for the entire iTunes library as if it was on the system drive, even if it is in fact stored elsewhere. That said the free space reported is probably accurate so while it isn't iTunes you probably do need to move some more content off the system drive. Tally up the sizes of the other listed content types to see what you get.

tt2

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Answer 6

May 8, 2017 4:52 AM in response to turingtest2

Thnx the quick reply. When I tally up storage on the system drive it comes to approx 95G. Most seems to be used by iCloud - 65G. However when I try to manage my iCloud storage it seems I am only using 24G of 50G total. How might this be and why would these totals be different?

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Answer 7

turingtest2

Level 10

278,981 points

May 9, 2017 7:38 AM in response to ToCo International

I don't know enough about how iCloud content is stored, however it looks like you've already enabled an optimisation feature that allows the computer to dump local copies to free up space on the drive when needed, so perhaps it isn't surprising that there are some differences.

tt2

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