iTunes Music and Downloads Folder

[TheDill]

Okay, I download almost all of my music from mediafire or other websites, rarely downloading them from itunes. The songs and albums I download go to my downloads folder on my dock and i then import them into my itunes library. My question is, if i delete all of the music content from my downloads folder on my dock, will the music in my itunes get deleted as well, or is the downloads folder on a sort of temporary storage. ANd if it helps i dont have an external hard drive at the moment.

Thanks

 

[GGJstudios]

In iTunes > Preferences > Advanced if these boxes are checked, iTunes makes a copy of whatever you add, so you can delete the originals:

 

[simsaladimbamba]

The Downloads folder is an actual folder residing in Macintosh HD / Users / YOU /, your home folder/directory.
The Dock Downloads icon is just a shortcut to it.

If you have the following checked in iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, then iTunes will copy the imported songs into Macintosh HD / Users / YOU / Music / iTunes /, thus you have two copies on the same HDD. One copy in the Downloads folder, one copy in the Music folder.

You can then safely delete the music from the Downloads folder.

To learn more about Mac OS X: Helpful Information for Any Mac User by GGJstudios​

 

[TheDill]

bah perfect, thanks so much. Is it even worth deleting the downloads on my dock? Im new to macs and have an Air, which doesnt exactly have the most GB of storage so Im trying to free up some space.

 

[GGJstudios]

bah perfect, thanks so much. Is it even worth deleting the downloads on my dock?

There's no need to keep duplicates, so yes, delete them.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Is it even worth deleting the downloads on my dock?

If you have two copies of your music, then yes, as having duplicates on the same HDD does not constitute as backup, unless you have a habit of accidentally deleting files.