Great to know thanks.
As I am subscribed to iTunes Match and I like to keep my Music library organized, please help me to understand the following:
After I disable "Copy Files to iTunes Library" how the new Music will be added to the Library?
I normally buy new CDs and then import them to iTunes, will those be copied to the Library in the HDD right?
Also I sometimes buy from Amazon mp3s and then add them to the Library, how will they be stored?
You can have music and videos in 2 different locations...which is what I do. Here's my workflow/setup...
1) "Copy to iTunes Library" is ON, so if I buy anything through the iTunes store or rip a CD, the files go onto my internal hard drive in the default location. This is the default setting for iTunes and how most people use the program.
2) All of my music is in that default location.
3) All of my videos are on an external Drobo enclosure (which has 4 3tb drives and is connected to my iMac via FireWire). The Drobo is set up as a single volume with ~8.15tb of usable space.
4) On the Drobo, I have 2 folders: Movies and TV Shows, with the video files within those folders.
5) To add videos to my iTunes library, I drag/drop from the Drobo into iTunes while holding down the OPTION key. This tells iTunes to add the file(s) to iTunes, but keep them in their current location (in other words, adds pointers to the files as opposed to copying them to my internal hard drive).
When using iTunes, any iOS device, or AppleTV and browsing/playing from my iTunes library, there is absolutely no difference or indication that files reside in separate locations. It works flawlessly and is very very well organized.
My iMac (and the attached Drobo) remain on 24x7 (other than when they automatically sleep). I never turn them off manually. So I can access my content from any TV as I have 3 AppleTVs around the house. We rarely watch regular/live TV anymore.