What should Music>"iTunes" folder look like after moving Media to a separate drive

[rawdawg]

Hi. I've had my iTunes media on a separate drive for years. I also recently noticed my default "iTunes" folder inside my ~/Music folder has a bunch of possibly old folders in it. I'm not sure if those folders are from times I've accidentally connected my iPhone to my Mac without having the drive containing the media turned on and so it accidentally sync'd to the default location, or if those are old folders from previous iTunes versions.

I tried deleting the folder all together but noticed that's where iTunes directory is located--when I relaunched it was as if it was empty and the folder was automatically recreated. So I restored it from a Time Machine backup.

Inside my ~/Music/iTunes folder I have:

/Album Artwork
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
iTunes Library.itl
/iTunes Media (empty)
iTunes Music Library.xml
/Mobile Applications
/Previous iTunes Libraries
/Voice Memos

Everything is consolidated and kept organized in my other iTunes Media folder on the other day. Inside this ~/Music folder in my system drive which of these folders/files is currently being used by iTunes and which can I delete?

It seems with updates things are stored differently but previous folders are left behind. I don't want tro inadvertently delete an important folder. Example: I'm afraid of deleting /Album Artwork thinking it should be stored in the iTunes Media separate drive when in fact it needs to live in ~/Music/iTunes.

thanks!

 

[tjwilliams25]

The only necessary files are the database files: iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library Extras.tidb, and iTunes Library Genius.itdb. The iTunes Music Library.xml is the old database file that they used to enable your music library in other apps, and it isn't even used or generated by any current versions. The Album Artwork folder is a cache for downloaded artwork. You can delete it without worry as it will download the files again in whichever place is being used as the media location. As for the Previous iTunes Libraries folder, that's just where iTunes dumps a copy of your iTunes Library.itl file when it installs new updates. It's just a backup location.

 

[rawdawg]

Thanks TJW! Very helpful, I went ahead and deleted everything but those three files without worry. I did notice upon restarting iTunes some items reappeared. It seems the following was recreated:

/Album Artwork
/iTunes Media
iTunes Music Library.xml

Interesting but at least I know I safely deleted the old stuff and will just let this just stay where it is now. Much appreciated!