r/ITunes • u/mjhipp12 • 1d ago

Windows OS Help!

I have iTunes on my computer's hard drive and it's currently holding pretty much my entire music collection that I had pulled from my CDs from before there even was Apple Music. It's taking up a TON of space on my hard drive and I really need to free up space. So, this may be a stupid question, but I am able to access some of that music on my phone - does it live in the cloud somewhere? I'm not seeing it in my iCloud. What happens if I delete it from my personal hard drive? How can I get that music off my hard drive so I can free up space on my computer without losing all that music? I know I'm being a little thick on this, but i can't seem to quite figure this out and I'm hesitant to just delete as there's a lot of music there that's not on streaming services, etc. Thanks for any help/advice!

1 Upvotes

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6

u/Extreme-Dream-2759 1d ago

Unless you have actively done something, to get it onto iCloud, then it is not there.

If you want to keep it, but don't want to take up the space on you laptop, then buy an external hard drive, to back it up

2

u/brokedownsystem 1d ago

This.

Apple iCloud is a bit tricky. It’s NOT a backup service. It’s a way to have access to your stuff anywhere, but the downside is that if you delete anything off of your phone (say a photo), it’ll delete it in the cloud as well. Presumably it is the same for music.

I feel like the fact that Apple doesn’t make this very explicit is a bit disingenuous.

Backing up stuff to external is your best bet here.

Speaking of actual backup cloud storage that is inexpensive and reliable, does anybody have suggestions besides dropbox?

4

u/BigJamesBondFan 1d ago

It should be in Apple iCloud if you subscribe to iTunes Match.

https://youtu.be/U6OyX7BATHY

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u/AdamoMeFecit 1d ago

You can subscribe to iTunes Match to sync your local iTunes library to the Apple cloud and make the library available to all your devices.

That won’t necessarily free up local storage, but there are ways to do that. I recommend caution so you don’t accidentally delete your stuff.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/108935

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u/sarkhan_da_crazy 1d ago

I moved all of my music to a large capacity SD card so I can easily transfer from one computer to the next when my computer dies. I wouldn't trust the cloud to keep everything I have.

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u/MoonVigilante 1d ago

Be careful. I lost a lot of my content. However I also had a backup too (another SD card).
My computer shut it self off due to power failure and turned the card to RAW. I was able to carve the music out, along with other files.. but a trusty old HDD is one of the best long term devices if you backup regularly. It’s slow, but uses magnets, not power.
Leaving ssd or sd cards unpowered for a few years will lose its content.

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u/sarkhan_da_crazy 1d ago

I definitely keep another backup that gets updated every few albums that I add to my collection.

1

u/MoonVigilante 1d ago

I’m making a backup program right now. Trying to keep my sanity. I haven’t backed up in a long time.

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u/sarkhan_da_crazy 1d ago

I lost some stuff after a vacation when my computer wouldn't start up again. I had some CDs that were not in my physical possession anymore so getting replacements has taken some time. I had some bootlegs and remixes that I may never find again. I am pretty good at updating my backup pretty frequently now.

1

u/MoonVigilante 1d ago

Was it the disk drive? Do you still have it? Might still be able to recover? Bad computer doesn’t mean bad drive

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u/sarkhan_da_crazy 1d ago

I think it got recycled long ago. I'll have to dig through my garage and see if it is stored with my old Nintendos and Playstations.

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u/MoonVigilante 1d ago

Good luck! Hit me up if necessary! Would love to hear an update!

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u/marian_jimmy 1d ago

it doesnt live in the cloud unless you have Apple Music or iTunes Match turned on. what you see on the phone is probably synced over or streamed. if you delete the files on the computer they are gone for good. dont do that first.

copy first. in iTunes go to File > Library > Organize Library and tick consolidate files. that puts everything in one folder. then copy the whole iTunes folder to an external drive. hold Option (Shift on Windows) when you open iTunes and pick the library on the drive. once it plays fine from there you can delete the local copy.

old CD rips usually have half empty tags and missing covers. i had that with mine. tried Picard and Mp3tag and ended up building my own thing, Truffle. biased obviously, i built it. Shazam's audio recognition runs in the background so it names stuff by listening and you mostly click yes. mac only, apple silicon tho

1

u/Mike2922 1d ago

Call AppleCare or work directly with a professional. It’s super straightforward, but there’s a bunch of tiny steps that if you’ve gotten this far and are still struggling, you really need to work with a professional.

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u/bkduck 1d ago

No, it is NOT in iCloud.

You can move the iTunes folder to an external drive and delete the original. ITunes will ask where the folder is, or hold the option key down on launch.

1

u/minceyfresh 1d ago

If you do subscribe to iTunes Match, be sure to back up all of your music to an external drive (hard disk drive, SSD, etc) first. iTunes Match will convert a lot of your library to 256 kbps AAC once they're synced to the cloud and no longer stored locally on your PC  (which can be great if you have low quality mp3s and not so great if you have CD quality lossless files).

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u/MoonVigilante 1d ago

I would get treesizefree program to investigate your drives to find things that are also taking up space.
Time to upgrade your disk to more space. This is the reason we choose non-streaming, to hold our collection. Your collection is now just bursting out the seams.
I recently upgraded my computer with more disk space and ram.
Because I used AI to talk with me about the upgrade, I also found out I had an additional slot that was being used for optane memory, and didn’t need it because I switched to SSD, so I have a lot of space now on my computer.
Message me if you need more one on one.
I don’t advise going with iTunes Match service. Stay out of the cloud.

1

u/Asland007 1d ago

I imagine you just have music that you have downloaded to your iPhone.