Help me understand iTunes (Music) Library

[GIZBUG]

All my music (that I ripped over the years) is stored on my Synology NAS, which is part of my home network. I did this because I don't want terabytes upon terabytes on music on my iMac drive.
I am an Apple Music subscriber.
I am trying to understand how the library of music works. In the past, I had my location for my iTunes library/music files (that I manually set the path too in iTunes) to my /nas/music/ folder. That is where everything is.
I just looked in Music on my iMac (Catalina macOS) and the path is /Macintosh HD/Users/Crabby/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media
However, when I look at my library in Music, all my songs and album art are listed (as they should be).

Do I need to adjust the path of music BACK to my NAS since that is where all my music is? What I don't want is all the music files to end up on my internal hard drive.
I guess I am confused at how all my music is shown in Music (iTunes) even though the path isn't pointing to my NAS where all my music is....

 

[0128672]

Not sure why you deleted your previous post asking the same question and created a new one, so I’ll paste in my reply from there. I see you wanted it in a different forum. You can use the Report button to ask the mods to move it just FYI.

Maybe because you have checked the Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to library. If you only want to store your music on your NAS, you can repoint it there and delete what’s in your /iTunesMedia folder (or whatever the current name is).

Change where your music files are stored on Mac

On your Mac, change where your Music files are stored on your computer. You can also manage your files and create folders for better organization.

support.apple.com

 

[GIZBUG]

Not sure why you deleted your previous post asking the same question and created a new one, so I’ll paste in my reply from there:

Maybe because you have checked the Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to library. If you only want to store your music on your NAS, you can repoint it there and delete what’s in your /iTunesMedia folder (or whatever the current name is).

Change where your music files are stored on Mac

On your Mac, change where your Music files are stored on your computer. You can also manage your files and create folders for better organization.

support.apple.com

Felt this forum category was more appropriate than the previous for the question.

You are correct, the “copy files to media folder when adding to library” is checked
So why would all my music in my NAS not be in the default media folder currently? Or does this apply to me adding files now and in the future?

 

[0128672]

Felt this forum category was more appropriate than the previous for the question.

You are correct, the “copy files to media folder when adding to library” is checked
So why would all my music in my NAS not be in the default media folder currently? Or does this apply to me adding files now and in the future?

I’m not really sure why. Just pointing your library to your NAS would not (or at least should not) automatically add them to the default media folder. The copy files to media folder should only happen when you use the Add to Library function.

 

[Ion Tichy]

The whole experience around this had become wrenching, gruelling at best.