'iTunes Music' folder 41GB larger than library

[futurevibe]

Hey guys,

When i open the iTunes App and select 'Songs' in the browser section, it says my library is 471 GB in size but when i go my 'iTunes Music' folder it's 512 GB.

Can anyone tell me why there is such a difference? I've already checked for Podcasts, Movies, Ringtones, etc and there are none in the music folder. Is there any way i can find out what's taking up this extra space? Maybe there's a way of exporting my entire library (including playlists and playlist folders) from the iTunes App so that any of these extra hidden files will be left behind?

Hope someone can help me out.

Thanks!

 

[Fuchal]

Something like Daisy Disk might help you narrow it down.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

There could be music in the iTunes Music folder that is not cataloged in the library list in Songs.

 

[alphaod]

Also iTunes folder used to hold the apps that will no longer will show up in iTunes and/or the new Music app.

 

[McScooby]

iPhone/iPad Backup?

 

[futurevibe]

Something like Daisy Disk might help you narrow it down.

I don't really want to spend any money solving this issue. I have sorted the folder by size and there's nothing that looks bigger than it should be. Thanks for your help!
[automerge]1576030676[/automerge]

There could be music in the iTunes Music folder that is not cataloged in the library list in Songs.

I guess that's possible but i'm very carful with my iTunes library and never put anything in this folder. Unless something went wrong when i was adding songs through iTunes and it added them to this folder but they never showed up in iTunes. I've also tried making a Smart Playlist to find all songs that are not in playlists. There was only a handful. Thanks for your help!
[automerge]1576030780[/automerge]

Also iTunes folder used to hold the apps that will no longer will show up in iTunes and/or the new Music app.

Yes, that's right. I deleted the Apps a while ago along with the Ringtones and Movies folders. Thanks for your help!
[automerge]1576030879[/automerge]

iPhone/iPad Backup?

No, i've deleted those already and don't back up to my Mac anymore. Thanks for your help!

 

[Brian33]

When i open the iTunes App and select 'Songs' in the browser section, it says my library is 471 GB in size but when i go my 'iTunes Music' folder it's 512 GB.

Can anyone tell me why there is such a difference?

Interesting.

It's rather nonsensical, but perhaps iTunes is reporting the total in GiB (gibibytes, based on powers of 2) while Finder reports in GB (gigabytes, powers of 10). I say this because 471 GiB = 506 GB, which is very close to your 512 GB number. Disk space is normally these days given in GB, but some system tools report in # of blocks which is probably converted to GiB since blocksize is always (to my knowledge) based on a power-of-2 number (e.g., 512 bytes). Only the code knows what system calls iTunes is using to find the space usage!

Another point of confusion comparing file storage relates to the fact that files are stored in fixed-size blocks on disk. A file rarely uses up an integral number of blocks, so there is virtually always some difference between "actual file size" and "space used on disk". That can account for some smallish discrepancy (but surely not 41GB!).

I would also guess iTunes may not be reporting the space of the songs' metadata, like cover art, maybe accounting for some more of the difference. My ~62 GB library has about a half GB in cover art, for example.

All just my guesses, though.

 

[futurevibe]

Interesting.

It's rather nonsensical, but perhaps iTunes is reporting the total in GiB (gibibytes, based on powers of 2) while Finder reports in GB (gigabytes, powers of 10). I say this because 471 GiB = 506 GB, which is very close to your 512 GB number. Disk space is normally these days given in GB, but some system tools report in # of blocks which is probably converted to GiB since blocksize is always (to my knowledge) based on a power-of-2 number (e.g., 512 bytes). Only the code knows what system calls iTunes is using to find the space usage!

Another point of confusion comparing file storage relates to the fact that files are stored in fixed-size blocks on disk. A file rarely uses up an integral number of blocks, so there is virtually always some difference between "actual file size" and "space used on disk". That can account for some smallish discrepancy (but surely not 41GB!).

I would also guess iTunes may not be reporting the space of the songs' metadata, like cover art, maybe accounting for some more of the difference. My ~62 GB library has about a half GB in cover art, for example.

All just my guesses, though.

Yeah i did think it could be something like that but as you said, 41GB is a big discrepancy. The 'Album Artwork' folder is stored outside of the iTunes Music folder and that's less than 1GB in size.

I've been deleting some music from my library and got it down to 443GB but the iTunes Music folder is now a little over 482GB, so still almost 40GB of a difference.

 

[HenryAZ]

There could be music in the iTunes Music folder that is not cataloged in the library list in Songs.

Perhaps you forgot to do File/Add to Library after you copied some music to the iTunes Library folder? I've done that before, and wondered (briefly) why it didn't show up in the iTunes app.

 

[futurevibe]

Perhaps you forgot to do File/Add to Library after you copied some music to the iTunes Library folder? I've done that before, and wondered (briefly) why it didn't show up in the iTunes app.

I've never added music this way. I only add it through the iTunes app. Cheers!

 

[dannynjoni]

There could be music in the iTunes Music folder that is not cataloged in the library list in Songs.

Almost four years later, someone benefited from your input. I just found over 300GB of (old?) music files in my Apple Music library using Finder. None of it was showing up in iTunes which was so strange. I spend quite a bit of time on the phone with Apple trying to figure out why my System data was taking up so much space on my 14" MBP, and they were of little help. Thank you very much!