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iTunes Files on C Drive (itc2)

Hello


My C Drive is getting full. I see that I have about 1.82 GB of data in "Music."

Most of it in the following

Music > iTunes > Album Artwork > Cache

They seem to all be itc2 files


All of my iTunes music files are stored on my D Drive. Can I delete these itc2 files from the C Drive?

Or, move them to my D Drive which also doesn't have much free space.


Thank you

Andrew



Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Oct 29, 2024 6:21 PM

Reply
6 replies

Oct 31, 2024 3:40 PM in response to Ajmarino

I ran into this problem, too, and it's pretty common in the age of smaller SSD boot drives. Since you have another hard drive, you might want to consider using Symbolic Links, which allows you to store data on a different hard drive without affecting your current installations. It basically tricks Windows into looking in one place while actually diverting somewhere else. It's really helpful in situations like this.


e.g.


Your path: C:\Windows\Users\blahblah\Music\iTunes\

Linked path: D:\iTunes\


When you go to C:\Windows\Users\blahblah\Music\iTunes\ it will show the contents of the folder D:\iTunes\ without actually physically taking up on any space on the C:\



There's also a guide on how to do it here: . There's a program called Link Shell Extension that can help if it seems too daunting.


[Edited by Moderator]

Oct 30, 2024 9:46 AM in response to Ajmarino

These files form the artwork cache for the library. While you can delete them iTunes will regenerate the cache over time and it will likely end up being a similar size. There is an argument that your library files would be better stored on the same drive as the media (see Make a split library portable - Apple Community) but now might not be the time if that drive is also short on space. Perhaps you have other data that can be archived.


tt2

Oct 30, 2024 5:16 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for the answer. It confused me because I've downloaded/burned (and bought from iStore) a lot of music into my iTunes library from other sources and all of my music and related artwork files (jpeg etc.) are physically stored on my D Drive. I didn't realize that the C Drive was acting as a cache to load the artwork. I guess I can live with it as it is until I really do run out of room.

Andrew

Oct 31, 2024 7:09 PM in response to veravinifera

veravinifera wrote:

I ran into this problem, too, and it's pretty common in the age of smaller SSD boot drives. Since you have another hard drive, you might want to consider using Symbolic Links, which allows you to store data on a different hard drive without affecting your current installations. It basically tricks Windows into looking in one place while actually diverting somewhere else. It's really helpful in situations like this.

e.g.

Your path: C:\Windows\Users\blahblah\Music\iTunes\
Linked path: D:\iTunes\

When you go to C:\Windows\Users\blahblah\Music\iTunes\ it will show the contents of the folder D:\iTunes\ without actually physically taking up on any space on the C:\


There's also a guide on how to do it here: . There's a program called Link Shell Extension that can help if it seems too daunting.

[Edited by Moderator]


I haven't explicitly tested with the current version but iTunes has a history of not playing nicely with symbolic links. They may be fine as long as you're only reading data, but in the past iTunes has broken the link when it wants to create folders as part or ripping, converting, or moving files around. Relocating iOS device backup data does appear to be reliable.


tt2

iTunes Files on C Drive (itc2)

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