December 2019 • Macworld 85reference, where the file remains where it is on a
drive and the library points to it. (This preference
is in iTunes > Preferences > Advanced.)
Some people prefer to manage their music
and other audio files in their own folder hierarchy
or have enormous libraries they have to keep
stored on an external drive. Most people let iTunes
copy files and store them in the iTunes Media
folder, which is typically found in Home > Music.
Where this get tricky, though, is when you
want to delete an audio file from iTunes. If
you navigate to the iTunes Music folder or, for
externally stored files, to their location and then
drop it in the Trash, the iTunes library is out of date.
That can lead to errors when trying to search for
and play back audio in iTunes.
Instead, you should select an item or items in
iTunes and choose Song > Delete from Library. This
is when you will see a dialog that might leave you
scratching your head:iTunes offers a dialog with
too many conditionals
to help fully understand
what the result will be