Where apps hide your files

Where your music files actually are

Updated 2026-08-08 · 4 min read

iTunes became Music, and the folder moved with the rename. If you are hunting for the actual audio files — to back them up, move them, or just understand what you own — this is the map.

The location

~/Music/Music/Media.localized/Music

Inside, files are filed as Artist/Album/Track.ext. The double Music is real: the first is the app's container folder, the second the media folder. Older machines may still have ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media from before the rename.

Files can be elsewhere

Music only copies files into its folder if Settings → Files → Copy files to Music Media folder when adding is on. With it off, the library references tracks wherever they were when added — Downloads, old drives, anywhere. That is how libraries end up scattered.

File → Library → Organize Library → Consolidate files copies every referenced track into the media folder, which is the step to take before any backup or move.

Moving the library to an external drive

1. Consolidate, as above.
2. Quit Music. Copy the whole ~/Music/Music folder to the external drive.
3. Hold Option while launching Music, choose Choose Library, and pick the

copied folder.

The Option-launch library picker is the supported mechanism, and it is also how you maintain separate libraries.

Finding strays

After consolidation, tracks outside the media folder are duplicates or leftovers. Searching the whole disk for audio extensions — .mp3, .m4a, .flac — and excluding the media folder shows what escaped. Spotlight can do this with effort; any tool with a real query syntax makes it one line.

Common questions

Can I delete files after adding them to Music?

Only if copying into the media folder is enabled, or after consolidating. Otherwise the library still references the original location.

Does Apple Music subscription content live in the folder too?

Downloaded streaming tracks are protected files inside the same structure, but they are licences, not files you can back up and keep.