# Peaceful coexistance between beets and iTunes

**URL:** <https://discourse.beets.io/t/peaceful-coexistance-between-beets-and-itunes/321>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [April 5, 2018, 9:59am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/peaceful-coexistance-between-beets-and-itunes/321 "2018-04-05T09:59:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ccc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@ccc](https://discourse.beets.io/u/ccc)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2018, 9:59am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/peaceful-coexistance-between-beets-and-itunes/321/1 "2018-04-05T09:59:40Z")

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First time user of beets… On Mac OS X my **~/“Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music”** folder is 50GB and I would like beets to clean it up for me but:

1. I still want iTunes to have access to the new cleaned up version
2. I do not have and extra 50GB to do a copy

What should I put into my config.yaml file to use **~/“Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music”** as the destination of beets work and execute a **move** not a **copy**? Or would you advise that I just attach an external disk and do the beets conversion over to that and then manually copy the results back into **~/“Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music”**?

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**Author:** ![adrian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/adrian/32/4_2.png) [@adrian](https://discourse.beets.io/u/adrian)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/peaceful-coexistance-between-beets-and-itunes/321/2 "2018-04-05T13:41:58Z")

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Hello! Have you read over the Getting Started guide? It tells you how to use the “import” section of the configuration to set both of those. Maybe it’s worth just giving it a try (after making a backup!).

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**Author:** ![dorade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b3f665/32.png) [@dorade](https://discourse.beets.io/u/dorade)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/peaceful-coexistance-between-beets-and-itunes/321/3 "2018-04-05T16:28:29Z")

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Why do you need beets at all? Why not let iTunes manage your music?

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**Author:** ![ccc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@ccc](https://discourse.beets.io/u/ccc)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2018, 5:25pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/peaceful-coexistance-between-beets-and-itunes/321/4 "2018-04-05T17:25:16Z")

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Beets cleans up titles, artists, etc.

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**Author:** ![brianwisti](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/brianwisti/32/35_2.png) [@brianwisti](https://discourse.beets.io/u/brianwisti)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2018, 3:26pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/peaceful-coexistance-between-beets-and-itunes/321/5 "2018-04-08T15:26:54Z")

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I tried that last year and [wrote about it](https://randomgeekery.org/2017/10/01/beets-and-itunes/). Worked great until I tried doing clever stuff with the duplicates plugin. I’m still recovering from that 🤣

But my post might give you a starting point and a few things to think about.