How do i turn off auto populate itunes?

Question

Please tell me there is a way to switch OFF the function of having iTunes automatically populating itself with every mp3 file on my hard drive.
I was horrified to find very sensitive work related phone calls and interviews in my iTunes library because they are mp3 files. I certainly do not wish to have them there. I only want my music in iTunes.
So I now cannot have iTunes open when people or clients are round, because the files are people's names. It would take hours to rename them, and why should I have to? That's how I know what's in them.
It also means that I have 8GB of stuff I do not need in iTunes and when I watch important podcast videos, the sheer volume of stuff in there slows them down and keeps stopping and starting the videos, which is hugely annoying.
Is there a way to switch this auto populate off please?

Answer 1

Autastic wrote:
I definitely did not agree to it populating iTunes with all these files. It just did it on its own as soon as I opened iTunes after the new update. I assumed it was part of the update, then I saw all these millions of files. I also had my external drive connected (that has a backup of my C drive), and it copied all those files too - so I have two of everything in iTunes!
Does this mean that every time iTunes updates, this will happen? And of course an update is an install, and they happen a LOT! - way too often for my liking.
It's not normal, no, and has never happened to me on any of my systems. Something, perhaps a file permissions problem with a preference file or a corruption in the iTunes library files, caused the flag that tells iTunes that the first run has already occurred to be mis-set such that iTunes thought it was a new install.
(*) About the other headache the new update caused; when I connect my iPod I now get a box saying:
*"The iPod "(my ipod)" is synced with another iTunes library.*
*Do you want to erase this iPod and sync with this iTunes library?*
*+An iPod can be synced with only one iTunes library at a time. Erasing and syncing replaces the contents of this iPod with the contents of this iTunes library."+*
*"Erase and Sync"* or "Cancel"
Ditto the above. That's a symptom of the same sort of problem. You'll probably need to clean up iTunes so that only the content you want there is present, and then allow your iPod to sync as if it was connecting to a new library (which in reality it will be).
I clicked Cancel as I went white thinking it would try to add all those millions of files to my iPod too. So now I can't even update my iPod.
Why on earth do I have a 2nd library? I have only ever had one PC with iTunes on. It is not on a network or anything. Is this due to the update to iTunes 10?
How can I stop future upgrades?
Turn off the automatic check in Apple Software Update, a separate application on your system.
But again, this is not normal behavior. Something was corrupt in the iTunes files on your system. So once you get a clean set, this problem should not happen again unless the same conditions (whatever those might have been: software conflict, power surge, etc.) occur again. You'll want to do some of the normal steps to check for disk problems/corruptions in Windows to make sure this isn't a systemic problem with your drive or WIndows.
Regards.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer