Is it possible to stop iTunes from embedding artwork in every track?

First some info on how iTunes Cover Artwork functions: When you have a song or album iTunes gives you the option to "Get Album Artwork" and that artwork is saved to iTunes/Album Artwork folder. If there is no artwork on the iTunes store or if you don't like it, you can add your own by dragging a picture into the album artwork box.
When you get the artwork from the iTunes store it's saved as a single .itc file in the Album Artwork folder mentioned before. But if you drag and drop your own artwork, such as a JPG or PNG, then iTunes takes the liberty to embed a copy of that Cover Artwork into each track.
_A Example:_
+*You have 600 albums or 6,000 songs(10 songs per album), and each album needs its own album picture. Ok, so a decent sized album picture is 600x600 and about 1MB in PNG format. So to do the math, 600x1MB = 600MB that's not bad price to pay for having everything look pretty.+
+*But wait! If you add your own artwork iTunes isn't just saving 1 copy of the album art per album...it's saving 10!!!(1 per track). So now you have 6,000x1MB = 6GB!+
So I was wondering, when importing album artwork, does anyone know if its possible to make it not embed the artwork in every file and instead act like the artwork downloaded from the iTunes store?
Thanks, Quad =)

when importing album artwork, does anyone know if its possible to make it not embed the artwork in every file and instead act like the artwork downloaded from the iTunes store?
It is not possible.

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Is it really possible to operate iTunes from external hard drive?

The internal hard drive on my Mac Book Pro is full and most of it is music for iTunes. I have been told that it is possible to operate iTunes from a library on an external drive but it hasn't worked for me. I have moved the iTunes folder on to my external hard drive. Then I did two things...First, I opened iTunes while pressing the "alt" key. Then I clicked on "choose library" and directed it to the iTunes folder on the external hard drive. Second, I opened Preferences>Advanced>iTunes Media Folder Location and then clicked on "Change" and directed that to the iTunes folder on my external hard drive. It should work right? Well, it worked the day that I did it but the next day I had "!" beside every song in my library of nearly 10,000 songs. It says that it can't find the location of the song file and asks if I would like to find it. When I show it where the file is it works but it will take me forever to do that with each individual song. Can this really be done successfully?

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How do I stop iTunes from automatically adding mp3s I've downloaded to my library?

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Google is your friend, Chad.
Found this link: http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?p=513358 with some info excerpted below.
"+However, there is a workaround solution:+
+Allowing auto-syncing for all devices in Preferences, and then turning automatic syncing off for the device in Summary, corrects the problem and prevents iTunes from auto-launching when the device is connected.+"
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angelofromnsw wrote:
Can I put the ".itl" and other database files on the NAS, and if so where would I put them? I'm thinking that if the library file is only available at home then the ITunes library won't get corrupted at work when it can't find the media, in the event that I accidentally start up itunes eg. while opening an attachment or disc that can be read by Itunes.
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Can I put the ".itl" and other database files on the NAS, and if so where would I put them?
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A few months ago, I got a 2TB internal drive, and told iTunes to use the default media folder location on the internal drive again. I also check to keep iTunes media folder organized, and to copy files to the iTunes media folder when adding them to the library. I had already manually copied the folder structure over from the external drive.
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Manually moving files yourself and telling iTunes where to store media in preferences does not do what oh so many people who come here with issues think it does. Changing iTunes' media storage preferences only tells iTunes where to store new media. iTunes still looks for old media where it last saw it, namely on your external drive. You have to let iTunes do the relocating of the old media files by consolidating to the internal drive. It will cheerfully ignore any changes you do in Finder yourself.
iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH19507 - more information at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/22026652#22026652 - and steps 5-8 in https://discussions.apple.com/message/24491967#24491967

Is it possible to stop iTunes from embedding artwork in every track?

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