Skip to content
BitDek Docs

Where your music lives

Import an album into BitDek and the music is copied into BitDek’s own storage rather than played where it sits.

That surprises people, and a few have written in about it, usually worried they are about to store their whole collection twice on a phone that cannot spare the room. BitDek copies on purpose, and on most import paths it clears the duplicate away itself.

Nothing to scan at launch

Section titled “Nothing to scan at launch”

The other model, where a player points at your folders and reads them in place, has to check those folders every time it opens, because files get moved and retagged and cloud folders drop in and out without warning.

That means a scan on every launch, and the scan gets slower as the collection grows. BitDek reads its own database instead, so a 4,000-track library opens as fast as a 40-track one.

iOS can delete files you are not watching

Section titled “iOS can delete files you are not watching”

Storage on an iPhone gets tight. When it does, iOS reclaims space by evicting local copies of files it considers replaceable, which includes anything backed by iCloud Drive.

If BitDek played your files where they sit, an album could vanish from your library between one listen and the next. Not because anything broke, just because the phone needed the space and assumed the cloud still had a copy.

Music inside BitDek is not eligible for that. It stays until you delete it.

If you back up your iPhone, the library comes along

Section titled “If you back up your iPhone, the library comes along”

Everything BitDek imports lives in its own storage on the device, and iOS includes that storage in both kinds of iPhone backup: iCloud Backup, and the computer backup you make by connecting the phone to a Mac or PC.

So if you do back up, restoring a new iPhone brings the library back with the artwork attached. Files parked loose in “On My iPhone” or synced from iCloud Drive are not reliably part of a device backup, so they can be missing from exactly the restore you were counting on.

If you do not back up your iPhone, none of that applies and BitDek changes nothing about it.

BitDek is not a backup. What lives here is a working copy of your music. An archive is a separate thing you keep yourself, in a form that does not depend on any one app or device.

Does this double your storage?

Section titled “Does this double your storage?”

Less than you would expect, because BitDek clears up after itself wherever it can. The answer depends on how the music arrived.

WiFi Transfer

Section titled “WiFi Transfer”

One copy on the phone, and that is all. Files go from your computer’s browser straight into BitDek, so nothing is left behind on the device. The other copy of your collection stays on the computer, which is where you want it.

Source folders and files in iCloud Drive

Section titled “Source folders and files in iCloud Drive”

If a file is in the cloud and not downloaded, BitDek downloads it, imports it, and then evicts the download it created. That happens folder by folder as the import runs, so the temporary duplication covers one folder at a time rather than your whole library.

Files that were already downloaded to the phone are left alone on purpose. BitDek did not put them there and will not assume you want them gone. Those are the ones worth removing yourself if you want the space back.

The Music app

Section titled “The Music app”

This is the one path that genuinely leaves a duplicate, because Apple requires a track to be downloaded before anything can import it.

Once the music is in BitDek, go back to the Music app, touch and hold the album, tap Remove, then Remove Download. The music stays in your Apple Music library and the local file goes. Apple’s own instructions are in Delete music in the Apple Music app.

The arrangement worth aiming for

Section titled “The arrangement worth aiming for”

Your collection lives somewhere off the phone, on a computer or an external drive or a folder you sync, and BitDek holds the only copy that is actually on the device. If your music already lives on a computer, you have this for free.

What we would not suggest is deleting your last copy anywhere. Keep the archive off the phone and let BitDek hold the working copy.

Was playing in place ever considered?

Section titled “Was playing in place ever considered?”

Yes, and it was rejected during design. The rescan cost and the risk of iOS reclaiming files underneath the app are not edge cases, and no amount of polish makes a player reliable when its music can be taken away mid-album. This is a settled decision rather than something on the roadmap.

How much space am I using?

Section titled “How much space am I using?”

The Import Music screen shows a storage bar with what BitDek holds and what the device has free. Settings has a Storage section for clearing space when you need to.

See Deleting music for removing a track, an album, or the whole library.

What else lives inside BitDek

Section titled “What else lives inside BitDek”

Your files are not the only thing in there. BitDek keeps its own database alongside them, holding everything you do in the app:

  • Metadata you edited, including titles, artists, album names, and genres
  • Artwork you replaced or imported
  • Playlists, their manual order, and their smart rules
  • Favorites and play history

All of it sits in the same storage as the music, so a backup that captures your library captures the work you put into it too. Your playlists come back when your music does.

Two things follow from that. Your original files are never modified, which is why an edit in BitDek does not show up when you open the same file on your computer. And that work stays in BitDek, since there is no export path that carries your edits and playlists into another app.

If you want tag changes to travel with the files, make them on your computer before importing. Recommended tagging tools covers the software worth using.

Moving to a new phone

Section titled “Moving to a new phone”

Setting up a new iPhone from an iCloud Backup or a computer backup brings BitDek’s library with it, including your edits and playlists. Restore, open BitDek, and it is all there.

Installing the app on its own from the App Store gives you an empty library. The music has to come from the backup, because these are your files rather than Apple’s and nothing about them is tied to your Apple Account.

With no backup to restore from, you import again from your archive, which is the second reason to keep one.

Section titled “Related pages”