Import iTunes library into clean installation of Catalina

Had the same problem, but finally resolved with Apple Tech Support.    The key was in how you open the MUSIC app.    Hold down the OPTION key while opening the MUSIC app.    You will see a dialog box.   Pick the option "Choose Library".     Now, navigate to your ITL file (not XML) for the old iTunes database you want to import and double click it.  The MUSIC app will then ask you to Save this as a new Music Library.  Give it a different name than your other library(s).    Pick a location etc.    Once that is done, you still have one final step - to change the default directory of your actual music files.  Go to MUSIC preferences, select Files directory, and change it to where your actual audio files are.    MUSIC app will then ask you to organize, click YES.   This took 2 hours to do on my iTunes database (153,263 songs, library size 8.4 TB).   I was originally on Sierra 10.12.6 using iTunes 12.8.2.3.

@Snowdog212,

You are my hero because (1) you solved the problem and (2) you have 153,263 songs.

By the way, I was using Mojave 10.14.6 and iTunes 12.8.2.3

Have you considered posting your solution as a User Tip? I've seen many questions that were be answered by your advice.

Yes Yes! Finally I found someone with the same issue as me.. (Probably same as you) I have been using für 10+ years now and have put a lot of effort into organizing my music library which I cannot access anymore. This is heavily disappointing and I hope that Apple will deliver a solution soon!

Thanks for starting this thread, will definitely watch closely!

iTunes Music is the old name for iTunes Media, suggesting your library might originate from iTunes 8 or earlier. Ideally at some point along the way you would have simply renamed the folder and iTunes would have worked it all out, leaving your library in better shape for the next migration/upgrade. It is possible that the Music import routine assumes that the media folder should be iTunes Media, and simply ignores everything it cannot find. Mobile Applications in the library folder also points to an older layout which again, I guess, could potentially cause problems. See Make a split library portable - Apple Community for some background. If nothing else works you might need to get access to an computer running Mojave so you can rearrange the library into the standard shape before bringing it over to Catalina.

tt2

See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Mac - Apple Community to make sure Music is allowed to read the file.

Otherwise see Empty/corrupt iTunes/Music library after upgrade/crash - Apple Community to try repairing the library with a copy from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder. I'd suggest copying, pasting, and renaming as if you were going to open iTunes with rather than simply accessing the file in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder.

tt2

You can import all of the media files that you have, that isn't a problem. Importing the playlists won't work if the tracks aren't where the playlists record them as being. This isn't anything unique to Music, iTunes, or any other software. When you move content from one computer to another, and there are any kind of internal references, then you need to make sure that you're being sympathetic to the way the software works. For iTunes libraries this is discussed in detail in Make a split library portable - Apple Community. Music may be able to import the .itl database of a portable iTunes Library when it has been moved, although I don't think I've tested that scenario as yet. The XML file import would definitely fail however.

tt2

Hey Guys,

since I've spent the whole day with "try - not working - retry", I thought I'd would be helpful for others to share my iTunes import Story...

I came from a 2014 Macbook (120GB SSD) using High Sierra and iTunes and moved over to a 2015 Macbook (1TB SSD) using Catalina with a fresh and clean Install (USB Stick method).

Since my iTunes library was too big to be stored within a 120GB SSD, the complete Library Folder "iTunes" was saved on an External HDD and accessed by the widely known alt + Icon Click.

When I today copied the Library from the HDD to the new SSD and did the Same Alt + Icon Click Method using the new Music App that is widely suggested, the Songs wouldn't play (! sign in Music App), since the original Path of the Song wasn't the same (compared to the HHD), although, all playlists and everything were there and seemed to be fine.

I found an easy workaround on a MacRumors topic called "Catalina 10.15 Music no importing my old iTunes songs" which seems quite odd, but obviously worked for me an might be helpful to others...

1. Copy your old iTunes Folder into your music Folder (/username/Musik/...)
2. Create a copy of your old "iTunes Library.itl" file within the iTunes Folder and rename it to "Music Library" (also remove .itl file extension)
3. Start Music with the Alt-Click and choose the just created File from Step 2.
4. A new Window will suggest to create a new Library i.e. "music". Confirm the message/create the new Library...
5. The App will take some time and your music should be inside it, including Playlists and everything....

The last Issue I haven't solved yet, is the fact, that new Additions to the collection will be copied to the new music Folder.

I would love to mold these Folders into one, but unfortunately Changing The Path in the Music App Setup won't do anything to the

old Files.

So the new "music" Folder only contains the new Library File and all Files added from today and after, whereas all the old files are still stored and played from the iTunes Folder...

Any Help would be greatly appreciated.

1) you‘re absolutely right, they are on the same level.

my hierachy is:

Macintosh HD/Benutzer/USERNAME/Musik*

and as you stated right, there are two underlying subfolders in that „Musik“ Folder:

• itunes
• music

So when I wrote „...i moved it into the „Musik“ Folder I meant the Root Folder- long story short, they are on the same level 🙂

(I assume the itunes folder could also be stored somewhere else, As long as it is not changed during the whole moving process. But let‘s not complicate things even more 😂).

2) you got what i meant, but sure enough it could be explained better with different words and through being a native english speaker 🙂

The idea is indeed weird. I did something similar long ago back in itunes and saw the same behavior...

you can - to test things - also try it with only one album you pick out of your itunes media folder and drop it on the music.app mediathek GUI (?) then check if the path to the file has changed - cause it should have...

also make sure u back up your library as a first step.

For example: I actually copied my library from the external hdd to the „user/USERNAME/Musik“ Folder (Root🙂) on the computer and left the original as a backup on the external hdd... so to refer back to your initial question - yes doubled the library twice 😃

A guy on macrumors also posted another solution i misinterpreted, which led me to the question, what would happen if i would...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/catalina-10-15-music-no-importing-my-old-itunes-songs.2184506

I don‘t know if it is allowed to post links here, but ok 🙂

*it probably varies, depending on system language it might be „music“

Hi all, after a bit of struggle (same issue, only importing purchases and Apple Music files), this is how it finally worked.

OLD SETUP

My trusted 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 running High Sierra with a "System" SSD boot partition and a "Data" internal HDD RAID array, where the iTunes Library is residing in a Data/Music/iTunes Library folder (the database itl. file is there and the actual music is residing in the subfolders).  This includes ~250Gigs of CD's ripped to Apple lossless.

NEW SETUP

A new Mac Mini running Catalina

An External LaCie

The intention was to move the library along with playlists and obviously the many lossless files to the Mac mini with the new library permanently residing on the external LaCie.

So I copied the entire Music/iTunes Library from the Mac Pro to the external LaCie (took a while over USB 3.0!) resulting in LaCie/Music/iTunes Library... structure

WHAT DIDN'T WORK

1. Using the Migration Assistant.   I wanted a clean setup, created a new user on the new Mac, but the Assistant also recreated a "new old" user on the new system and suspiciously quickly copied over something.  I ended up with a new Music Library under a different user that contained neither my playlists nor the original rips, only purchased and Apple Music stuff.  No good
2. Option-clicking the Catalina Music app and selecting the old .itl file - the same thing without even the playlists.
3. Trying Import Playlist... from the Mac mini - nothing

So I thought if in the old setup the actual iTunes Library.itl was residing on a non-system volume (Data/Music/iTunes Library) along with all the ripped albums, how the heck the new Music app is going to tell the difference if I make the path to the library database file exactly the same?

I then changed the name of the external drive from the default "LaCie" to "Data", Option-selected the Music App on the Mac mini, pointed to the old iTunes Library.itl database  and voilà! - all of my files and playlists are here.

I hope the above makes sense. In any case, the solution seems to be to move your library and the location of the database to an external volume and do the same so you skip the extra steps here because of my unnecessarily complex scenario (moving the library from the internal hard drive an old computer running High Sierra to the external drive on the new one running Catalina)

Спасибо!

Keeping track:

after deleting everything in the Music folders, and rebooting, I actually got (partially) what I was hoping for! My library seemed to just... appear! None of the music files are present, but they're mostly available to download from the Cloud, thanks to iTunes Match.

Copying the files I have in the correct location, does NOT equal to downloading the file. In fact, if I place the music file in the correct folder where Music expects to find it, the track still shows as downloadable, and if I do that, it creates a file right next to the one I placed myself, with a " 1" suffixed to the name. No good.

But I could live with not having all my physical files, if:

• I could totally trust the matching algorithm (I can't, I've caught it before)
• the song count were exactly the same

After rebooting to the OLD disk, I discover it's short about 150 songs, which is about 2% of my songs. No good.

So I export my song library. I get an xml file. All the file locations are formatted with the old file structure, iTunes Media etc etc.. I don't think I want that. I reboot to the NEW disk. I export the library again, to compare the two files. I cut all the info from the OLD library file except for one song, which happens to have not been matched, nor uploaded, but still showed up from my Cloud library (kudos!).

Importing that one-song library does nothing. Apparently. Let's try a reboot.

Have you tried dropping your files here?

I actually melted my Libraries by dragging all Files - so the the whole Folder Containing all the Music into the Library again...

It worked for me and everything seems fine - even the Date Added of the Files is still the original and hasn't changed through the "re-import"...