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Dragging (copying) music from Music app in Catalina (formerly iTunes) to a Finder folder is actually moving files.

I really don't understand what's happening. I've tried this a few times. I used to drag MP3 music files all the time from my music library in iTunes (now Apple music app) to a folder and it is suppose to copy the files, but now when I try to play the song again it's lost and can't find it meaning the original file is being moved and not copied. When the little status window pops up it says it's copying the files, but it really is moving them. This is ridiculous.


I'm glad I have backups, but I have years of music files that I purchased and converted to play in other devices when I don't have bluetooth or internet connection available. I'd like to have these files because you never know what will happen to the way we hear music in the future. I'm old school.



iMac 27", macOS 10.15

Posted on Oct 26, 2019 5:43 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 27, 2019 9:51 AM

See Hide and unhide music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and books - Apple Support. Hidden purchases show in the store with the legend Purchased, once unhidden you should be able to download them.


tt2

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4 replies

Oct 27, 2019 9:38 AM in response to turingtest2

I realized that it wasn't as drastic as I mentioned and I wasn't moving the entire songs out of the Music app. It actually showed me the missing song files that can't be located in my Mac. They exist on my iPhone, but somehow the song that once was available to play in the Music app no longer can be found anywhere.


I just want to move some music to a portable device that has a memory card in it incase I don't have internet so that way I'll always have music available. That is the main purpose of copying files to a folder on my mac. I'm then moving them to a memory card.


There are some strange things that seem to be going on with the new way iTunes (Music app) and Finder syncs to my iPhone and Mac. Because of this something is happening to some of my previously purchased songs. I don't know exactly what is happening, but luckily it only seems to be happening to maybe 2 or 3 dozen songs out of approximately 7000 songs (I like 3 stars and above). The songs affected are recently purchases over the last year or so. I've since stopped purchasing songs since I use a subscription service now, but it was a kind of investment and I rather keep my library intact.


I am hoping an update in the near future of Catalina will address these strange glitches. There are some flickering and missing windows in the music app. Ex. When I want to open a separate window for a playlist. It's grey and empty.


I've never had any other iTunes account associated with my iTunes and iPhone so I don't think it's a question of an Apple ID. iTunes Store says the songs are purchased when I go to the page and the button is greyed and unable to redownload song.


The songs were purchased on my iPhone and seem to play without issues there. I don't know how to recover those currently unplayable songs on my desktop mac.





Dragging (copying) music from Music app in Catalina (formerly iTunes) to a Finder folder is actually moving files.

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