I want to transfer all of my songs from the "New" Music app to my new Mac

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Level 1

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I want to transfer all of my songs from the "New" Music app to my new Mac

I became an Apple household because everything was supposed to be compatible and seamless. Old Mac started acting up so I splurged and bought a new Mac. I want to transfer all of my 50000+ songs from the "New" Music app on my old Mac to the Music app on my new Mac (yeah, everything got updated to Catalina). First of all, in the Music app on the new Mac, add to library under song is all greyed out. I cannot transfer!!! What is this!!! Why is everything so difficult? Why can't I just select export my old music library to an external hard drive then click import library on my new Mac? Why doesn't that work? Why does nothing work? Why can't these answers be searched off Google? Why am I given answers from 2015? Where are all the Apple eggheads to chime in with their "hurr-durr, Apple's the best"? C'mon guys.

[Edited by Moderator]

Posted on Nov 21, 2019 5:23 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

274,430 points

Nov 27, 2019 1:59 PM in response to ljacko

Sync Library is a feature for those that subscribe to the Apple Music service. If you don't then ignore it.

Migrating an iTunes or Music library from one computer to another requires copying all of the components of it, essentially the library database and the media, in a way that doesn't break any connections between the two. This is easiest to do when the library is a portable shape of a library folder containing the database and a media folder that contains all of the media. Works the same whether talking about an iTunes library or a Music library. Most Catalina Music libraries are likely to be split because the upgrade tends to put the Music library in ~/Music/Music (~ is your user folder) and leaves the media in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media. You should be able to copy these two components as they are as long as you use the same user name and drive names on the new computer. Otherwise in Music reset the media folder to ~Music/Music/Media and use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to copy all of the media into the new location. You can then copy ~/Music/Music to into your new computer placing it inside ~/Music and the Music app should pick it up automatically.

tt2

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Answer 2

ljacko Author

Level 1

10 points

Nov 27, 2019 1:46 PM in response to turingtest2

OK, I'm a busy man so I'm trying this again. First of all, thank you for your responses. However, your answers aren't quite correct for the situation of what I'm trying to do. Let me try to explain. I have >500GB in my iTunes library on my old computer, which was updated to Catalina Music. The music is a collection of uploaded CD's and CD's dowloaded from the internet. Nothing is iTunes. I selected all that music and copied it to a file on my external hard drive. I want all that music on my new computer. Under music, I cannot select song>add to library because it's all greyed out. In fact, the entire song category is greyed out. I also cannot sync library because I get the error message "Apple Music has not been linked to this account." My computer is authorized and obviously applied ID entered. So I tried import library and the songs come up but then disappear whenever I do anything else on the computer. Frustrating. Reiterating my previous post, searching Google is futile because everything deals with iTunes. Nothing is current. At least Apple could give instructions with music. I just want things working on my new computer like they did before.

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Answer 3

ljacko Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 14, 2019 5:29 AM in response to turingtest2

I tried your solution but unfortunately it did not work. However, whatever I did, with the new Mac update, all my music now appears in the Music app! So maybe your solution worked and things needed to be restarted? Now, the next step is getting my Music Library identified on Apple TV. It does not come up on Apple TV and also, the <Song> menu is greyed out so I cannot add anything to my Music Library. Is there something that needs to be checked or clicked to activate this? I did authorize this new computer but I cannot see an option to turn home sharing on. Maybe that's what needs to be done?

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Answer 4

ljacko Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 14, 2019 5:35 AM in response to ljacko

Yah that worked! Turning on Home Sharing (now under Sharing in System Preferences) allows Apple TV to recognize this new computer. Just have to work on the greyed out Song menu and importing my playlists and then I can move on.

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