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Music in Catalina cannot find files when I choose a different music library

Since upgrading to Catalina, I have not been able to play music by choosing a different library. I have tried playing from my external hard drive and from accessing my desktop via my laptop on my home wifi. I choose the itunes.itl and it looks like the library is loaded, but there's an exclamation point by all the songs. And I get a warning message that the original file cannot be find. Also, when I choose the library, it asks me to save as, and it saves the file called "music" either in the music file in the hard drive or on the external hard drive. I didn't have to do this with previous versions of iTunes when choosing a different library. How do I get Music to find the right files when I choose a different library on both my external hard drive and by accessing my iMac's hard drive when I am at home?

Posted on Dec 4, 2019 2:52 PM

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Posted on Dec 31, 2019 5:41 AM

The Music app can open and update a .musiclibrary database, or it can open and convert a .itl database to a .musiclibrary database. After opening your .itl file and saving it as say Music 1 this library will be opened each time until you option-start-Music to choose/create a different library. The next time you want to access it you would go to Music 1/Music Library.musiclibrary and not the old iTunes/iTunes Library.itl file as that would start another conversion of the old library, rather than reopening the converted library you've already made.


tt2

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9 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 31, 2019 5:41 AM in response to shyamala14

The Music app can open and update a .musiclibrary database, or it can open and convert a .itl database to a .musiclibrary database. After opening your .itl file and saving it as say Music 1 this library will be opened each time until you option-start-Music to choose/create a different library. The next time you want to access it you would go to Music 1/Music Library.musiclibrary and not the old iTunes/iTunes Library.itl file as that would start another conversion of the old library, rather than reopening the converted library you've already made.


tt2

Dec 30, 2019 8:01 PM in response to turingtest2

tt2--Thank you for the reply. I have read your posts before, and they have always been helpful. I am sorry for the delayed reply on my part. Since the post, I deleted all the music files on my external hard drive and then started the process anew of copying them back to the external drive. Now, the files are playable. I see no exclamation marks and the few songs I clicked on played. I can't see the entire file name when I check the file path through "get info" for the songs, so I am not positive Music is accessing the external drive. Is there a way to see the entire file name of the song so I can check the file path? I didn't take any different actions in copying the files or accessing the drive when opening Music than I did the first time I tried this. Seems a strange glitch, but I am glad it is working--at least for now. One last question, after I choose the itunes.itl file, I always have to save a copy of Music. I have as many saved folders as I have chosen different libraries for Music to play from. Is there any way around this or will I just have to continue to save the files as Music 1, Music 2, etc? Thanks again for your helpful replies. (For clarification, I have added a screenshot of the file path and the "save" message after I choose itunes.itl from the external drive.)

Dec 5, 2019 8:00 AM in response to shyamala14

The Music app in Catalina doesn't open iTunes .itl files directly, rather it creates a new converted .musiclibrary database from the .itl file which you would then use in future in preference to converting the .itl file each time. Music and iTunes databases contain a list of references to individual files on the hard drive. When you move the library to a different system then depending on the original layout and the references involved the software might be able to correct the references, or it might not. Typically it works well when the library database is in the same folder that contains the media folder, and not so well otherwise unless all of the components of the library are on the same paths as they were on the original system and the new one that you're trying to use. An added complication with Macs is that they can be forgiving if you move content around on the same drive by hand, but they might not work once you access the same content from a different operating system.


Select a track with an exclamation mark. Press Cmd+i to get info. Say no when asked to locate the file, then look on the File tab of Song Info to see where Music thinks that file ought to be located. Can you find the true path? It may be possible to manipulate your files so they are where Music is looking for them if there is an obvious pattern to the differences.


tt2

Jan 2, 2020 6:58 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for the clarification. Does it matter where I save the newly converted library? i.e. if I am running Music from an external drive should I save Music 1 library to the same external drive or to the computer's hard drive? Also, I noticed that a few of the albums that are in the iTunes Media folder are not showing up in the Music app. The Mp4s are in the artist's folder. The albums that aren't showing up are newly purchased and downloaded from iTunes. Is there a way to get these albums to show up in the Music app?

Jan 2, 2020 7:07 AM in response to shyamala14

Yes and no, in an ideal world you've give each library a meaningful folder name so it is easy to distinguish one from another. I also create an empty playlist folder with a title like ! <Library> ! where <Library> is the name of the library folder so it appears at the top of the playlists in the sidebar and I can quickly confirm which library is active. If/when you want to move a library to another drive or computer it will be easier if the media connected to the library has been consolidated into the folder <Library>/Media making the library portable.


If you have media on your drive that hasn't made it to the library try dragging and dropping from Finder to Music, or moving the items into the Automatically Add to Music folder inside your designated media folder.


tt2

Jan 2, 2020 8:01 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks again for your help. I am going to reread your post on making a split library portable so I can try to understand better what is happening with the Music app by changing the location of the library. The transition to running Music from an external drive has not gone as smoothly as I had hoped--trouble ejecting the hard drive when I want to use it to play music on another computer and then trouble finding the proper library again when I reopen Music. I am not sure what I am doing wrong, but occasionally, Music can't locate the files even though the file path appears to be correct. So far I can get it all to function after taking a number of steps, but I am still having trouble with Music locating files now that the library has a new location. It has taken a lot more time and energy than I expected. Thanks again for taking the time to share your knowledge. Greatly appreciated.

Jan 3, 2020 8:36 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the tip on saving the converted library into the /iTunesMedia folder. Since doing that, I haven't had the trouble of ejecting external drive because "one or more programs are using it." Quitting iTunes and opening with a different library still wouldn't allow the drive to be ejected. The only fix I could find when that happened was restarting the computer.


Also, I moved those missing albums to the /itunesmedia/music folder, but I still couldn't find them in the Music app either searching through albums or using the search bar. I ended up clicking on the individual Mp4s for each album and then I could both see and play them through the Music app. Seems strange those few albums wouldn't show up in the Music app despite being in the itunes music folder.


Another question regarding adding new music to my library. If Music is accessing the external drive for the library, then any music I add to the library either download through iTunes or importing CDs should automatically be added to the music folder on my external drive and not my computer's hard drive, correct?


Thanks again. Very helpful.

Jan 3, 2020 8:59 AM in response to shyamala14

Music on Catalina seems to be more sensitive to files being moved around the same volume by hand than previously. It is better to use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to bring in copies, then clean up the originals.


Yes, newly added content should be added to the media folder of the active library as displayed under Music > Preferences > Files.


tt2

Music in Catalina cannot find files when I choose a different music library

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