iTunes library is very large and will not add Apple Music library - will this cause problems if I migrate to Catalina/Apple Music Mac app?

My iTunes library is very large - 1.08 TB music, I'm not sure exactly how many songs but there are 14,406 albums. Average 8 songs per album = somewhere north of 115,000 songs. A big chunk of this stuff is not on Apple Music - bandcamp downloads, vinyl rips, DIY recordings, artists who refuse to stream their work at lower bitrates, etc. I will not abandon this collection!


I just upgraded to a 27" iMac with 3.7 GHz Intel Core i5, Mojave 10.14.6. iTunes will not add my Apple Music Library despite repeated attempts. I'm 95% certain this is because my iTunes "offline" library is so large. If this is the case, then will it be any better if I move to Catalina and the Apple Music Mac app?



iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Dec 19, 2019 11:54 AM

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Posted on Dec 19, 2019 12:11 PM

Apple Music, the service, is limited to matching/uploading 100,000 tracks. If you want to use the service you might need to start a second library and choose what you add to it, then run your libraries in parallel. I have about 65,000 tracks in my full library, and 10,000 in my cloud/Apple Music library. It doesn't matter if you're using iTunes or the new Music app in Catalina. As this stage I would suggest that the Music app in Catalina is less suited to managing large libraries than iTunes, in particular I miss album artwork in the songs layout and a permanently available filtering search tool. I also prefer a unified app over multiple components that aren't integrated to work with each other.


tt2

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 19, 2019 12:11 PM in response to ToddPadezanin

Apple Music, the service, is limited to matching/uploading 100,000 tracks. If you want to use the service you might need to start a second library and choose what you add to it, then run your libraries in parallel. I have about 65,000 tracks in my full library, and 10,000 in my cloud/Apple Music library. It doesn't matter if you're using iTunes or the new Music app in Catalina. As this stage I would suggest that the Music app in Catalina is less suited to managing large libraries than iTunes, in particular I miss album artwork in the songs layout and a permanently available filtering search tool. I also prefer a unified app over multiple components that aren't integrated to work with each other.


tt2

Dec 20, 2019 7:08 AM in response to ToddPadezanin

Apple Music works, but the 100k track limit is fixed. For comparison Spotify's limit is 10k. While your current month/trial lasts you can explore the service in a separate library or an iOS device and decide whether or not you have any use for it. Or if you only just signed up in the last day or two and found that the limitation makes the service impractical for you then Apple Support may be able to give you a refund.


tt2

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iTunes library is very large and will not add Apple Music library - will this cause problems if I migrate to Catalina/Apple Music Mac app?

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