My Music Library on iTunes

First of all, you were sadly misinformed about the demise of iTunes. I would go back to whoever told you that and explain the following to that person:

• Apple's Mac OS Catalina does not use iTunes - that's a fact. Users of OS Catalina use finder (Apple's File Manager) to manage their iDevices while various in-built apps are used to play the media (music, Podcasts etc.). There's more to it than that of course, but since I'm not a Mac user, I don't know much about it
• Mac OS versions before Catalina and Windows still use - and can use, iTunes. It's kept up to date and I believe the last update was on 21st may 2020

The fact that you've posted in the iTunes for Windows forum (and your use of a Toshiba laptop) suggest that you are still using Windows, so as of today, if you have been using iTunes to add music to your phone and iPad, you still can.

So the easy fix is to continue as you are. That said however, it's always wise to back up your music onto an external drive.

I notice though, that you mention getting rid of the old Toshiba. Presumably, you intend replacing it with another Windows machine. A new one will have Windows 10 on it and you will be "encouraged" to download iTunes from the Microsoft App Store. The supposed advantage of that version is fully automatic updates, but frankly I'm not impressed by Microsoft's idea of automatic updating. Until you prevent it, Microsoft will update when it feels like it, no matter what you're doing.

You can however, still download iTunes from Apple and although you have to click a couple of buttons to get updates to it, it seems to have less issues than the copy available through Microsoft.

Once you have your new machine, you need to copy the entire Music folder from your old computer to the new one. In that folder will not only be your music, but the iTunes .itl file, which contains the information iTunes uses to keep your Playlists, Play Counts etc. Such transfers don't always go smoothly though (I speak from experience).

Back to making sure you don't lose your music. Hard drives fail - another fact. So make sure you back up all the music in your iTunes Library to an external drive. iDevices are not backups!

r-a67 wrote:

I wondered if iTunes will SAVE my music library if I cleared my memory?

I don't understand what you mean.

Regarding the music on your laptop; if you're not intending to replace it with another Windows PC (or a Mac), you would have to put your music into Apple's cloud storage and use that to keep your iPad and iPhone filled with that music. Or at least, that's the way I understand it. I don't use the cloud, so there's a lot about it that I don't know. You can learn more by starting with the following document at: iCloud Drive FAQ - Apple Support

The issue with iCloud though is that you only get 5GB of storage. If you want more than that, you have to pay for it. You mentioned in your first post that your Library is 63 MB, but that's only an hour's worth of music (if your files are at a Bit Rate of 128Kbps) or 30 minutes of music if they're at a Bit Rate of 256Kbps. Music at less than 128Kbps will not sound very good, so I suspect it's more likely that your Library is 63 GB. (I may be wrong.)

Regarding the "memory" that you mention; yes, it's probably a good idea to erase the content of your old computer's hard drive, if you're not going to keep the disc as an external drive. It's the hard drive you need to worry about, not "memory", which is something different. If you ask some people about erasing the computer's memory (as you have done), they will tell you that the memory will be cleared when you turn the computer off, which will mislead you about the security of your data.

r-a67 wrote:

I wondered if iTunes will SAVE my music library if I cleared my memory?

Read into that - the hard drive (as mentioned above)

No.

• If all of the music in your Library was purchased from the iTunes Store, it should (note the word "should") all be available in your iTunes Store account for re-downloading. However, it has been known for songs to be removed from the store, and therefore no longer available for you to re-download. I would not rely upon this method as a suitable store for your music
• If you have any music from other sources, such as:
  • online purchases from Amazon, Bandcamp Beatport etc., neither iTunes nor Apple store it (unless you're paying for iCloud storage, but see the detail above about that)
  • copied from CDs (as you tell us you have done). The same caveat applies as above, Apple don't keep a copy of it.
  • artist websites etc. I strongly recommend that you don't rely upon anyone else to keep copies of such files

You also need to ensure you have a suitable backup of your music, that you control. If not, you stand to lose it.

iCloud Drive is similar to DropBox, OneDrive, etc. and works for cloud storage and syncing, however although you can place music files in there, the Music app on an iOS device won't be able to see them or import them. You still need a computer to add new tracks to your iOS devices, unless you only want to work with content purchased from the iTunes Store.

tt2

turingtest2 wrote:

You still need a computer to add new tracks to your iOS devices, unless you only want to work with content purchased from the iTunes Store.

I had a sneaky feeling that was the case.

Phil