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Setting up file storage for all music on my 2019 Mac.

I would appreciate very much if someone could walk me through setting up the music files on my Mac so that they do not disappear. Here is my background experience:-

I bought a new Mac 2019 and installed 3000 songs on the music folder. after a few months the Mac started telling me the songs could not be located. In frustration I deleted everything and then started subscribing to Apple Music .a week after installing about 6 albums I could not find the music I installed from apple. I then gave up and started subscribing to spotify and have downloaded quite a few songs now I have to buy software to get the Spotify music onto usb's so as to play them on my car etc.

I am 83 love the technology though art times like this it is frustrating. I tried to get apple support many time but it is so difficult to get any responses. What I want to do its setup the system of filing my music on the Mac so that it doesn't disappear (there may be something I am doing after installing the music that caused the difficulty to find therm. My Mac says my current music files are located here:- Macintosh HD/Users/edwardmacdonald/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud Drive/.Trash/Media.


Can anyone advise me. how to store my music properly.


Regards Ed

Posted on Nov 2, 2020 8:44 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 12, 2020 5:53 PM

  1. With the Apple Music app closed first make sure that the location /Macintosh HD/Users/edwardmacdonald/Music/Music is free. If you have an existing Music folder inside /Macintosh HD/Users/edwardmacdonald/Music then rename that folder as say Old Music.
  2. Now press and hold down option as you click the Music icon on your task bar to launch Music and keep holding until you see a prompt asking you to choose or create a library.
  3. Click create, then browse to /Macintosh HD/Users/edwardmacdonald/Music, set Save as to Music and then click Save.
  4. Now you can add content into the Automatically Add to Music folder that you'll find inside ~/Music/Music/Media and it should be absorbed into the library, moved to the right path in the media folder, and all things being equal not mysteriously disappear in future. That said I would still recommend regularly backing up the whole Music folder to an external drive.


tt2

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7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 12, 2020 5:53 PM in response to jandy1

  1. With the Apple Music app closed first make sure that the location /Macintosh HD/Users/edwardmacdonald/Music/Music is free. If you have an existing Music folder inside /Macintosh HD/Users/edwardmacdonald/Music then rename that folder as say Old Music.
  2. Now press and hold down option as you click the Music icon on your task bar to launch Music and keep holding until you see a prompt asking you to choose or create a library.
  3. Click create, then browse to /Macintosh HD/Users/edwardmacdonald/Music, set Save as to Music and then click Save.
  4. Now you can add content into the Automatically Add to Music folder that you'll find inside ~/Music/Music/Media and it should be absorbed into the library, moved to the right path in the media folder, and all things being equal not mysteriously disappear in future. That said I would still recommend regularly backing up the whole Music folder to an external drive.


tt2

Nov 7, 2020 7:20 AM in response to jandy1

Hi jandy1,


We'd like to make sure we are on the same page. After purchasing your Mac, you transferred 3000 of your own songs to the Mac in the Music app, but they unexpectedly were no longer able to be found. The same thing then happened with a subscription to Apple Music, is that correct?


If so, we'd like to ask a few more questions to help us better isolate the issue:


Additionally, as to your current files, the issue is likely that they're being saved to the wrong folder. The steps to change the location of where your Music files are saved can be found here: Change where your music files are stored on Mac


Feel free to reply to this thread.


Cheers!

Nov 7, 2020 2:47 PM in response to jandy1

Hi Kareng12,

Thank you very much for your response to my post.

yes it was my personal library of songs that I installed almost entirely from my CD collection. When they could not be located I went online and tried every suggestion then I subscribed to Apple Music only to find they too did not even appear on my Mac.

I simply gave up on Apple and am using Spotify and am hoping to buy some software to copy my Spotify music playlists onto USB’s and then play them on whatever car etc.I definitely will try the links you have given me. If I am still unsuccessful then I will bite the bullet and change my PC and go back to Microsoft.

Despite all of this I believe all of my problems can be fixed by anyone who understands the Apple Music.

I am now going to try your links .

Once again thank you very much.

regards Ed.

Nov 7, 2020 3:17 PM in response to jandy1

Hi Kareng12,

I tried the links you gave me and unfortunately nothing changed I ha already tried all of the Apple support suggestion before. I have found one possible problem. When I tried to set my music files to the default location this is what comes on the screen:-/Macintosh HD/Users/edwardmacdonald/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud Drive/.Trash/Media.

I tried to change it but I end up. with this :-/Macintosh HD/Users/edwardmacdonald/Music/Downloads-Music.I understand neither of these locations are the default .How do I fix this.

Jandy1

Nov 12, 2020 1:14 AM in response to jandy1


Hi,


I'm not certain I have the whole picture, but it would seem you've somehow got your Music library stored within an area that is covered by iCloud Drive, which it shouldn't be. iCloud Drive may offload locally stored items to free up space, while at the same time some content might be excluded from uploading to the cloud. It may be best to use the option-start-Music method to create a fresh Music library at the default path of ~/Music/Music where ~ is your user's home folder, /Macintosh HD/Users/edwardmacdonald. With this done the media folder should become ~/Music/Music/Media and content you add to your library should remain on your computer.


tt2

Nov 12, 2020 2:44 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for your help. what you said makes sense. However I want to do as you suggest ( make a fresh start). but I haven’t been able to make change the location of my music location.I am trying to find the Home/music but I am sufficiently computer savvy to do so I need Guidance and am trying to get help from Apple support to guide me through the process. I really appreciate your help thank you. Ed

Setting up file storage for all music on my 2019 Mac.

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