iTunes, some songs missing after moving library to new mac [SOLVED]

Since discussions get closed on here after just a couple of months of inactivity, I unfortunately couldn't reply with the solution to the top search results of this topic, as such I'm providing what ended up being the solution for me in this post.

The problem:

I copied the entire iTunes folder in which resides all my music and metadata to a new mac, but upon opening the library, a lot of the songs were missing.

Checking on the old mac, they are definitely still there, and the songs were also present on the new mac in the matching directories, just not in the iTunes library itself!

Background info:

• My iTunes library is not in the standard location, it's located on another hard drive
• I performed the File -> Library-> Organise Library -> Consolidate Files action to ensure all my music would be located in just the 1 iTunes folder.

Solution:

• When looking at the "Date Modified" property of my "iTunes Library.itl" file within the iTunes folder, I noticed it hadn't been updated since over a year ago, so I opened up iTunes, and adjusted the ratings of some songs, to verify it wasn't updating, and indeed, nothing changed.
• The above led me to believe iTunes was storing all the information elsewhere, even though I had correctly set my iTunes preferences to point to the correct iTunes library location

• So, open a new finder window, from the menu bar, select Go->Computer, this should bring you to the "Volumes" folder, which displays all your internal, external and network based storage devices.
• From this location, in the search box top right, type ".itl" (no quotes), a context menu should show, with an option to search for files of kind "iTunes Database File", select it and wait for the search to complete

• Once this is done, you will probably see a multitude of "iTunes Library.itl" files, now if you aren't already using "list" view mode in finder, then please turn it on (Menubar -> View -> as list)
• Next, if it's not already showing, enable the "Date Modified" column by right clicking the column names and selecting it, then sort by the "Date Modified" column, and check the most recent file is from around the time you modified the rating of a song for testing earlier, this is the iTunes Library file you're going to want.

The library that iTunes was actually updating was the one located in the default *username*/Music/iTunes folder, eventhough my iTunes library lives in a completely different location.

• Now that you have the correct file, copy it into your iTunes library folder of your new mac (leaving all other files & folders in it untouched), if prompted to replace an existing file, confirm that you want to replace it.
• Now open iTunes, and hopefully, your library will match again! :)

Additional thoughts:

• Unfortunately, this method requires you to still have access to the old machine, or have a backup of the whole system.
• I presume this is an issue which occurs if the storage device at which your iTunes Library is located gets disconnected while having iTunes open, where iTunes will then create a new library from what it has currently loaded if you try to modify anything in it (eg a song rating)

Please note that although this was the problem and solution for me, your scenario might still be different and as such this might not work for everyone.

My main reason for posting it is because it didn't seem to be mentioned anywhere that iTunes might be storing its own database in a different location from your custom iTunes library location, despite that location having a database file of its own.

Other suggestions, such as exporting the iTunes library and then re-importing it, although it does work, it involves losing metadata such as "date added", which I wasn't willing to accept.

Hope this helps some other people out there!

Kind Regards,

Alex