Old iTunes folder to Catalina or Big Sur Music.app

FYI. I have tested how to best import an old iTunes folder to the Music.app on a cleanly installed Big Sur (Catalina was the same but I skipped it). My current "iTunes" folder in Mojave was created 2006 (15 GB folder containing 1800 songs).

With my setup the Music.app could successfully parse the old “iTunes Library.itl” and convert it to the new “Music Library.musiclibrary”.

In that process the Music.app wanted to create a new mainly empty “Music” folder. I want all stuff in the same folder so I manually organised the old iTunes folder to the new Music.app layout:

~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary

~/Music/Music/Media/Music/[imported and downloaded artists/albums]

~/Music/Music/Media/Automatically Add to Music/ <- created automatically

~/Music/Music/Media/Downloads-Music/ <- created after authorisation (Catalina)

Convert old iTunes folder to the new folder structure:

0. In the old macOS iTunes.app check the song count (View > Show Status Bar) so you can compare it in the new Music.app.

1. Copy the old "iTunes" folder to macOS 11.0 Big Sur ~/Music/ folder and rename it "Music".

2. Option-start macOS 11.0 Big Sur Music.app and choose the old ~/Music/Music/iTunes Library.itl as a library. Music.app prompts to create a new “Music 1” folder. Save it on the Desktop (or where ever because this folder is deleted at step #5).

3. Wait a while for the old library to load (check the song count via View > Show Status Bar).

4. Quit Music.app. Open “Music 1” folder created in step #2 and move "Music Library.musiclibrary" from it to the ~/Music/Music/ folder you renamed in step #1. Delete the temporary “Music 1” folder from the Desktop.

5. Inside ~/Music/Music/ folder create a new "Media" folder, rename the old "iTunes Music" folder to "Music" and move it to "Media" folder you just created.

6. Option-start macOS 11.0 Big Sur Music.app and choose the newly created and moved ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary as a library.

7. Open Music.app > Preferences... > Files, click "Reset", "OK" and "Yes" to the alert "Would you like to move and rename the files in your new Media folder to match the "Keep Media folder organized" preference?".

8. Quit Music.app. Inside ~/Music/Music/Media/Music/ folder delete the "Automatically Add to iTunes" and "Automatically Add to Music" folders after verifying they are empty (a new "Automatically Add to Music" was created in step #7 in the upper folder).

9. Now you should have all imported songs available in the new Music.app with the new folder structure.

There are the following old iTunes files that AFAIK serve no purpose anymore and might be deleted. I am not yet sure whether the "Album Artwork" is still needed because the album art is still there even if it is trashed.

iTunes Library Extras.itdb

iTunes Library Genius.itdb

iTunes Library.itl

iTunes Library.xml

iTunes Music Library.xml