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Consolidating Apple Music and my own library?

I have my downloaded media on an external drive in a folder called "iTunes Media" which contains a folder called "Music" which seems to hold all my own, old music + a folder called "Apple Music" which seems to hold all the stuff I click 'add to library' and download from my Apple Music subscription.


I would like to know if possible to merge these 2 folders?


In the Music preferences, under FILES, I have ticked the "Keep Music Media folder organised" as well as the "Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to library"


As I am getting a Mac with a larger internal SSD, I would like to move my Media library back onto the built in SSD and here thinking it would be nice to merge all into a single folder, if possible?

Mac mini, macOS 11.2

Posted on Jan 29, 2021 7:42 PM

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Posted on Jan 30, 2021 4:11 AM

Changing the media folder location affects where new or consolidated content will be put. It doesn't change the location of the .musiclibrary file, so if this is currently on the external drive you should copy it over and option-start-Music to connect to it on the new path. Once you've consolidated the whole library to the new path on the internal drive you would be able to disconnect the external drive. All your playlists, ratings, playcounts, etc. will be preserved. I would recommend you clone the resulting Music folder complete with the .musiclibrary file and the Media folder back to this external drive or another for security.


tt2

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 30, 2021 4:11 AM in response to NavarroOne

Changing the media folder location affects where new or consolidated content will be put. It doesn't change the location of the .musiclibrary file, so if this is currently on the external drive you should copy it over and option-start-Music to connect to it on the new path. Once you've consolidated the whole library to the new path on the internal drive you would be able to disconnect the external drive. All your playlists, ratings, playcounts, etc. will be preserved. I would recommend you clone the resulting Music folder complete with the .musiclibrary file and the Media folder back to this external drive or another for security.


tt2

Jan 30, 2021 3:04 AM in response to NavarroOne

Leave the Apple Music content in its own folder. This is content that will no longer work as and when you choose to terminate your Apple Music subscription and in some cases you might need to do a manual clean up so best if it is all in one place. You cannot import Apple Music items into a library, they must be downloaded by Apple Music which will always put them in this custom folder.


When you're ready to consolidate to the new SSD you can reset the path to your media folder using Music > Preferences > Files. The standard location is ~/Music/Music/Media where your active library file is ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary and ~ is your user's home folder. If you've moved the library elsewhere the reset option will put the Media folder in the same location as the .musiclibrary file, which is best practice. After consolidating with File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files the library should no longer be dependent on the external drive. Apple Music content will still be in a separate folder.


tt2

Jan 30, 2021 3:59 AM in response to turingtest2

Sounds sensible and I admit I did have a similar thought about perhaps not keeping Apple Music forever.


Will the above bring a copy both of Apple Music subscription files as well as my own files plus transfer the library file itself to that new location, so that I may completely delete the external drive afterwards and still keep my playlists, count etc?

Consolidating Apple Music and my own library?

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