OdysseusDM Author

Level 1

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The folder containing your music library cannot be found. Appears even after finding my library

When I attempt to open my Music app on my MacBook Pro (Early 2013), MacOS Catalina version 10.15.7, this message appears.

When selecting Choose library, it takes me to my Music Folder where my iTunes folder is stored. Clicking on this folder and then selecting on iTunes Library.itl file as per the screenshot below simply takes me back to the original message.

I would prefer not to have to Create a new library from scratch or to use an older iTunes version (next oldest version was 2018, and I have used Music multiple times since then). The last time I used Music was in late 2020 or early 2021.

How I can get around this message and use my current iTunes library?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 3, 2021 8:31 PM

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Level 10

278,351 points

Posted on Apr 4, 2021 2:57 AM

Your Music library should be at ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary where ~ is your user's home folder. You should open this file rather than your legacy .itl file which will be out of date. Can you locate the .musiclibrary package? Will it open? If not can you restore from Time Machine or other backup?

tt2

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Top-ranking reply

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Apr 4, 2021 2:57 AM in response to OdysseusDM

Your Music library should be at ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary where ~ is your user's home folder. You should open this file rather than your legacy .itl file which will be out of date. Can you locate the .musiclibrary package? Will it open? If not can you restore from Time Machine or other backup?

tt2

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Level 10

278,351 points

Apr 4, 2021 5:41 AM in response to OdysseusDM

You might be able to recover some of your old playlists by importing that iTunes Music Library.xml file shown in your screenshot. Alternatively it may be that what you really need to do is pick a different date in Time Machine when restoring the Music Library.musiclibrary database. I.e. go back to a date just before the last time that you know you saw all your playlists.

tt2

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OdysseusDM Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 4, 2021 5:27 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for this; I was unaware that the iTunes file is out of date. My Music library was deleted, but I was able to restore it with Time Machine. Music worked, though I had to reimport my music files from my iTunes folder to use them with Apple Music. It got me my songs back, but I lost my playlists. Still an improvement over no songs!

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The folder containing your music library cannot be found. Appears even after finding my library

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