I saw this question a lot. I got a new m1 and did not want to bring in the library that migration assistant automatically does.
I decided to use file sharing. Its a bit slower but it is working great. I can select exactly the files from my old Mac and put into the new libraries on my m1. I didn't see this as a solution on the 2 other tickets.
iMac 24″, macOS 11.4
Ditto. I always do major clean installs by using the Carbon Copy Cloner backup to external bootable drives and a bootable USB flash installer for the macOS when all mission critical apps pass the test in external test drives.
Then boot the USB flash installer and cleanly nuke the old internal device.
Then manually copy all user documents and relevant ~/Library files like /Mail and selected /Preferences files. Lately the old iTunes folder and before that the /Mail needed some extra effort. Then re-install 3rd party apps that you really need. That spring cleaning usually takes "only" a few hours but does need some planning where relevant user files are stored (as an old habit I insert the last low-ASCII character tilde (~) as a placeholder to start items that are backed up elsewhere and do not need to be copied).
p.s. I recently tested the Migration Assistant in the test drives and it was OK. But I prefer manual transmission.
Matti. You talked about extra effort for iTunes. I noticed that I got most of the data over. But only I see artist icons for items purchased via apple. So my artist icons that were on my old computer for imported CDS are not showing up . Is there a fix for this ?
> extra effort for iTunes
If you want to manually convert iTunes.app folder to the new Music.app folder structure (YMMV if the library is more complicated):
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252151523
...some updates to that:
11. Some extra Album Artwork might be downloaded via Music.app > File > Library > Get Album Artwork (apparently works on purchased music and even for some old .mp3 files). Some purchased songs might be downloaded via Music.app > Account > Purchased > Not in My Library > Download.
12. Some purchased songs might be downloaded via Music.app > Account > Purchased > Not in My Library > Download.
13. I grabbed some missing album covers from the old iTunes/Album Artwork/ folder:
There are lots of folders so browsing them is difficult. So put them in the same folder and with GraphicConverter > File... > Browse Flat... > Edit: Select All > press Delete key to move them to Trash (make sure it is empty before doing that) > move all from the Trash to a folder.
Then convert .itc to .png with GraphicConverter > File... > Browse > Right-click: Quick Convert into same Folder as PNG.
Then GraphicConverter > File... > Browse > View > Show all in Slideshow and check if there is anything that might be used for missing album covers (there might be lots of duplicates and low-res covers).
14. Forced some loose songs in the same album in Music.app > select songs that belong to the same album > Song... > Info: edit the album name with some letter and then edit it back to its correct form.
I found the trick. In Preferences Advanced. there is a checkmark = Automatic update artwork. This has updated most of the missing artist. Thanks.
Exclude ~/Library from Migration Assistant
