I now have a new MacBookAir running Monterey 12.1. I still have access to iTunes on my old iMac running High Sierra 10.13.6. How can I get my music library from iTunes into the new Music app in Montery?
MacBook Air (2020 or later)
I suggest you start again with Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community. You need to prepare the library on the old computer. Copy it all (uncompressed) to a suitably large drive, or over your local network, then option-start-Music and select the iTunes Library.itl file in the library that you've copied over. Finally choose where to save the converted Music library, normally ~/Music/Music where ~ is your user's home folder.
tt2
If all your music is in iCloud rather than your hard drive, have you tried going to the View Options to see All Music rather than Only Downloaded Music? Here's a pic of my View Options, showing downloaded music. That might be what's happening to you.
Also, there's a setting in Preferences for "Automatically download music when added to your Library so you can play it offline." Presumably that would put music files on your hard drive. Can you confirm that your music doesn't exist on your hard drive?
Here is what I tried to do. I went to the old computer and zipped the media folder to a thumb drive. I then copied that zip file to a folder in the Music directory and tried to unzip which I then planned on importing into Music. BUT when I try to unzip the file I get this error message. Keep in mind both machines are Macs.
Did you use Migration Assistant to move your data from the old computer to the new one? If so, the iTunes library is on the new computer, but you have to perform some tricks to migrate it to the new Music app. Let me know. If not, you have to move the contents of your old Music folder to the new Mac one way or another.
No, I did not use Migration Assistant.
What I have discovered is that all of my iTunes library is in iCloud in a folder named My Music.
Now a strange thing is, the other day somehow the iTunes layout with all the music and album covers were visible in the Music app on the new computer but today I am not seeing it. Any idea how that happened or how to make it visible again permanently?
I don't see all of my old music when I select "All Music". No, there is no music on the hard drive. It would seem that if you can access the iTunes store that you should be able to see your music files.
Are all your other iCloud-based functions working? Mine were not when I migrated to the new MacBook Pro, so I had to check some boxes in the Internet Accounts>iCloud preferences. It might be worth checking, and maybe signing out and then back in. Also, I scheduled an online call with Apple Support, and it was sensationally helpful. The Apple Tech connected to my Desktop and talked me through fixing the problem. Have you considered letting Apple figure it out?
If that's not the issue, would you like the music on your hard drive for offline listening? Did you try checking the box for Automatically Download Music? What happens? Also, since you have access to your old computer, you can check to see if your old iTunes music library has files in it. They can be copied over to your new computer.
Thanks to all that offered. I managed to get it done. I had to buy a new thumb drive with enough capacity. I then copied the entire media directory on the old Mac to the thumb, I did not zip it. Once I had it I imported it all into "Music". I did not get all of the album covers but I probably didn't have them on the old machine.
Thanks to everyone and Happy New Year
Please Google "Zip Error 79 Mac". Too many possibilities to go into here, and it's too far off topic.
old iTunes Library Download
