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Music library disappeared from app

When I opened Music on my Mac Mini it was completely blank. Just as if I had opened the app for the first time. All my music gone.


The files are still present on the hard drive.


I noticed that the File location in the app was point to a different location. Previously I had Music pointing to my current music folder (which is not default):


/[MyProfile]/Music


Now it's pointed to:


/[MyProfile]/Music/Media


I did not change this location to point to the Media folder. Perhaps that is the default location and it's been reset somehow.


Going to following tt2's article on restoring the library but has anyone else seen this before? What would cause that?

Posted on Jan 17, 2022 12:43 AM

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Posted on Jan 17, 2022 2:49 AM

Hi,


The default location of the library database for Music is ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary.

The default location of the media folder is a folder called Media in the same folder as the .musiclibrary file, i.e. ~/Music/Music/Media.

Changing the media folder doesn't change which database file is opened, nor automatically catalog what is in the selected media folder.

Do you have Time Machine set up? If so you should be able to restore your .musiclibrary file from before things went wrong, then option-start-Music to select it.


tt2


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 17, 2022 2:49 AM in response to VicViper9

Hi,


The default location of the library database for Music is ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary.

The default location of the media folder is a folder called Media in the same folder as the .musiclibrary file, i.e. ~/Music/Music/Media.

Changing the media folder doesn't change which database file is opened, nor automatically catalog what is in the selected media folder.

Do you have Time Machine set up? If so you should be able to restore your .musiclibrary file from before things went wrong, then option-start-Music to select it.


tt2


Jan 17, 2022 7:10 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks so much for the response. Very informative! All the issues and dealings I've had with iTunes in the past and I never knew about the /Music Library.musiclibrary/ folder (not being facetious). I do back up my library with Google Drive and can see I have backups and previous versions in that folder so that should help with restoring the library.


Question is though, do we know why it happened?


Last time I logged into my Mac was about a week ago and that was just to drop a few MP3's into my library and then sync with my iPhone. I did that with no issues then locked my machine and haven't touched it since I logged back in today when my library was blank. Very unusual...

Jan 17, 2022 10:18 AM in response to turingtest2

turingtest2 wrote:

Hi,

The default location of the library database for Music is ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary.
The default location of the media folder is a folder called Media in the same folder as the .musiclibrary file, i.e. ~/Music/Music/Media.
Changing the media folder doesn't change which database file is opened, nor automatically catalog what is in the selected media folder.
Do you have Time Machine set up? If so you should be able to restore your .musiclibrary file from before things went wrong, then option-start-Music to select it.

tt2


You're a legend! This restored my library for me perfectly. Thank you!


Option + Music > "Choose Existing Library" > Browse to the "Music Library.musiclibrary" file.

Music library disappeared from app

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