Restoring a music playlist from a Time Machine backup.

Here's what happened. I tried it several times. It appears to have replaced the Music Library but not the Either I made an error, or Time Machine does not back up Playlists. First I closed Music. Then I opened Finder>iMac>Users>Jazzman>Music>Music. The Music Library was there. I left that open and minimized it. Then I opened Time Machine and went back to Friday the 21st around 4:30 pm and selected the Music Library that appeared there(it did not appear as .musiclibrary). I hit restore. The following message appeared: An item named "Music Library" with extension ".musiclibrary" already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the one you're restoring? I said "Yes". I also went back to a January 6th backup and tried that one. It didn't work either. Like I say, either I missed a step or two or Time Machine does not back up Playlists. What's your take on this?

No, I don't subscribe to iTunes Match. I tried it once before, and it almost wrecked my Music Library. I won't do that again. Luckily I was able to restore my entire music library from a backup.

Regarding the above steps, you've lost me again. First, please confirm for me you are absolutely positive that Time Machine backs up Playlists. Otherwise, this is an exercise in futility. Assuming it does, at what point in the process do I hold down Option as I launch Music? Are you talking about launching the Music app? Where is a Choose Library button? Then what?

I think I understand. If so, I restore the Music Library from the Time Machine backup. After doing so and when I open Music again, I hold down the Option key and click the Choose Library button. I did that but got lost in trying to choose the library file ~/Music/Music/Music Library. I don't see it. Do I have to search for it somehow? I do see a lot of choices including a Music Library but not that one. Advise.

SUCCESS!! And it is all due to your persistence and excellent instructions. I did my best to follow your lead, and I finally recovered that Playlist. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but when I performed that last step it worked.

Do you work for Apple, or are you independent? Either way, you really know your stuff.

I cannot thank you enough for sticking with me and guiding me to success in this effort. My Playlist Library is very important to me, and it would have been impossible to recreate that lost Playlist. Restoring it from a backup was critical. Thanks to you, it has been restored and I have learned a lot in the process. I have also printed all of this for future reference just in case.

Thank you so very much.

So, is my user's Music folder /Users/jazzman/Music/iTunes (original)/iTunes Music/? If so, look that up in Finder and follow your steps to the letter from there?

Please explain this: You can check to see if the last modified date of this last thing changes when you open and close Music.

How exactly do you do this?

I will try it as soon as possible and let you know the results.

I am in awe of your knowledge.