I've had iTunes forever, purchase lots of music, set up many playlists with lots of meaning and memories, but now on my new iMac desktop and iPhone iTunes is no longer available (only "Music) and I can no longer access the music I already purchased!?

Klaus,

To copy your library from the old computer to the new one, follow the steps in this tip by Forum Member turingtest2:

Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community

If you copy the library intact, it will retain all the playlists and metadata from the old one.

There's always advice and coming from nice folks who what to help thank you a though sand times but what I don't get is why can't Apple build a phone that I can fit all my music on that doesn't require an arm and a leg to pay for? Like removable storage? I don't need my phone to tell me when to sleep, go to work, keep my friends and family away when I'm busy. I need my phone to hold my music library and photos without a monthly fee or having to use data every time I want to access my products I bought from them free and clear. if I become unemployed and have hard times I want to listen to my blues albums that I own without any fees to do so. its just so controlling of a way to do business, in fact its very low down the totem pole. businesses use to earn there many by making great helpful new products. I don't know hat this is.... Don't get me wrong there are many things they do well but when it comes down to it they could do the things that matter a whole lot better. it just gets me so down all the manipulation going on these days in business and more. Im deeply saddened by it and worry about your folks future because of it. no kids these no such thing as corporate love. They simple won't look out for you, only you can't do that.

Good Night Vietnam

There is advice in Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community for recovering data from any devices you might own, otherwise you can redownload any unhidden purchases from Apple, and perhaps unhide any you may have hidden in error.

tt2

Reboot your computer. See Empty/corrupt iTunes/Music library after upgrade/crash - Apple Community. After restoring a backup of the database you may need to use the option-start-Music method to connect to the restored file.

tt2

williamfromyaphank wrote:

Can not down load my music playlist from catalina to iphone8+

William, See if this guide helps: Use the Finder to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer - Apple Support

See What happened to iTunes? - Apple Support. Monterey uses Music, TV, Finder etc. instead of iTunes. You should be able to hold down option as you launch Music, click Choose Library, and select your old iTunes Library.itl file to convert it to a Music library.

tt2

What if the old computer has died and can't access the hard drive to even copy over my music, then what?

I just upgraded (??) from Mojave to Monterey and I also had problems with my iTunes music and playlists: they simply don't migrate automatically. I was finally able to get my music over but the playlists would not move. After several hours of searching the internet and even calling Apple support (3 different agents) no dice. All the solutions proposed here and elsewhere had us try to import the library.itl file from iTunes into Music. That did not work for me even though I still had the iTunes library.itl file available. I kept getting the following error message:

Then it hit me on Saturday: the playlists have to be first exported from iTunes. This means iTunes must still be available, hopefully on another machine or from a backup. But the way to do this is non-intuitive.

Here is the process for success:

1- Open the old iTunes that contains all your playlists.

2- In the left panel, select the first playlist in the list.

3- Once it is selected, click on File from the menu bar and select Library and then Export Playlist

4- Save the Exported playlist file

5- Open the Music app

6- Click on File from the menu bar and select Library and then Import Playlist

7- The playlist should appear in the left panel.

8- Repeat the above for each one of your playlists. I had 45 and it took me about 30 minutes for the whole operation.

9- When the last one is done, scream Eureka as loud as you can while cursing Apple for torturing music lovers like this.

It may be possible to batch export all playlists at once rather than one by one but I was not able to find a way to do this. But I'll trade 30 minutes to save me dozens of hours trying to recreate those playlists.

Amen!

Apple have two paid music syncing services, Apple Music and iTunes Match, but if you want all of the content of the library in the original format with no mismatches, then manually migrating the library is the way to go.

tt2

The Music Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error occurred (-54). This message comes up in Music (which erased all of my original recorded music demos) I can't load or play my own copyrighted original music (that I own) in Music and no one has an answer that works to get rid of the above error. Worked fine with iTunes. This sentence is where I would've typed lots of expletives and yelling--just sayin'

Urockjoejoe wrote:

You don't matter any more unless you get with the rent-a-music program?

Not correct. If you don't have a subscription, you can still play the local music files in your library, just as you have been doing since the beginning days of iTunes.

You don't import the .itl file. You choose it after holding down option as you launch Music. You are then prompted for a location to save the converted .musiclibrary file which you would use thereafter.

tt2

Hi tt2,

Thanks for the response. Because I tried so many different procedures over the past week I can't be certain but I'm pretty sure I used your suggestion and it did not work for me. Bottom line is calling Apple support and speaking with 3 different agents got me nowhere. If we need to be brain surgeons or rocket scientists to get this to work something is wrong.

Where is the "It Just Works" marketing mantra? BTW since migrating to Monterey, my machine (Macbook Pro) is very sluggish. Corporate Sales dep't hint: you need to get a new machine. NOT

These are good instructions, but I can't access iTunes as a program any longer on my macbook - just upgraded to Monterey and iTunes has disappeared. I tried to download it from Apple, but got an error that ways I cannot download it. So now I can't access anything I had in iTunes in the Apple Music app?