How to move music from one external had to another

The easy way, might not work for others with similar symptoms.

Change the volume name of the "second" external drive to the name that the failed "first" external drive had. Point the media folder back at the correct folder if necessary.

The hard way if the easy way isn't an option.

The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes or Music expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, the drive it lives on has had a name change, or you've moved a non-portable library to a different path (see Make a split library portable for details). It is also possible that iTunes or Music have changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place, or that you've been too aggressive when deleting duplicates at some point.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Cmd-I to get Song Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location the library thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drives. Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive label has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case. If everything is where it is supposed to be try Repair security permissions for iTunes for Mac - Apple Community.

In some cases the library may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info, or when playing a track, but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" I think it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout they were in previously, with one systematic change to the path.

If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

1. The location of the media folder under iTunes|Music > Preferences > Advanced
2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Song Info > File > Location that begins file://
3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

See also FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music - Apple Community.

tt2

borgheart Said:

"How to move music from one external had to another: I think you needed to restart MUSIC after changing the path (Music Preferences) to the media folder on the second HDD. Once I did this it found the new drive and all the music with no problem. All the music was there and available.[...]"

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You are welcome.

Thanks for spreading the word on the results. Ecellent job troubleshooting.

"How to move music from one external had to another: Hi, i had music running from an external had under Monterey. Worked well but the drive died. [...]In my case I simply want to use another external which has all the same mp3s in an identical folder architecture. If I change the in music preferences half the files are not locateable! Too by many to fix one at a time. Hope this makes sense!"

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Based on Personal Experience...

Troubleshooting Dead Drives:

A. Get this Drive Serviced:

If these are important files that you cannot risk losing, then your best option is to take this to a retailer, seeing if they can recover it. If they cannot do so at the store, then likely, the would have it sent out for service.

B. Get a New Drive:

As a side note, I always get Data Recovery service plans for my drives, which last 3 years. You should consider doing the same.