importing itunes library / playlists to apple music (MBP 17-inch to MBP Retina 15 inch)

NotNecessaryAgain wrote:

Also, when I clicked on one of the old songs in Music to play it I got the message "[file name] could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"

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

NotNecessaryAgain wrote:

Hello Turing. Sorry for the delay in getting back with. So, I copied my old iTunes folder into the Music folder of my new laptop. I was hoping to see the newly copied music appear in the Music app when I launched it - no such luck. What am I missing?

When moving from iTunes to Music you would typically need to hold down option as you're starting Music, then choose the .itl file copied over from your old computer to convert it into the .musiclibrary format.

tt2

See Move your iTunes/Music library to a new computer - Apple Community.

tt2

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2