rf4c Author

Level 1

21 points

transfer library to Apple music

Hi everyone, Hoping I can ask for some advice on Music on a mac mini.

I recently upgraded from an iMac 2015 Retina to an Apple Mini M1.

The new setup had a 500Gb drive in the mini itself and a 2TB drive in a

dedicated hub.

From many sad experiences in the past I began with a full backup of the old machine

onto an external HD.

I started with the Apple website for advice and they advised update the OS on the old machine

and then proceed to the Migration Assistant phase.

I did this (Monterey), and it 'mostly' went fine.

My problem was my music. I had been using Mojave and iTunes on the iMac.

Sadly it dawned on me that iTunes was no longer to be found!

I read up on how to transfer to Apple Music.

Even using best advice, I just can't get it to work.

What I did was to copy the music (iTunes) back up folder from my external HD to

the SSD on the Mini's hub.

Then I opened Music using the Option key to choose a library and navigated to

the hub where I selected the Library.itl file and selected it, making sure to "save as

Music" suggested by the app, also to the hub.

What I got was a spinning wheel saying "Loading" and no progress bar or any sign

it's working.

I'm moving about 10,000 tracks, so if it's working but just taking a long time, that's fine,

but I'm worried I'm just pointlessly sitting here!

Any hints or advice very gratefully accepted.

Kind wishes to all

Jim

Posted on Aug 15, 2022 9:33 AM

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

279,561 points

Posted on Aug 21, 2022 7:17 PM

Hi Jim,

Here's where it get weird!

The actual path to the song is:

/Jim Passpor/Music//Bruce Springsteen/The River, Disc 2/2-08 Drive All Night.m4a

but Music shows the track in"get info" as:

/Jim Passpor/Music/Music/Media/Music/Bruce Springsteen/The River, Disc 2/2-08 Drive All Night.m4a

That's certainly weird, unless Music made a copy of the fle second path as you imported it, which would be the default behaviour if the media folder is set to /Jim Passpor/Music/Music/Media[.localized] and the Copy Files preference is enabled.

I would be tempted to rearrange things so that your artist folders end up in /Jim Passpor/Music/Music/Media/Music, then use a global search and replace operation on the XML file to change file:///Users/Jim/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/ to file:///Volumes/Jim%20Passpor/Music/Music/Media.localized/ then save the edited file with a new name (in case you need to retrace your steps) before importing the XML file.

TBH if I were doing this myself I'd probably want to get rid of the doubly nested /Music/Music/ folder, which should be question of moving whatever is currently inside /Jim Passpor/Music/Music up one level, deleting the now empty terminal /Music folder, and then adjusting the instructions in the paragraph above using /Music/ instead of /Music/Music/.

tt2

View in context

Similar questions

23 replies

Aug 18, 2022 12:12 PM in response to turingtest2

It does look like the forum is clipping it. I can't read the ends of your lines, either.

Media.localized is indeed the name of the folder.

I am actually putting my music on my computer's hard drive. I am just using the Synology NAS as a mirror to back it up and for use with other computers. But to do this (with my current setup) it has to be in the "SynologyDrive" folder on my hard drive.

I just tried an interesting experiment. I <option>-clicked the Music icon, and created a new library in the default location. I then dragged my song, "Bad Girl" into the Music window, and it showed up in my songs list and was duly copied into /Users/liubarbaro/Music/Music 6/Media.localized/Music/Beenie Man/Tropical Storm. Then I exported the library as xml. Then I deleted the song from Music, but kept the file in the same place. Then I clicked "Import..." and the Library.xml file I had just created. I got the same result as always - the window closed, but the song did not appear in Music.

Thoughts?

turingtest2

Level 10

279,561 points

Aug 18, 2022 12:40 PM in response to totallyrandom

Hmm, well that experiment has me confused. I would have expected that to import the song in question. I shall have to try something similar myself when I can access a Mac. Posting from Windows right now. What macOS version number do you have in case that is a factor?

As for the string clipping thing this appears to be a display issue. If you triple click on a line and copy, then paste in the editor, you get all of the text. If I recall someone used this feature in the past to post some one massive "one line" scripts here. I'm not sure it is desirable behaviour for normal text however. I shall send some feedback.

tt2

rf4c Author

Level 1

21 points

Aug 21, 2022 1:55 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi friends,

I've been silent while I catch up on some other stuff.

I want to make one final push with this problem after which I'm going

to simply load up the music files and start star ratings and playlists all over again,

although I hate having to do so!!

I've looked at your conversation since I was last here, and hopefully I can crack it this time.

I fully admit it's my knowledge level is the problem!

My knowledge of this stuff is about equal to my knowledge of Quantum Physics!

What I've done is mimic your methods, so I'll describe my efforts so far and ask the questions after.

Firstly my set up is:

Apple Mac Mini + Hub with SSD and an external WD Passport HDD 4 TB in size (about 3 available).

Of course the Music app is on the Mini itself, but the only place for the music files to fit is the Passport Ext. HDD.

The path is now:

Jim Passpor

|_ Music

|_Folders named by artist

|_Album Title

|_Track name.mp4

I began from there by following your advice:

Make a new test library

Drag a song from the music files into Music

Export a Library.xml file

Here's where it get weird!

The actual path to the song is:

/Jim Passpor/Music//Bruce Springsteen/The River, Disc 2/2-08 Drive All Night.m4a

but Music shows the track in"get info" as:

/Jim Passpor/Music/Music/Media/Music/Bruce Springsteen/The River, Disc 2/2-08 Drive All Night.m4a

I can confirm that the Library.xml file is located at /Jim Passpor/Music/Library.xml and the relevant line

in Library.xml is reading:

<key>Music Folder</key><string>file:///Volumes/Jim%20Passpor/Music/Music/Media.localized/</string>

I then deleted the track from Music, imported the playlist which was

/Jim Passpor/Music/Library.xml

and the track arrived back in place.

Checking "get info" it's still showing as

/Jim Passpor/Music/Music/Media/Music/Bruce Springsteen/The River, Disc 2/2-08 Drive All Night.m4a

Here's my questions:

1) Are you happy with the above or have you spotted any problems with the path differences.

2) If you are happy, how do I translate the example line (below) from my original xml file from the iTunes backup

<key>Location</key><string>file:///Users/Jim/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Music/Bruce%20Springsteen/The%20River,%20Disc%202/2-08%20Drive%20All%20Night.m4a</string>

to whatever it should be in Library.xml in my Music installation?

(I'm assuming a simple "Find/Replace" is all I need to do or do I need to alter all the other tracks and get back my playlists and star ratings?)

Thanks once again for your patience with me!

Kindest wishes

Jim

turingtest2

Level 10

279,561 points

Sep 17, 2022 9:50 AM in response to susain34

susain34 wrote:

The HomeKit gadget will be configured as if it were brand new?

I'm not sure what this has to do with the thread or what you're asking me.

Yes, if one has an Apple Music or iTunes Match subscription then signing into one's Apple ID is one way to get the library from one computer to another. Downsides are that some content may be omitted, or might not be completely identical to the source file, e.g. clean vs. explicit.

tt2

turingtest2

Level 10

279,561 points

Aug 16, 2022 3:30 PM in response to rf4c

You're most welcome. 🙂

tt2

turingtest2

Level 10

279,561 points

Aug 18, 2022 5:45 PM in response to totallyrandom

Great. Glad to hear it has worked now. How were you trying to import the playlist before? File > Add to Library or something else?

tt2

turingtest2

Level 10

279,561 points

Sep 17, 2022 8:54 AM in response to rf4c

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

susain34

Level 1

19 points

Sep 17, 2022 9:16 AM in response to turingtest2

While it is by far the least convenient option, it might work if all other options have failed. The HomeKit gadget will be configured as if it were brand new?

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

transfer library to Apple music