Music on MBP - Cannot copy to ExFAT external drive

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Level 7

31,481 points

Music on MBP - Cannot copy to ExFAT external drive

Background:

I have a 2021 M1 MBP running Ventura 13.1. The Music app works well - no issues playing or displaying my albums. My music consists in its entirety of CDs I own and have ripped over the years to mp3s. Some of these albums were ripped using iTunes on a Windows PC and some have been ripped on this MBP.

Prior to updating to Ventura I could copy my complete Music folder on this MBP from Finder to an external USB drive formatted as ExFAT. This allowed me to save and play the files on a Windows laptop and also served as a backup.

The problem:

After updating to Ventura I am unable to copy my Music folder from Finder to an external drive formatted as ExFAT without it hanging up. When I try I get messages like this:

This occurs on any USB drive including an external SSD if formatted as ExFAT either on this Mac or the PC. Prior to updating to Ventura I had no issues at all copying these same files to the same external ExFAT drives. There are over a dozen files that cause the hang ups now. After the hangs I can click on OK, then resume copying into the existing Music folder on the external drive (I have to do this with each of the offending files and merge the folders, a pain).

I have checked my permissions for the files and that is not the issue. I then reformatted the SSD drive to APFS with Disk Utility and all the Music copies ok with no hang ups or issues. However APFS is not compatible with Windows so I cannot read those files without a third party app. I then reformatted that drive back to ExFAT, same issue.

Initially I had 5 files that were causing hang ups, this was repeatable, the same 5 files, so I assumed corruption. As a test I deleted an album with one of the offending files (deleted from both the Music app/library and Finder) then re-ripped the whole album but to no avail, the same identical file still caused a hang up. I then went to the Music app > Settings > Files and selected "Keep Music Media folder organized". This was a mistake, it moved most of the files to a Music subfolder under Media and I now have 14 files that are causing hang ups. Note that these files play without issues and copy using APFS. And ironically if I select all the Albums individually, i.e., not the Music folder, I can copy them to an ExFAT drive with no hang ups. The file structure on this Mac is Macintosh HD > Users > my name > Music > Music > Media > Music > and then the Albums by Artist. I have tried copying from any of the Music folders, subfolders, etc. to no avail. The only things that work is using APFS or copying the individual albums directly. FWIW my mac is not having any other issues.

So what happened with Ventura? Why are some files not copying like before? Any suggestions? TIA... 😀

Posted on Jan 21, 2023 5:59 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

turingtest2

Level 10

272,795 points

Jan 21, 2023 6:15 PM in response to elcpu

I've seen similar reports of issues with exFAT, Music, and Ventura. Specifically it seems Music in Ventura really doesn't want to store the database on exFAT. How deep is the target media folder? Windows has a 256 character path limit, but that looks like an unlikely candidate for that particular issue.

You can fix the issue with the additional Music folder that was created in your media folder if you see the section on iTunes Media Organization in Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community.

tt2

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Answer 2

elcpu Author

Level 7

31,481 points

Jan 21, 2023 6:29 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks.... I guess I am glad to not be the only one. 🤷‍♂️

What do you mean by "How deep is the target media folder?" If you mean the file name, none of the files come close to being 256 characters long and as I mentioned the same files copied ok to ExFAT prior to Ventura.

I will take a good look at your link and will get back. In the mean time I guess I will use APFS and copy the albums directly into a different drive as an extra backup. That works albeit not as convenient.

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,795 points

Jan 21, 2023 6:36 PM in response to elcpu

I can't see any obvious signs of invalid characters in the screenshot, and assuming it comes from an album there would surely be issues with other tracks if it were the artist or album title that was a problem. That reorganizing the media folder cause an additional 9 problem tracks does hint that it is doing some form of path length check, though perhaps producing false positives for reasons unknown.

tt2

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Answer 4

elcpu Author

Level 7

31,481 points

Jan 21, 2023 7:14 PM in response to turingtest2

I have read through your User Tip, nice! I bookmarked it but nonetheless I think I'll leave the Music subfolder under Media as-is. That is where newly ripped CDs land and it is not a problem now that all my music files are under that subfolder. I definitely don't want to check "Keep Music Media folder organized" again. I did that earlier and it created many relocations which I did not want nor like, took me an hour or more to move and reorganize the files again.

As an aside unconnected with this, is there some magic key combos that I can use to paste files into a newly created folder in Finder? I create and name a new folder, copy the files I want, select the folder, and hit paste but the files end up in the root and not on the new folder.

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Answer 5

elcpu Author

Level 7

31,481 points

Jan 21, 2023 8:05 PM in response to turingtest2

I cannot get the Cmd+V to paste into the selected folder on the external drive however I finally managed to use Control Click (with the folder selected) and then drag the pointer until I get a drop down menu with Copy. Odd indeed.

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Answer 6

elcpu Author

Level 7

31,481 points

Jan 23, 2023 2:29 PM in response to turingtest2

It looks like the update to macOS 13.2 has resolved the issue. I can copy the Music folder to an ExFAT external drive and delete them with no issues. So it was a bug on macOS 13.1 after all, nothing to do with the files or the drives. Lots of wasted time on this...

Now if Apple could fix the paste issue. I still cannot drop the copied files into a highlighted drive with Cmmd-V or Edit > Paste from the Menu. I can use Control-click and slide down on the drop menu to paste.

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