Moving music library to SSD has many problems.

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Level 1

4 points

Moving music library to SSD has many problems.

I added a new SSD to store my music and video files. Moving my Apple Music catalog has been the most difficult. I first moved my entire Music directory to the new hard drive, opened Music settings and pointed the library to the new one on the SSD. Seemed fine until I tried to play something and was told file couldn't be found. I looked at the song's info and found it was still pointing to the old directory (no longer there). If I point the Music app to the new drive, why is it still looking in the old place?

I scoured the many comments here of people who had similar problems and tried some of them.

Next, I restored the old directory and this time CREATED a new library in the new drive (holding the option key while loading Music). When Asked if I wanted to move the files there I said yes. This time files were moved and I lost ALL my playlists. Why is this so hard??

iMac 27″, macOS 13.2

Posted on Feb 22, 2023 6:08 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

bbesspete

Community Specialist

Feb 23, 2023 8:17 AM in response to jfomelia

Hey jfomelia,

If you haven't already, we recommend following these exact steps from the Apple Music User Guide: Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support

If you get stuck, reach out to Apple Support directly. They'll be able to work with you on this task in more detail: Contact - Official Apple Support

Take care.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,236 points

Feb 23, 2023 9:42 AM in response to jfomelia

Next, I restored the old directory and this time CREATED a new library in the new drive (holding the option key while loading Music). When Asked if I wanted to move the files there I said yes. This time files were moved and I lost ALL my playlists. Why is this so hard??

The Library contains the playlists and all other metadata short of the embedded ID3 tags. If you create a new Library, it would not contain any of your old Library metadata because it is "new."

Have you tried just opening Music with your current Library and setting the external drive folder as the place to store the files? I think that is what I did, but really can't remember the details of what was transferred or not as I didn't care at the time. Make sure Keep music media folder organized is checked so that it moves the music files.

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Answer 3

jfomelia Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 23, 2023 9:52 AM in response to bbesspete

I think I figured this out. I assumed pointing to a new directory would actually move the files there, especially when I clicked yes to consolidate the files (for me the word "consolidate" means keep them nice and tidy in one place). Silly me. It only means newly imported files would go there. So I'm leaving the library file in the original music directory and physically moving the music files to the SSD. That seems to work. Appreciate the help.

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Answer 4

jfomelia Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 23, 2023 9:55 AM in response to Barney-15E

That's what I ended up doing. Must be a simpler way. In my meanderings, I did move the original library to the SSD and still lost all the playlists. So now I'm back with the library in its original spot with the music files on the SSD. Seems to be working. Thanks for the help.

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Answer 5

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,236 points

Feb 23, 2023 12:32 PM in response to jfomelia

jfomelia wrote:

That's what I ended up doing. Must be a simpler way. In my meanderings, I did move the original library to the SSD and still lost all the playlists. So now I'm back with the library in its original spot with the music files on the SSD. Seems to be working. Thanks for the help.

The "Library," at least the part that contains all of the metadata, is still stored in the user's Music/Music folder.

The only thing stored on the external is the media.

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Moving music library to SSD has many problems.

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