Apple Music iTunes Library

Question

Level 1

0 points

Apple Music iTunes Library

I have a big collection of music (4TB) all stored on an external HD (by artists folder) which worked fine the last 13 years on my old iMac Mountain Lion and iTunes.

Now I tried to use my MacBook Pro 2020 and Apple Music to import these files (I absolutely want to keep the music on the external HD where they are) and it seems absolutely impossible.

The issue is that the process takes roughly 10h (!) and trying to just import my music has become utterly frustrating now. I did the following:

On Apple Music

I hold the option key to chose new library

I configured the path for the music to be my external HD.

I then "import" the file and you see them being imported.

After 10h, the import process is finished but my library is either empty or only showing 40 albums (from thousands) and these 40 albums vanished completely when closing Apple Music and reopen it.

I also tried to choose a library I succeeded to built on another iMac with Catalina. Works fine but all the album covers are gone while when you play a song, you can see the album artwork on the track.

I believe this solution being bad as there is no way I will search again for the album artwork for thousands albums (music being ripped from CDs often. Worse, you can't save the library as the "saving library" wheel get stuck for hours...and the only way is to force quit.

What and HOW is the best way to create a new music library from an external HD (and keep the music on this external HD) on Apple Music.

It should be a straightforward process, dealing with iTunes and anything related to music has been my biggest nightmare when it comes to Apple products.

Any help welcome, many thanks

Posted on Jun 4, 2023 2:17 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Rudegar

Level 10

181,308 points

Jun 4, 2023 4:09 AM in response to Ahlen

maybe

Change where your music files are stored on Mac – Apple Support (AU)

or

how to move music library to external har… - Apple Community

more

apple move music library to external hd - Google-

Reply

Answer 2

Ahlen Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 4, 2023 4:28 AM in response to Rudegar

Thanks, I'v done that with no success

On OS Ventura Apple Music, I chose the path "file" for my External Hard Drive. Whether I import or drag a file (i.e 1 or 2 albums to test) it works but when I reopen Music Library, it automatically swapped the path to the Music folder on my McBook Pro using the internal HD of it instead of keeping the external HD.

I succeeded to add 2 albums by dragging them from my external HD to "Album" on Apple Music (instead of import which don't work) and it understands it needs to be read from the external HD. Now, as said, once I close the App, it automatically reconfigure it to the internal folder, HD.

Reply

Answer 3

Nov 27, 2023 12:36 AM in response to Ahlen

I am having a similar problem to this. Every time i import my mp3 tracks into my new copy of Music (with files stored on a NAs , as it was before), it takes a very, very long time and then doesn't always update the music library file. In fact, the only time it did, it was an import of 33K files and the mac had completely frozen but it had updated the music library file. For all other imports (larger) , after import (sometimes 24 hours), i can use it fine with the recently imported files until i close Apple Music and then it loses the last import when i reopen it the next time. it is extremely frustrating.

Did you find a resolution?

Reply

Apple Music iTunes Library

Similar questions