Music won't add new music to library via the "Add to Library" task, some music is missing in app, but still in my file folder.

Question

Level 1

12 points

Music won't add new music to library via the "Add to Library" task, some music is missing in app, but still in my file folder.

My Music Library appears to be corrupted. It was working, then it stopped.

My library is too large for my system drive. So, I put the files onto an external drive and then Add to Library w/o copying the files to the system drive folder. When I import new music, they music is imported to the system drive Music library. I then copy them to the external drive library, delete the music from Music, trashing files, then Add to Library from my external library.

That has worked very well for many months.

Yesterday, I was catching up on this process when I noticed that Music was not showing all of my Rush albums. The files are in my external folder, but not all of them were showing in Music. They have been for months/years, but now about half of them are gone. I tried to re-add them via Add to Library, but nothing happened after I selected the files to be Added. Music still shows only about half of the albums.

All of the "missing" albums are on my iPhone. So, they were present when I synced a few days ago.

So, how do I fix a corrupted Music library? How do I delete it so that I can start over from scratch?

iMac (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Jun 27, 2023 12:09 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

J-W-L Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 29, 2023 11:05 AM in response to J-W-L

I figured out what is happening, but not why.

One of the albums in my Rush library is "R40 Live", a three-disc concert set. It has a lot of songs in it. I had not noticed that there were multiple 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., tracks for that album's first disc. Upon closer examination, I determined that the missing albums had been incorporated into "R40 Live's" first disc. I have been comparing track names and times with the files and re-incorporating them into their correct album listings by editing the "Get Info" for the tracks, one album at a time. The albums were showing up correctly in Music...

Until...

After re-editing the "Get Info" for almost the last of the "missing" albums (Hold Your Fire), Music just put ALL of the Rush album tracks (including those for "R40 Live") into "Hold Your Fire".

(WTF?)

Now I need to start over re-editing the "Get Info" information in order to again try to restore them to the library correctly assigned to individual separate albums. This is going to take a while. I cannot understand why Music is doing this. I hope that it does not do it again.

I did not have this problem with iTunes.

Reply

Answer 2

J-W-L Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 27, 2023 12:44 PM in response to J-W-L

And I was just able to import two new albums, copy files to the external volume, delete the local files, and use Add to Library to add them to Music's library. Still can't add the Rush album files, though.

Frustrating. How do I find the corruption and fix it?

Reply

Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,905 points

Jun 28, 2023 5:08 AM in response to J-W-L

You could run Disk First Aid on the volume in question. Ideally you would have Time Machine or some other method set up taking a backup of your library and media. You can use File > Add to Library to reintroduce any content that has become disconnected from the library.

tt2

Reply

Answer 4

J-W-L Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 28, 2023 8:27 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for your suggestions, turingtest2.

I've done all of that. As I wrote in my initial post, Add to Library does not add the missing files to the library. I was able to Add to Library other files, but not the several Rush music files that seem to be missing in the library. I am looking for help beyond the easy suggestions to follow existing processes. Something is broken and I'm trying to figure out how to fix it.

Reply

Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,905 points

Jun 28, 2023 4:47 PM in response to J-W-L

What happens if you copy the Rush tracks into the Automatically Add to Music folder inside your media folder. They should either be added to the library, or moved into a folder called Not Added. If they end up in this folder that confirms there is something about the files that causes Music to reject them. Such rejection is always silent, this is the only real way to test for it.

tt2

Reply

Answer 6

turingtest2

Level 10

272,905 points

Jun 29, 2023 1:13 PM in response to J-W-L

Is this an iTunes Store purchase, where you've subsequently edited the metadata? I've seen iTunes and presumably Music (it is based on the same code after all) occasionally revert metadata for purchase to the original values in the store. Presumably this is something to do with the way that it reconciles your purchase history with your local content. If this is what is going on hide your purchase from your history and your own custom edits shouldn't get altered again.

tt2

Reply

Answer 7

J-W-L Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 30, 2023 9:56 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you, tt2, again for your suggestions, references, and questions.

I managed to get all of the albums sorted out and into the shapes that they should have.

I would like to know what happened within the involved processes, but expect that I never will, probably due to a lack of technical knowledge regarding the specifics of how the code works and time/energy to do the research.

I now expect that this has happened elsewhere in my library, but I won't know for sure until I run into it. So, while I have rectified the effect of the problem, I do not know what that problem actually was. Par for the course for these cries for help.

Best wishes to/for all.

Reply