Moving large library of music from default location to external drive whilst preserving play data and playlists

Hi, I have copied my entire 225 GB library of music files, all of which have been imported from CD over a number of years, from the default location to an external drive. I want Music to keep all my playlists, ratings, artwork and number of song plays, and simply use the new location on the external drive. All the music files are organised by artist/album/track name. I can change where the location is, but Music still insists on playing the files from the default location, which I assume has something to do with the information contained in the library file itself?

Mac mini, macOS 13.1

Posted on Jul 27, 2023 12:58 PM

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turingtest2

Level 10

278,351 points

Posted on Jul 28, 2023 9:18 AM

In general the process is to declare a new Music media folder, and then use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to get Music to copy over the files and update the records in the database. Alternatively, assuming the content is in the standard layout, you may be able to move over the entire Music folder that contains the Music Library.musiclibrary database and all of the media inside the Music/Media folder, then option-start-Music to access the library on the new path.

See Make a split library portable - Apple Community and Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for further details and advice.

tt2

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Moving large library of music from default location to external drive whilst preserving play data and playlists

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