Music has stopped opening secondary libraries

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Music has stopped opening secondary libraries

I have a library for popular music, one for sound effects, another for music cues. The popular music library is my system library that syncs with iCloud. Recently I've been unable to open the other libraries. Holding the option key while selecting the Music app opens the window for choosing a different library, however if I choose the sound effects library, the app defaults to opening the system library. Choosing the music cue library opens a new, empty library. All my libraries and audio media are on external drives. The system library is on one external drive. The other two libraries are on a different drive. When I choose the sound effects library, the system library opens even if the drive it's on is off line. It still displays the songs although it doesn't know where they are. I've also just noticed that some sound effects I recently added to the sound effects library were copied inside the media folder of the system library and not the sound effects library despite my having specifically set the target file location to stay on the same drive as the effects library file. I have no idea what's going on and am looking for a fix. This is happening on Ventura 13.4.1.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.4

Posted on Jul 28, 2023 10:36 PM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

273,027 points

Jul 29, 2023 8:42 AM in response to Mark2ain

Disconnect any iOS devices and try rebooting your computer with the option to reopen closed windows turned off. Then try to access a different library once more using the standard option-launch-Music method. Music might not switch to your selected library if the default library is being actively used for any reason, e.g. home sharing, Finder sync, etc.

tt2

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Answer 2

Mark2ain Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 31, 2023 9:16 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the advice, tt2.

It's not obvious to me what processes the Music app may be undertaking in the background, but perhaps I can look into that -- maybe via the Activity Monitor. I'm not sure what you mean by "disconnecting any IOS devices" unless you think I should sign my phone out of iCloud. I've already thrown up my hands over recovering my sound effects library, have created a new library for those files and begun importing them there. But that's no guarantee I'm getting at the underlying problem. Apple tech support blames my external hard drives. That's because I connected a different computer to them and Music behaved the same way. But I have all sorts of ways of testing hard drive failures and none are reporting issues.

So I'll continue trying to get Music to work the way I want it to and keep your advice in mind as I do that.

Appreciate it.

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Answer 3

Aug 1, 2023 12:18 AM in response to Mark2ain

Mark2ain wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean by "disconnecting any IOS devices" unless you think I should sign my phone out of iCloud.

I don't think he means that.

I think he means that if you've connected an iPhone, iPad, or iPod to your Mac for the purposes of Finder-based synchronization, finish doing that before trying to switch Music Libraries.

Don't leave the portable device connected to the Mac by a cable, with a Finder synchronization window open … because then, the Finder will be interested in accessing the same libraries that the Music and/or TV apps do.

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Answer 4

Mark2ain Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 2, 2023 9:55 PM in response to turingtest2

Ah. No, I rely on iCloud for syncing music and photos. It's been a while since I've hard wire connected my phone to my laptop.

What I have noticed about the drive holding the secondary libraries is that it sometimes fails to eject. Instead I get that window that says some application may be using it. I have the program "What's Keeping Me" for this purpose. If you don't know it, it will search a drive for activity that might be causing a drive to refuse to eject. It then quits or "kills" that process if you want it to.

The drive that holds those alternate libraries sometimes won't unmount because -- according to What's Keeping Me -- a process called AMPLibraryAgent which is acting on the Library.musicdb. The Library.musicdb, I've now learned, is part of the package contents of an Apple Music library. Apparently this AMPLibraryAgent is running in the background and not quitting when I try to eject the drive. A check of the Activity Monitor does show it running but it seems to appear and then vanish, appear and vanish. Hard to pin it down as the Activity Monitor is always jumping around.

Whether this background process is the culprit behind my glitches, I can't say. My big plan at the moment is to leave the drive mounted for now and see what happens the next time I restart.

Thanks to you and Servant for your responses.

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

273,027 points

Aug 3, 2023 3:17 AM in response to Mark2ain

I believe AMPLibraryAgent is a background process the fetches artwork for the library. If that isn't closing properly when you exit Music, then the app is probably locked into that library when you restart it, regardless of whether or not you try to switch to another library.

It may be worth holding down option+cmd as you access the current library to open it in safe mode. This may tidy up various internal indexes, and may close out more cleanly. After closing the library check to see if AMPLibraryAgent has terminated and kill it if not, then see if you are now able to access a different library.

tt2

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Answer 6

turingtest2

Level 10

273,027 points

Aug 1, 2023 3:49 AM in response to Servant of Cats

Yes, although I don't think you need a Finder window open. Merely having an iPhone connected, e.g. for the purpose of charging it, may block the ability to switch from one library to another.

tt2

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Music has stopped opening secondary libraries

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