ITunes & Time Machine

I have exported my iTunes library to Time Machine due to lack of storage on my old laptop. I have imported the library into iTunes on my new MacBook. I realize when Time Machine is disconnected the music won't play since the source is on Time Machine. However, when I have copied the iTunes files over to my hard drive, the music still won't play unless Time Machine is plugged in. Am I missing something? I figured copying over what was on Time Machine to my MacBook's hard drive would solve the issue.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.0

Posted on Aug 7, 2023 8:45 AM

Top-ranking reply

muguy

Level 10

95,672 points

Posted on Aug 7, 2023 8:53 AM

A couple of things:

Your Time Machine disc should not be used for anything but Time Machine.
You can move your media files to an external drive. This guide should help. Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support. Your library database remains on your Mac but the music files are pointed to the external drive. And, you'll probably want two drives. One for Time Machine and one for Music and any other files. It's a good idea for the Time Machine drive to be at least twice the size of what you're backing up.
Simply copying tracks may work if your library still points to the same file in the same place.

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ITunes & Time Machine

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