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Hi: I recently got a new MacBook Pro. I had a older MacBook Pro for a long time. I have a lot of songs on iTunes (now called Music I think) on the old computer, in my library. How can I get them on the new computer? I don't use the Cloud so I hope this doesn't involve the Cloud. Thanks.
[Re-Titled By Moderator]
MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023)
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! I've had a Mac mini for several months but I was still using iTunes on my very old iMac to sync my iPhone because I could not get my music correctly transferred. So many of the instructions explain copying the iTunes folder to the new computer but I did not have my playlists, play counts and other things I'd spent years organizing in iTunes. I also had several missing songs and out of 10k of them, it was unreasonable for me to verify each one. I deleted all the songs from Music and removed those files from the new Mac, I then copied the original iTunes folder (including the .itl file) from the old iMac, pasted in the Music folder of the new Mac and then held down the option key when starting Music again. AWESOME! This was the answer I'd been looking for!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! I've had a Mac mini for several months but I was still using iTunes on my very old iMac to sync my iPhone because I could not get my music correctly transferred. So many of the instructions explain copying the iTunes folder to the new computer but I did not have my playlists, play counts and other things I'd spent years organizing in iTunes. I also had several missing songs and out of 10k of them, it was unreasonable for me to verify each one. I deleted all the songs from Music and removed those files from the new Mac, I then copied the original iTunes folder (including the .itl file) from the old iMac, pasted in the Music folder of the new Mac and then held down the option key when starting Music again. AWESOME! This was the answer I'd been looking for!
If your iTunes library is consolidated in a single location, you can simply drag and drop the iTunes folder located inside the Music folder in your user profile to a USB stick or external drive, and then repeat the process when connected to the new Mac.
Once the copy process is completed, you can then hold the option key while opening the Music App on the new Mac, and point it to the iTunesLibrary.itl file in the folder you just copied
click here ➜ Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community
If your music is not in the Media folder of the above location, you will need to consolidate your library first.
click here ➜ Make a split library portable - Apple Community
iCloud is not involved in this at all.
Ldroadie wrote:
The response was perfect. I migrated everything from an older iMac to a brand new MacBook Pro via unloading / reloading to / from an external SSD. Everything went seamlessly except for the music. Dragging the files over brought the music, but no playlists. Erased the new content again, drag from ext SSD to the Pro again, but this time I started the Music App with the option key, pointed it to the .itl file, and voila! Everything is here, playlists included!
Thank you very much.
You're welcome. Glad it worked out.
The Application lives in the Applications folder yes. But the actual music files are stored in the Music folder in your user profile. Not inside the Application itself.
You have to have a user profile, when logging into a Mac, you log into a profile, and that profile has a set of folders stored inside it. One of those folders is the Music Folder.
Your user profile folder is usually identified by a house icon in Finder.
You can find the location of your music files by right clicking, control+click, or two finder click on a track in iTunes / Music and the clicking on the "Show in Finder" option from the menu.
Hey just check Musconvtool , great work with Apple music
Thank you so much for this information! I was able to copy all my music from my old iMac (late 2013) to my new'ish Mac Mini (2022) just using a 64 GB jump drive 😁 🙏
Ok great. Thank you very much. I don't know if the music is in a media folder or what exactly. It's just all in the 'library' in iTunes but I can investigate and, if not, follow the steps in your second link.
I don't know if I have a 'user profile.' The iTunes has always been in the harddrive apps location. But you have given me a lot to go on here so thanks again.
The response was perfect. I migrated everything from an older iMac to a brand new MacBook Pro via unloading / reloading to / from an external SSD. Everything went seamlessly except for the music. Dragging the files over brought the music, but no playlists. Erased the new content again, drag from ext SSD to the Pro again, but this time I started the Music App with the option key, pointed it to the .itl file, and voila! Everything is here, playlists included!
Thank you very much.
How to transfer iTunes library from old MacBook to new without iCloud
