Why are some Music Tracks/Files not playing on my Mac?

Question

Level 1

8 points

Why are some Music Tracks/Files not playing on my Mac?

I recently purchased an M4 Mac mini and have been setting it up over the last few days. I'm running OS 15.1.1 and have two external HD's attached through a CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Pro Doc. One HD is a Time Machine Backup, the other is a G-Drive USB-C drive which contains my music files and photos. I was having some problems telling Music where to find the music files on the external HD. The folder Named "Music" on the HD originally had the following folders in it: Automatically Add to Music, Media (which I renamed from Music), and Previous Libraries. There is also a file named "Music Library.musiclibrary". I changed the location in Music settings to /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music and I thought it worked. I could see all my albums, artists, etc in Music. I then run into two problems when I tried to play songs:

1. Not every track would play. I'd select a track and hit play and nothing happened. I'd select a second track in the same album and it would play fine. Then I could go back and play the original track. If I tried to play another track, I would get the same problem. 2. I noticed after playing a number of tracks, that now there was a newly created "Music" folder and that the tracks I played were moved into this folder from the Media folder, keeping the same file structure. Why is this happening? Is there a way I can fix it? Can I move the tracks I played back into the Media folder? Here are some screenshots for illustration purposes.

Thanks for reading and any advice

Ed

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Nov 22, 2024 11:33 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

278,319 points

Nov 22, 2024 1:33 PM in response to ELFritzen

See Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for some background on the standard shape of a Music library, which should also explain why a folder called Music may appear in your designated media folder. The standard layout is a folder called Music containing the Music Library.musiclibrary database, and a media folder called Media which contains all of the music connected to the library. There may also be an additional Music subfolder before you get to artist subfolders, which is a legacy of iTunes Media Organization in previous versions of iTunes. See the article for steps to remove this additional layer by editing a .plist file.

You would ideally set your media folder to /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music/Media rather than /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music. Hopefully this will resolve the issue where some tracks don't play at the first attempt. You should then consolidate the library (File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files) after which the files that remain in /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music/Music should be duplicates that you can discard. You should really backup everything to another drive before you start making changes, just in case of a misstep.

tt2

Reply

Answer 2

ringspa

Level 2

261 points

Dec 7, 2024 5:33 AM in response to ELFritzen

re your issue #1 of some tracks playing and some not, I don't know if you solved below in the threads here but I had the same issue when I moved from OS 11 iMac to OS 15 M4 Mac Mini I found it unable to play downloaded "HLS Media" files and some albums downloaded from Apple Music were a mixture of this and other formats. Music would either not play or go bonkers skipping thru until it could fine a playable track. If I removed the download in Music it then played the track fine from the cloud, or then redownloaded it was also fine, so I guess some issue with HLS Media files downloaded from an older version of Music. These files are also very large and I don't really need it all downloaded. In the end I went to the song view, enabled view>"only downloaded music", enabled the column for file type, sorted and selected all the HLS Media, right click and did a bulk remove download. Freed up about 40GB.

Reply

Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

278,319 points

Nov 22, 2024 5:38 PM in response to ELFritzen

From the section on iTunes Media Organization:

To remove this additional (Music) folder (inside the meda folder) if required first use shift+cmd+. to show/hide hidden files, then open the hidden file .Media Preferences.plist inside the media folder with TextEdit and change the integer value from 1 to 0. Save the change, restart Music and turn the Keep Music Media folder organized preference off and on again to enforce the new layout.

This should move everything currently in ../Media/Music/ up into ../Media/.

tt2

Reply

Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

278,319 points

Nov 23, 2024 2:14 AM in response to ELFritzen

After turning Keep organized off you likely need to exit the preferences dialog for it to be applied. Then you can go back in to turn it on. This should trigger the rearrangement of artists subfolders within ../Media/Music/ moving them up into ../Media/.

tt2

Reply

Answer 5

ELFritzen Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 22, 2024 4:56 PM in response to turingtest2

tt2,

Thank you for your prompt reply. I changed the location of to /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music/Media as you suggested and consolidated the libraries. That created another "Music Folder" within the Media Folder with most of my music. It looks like this now:

How can I get all the music files into one folder again? Thanks so much for your help.

Ed

Reply

Answer 6

ELFritzen Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 22, 2024 7:19 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you again tt2.

I don't quite understand. Found the .Media Preferences.plist file located in the Media Folder, and changed the integer value from 1 to 0. I saved the file, and restarted Music. I then turned the Keep Music Media folder organized off and back on again. Nothing seemed to happen. Do I now consolidate libraries? I tried that and the Music Folder in the Media Folder remained. All I've seem do have done is to split up my library into three different folders now:

G-Drive USB-C/Music (seems to contain music moved from the original Media folder that I played)

G-Drive USB-C/Media (has some music, but I don't where these files came from

G-Drive USB-C/Media/Music (has most of my music)

In the Music app, I can see all the music in my library, but it's not playing correctly. I don't think I lost any music files, I just have too many folders containing media and I think the Music app is confused. I know I'm confused. Thanks again for your help. I need to do some more research to see if I can get all the music back into a single folder.

Ed

Reply

Answer 7

ELFritzen Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 23, 2024 6:37 AM in response to turingtest2

I think that did it. At least now I don't have any other music subfolders. I currently point the Music App to /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music. When the library was updated I was left with two folders in /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music, one folder, named "Media" contains some music, but most of my music is now in /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music/Music. I can live with that. I need to clean up the library. Thank you for your patience.

Ed

Reply

Why are some Music Tracks/Files not playing on my Mac?

Similar questions