I'm upgrading from an old Macbook Air (2019 intel) to a new one (2024 M3). Transferring my music from the old computer to the new gives me my music files fine, but all ancilary information that I've entered over the years - Music ratings, bpm and genre information, etc. has been lost in the transfer. I've tried restoring the music in a number of different ways with zero success. It's very frustrating.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.5
macOS 10.15 Catalina and later
The same basic approach as above (see Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community) will work for moving a library from one Catalina or later system to another. If moving an iTunes library from an older version of OS X/macOS to Catalina or later then it will be best to start with the library in the portable shape. You can then option-start-Music to access the iTunes Library.itl file and migrate it into Music. You can repeat with TV. If you've done this already, but Music says that original files cannot be found either revisit the migration or try FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music - Apple Community.
The default location for a Music library in Catalina and later is ~/Music/Music with the media files consolidated into ~/Music/Music/Media. After importing your iTunes library you may want to copy your active Music Library.musiclibrary file into ~/Music/Music replacing any older copy there, then use Music > Preferences > Files to reset the media folder path, and File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to bring all the music into media folder. You can then remove the originals from the old iTunes Media folder. Repeat with TV as appropriate. Alternatively you could create the nested layout of library folder and media folder on an external drive.
See Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for more on reorganizing old iTunes content for the new apps.
tt2
macOS 10.15 Catalina and later
The same basic approach as above (see Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community) will work for moving a library from one Catalina or later system to another. If moving an iTunes library from an older version of OS X/macOS to Catalina or later then it will be best to start with the library in the portable shape. You can then option-start-Music to access the iTunes Library.itl file and migrate it into Music. You can repeat with TV. If you've done this already, but Music says that original files cannot be found either revisit the migration or try FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music - Apple Community.
The default location for a Music library in Catalina and later is ~/Music/Music with the media files consolidated into ~/Music/Music/Media. After importing your iTunes library you may want to copy your active Music Library.musiclibrary file into ~/Music/Music replacing any older copy there, then use Music > Preferences > Files to reset the media folder path, and File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to bring all the music into media folder. You can then remove the originals from the old iTunes Media folder. Repeat with TV as appropriate. Alternatively you could create the nested layout of library folder and media folder on an external drive.
See Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for more on reorganizing old iTunes content for the new apps.
tt2
Thanks, I've tried several methods, including the consolidated iTunes library. It seems like Music doesn't want to read any of the iTunes information.
Edit to add - all the information on that post is about iTunes and not Music. The problem looks like Music and older iTunes are not playing well together.
Music Data lost in transfer to new mac
