I had over 200 CDs from the 80's & 90's ripped and in iTunes. They are now gone. OS updates replaced iTunes with Apple Music. I tried the 3 free month Apple Music and now after the files are no where to be found on my Mac. Still show and play from iPhone though.
iMac 27″, macOS 26.1
Apple Music didn't delete your iTunes music, it just didn't import it into its own new Music library.
It's been quite a number of years since I made that transition from iTunes, but all my music is still with me.
What version of macOS were you running that was still using iTunes? iTunes was broken into several apps back in the Catalina release, becoming Music, Books, TV, and Podcasts.
Maybe some good information for you here: Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community
Thanks. I'm on 26.1 now, but I can't remember when I was last using iTunes as I usually use my iPhone for music. I was just sitting at the Mac and wanted to listen to an old album for a change. I do the usually Mac updates to this 2020 iMac within a month of release. I've searched the machine, including hidden files, and the music files are just gone. I do have an old backup from years ago, so all might not be lost. It's literally 200 CDs I ripped when the first iPod came out. My music since then has been iTunes purchased and they are all accessible. I'll study the link you provided.
Update on the iPhone: It appears to only have some of my old songs not the complete album? Maybe songs I played while subscribed to Apple Music?
So, your 2020 iMac shipped was shipped with macOS 10.15 Catalina, so it never had the iTunes app installed. It's always been the Music app there. Any Mac you had before that would have had iTunes on it, and depending on the actions you took when you moved to your newer Mac, your music files may or may not have been properly transferred.
If you are confident that all your music files had been transferred to this iMac and you've been using some form of backup, you definitely should explore recovering those files from the backup.
Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support
Obviously, your music files should not have been affected by any macOS update or upgrade, but sometimes things happen. If you had run into some problem and had to deviate from any normal upgrade process, then it's certainly possible that some files were lost.
Keep your 🤞🏽 and hope for the best.
Apple Music Deleted Manual Ripped Music Files
