Importing CD to Mac Mini with Apple Music 1.5.6.11

Question

Importing CD to Mac Mini with Apple Music 1.5.6.11

On my M2 Mac mini (2023), I have an external CD drive connected. The Music app can play tracks from audio CDs without issue (when those same tracks are NOT present in my music library), but when I attempt to import the same CDs, I get the message "The file <song title> couldn't be converted. Access to the source volume was denied. Check the System settings for removable volume access."

What different type of access is required for the app to import (rip) a CD, vs. merely playing a track? I checked in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Files & Folders, under "Music", and the Removable Volumes switch is turned on. What am I missing?

I am running Music v1.5.6.11 under Sequoia 15.6.1,

Mac mini, macOS 15.6

Posted on Dec 22, 2025 6:19 PM

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Answer 1

TheLittles

Level 10

203,085 points

Dec 22, 2025 8:19 PM in response to Peter Nelson1

"Importing CD to Mac Mini with Apple Music 1.5.6.11: [...]What different type of access is required for the app to import (rip) a CD, vs. merely playing a track? I checked in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Files & Folders, under "Music", and the Removable Volumes switch is turned on. What am I missing?"

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Getting Audio Files to Be Written on a Mac:

Be careful about copyright here: The only way to change the file format, would be to unhide extensions> duplicate the file(from right-clicking) and then modifying it to MP3. Using QuickTime Player is best for playing MP3 files, IMO. From there, change the file to that of MP3 format, then burning it to a Music-R disk, if you want to play it on a media player. As for burning the data Roxio is the way to go fro me.

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Answer 2

Dec 22, 2025 9:25 PM in response to TheLittles

OK, so I was able to import several CDs with release dates of 2008 or older. However, I get the error on another 2008 dated CD, as well as for one released in 2021. All three of them are showing .aiff extensions on the tracks, so why would one of them successfully import, while the other two fail? If this is some crazy copy protection scheme, can't Apple at least be honest about it and have the app say so?

Are you suggesting changing the extension of the duplicate file to '.mp3'? What would I use to actually reformat it as MP3? As for copyright, these are legally bought-and-paid-for CD's that I own.

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Answer 3

TheLittles

Level 10

203,085 points

Dec 22, 2025 9:42 PM in response to Peter Nelson1

"Are you suggesting changing the extension of the duplicate file to '.mp3'? What would I use to actually reformat it as MP3? As for copyright, these are legally bought-and-paid-for CD's that I own.: [...]Importing CD to Mac Mini with Apple Music 1.5.6.11:

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Modifying the Extension:

"Scheme" seems like a good noun:

For paid for CD files, modifying the file is not the way to go about this. As for being imported, some just wont work, particularly for much never released CDs by a protection scheme from the Music Studio. CDs released from he 90's work just fine for this --purchasing those off of eBay would be the best route to take. You'd then import them to your Apple Music (or iTunes) music library.

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