How to clean up and organize default Music folder structure in macOS Tahoe 26.3?

The structure has not changed significantly between iTunes and the Apple Music app.

It's still basically Music / Artist / Album / Songs. The only change is that Apple Music by default looks for media in the Music folder, rather than in an iTunes folder. However this is only for libraries created with Apple Music, if a library was migrated from iTunes, it will still likely use the layout from iTunes, the Media folder would be in iTunes Media / Music

The real question is where is Apple Music expecting to find your media?

You can control+click on a song in the Apple Music app, then on Get Info, and then on File, to see the location of the song.

Also, if you. have apple Music auto organize the library it will maintain that structure and copy all imported tracks into that folder structure. Music Menu ➜ Settings ➜ Keep Media Folder Organized.

Of course this can change if you are accessing the library from snorter location such as an external drive. Then the path is whatever you set it to be on the external drive, however, the internal Artist / Album / Songs structure should remain the same.

If you have an existing Time Machine backup on an external drive that includes all of your ~/Music folder then that would be sufficient to revert to the current state of affairs if you make any mistakes while trying to rearrange the media.

If your media is all currently on your internal drive then you can manually move/rename various folders on that drive rather than needing to use a second drive or more space to tidy things up. From the screenshot you've shared above the first step you should likely make is to move your old iTunes Music folder inside ~/Music/Music/Media, creating the /Media folder if it doesn't already exist. After checking things still play correctly you can then use Music's settings to reset the media folder to ~/Music/Music/Media, turn Keep organized off, apply the change, then turn it on again, and all of the content within the old iTunes Music folder that is attached to the library will be moved to its correct path for the current layout. Anything left behind will be orphaned content (at least with respect to Music) such as podcasts, video, audiobooks, or anything that you removed from the library without removing from the media folder.

Look to Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Communities for more on tidying up other media content into each respective app's media folder.

tt2

See Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Communities.

tt2

Walletarian wrote:

Thanks Phil0124 and turingtest2.

Home Sharing helped while in my home with my Mac turned on.

Home sharing shares the current library form your Mac as is, it does not change or modify locations or access to anything. If Home Sharing works, then the library seems to be correct and accessible.

It was still a scramble to find what I wanted to play. I was told by AppleTech that I could drag and drop self-created content and it would place it appropriately if formatted as .mp4. Also, when I create an iMovie or GarageBand project, then want to export, I usually save to Downloads, then try to import to Music.

If you have the "Keep Media Library Organized" option turned on in Settings, then Apple Music will import the track and unless there is associated meta data with the file, will copy and place it in the default "Unknown Artist" "Unknown Album" folders. If the "Keep Media Library Organized" option is not turned on, then it will just create an entry in the Music App for it, but will not move it out of the Downloads folder and just link to it there.

Once I'm out the door, all that access fails. I cannot get to shared libraries. I cannot search directories. I like to carry my presentations to be accessible from my phone, as most locations will allow me to AirPlay content, once on their network.

Yes. Home Sharing only works while connected to the same network as the computer doing the Sharing. It's a local feature.

I don't know if I've ever used "Keep Media Folder Organized". I do still a directory mess after syncing/unsyncing and conversion from iTunes to AppleMusic, and the split of content between Music and TV apps.

The music directories and movie directories, should not have changed when the apps where split. It should have automatically split the database, but all file pointers should have remained pointing to the same location the files were in before The App split and library migration does not mess with file locations.

Where are playlists created during AppleMusic cloud creation? Finding playlists is whole other challenge. There must be a better way. Uploading to iCloud Drive or photos may be a solution, but it is still not easy to search when on the road with only my iPhone.

If by "AppleMusic cloud creation" you mean the iCloud Music library, file locations don't change when activating the option. It references the files wherever they are currently located on the hard drive. It does move anything anywhere else. Anything from the iCloud Music Library that is downloaded will be placed in the appropriate folder locations under Media / Music / Artist / Album.

Playlists are not a physical file to be found. They are created inside the master library file (iTunes Library.itl or Music Library.musiclibrary), and displayed in the Playlists section of the Music App. But there is no independent file for each playlist, unless you choose to export the playlists. But the exported playlist are just text files that have a list of tracks and their reference locations and nothing more.

In what directory is music download/played via AppleMusic subscription kept?

Would scenarios of my typical use help?

Same location. It keeps under Music, Artist, album structure. But are identified as being from the subscription.

Any downloads would be found in the same general folder structure.

I think you are making this much harder than it actually is.

I suppose I should do a backup current setup before I start. Would a TimeMachine backup be sufficient, or should I get a separate external drive for this?

Hard to say, since it's not very clear what "this" is exactly.

Using an external drive, is a good solution if you want a portable Library you can just access from any computer.