transferring music to new mac air using external drive: next steps after copying iTunes file to music folder?

Exactly what steps did you follow?

1. what do I do with original iTunes folder?

It's on your old computer.

What do you want to do with it?

2. how do I get iTunes to read/ingest playlist and songs?

If you copied the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder from old computer to /Music/ on new computer then you simply need to open iTunes.

Since it is the exact same library, everything will be there as it was on old computer.

Once ypou copy the iTunes folder to the Music folder, simply launch iTunes.

The original iTunes folder that was on the MacBook Air is an empty library. You can replace it with the one you are copying over.

Hold down Option while launching iTunes then choose library and navigate to the correct iTunes folder.

rhk357 wrote:

thanks...

copied the entire folder, and left original iTunes folder there and renamed 'iTunes.original'.

when I launch iTunes, it continues to read iTunes.original

do I need to delete the original folder?

Yes.