You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
📰 Newsroom Update
Billie Eilish is Apple Music’s Artist of the Year for 2024. Learn more >
Billie Eilish is Apple Music’s Artist of the Year for 2024. Learn more >
I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro both running Catalina. My music is on my iMac. My music is a combination of imports from CDs and purchases from the iTunes Store. I do not use iCloud. What is the best way get my music on the MacBook Pro? FYI, I use the MacBook Pro when traveling so I will not be on the same network as the iMac. Thanks.
iMac 27" 5K, macOS 10.15
Once you've consolidated the Music library to ~/Music/Music/Media the old iTunes folder is irrelevant as far as Music is concerned. If you have any video content you'd ideally consolidate that into ~/Movies/TV/Media and backup that library too. Podcasts and Books are a little more complicated as their libraries are hidden from view. We can go into details if needed, but a general approach on a Mac would be to backup your entire user profile so you can restore anything you need from it after performing the clean install.
tt2
Once you've consolidated the Music library to ~/Music/Music/Media the old iTunes folder is irrelevant as far as Music is concerned. If you have any video content you'd ideally consolidate that into ~/Movies/TV/Media and backup that library too. Podcasts and Books are a little more complicated as their libraries are hidden from view. We can go into details if needed, but a general approach on a Mac would be to backup your entire user profile so you can restore anything you need from it after performing the clean install.
tt2
It somewhat depends on whether or not you've consolidated the library into ~/Music/Music/Media or if Music is using the content from its older paths. Unless the system drives have the same volume name consolidating the library into the default media folder, rather than simply copying both folders, may be the best way to ensure the copied library works properly. TV can be approached in much the same way. In Catalina podcasts and books/audiobooks have been moved into hidden folders in ~/Library and copying those over will require a bit more effort.
tt2
Thanks. I consolidated and then installed the Music folder on second computer and it works great. I do have another question. I am planning on doing a clean install. Do I need to install the iTunes folder or just the Music folder since I consolidated?
Should I copy iTunes or iTunes and Music?
Music on Second Computer
