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.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Local Apple Music Library

I am a developer of an app that utilizes the Apple Music Library to pull track information for use in the application I am writing.


When I first started writing my app I decided to keep my Music Library on an SD card so I could easily move it between my development machine (iMac) and use it on my business laptop (MacBook Pro). However, Music being the way it is, it is bound and determined that any music library MUST be stored on the local hard drive. I have run into so many headaches where Music will suddenly try to reorganize my music and move it from the SD card to the local hard drive, subsequently breaking my app. The Music app really does have a mind of its own!


So, to alleviate the problems I am having, I decided to go another approach. I deleted the contents of my /User/{userdomain}/Music folder and then emptied the trash to ensure I was starting with a clean slate with Music on my local hard drive.


I launched the Music app and then went to preferences and then clicked on the Files option. The default "Music Media folder location" the Music app chooses is /iMacHD/Users/{userdomain}/Music/Music/Media/, so I changed it to /iMacHD/Users/{userdomain}/Music, thinking it does not need a redundant folder structure. I also checked the boxes for "Keep Music Media folder organized" and "Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to library" options.


When I imported my music from the SD card the Music app did not use my specified "Music Media folder location." It decided to put the files in /iMacHD/Users/{userdomain}/Music/Music/Media/Music. I tried again to change the "Music Media folder location" but the Music app refuses to do it that way. So, hoping that using what the Music app wants and not letting my OCD get the better of me, I decided to leave it alone, even though the "Media Folder Location" points to a higher folder in the Music apps Music Media folder location specified structure. It makes me wonder if no matter which folder you put your Music library the Music app has to have a sub folder structure of ./Music/Media/Music with the Music.library file stored in the ./Music folder?


Has anyone else experienced this? I am using macOS Catalina 10.15.6 with the supplemental update applied.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Sep 3, 2020 9:03 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 3, 2020 9:30 AM

Just as I figured. The Music app is evidently requiring a folder structure of ./Music/Media/Music to store the actual files. So, I am satisfied with that folder structure. Now I'll keep my fingers crossed that Music remains satisfied with this structure and doesn't go nuts on me and break my app during an event.

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 3, 2020 9:30 AM in response to TomCat65

Just as I figured. The Music app is evidently requiring a folder structure of ./Music/Media/Music to store the actual files. So, I am satisfied with that folder structure. Now I'll keep my fingers crossed that Music remains satisfied with this structure and doesn't go nuts on me and break my app during an event.

Sep 3, 2020 9:17 AM in response to TomCat65

Of course, right after I posted this question, I tried something else. I once again deleted the contents of my Music folder, emptied the trash, and then <option>+Clicked the Music app icon. I clicked the "Create new library" button. It prompted me to create the library as "Music" in my Music folder. Looking at this, I decided to navigate to my home folder {userdomain} and clicked the "Create" button and it prompted me that the Music folder already exists and gave me the option to overwrite it. So, I chose to overwrite it and now my folder structure is /iMacHD/Users/{userdomain}/Music/Media. I'm now importing my 8,000+ tracks. I'll report back as to how this works out.

Sep 3, 2020 9:28 AM in response to TomCat65

Oh, and I did not mention the full the approach to remedy my problem between the iMac and MacBook Pro. I plan to use R-Sync to sync the Music library folder from my development machine (iMac) to my production machine (MacBook Pro) over my network nightly to keep the libraries exactly the same, while also exploring R-Syncing to my iCloud account, or to dropbox if that doesn't work just so I have an off-site backup of my Music library.

Local Apple Music Library

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.