Transition from iTunes.app to Music.app, can't get Music.app to move music into "media" directory from old iTunes directory

Question

Level 1

8 points

Transition from iTunes.app to Music.app, can't get Music.app to move music into "media" directory from old iTunes directory

After upgrading from iTunes to Music.app, I found that my music library was never migrated to the new location that SHOULD be "Music/Media/*something*"..

Using the FILE -> LIBRARY -> ORGANIZE LIBRARY command resulted in a long delay and eventually a message that I didn't have enough disk space to accomplish the task. I tired clearing some space and had quite a bit more than my library currently consumes, but it still would give me the "not enough space" error.. (My music library is roughly 112GB) Okay, time to upgrade from 1TB to 2TB SSD, which was its own saga. But that's done, backups taken, time to repeat the exercise.

I select FILE -> LIBRARY -> ORGANIZE LIBRARY, it says getting ready, the after about five seconds, the dialog vanishes and nothing happens at all..

I'm stumped.

I've been carefully rating my music for over a decade, and that data is hugely important to me, so I'm treading VERY LIGHTLY here - losing all that data would make me a sad and angry old man, which I may already be to a certain extent, but no need to make things worse, right?

Anyone have any idea how to trouble shoot this? I'm pretty certain that just "drag and drop" to the new media directory is NOT what I want to do, as that would likely foul up the previously noted ratings I've worked so hard on over the decades..

My GOAL is to be able to once again sync my desktop with my laptop so they both have the same copies of my music library and to have completely abandoned my old iTunes library locations..

Anyone have any suggestions about how to diagnose what might be going wrong here?

Thanks so much for your time an interest!

Sincerely,

Eric

Mac Pro

Posted on Nov 17, 2022 1:47 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

mtrcycllvr Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 19, 2022 5:31 PM in response to mtrcycllvr

Okay, I found the magic incantation..

The secret is that you have to "reset" your media files location in Music.app preferences, then allow a library update, THEN use the FILE -> LIBRARY -> ORGANIZE LIBRARY command..

After doing this, all my media appears in ~/Music/Music/Media/Music as I would expect it to..

Thanks for all the reads and assistance!

Eric

Reply

Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

274,516 points

Nov 19, 2022 8:44 PM in response to mtrcycllvr

Great, that's why I asked about your media folder location. You should now be able to delete ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music to reclaim some space.

Strictly speaking your library retains a legacy layout mode from iTunes. You may be happy with the current arrangement, but if you want to match what you would have had if you'd started building the library on Catalina or later then you may want to tweak things to move the artist folders up one level.

iTunes Media Organization

The iTunes media folder, originally called iTunes Music and later renamed to iTunes Media, was the initial target for artist folders. iTunes 9 introduced the new name and added a subfolder for music such that the media folder was broken up into a number of subfolders for each media kind. With the Music app only managing music this additional layer isn't required, but there is no obvious way to remove it if Music decides to include it. You can check the current location of the media folder under Music > Preferences > Files. To remove this additional folder if required first use shift+cmd+. to show/hide hidden files, then open the hidden file .Media Preferences.plist inside the media folder with TextEdit and change the integer value from 1 to 0. Save the change, restart Music and turn the Keep Music Media folder organized preference off and on again to enforce the new layout. To go in the other direction, adding the /Music subfolder when it doesn't currently exist, use File > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange Files.

See also my as yet unfinished user tip where I'm trying to describe how to fully transition old iTunes content to the new paradigm: Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community.

tt2

Reply

Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

274,516 points

Nov 19, 2022 8:51 PM in response to econklin4

econklin4 wrote:

Wow, this may be directly applicable to a problem I have. I have an old (2016) Mac running Catalina, and a newish (2020) Mac running Monterey. Old Mac has tons of music that I've collected over the years, much of which I put on the computer from disks (i.e., not from iTunes). Operas, symphonies, loads of popular music. I have been unable to transfer any of it to newish Mac or my iPhone, even though all three devices show as being appropriately connected. I do not actually find *any* of the music in a "file", I can only see it through the Music app, not Finder. I just spent over 2 hours on the phone with Apple Support, and we didn't get anywhere. Any ideas?

Thanks so much!

Elizabeth

See Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community. As rule for Music you would copy the entire ~/Music/Music folder from one computer to the other, but that assumes everything is in the standard layout for Music, which is unlikely if the library was migrated from iTunes. You can use Song Info (cmd+i) > File tab, or right-click on a track and use Show in Finder, to check the current location of some sample tracks in the library.

tt2

Reply

Answer 4

mtrcycllvr Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 21, 2022 11:50 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the hint on reducing the directory depth - I used it and it worked fine - my library is now "tuned up" so to speak and I'm very happy.

Except, now I would like to duplicate this library to my new laptop:

After migrating Music.app library, no pla… - Apple Community

...which has me again wondering what simple thing I am doing incorrectly..

Again, thanks for your input, TT2!

Sincerely,

Eric

Reply

Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

274,516 points

Nov 19, 2022 4:26 PM in response to mtrcycllvr

Hi Eric,

Consolidate copies files located outside of the currently designated media folder into it. A downside with the Consolidate Files option is that it copies files rather than moving them, reducing your storage space until you clean up the originals. Or yielding a not enough space error. On a Mac you can generally move and rename folders manually and Music will still be able to find everything. Just don't try to copy one folder on top of another with the same name as that will usually cause things to be deleted.

What is the current setting for the media folder under Music > Preferences > Files? The default location for a Music library would normally be ~/Music/Music/Media. Has any of your content been copied here, or does it all still only exist in the original iTunes location, normally ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media, or some other path?

When an iTunes library is converted to Music you may have been prompted to make a new folder, such as Music 1, for the converted library. That library would normally inherit the old iTunes Media folder as its media folder, but the default location if the media folder is reset would be .../Music 1/Media. Potentially you could have consolidate media to a different path from the one that you were expecting.

You can use the Get Info > File tab, or right-click on a track and use Show in Finder, to check the current location of some sample tracks in the library. Take a look around. Can you describe the current state of affairs in more detail? What is the current media folder? Where is the active .musiclibrary database? How much of your library, if any, has been consolidated?

tt2

Reply

Answer 6

mtrcycllvr Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 19, 2022 4:55 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for your response, tt2..

All my music media files are still in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Music (again, about 112 Gigs.)

Your explanation of what SHOULD happen matches my understanding of what should happen. But as noted, it simply does not with no discernible explanation, just a vanishing dialog.

Music.app is currently pointed at the old iTunes media location detailed above in it's preferences settings..

The media is not in another path. The default Music.app media location, ~/Music/Music/Media is empty except for some ring tones that I suspect were part of the failed migration when Music.app was run the first time.

There are no more details to describe - I have confirmed that Music.app is using the old iTunes library as you suggested, though it would be hard to hide an extra 112GB of stuff..

I simply want to use the "organize library" command to do what exactly what it should do, make a copy in the correct default location for Music.app and maintain my library and MOST importantly, my song ratings.. I'm totally happy to manually deal with the left overs from this process..

On thing I have noticed is when I filter on Music using the console application, when I attempt this copy, I seem to get a lot of messages about my Music account.. This computer is "authorized" and I have almost NO DRM'd music from the apple store, but I do see odd messages:

default	16:51:43.873636-0800	runningboardd	Calculated state for app<application.com.apple.Music.1152921500311916944.1152921500311916949(32903)>: running-active (role: UserInteractiveFocal)
default	16:51:43.873670-0800	runningboardd	[app<application.com.apple.Music.1152921500311916944.1152921500311916949(32903)>:6280] Ignoring jetsam update because this process is not memory-managed
default	16:51:43.873867-0800	runningboardd	[app<application.com.apple.Music.1152921500311916944.1152921500311916949(32903)>:6280] Ignoring suspend because this process is not lifecycle managed
default	16:51:43.874043-0800	runningboardd	[app<application.com.apple.Music.1152921500311916944.1152921500311916949(32903)>:6280] Ignoring GPU update because this process is not GPU managed
default	16:51:52.099109-0800	Music	"The connection to ACDAccountStore was invalidated."
default	16:51:57.087295-0800	Music	"The connection to ACDAccountStore was invalidated."

But it's not clear to me what this is trying to tell me..

Again, thanks so much for your response..

Eric

Reply

Answer 7

Nov 19, 2022 6:12 PM in response to mtrcycllvr

Wow, this may be directly applicable to a problem I have. I have an old (2016) Mac running Catalina, and a newish (2020) Mac running Monterey. Old Mac has tons of music that I've collected over the years, much of which I put on the computer from disks (i.e., not from iTunes). Operas, symphonies, loads of popular music. I have been unable to transfer any of it to newish Mac or my iPhone, even though all three devices show as being appropriately connected. I do not actually find *any* of the music in a "file", I can only see it through the Music app, not Finder. I just spent over 2 hours on the phone with Apple Support, and we didn't get anywhere. Any ideas?

Thanks so much!

Elizabeth

Reply

Transition from iTunes.app to Music.app, can't get Music.app to move music into "media" directory from old iTunes directory

Similar questions