Unable to have Music Media on MacBook and External drive at same time with macOS Sequoia update

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Unable to have Music Media on MacBook and External drive at same time with macOS Sequoia update

For over 10 years I have had all my music on two separate folders in two separate drives (one in my computer the other in an external drive). It was all fine until NOW January 22 2025 when it all went wrong.

How I used to do it was:

My newly purchased music (ripped from cds or downloaded) was kept in the default Music app (or iTunes app) folder (most recently the Macintosh HD/user/music/music/media folder)

My older music is located in an external drive (external drive/music/media)

This I did because:

my computer does not have enough space for all my music files (and I wanted to have a backup of the new music in time machine)
Didn't want to have to use the external drive all the time
Have a backup of my music just in case (I have a second drive that mirrors the other drive)

At the end of the year I would:

Designate the external drive's media folder as my default media folder.
Then transfer all the music from the computer folder to the external drive's media folder using the CONSOLIDATE option in the Music app (iTunes app before)
After all the music was consolidated in the external drive's media folder I would then reset the media folder to the one used by the Music app by default (Macintosh HD/user/music/music/media) after first having deleted the files I had just transferred
Note: Steps 2 and 3 include updating the library and organizing the media folder
Afterwards I would mirror the external drives (backup and music one) to have an extra copy of my music files.

Then I would start the next year adding new music to this folder and doing it all over again.

This worked perfectly UNTIL JANUARY 22 2025 (following the steps mentioned above) when:

The Music app NO LONGER found the newly transferred files (from the computer folder to the external drive's folder) when I tried to play them
Yet it was still able to find the older files added before the Sequoia update (files added before 2024)

Although this can be easily fixed by designating the external drive's folder as the default media folder I want to be able to use both folders as I had done before.

My method worked perfectly until the SEQUOIA update, and I would very much like to keep on using it.

Can anybody help me? I would greatly appreciate it.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Jan 22, 2025 09:45 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

277,741 points

Jan 24, 2025 07:16 AM in response to accaliman

Hi,

Can I check that I've understood correctly? If you set the media folder to external drive/music/media then the recently consolidated content added during 2024 works correctly, but if you set the media folder to Macintosh HD/user/music/music/media (while doing nothing else) then Music is no longer able to play that recent content, while everything added prior to 2024 still works normally?

When Music won't play a track does it throw up an exclamation mark?

I can't think of a good reason why changing the media folder should break any existing content, but I have a post that discusses how content might be relinked when Music cannot find it for reasons. Take a look here why is apple music moving internally stor… - Apple Community. The three details I ask for there might shed some light on the issue. Alternatively the script I mention there might be able to repair these tracks so they work even when you have the media folder directed to the internal drive.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

277,741 points

Jan 26, 2025 06:18 AM in response to accaliman

You can try holding down option+cmd as you launch Music, which opens it in its safe mode and appears to do some housekeeping which may sometimes help. If the media folder is set to an external drive which isn't ready when Music starts then the media folder will silently reset to the internal drive. This may, as a side effect, leave Music convinced those files are unavailable even if the drive wakes up. This is one reason why I generally prefer to have the complete library, database included, on the external, although I appreciate this isn't the workflow you're trying to get working again.

tt2

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Answer 3

accaliman Author

Level 1

16 points

Jan 24, 2025 08:27 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi,

First of all thank you so very much for helping out. I really appreciate it! Specially because I nagged so much.

So, answering your first question, yes that's exactly what happens. When I set the media folder to external drive/music/media then the recently consolidated content added during 2024 works correctly, but if I set the media folder to Macintosh HD/user/music/music/media (while doing nothing else) then Music is no longer able to play that recent content, while everything added prior to 2024 still works normally.

Answering your second question the tracks Music won't play throw up an exclamation mark (with the respective message of manually finding it)

I will also look into the three details you ask in the other for and will post it here.

Once again, thank you so very much for your help tt2! I really appreciate it.

accaliman

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Answer 4

accaliman Author

Level 1

16 points

Jan 26, 2025 06:07 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi, sorry I took so long to get back to you (got busy with some stuff) but I have a new update.

After waiting for close to 40 hours for Music to 'organize' (my already organized) files, and subsequently crashing my Mac (I got a pop up message saying I had to force quit apps because app memory was full, but I wasn't able to do it -beachball- so the Mac quit all apps on its own, and made me log in again) I reset the Media folder to Music's default (just to see what happened) and it just suddenly worked on its own (or so it seemed). I proceeded to rip some CDs, listen to music (that it wasn't finding before) synced my iPhone (with music from both media folders) and everything was working all right (or so I thought). So I happily quit the Music app last night assured that all was well.

Then this morning when I went to play some of the music added in 2024 (on the external media folder) the dreaded exclamation mark showed up again (ugh!) and I freaked out. I changed the Music app's Media folder to the external drive one, said yes to renaming and organizing files (but stopped it less than a minute in) and as before it was able to find the files it couldn't find before. Then (just out of pure curiosity) I reset Music app's media folder to the default one (letting it 'organize' the few files I had added the day before) and, just like before, it fixed itself (finding and playing the files it wasn't before) once again, leaving be befuddled.

After what has just happened I think the problem is that my Music library file is corrupted somehow, and whenever the Music app loads the library the next time it opens it (after quitting), it forgets the paths to the files (which it points as Media.localized in Music app's default folder) until I set Music app's media folder to the external drive and back again (as I did when I thought everything was fixed).

What do yo think tt2? Is there a way to fix this (possibly) corrupted music library file? This pseudo-fix has worked (albeit being very annoying) for the time being, but there is no guarantee that it will work in the future, or that it will behave properly (even if I use your FixLinks.scpt - which I haven't used yet).

Once more, thank you for your help tt2. I really appreciate it!

accaliman

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Answer 5

accaliman Author

Level 1

16 points

Jan 26, 2025 06:29 AM in response to turingtest2

I will try your suggestions and post any updates.

Thanks for all your help tt2.

accaliman

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Unable to have Music Media on MacBook and External drive at same time with macOS Sequoia update

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