How to migrate Apple Music library with embedded artwork to a new MacBook Air using an external SSD?

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How to migrate Apple Music library with embedded artwork to a new MacBook Air using an external SSD?

Hello all,

I plan to move my 400GB Apple Music library (iTunes, not streaming) from my 2018 Mac mini to a new MacBook Air M3. The library currently resides on my Mac Mini 1TB SSD. Unfortunately, the MacBook Air only has a 256BG SSD, so I'll need to use an external SSD for the library.

When I've migrated libraries between computers in the past (Mac OS Catalina), I deleted the following from the new computer and copied over the old library container from the old computer:

"~/Library/Containers/com.apple.APMArtworkAgent/Data/Documents"

Is this still required under for the Apple Music app (Mac OS Sonoma)? Does the above library container only contain the cache of the artwork now? Is all of the artwork embedded in the actual AAC m4a file?

I've copied the library the external drive, and chose the new library location, but only 75% of the album artwork migrated to the new laptop.

Thank you.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Feb 6, 2025 11:46 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Feb 7, 2025 02:58 AM in response to FourThirty

For general advice see Move your iTunes/Music library to a new computer - Apple Community. With iTunes the artwork cache was part of the iTunes library folder and would successfully move with it. The artwork cache for Music is more opaque. Copying it to the same location might not be enough to have it integrated with your library. In principle if all of your music has embedded artwork then there is no need to copy the cache, let the system build it from scratch. If the cache doesn't work correctly delete it so that it is rebuilt.

tt2

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Answer 2

FourThirty Author

Level 1

25 points

Feb 19, 2025 01:49 PM in response to FourThirty

To close the loop on this thread, I was able successfully move my Apple Music library to the new Macbook, with my library and media installed on an external SSD.

As stated above, only 75% of the album artwork carried over during my first attempt. I learned this was because the remaining 25% did not have the artwork embedded in the .m4a file (any album where I utilized "get album artwork" in the past did not embed).

In order to remedy this, following advice from tt2, I had to manually "copy/paste" the artwork for this 25%. I've detailed my procedure in another thread:

Get Album Artwork does not embed in track… - Apple Community

I hope this may help someone in the future facing this issue with artwork.

FourThirty

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Answer 3

FourThirty Author

Level 1

25 points

Feb 7, 2025 09:46 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you tt2. I truly appreciate all the advice you have shared over the years on this topic.

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How to migrate Apple Music library with embedded artwork to a new MacBook Air using an external SSD?

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