Make library portable (Apple Music on MACOS). How?

I got my Thunderbolt external SSD and copied all the Music files and Library from my NAS to the external

I then, disconnected my NAS, and with OPTION opened Music and select the Library file on my External.

The only thing I had to change is in Settings - Files change Media Location to /Volumes/EXT1/iTunes/iTunes Media

EXT1 is the name of my External. Music is located in the /iTunes Media/Music Sub folder.

(I first changed it to point it to Music, but that IS NOT correct, you need to point it to the TOP Folder)

Everything works even playlists, only cover art is still located on my Internal MAC Drive, no idea how to change that.

Sequoia 15.6.1

Note: My Library organization is how Turingtest2 described a long while ago, how to make iTunes Library portable.

To answer my own question

What I did, I moved the whole Library folder from /Users/UserName/Music/ to

/Volumes/Music/iTunes/Library

Pressed Option and started Music and chose the Library file /Volumes/Music/iTunes/Library/Library.musicdb

And it works, no missing files etc etc and also the time stamp of the files under that directory change accordingly after use.

Preferences.plist

Library Preferences.musicdb

Library.musicdb

Thus the directory under /Users/UserName/Music/ is empty and does not get populated.

One thing do.

This seems (still early days) to work for the Library and the Music Files, BUT NOT for the Album Art as that is located somewhere else.

Hope this helps someone. Will try some more and report back, next step is copying the whole folder to another drive and see if Music will still start with the Library intact.

After lots of testing, including create a new user id, create new libraries, I have found the cause.

For some reason the location of the OLD library is still coded somewhere in the /Music Library.musiclibrary directory, even though my library is intact what I mean by that is, the Music Plays, Playlist are in order, so everything works. EXCEPT SYNCING TO YOUR iPhone because it wants the original folder location.

And yes, the Media Location in Settings - Files, Points to the NEW LOCATION.

So I am sorry to say, that creating a portable library for me has failed.

Failure

I am trying to sync my iPhone with my Music Library and the sync fails as it's looking for the OLD library location to sync files. It doesn't give an option to sync the music from another location. It just fails.

So to make your Library portable is absolutely possible but then you can't sync anymore.

If anyone knows a solution for that, I would appreciate that.

Edit: I removed all the Music from my Phone to see if that solves it, but no the old location keeps popping up.

Forgot to add, my goal is to easily backup my Library and not be depended on Time Machine. I have my Library (iTunes for Windows) stored on several separate drives.