Transfer Playlists between 2 Music Libraries

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Level 1

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Transfer Playlists between 2 Music Libraries

I'm in the process of resurrecting an 5.5G iPod. Apple Music on this Mac (M4 Mac mini 15.6.1) is set up with cloud storage and as a consequence I can only sync a handful of tracks that for some reason haven't been matched in the cloud. That's no good to me.

I also have an M1 MacBook (also on 15.6.1) that I don't mind wiping the music library and starting over with the music files stored on a NAS. I'd really like to transfer the track ratings from the M4 to the M1, but I will settle for exporting the playlists, or the non-smart playlists at least, from the M4 to the M1. When I use export from Music on the M4 it creates a text file. I assume I can transfer this and import. Is there any way to do this in bulk?

My Music Library.xml file seems to have been nuked somewhere along the way, so I guess that method no longer works?

MacBook Air (M4, 2025)

Posted on Oct 7, 2025 1:13 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

277,937 points

Oct 8, 2025 4:49 AM in response to FenTiger

A playlist in Music is an ordered list of file references to items in the library. If you export a playlist as an .m3u or .xml file you create a file that can be imported to recreate that list, provided that each file is on the same physical path recorded in the export file. Moving playlists between different computers can fail if the music tracks are not stored in exactly the same layout on both systems.

See Move your iTunes/Music library to a new computer - Apple Community for general advice on migrating the whole library.

You can only sync locally stored music to devices, so all items you want to sync to the 5.5G iPod must be stored on your computer somewhere, not in the cloud.

tt2

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