I have the Music app on an iMac running Somona. I want to transfer the library to an external drive or another Mac. Exporting music files is easy enough. The important is to export also the playlists and playcounts. 40 songs have over 1,000 plays. Will consolidate, then move location work to an external drive and retain playlists/playcounts ? Or if that does not work, then how ?
What I've done to move my Music, Photos and Movie libraries to an external drive is to copy the Music and Pictures folders to the EHD.
Then I launched each app with the Option key held down, get this window,
Then navigate to the EHD and open your iTunes library.
For Photos you can go to the Pictures folder on the external drive and double click on the library to open it.
Once you've confirmed that the libraries work as expected you can delete the contents of the Picture and Music folders on the boot drive. DO NOT delete the folders themselves.
You can remove the existing Music and Pictures folder from the Finder's sidebar and drag the folders from the external drive into the sidebar.
What I've done to move my Music, Photos and Movie libraries to an external drive is to copy the Music and Pictures folders to the EHD.
Then I launched each app with the Option key held down, get this window,
Then navigate to the EHD and open your iTunes library.
For Photos you can go to the Pictures folder on the external drive and double click on the library to open it.
Once you've confirmed that the libraries work as expected you can delete the contents of the Picture and Music folders on the boot drive. DO NOT delete the folders themselves.
You can remove the existing Music and Pictures folder from the Finder's sidebar and drag the folders from the external drive into the sidebar.
Here's Apple's Support document, which is a bit confusing.
Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support
Not mentioned there is that if you hold down the Option key while starting the Music application, you get a dialog that allows you to create, and switch between, Music libraries. (You can only work with one library at a time.).
I think I have seen a User Tip on these forums on how to move Music libraries, so hopefully someone with a pointer t that tip, or who has more experience moving libraries _while retaining playlsts/playcounts etc._ will be along.
To export a playlist select the playlist then go to file, library, export. I always export to a flash drive then import in the Music app on the new drive. You can probably export directly to your external drive Music app.
Already know that (Option Key, choose library or create new library) , as worked with iTunes for as long as possible, using the itl (iTunes Library) file. But my question is regarding especially play counts to be transferred. With iTunes, the library went to external drive, and the play counts and playlists went with them. But eventually iTunes disappeared, was replaced by the Music app, and was stuck for playlists and play counts, trying to use the itl file. Found no way to do that, before the computer with iTunes on it had to be a software update. Before that, with iTunes open, I wrote down all the play counts for the Top 600 Most Played. iTunes then gone, had to resurrect the play counts manually by playing in the Music app and synced devices (took 8 months in 2024).
When I experimented by using the Option key with Music app a month ago, had a starter library with all my purchases in the cloud: no good to me. The iMac the library is on, is running out of storage by now. That is due to the internal Mac HD. Trying to find out all the steps beforehand to export all the songs, playlists and play counts from my current Music library to external drive.
Transfer music, playlists and playcounts from Mac to external drive, or a new/factory settings restored Mac.
