Music Migration

DFB_using_Apple,

Our apologies for the confusion. We'd like to learn more to see how we can help. When you used Migration Assistant, did you select the option to transfer to another Mac?

"Use Migration Assistant

You're now ready to use Migration Assistant to move your files from the old Mac to the new one.

On your new Mac

1. Open Migration Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. Then click Continue.
2. When Migration Assistant asks you for permission to make changes, enter your administrator password, then click OK.
3. When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk. Then click Continue.

On your old Mac

1. Open Migration Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. Then click Continue.
2. When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer to another Mac. Then click Continue."

You'll find those steps and more information here: Move your content to a new Mac

Thanks!

Hi DFB_using_Apple,

Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities.

We’re happy to provide some assistance.

Based on your original post, we recommend the troubleshooting steps via the link below since you are looking for help transferring your entire music library to your new MacBook Air.

Move your iTunes library to another computer - Apple Support

Please remember that if you get a new computer, you can transfer your iTunes library by connecting computers or using iPod or a portable drive. See the Apple Support article Back up and restore your iTunes library on your PC.

We’re recommending these steps because they directly address the issue you initially reached out to the community about, which is that you’re looking for assistance transferring your entire music library from your old computer to your new MacBook Air.

If the original problem persists after trying our suggested troubleshooting steps, provide us with specifics on what you see for more help, and we will continue from there.

We also noticed that you visited an article before posting,If songs are missing from your music library after you turn on Sync Library. Let us know if you have any additional questions we can assist with about that particular article. Please do not include any personal information in your reply if you do.

Cheers!

An alternative approach if Music isn't reading the .musiclibrary file correctly on a new computer might be to export the library as an XML file on the old system, copy over the XML file, edit if needed to accommodate any path changes, then import the XML into an empty Music library. Tracks will show the current date for date added, but otherwise this should result in an identical library.

tt2

The process should be straightforward. Copy the entire Music folder over and connect to the library. I don't know why it seems to be failing for some people.

I've not used Migration Assistant but that is because I'm confident moving my files and data about manually, and also use the cloud. I use iCloud Drive on my Macs for most of my stuff, and OneDrive for sharing with my Windows boxes, so most of my stuff is in the cloud already. My main library (c. 65K tracks) is back on iTunes for Windows and I have an Apple Music library (c. 10K tracks) that appears across all my Apple devices.

tt2

See Move your iTunes/Music library to a new computer - Apple Community.

tt2