How do I replicate my old iTunes library?

Question

How do I replicate my old iTunes library?

Hi. I recently managed to move all my songs from my old Windows 10 laptop onto my MacBook Air. I’ve imported them into Apple Music, but there are some issues:

some albums have no artwork where they did before. (Not many but some). Apple Music cannot find artwork for them.
where I have changed some album titles or moved songs around this has reverted. eg I have created an album called B-Sides for one band and put all their moon album tracks in it, but now they’re showing back on the original album or single they were imported on
Most frustratingly lots of artists are showing twice. For example I have two artists called AC/DC, despite them both being spelled the same, no spaces. I’ve renamed them both and then renamed them back and it makes no difference.

For context, almost all of this music was imported via CD, although some was bought from iTunes.

Can anyone help?

thanks

MacBook Air

Posted on Mar 4, 2023 01:07 AM

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Answer 1

Sparks0829

Community Specialist

Mar 6, 2023 12:02 PM in response to ThomasJNewton

Hi there ThomasJNewton,

For the issue with your album art, have you tried adding it with the steps below?

To retrieve album artwork from the iTunes Store for your entire library, choose File > Library > Get Album Artwork.

You'll find this information here: Add artwork to content in Music on Mac - Apple Support

For the issue with your albums not being organized, try consolidating your library:

1. In the Music app on your Mac, choose File > Library > Organize Library.

2. Select “Consolidate files.”

These steps can be found in this support article: Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support

Take care.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Mar 6, 2023 12:25 PM in response to ThomasJNewton

For problem 1. it generally helps to ensure that all tracks have embedded artwork before you move the library. If you want to revisit the migration I have a couple of scripts that might help. See this older post: itunes wont get artwork - Apple Community.

Problem 2 can arise when iTunes/Music have cause to fetch your purchase history and match it up with the items in your library. Occasionally manual edits to store metadata can be reverted. Hide affected items from your purchase history and redo your edits.

Problem 3 is addressed in another post here: I Tune Library - Apple Community.

See also Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community. If you copied the library over and converted the .itl database to the new .musiclibrary format you'd be less likely to see the second and third issues.

tt2

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Answer 3

Mar 6, 2023 02:14 PM in response to Sparks0829

Hi. Thanks for the suggestions.

For 2 and 3 I've sorted it manually, just going through and amending. Takes a while but manageable.

For 1,I have asked the app to find the artwork but there's still some missing. But also there are loads that are wrong. Really popular albums too, for example David Bowie Let's Dance shows a best of album cover instead. I assume there's nothing that can be done with these except to manually change each one?

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Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Mar 6, 2023 03:16 PM in response to ThomasJNewton

Indeed, you'll have to work through it manually.

tt2

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How do I replicate my old iTunes library?

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