Trashing Music Folder on Home drive- recreating from music files backup

I have an iMac 2020 that is running Sequoia 15.3. Since upgrading to 15.3, I've seen music files go missing and existing files unrecognized by the Music app (can't locate files). I've backed up the files I have to another drive, and I'd like to recreate the Music Library, then add the music I have back into the app.


What is the best method? Should I keep the files on a separate drive, or bring them back onto the Home drive?


Further, with the Music app being unreliable in keeping my music, are there any other music programs out there that offer the database coverage that Music does?


iMac 27″

Posted on Feb 13, 2025 9:05 AM

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Feb 17, 2025 3:21 AM in response to ProWorks

When you say that music files go missing what do you mean.

1 music tracks disappear from your HD?

2 music tracks disappears from the Music app?

3music tracks are in the Music app but the app says it can't find them?


1 would be very odd and might indicate a dying HD - although you'd see other files disappearing too.


2 - I've been running iTunes/Music since 2008. I've got 25k tracks in my library. I use Music for hours a day, every day. I've never seen it lose a track like you are seeing and I'd not describe it as unreliable.


3 - I've seen happen but only I've been tinkering with music tracks in another app -e.g. audacity to split out hidden tracks.


Based on my experience you're seeing very odd behaviour and you need to work out why before you start looking for alternative apps or rebuilding the database cos if you don't fix the root cause it'll likely just happen again.

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Feb 17, 2025 5:09 AM in response to ProWorks

It's very odd. As I said, Music has never lost a file of mine. I, too,have no downloaded music; everything's ripped from CD or vinyl. I, too, mess about with albums and artists - for example I always split bonus material into its own bonus album because I like the album to be the original release. I always add my own Sort Album Artist because I don't like Apple defaults.


When Music loses a track or album have you searched for it? Is it really gone from Music when you do a search in the main Songs playlist? Get a search app (I use easyfind) and search the whole hard disk for it. Files don't just disappear in my experience. I've sometimes fat-fingeredly deleted a file from the library into the waste bin instead of removing it from a playlist, but the file is easily retrievable.


Make a note of the total number of songs in the Songs list at the top and the next time it looks like a file has disappeared check if the total number of songs has changed.


Make sure you haven't got any songs by "Unknown Artist" or "Unknown Album" by making a smart playlist with rules Match Any of "Artist does not contain unknown", "Album does not contain unknown", "Album Artist does not contain unknown" and make sure your tracks aren't disappearing here.




Sorry if you've tried all that, but this would bug the crap out of me and it's clearly causing you problems.

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Feb 17, 2025 4:54 AM in response to Zurarczurx

Thank you for the reply.


While its may seem strange, some Mac people have been complaining about lost files in Music (Reddit, MacRumours). I keep my folders in Media rather well-named and organized, Apple having taken every keystroke mistakenly added to artists entered as a different folder. I also change some titles and details about the music often (I'm a collector of regional Eastern European music, and I'm learning a lot about classifications, which I enter into Music), so I may be confusing the poor app. Still, having music disappear is what has happened, even though every test of my hard drive shows no problem. Other files have not vanished from the drive.


Nonetheless, I have rebuilt my music database from backups to another drive, and was successful in gaining all but 100 or so pieces of music lost. I'm tracking when Music fails to locate a number, and already since the rebuild it has "Lost" two. I do not have a large database (11,000, with no purchases from the store), so it shouldn't be size that causes this.


As to other apps, I've found they either work off of Music's collection of playlists, or do not allow the detailed information entry I require, so I'm using Fidelia for better quality sound, but entering music that needs it (classical, etc.). I'll be watching the drive to see what happens in the future.


Again, thank you for the reply. I rely on those who have a deeper understanding of how apps work in the background, as I'm too old to fuss that much!


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Trashing Music Folder on Home drive- recreating from music files backup

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