Stream from Apple music rather than local library

I just got a new Mac and signed into Apple Music, which I have been using since it first came out. My iTunes library was on an external hard drive and I haven't used it on my previous computer for years because it always streamed from Apple Music. Now when I go to play a song, it says that it can't locate the file. So I have to go to the 3 dot button and open the album in Apple Music in order to play it rather than it defaulting to streaming it like it had on my previous machine.

Is there a way to correct this without deleting and re-adding every album all over again?

Posted on Mar 12, 2025 03:23 PM

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3 replies

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Mar 14, 2025 06:43 PM in response to TravisLawrence

Select all songs (songs view, cmd A), ctrl/right click > Remove Download. Music will remove all the local associations with the unconnected drive and thereafter treat everything as something to be streamed from the cloud. Do you still have the external drive somewhere? You might backup the library that references it first if you do. If not I suggest getting an external drive and using the option-start-Music method to create a new library on that drive, enable Sync Library, download everything apart from the Apple Music subscription content as a backup, then switch back to the library on the internal drive for streaming access to the library.

tt2

Mar 16, 2025 12:53 PM in response to turingtest2

This fixed it! Thank you!!

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Mar 16, 2025 07:52 PM in response to TravisLawrence

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

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Stream from Apple music rather than local library