Make library portable (Apple Music on MACOS). How?

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Level 3

717 points

Make library portable (Apple Music on MACOS). How?

Under iTunes on Windows, after following Turingtest2 directions to make a ITunes library portable the library files ( *.itl and *.XML) live under the iTunes Media folder, thus I can easily backup to the folder to my external drives and NAS etc etc and have a completely working iTunes Music Library.

Now I want to do the same with Apple Music on MAC.

My music files are located under /Volumes/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music

But my Library is located under

/Users/UserName/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary/Library.musicdb

How to make this again portable??

Don't worry about the AlbumArt because Apple has placed that in a completely other directory as well, and I don't know if that is worth the worries.

That iTunes method worked like a charm, and I hope that there is a way to get the same way under MacOS with the Music App.

I am just interested in Music, not in Movies etc etc

TiA

Mac mini (M4)

Posted on Aug 30, 2025 09:36 PM

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Answer 1

mjcm_nl Author

Level 3

717 points

Sep 2, 2025 05:43 PM in response to mjcm_nl

To answer my own question

What I did, I moved the whole Library folder from /Users/UserName/Music/ to

/Volumes/Music/iTunes/Library

Pressed Option and started Music and chose the Library file /Volumes/Music/iTunes/Library/Library.musicdb

And it works, no missing files etc etc and also the time stamp of the files under that directory change accordingly after use.

Preferences.plist

Library Preferences.musicdb

Library.musicdb

Thus the directory under /Users/UserName/Music/ is empty and does not get populated.

One thing do.

This seems (still early days) to work for the Library and the Music Files, BUT NOT for the Album Art as that is located somewhere else.

Hope this helps someone. Will try some more and report back, next step is copying the whole folder to another drive and see if Music will still start with the Library intact.

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Answer 2

mjcm_nl Author

Level 3

717 points

Aug 30, 2025 10:38 PM in response to mjcm_nl

Forgot to add, my goal is to easily backup my Library and not be depended on Time Machine. I have my Library (iTunes for Windows) stored on several separate drives.

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