Cannot have multiple Music libraries!

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Level 1

4 points

Cannot have multiple Music libraries!

MacOs Sequoia, everything's up to date.

First time here, apologies in advance.

In the old times of iTunes, it was easy to have my music separated into genre libraries, like Pop, Christmas, Tango, etc. That "Option-iTunes" thing worked like a charm.

Now, with Music app, this doesn't seem to work anymore. Please, follow me:

Start with "Option-Music" command. Choose "Create Library". Name it "Tango".
Menu "File-Add to library". Point to folder where all Tangoes are located. Import starts. Done.
Now, the weird thing: my created "Tango" library appears as "Music Library" under Parent/Music/Tango folder. No "Tango" library, though. Hmmm. Quit Music app.
The scary part: "Option-Music" command again. Choose "Create Library". Name it "Christmas".
Menu "File-Add to library". Point to folder where all Christmas musics are located. Import starts. Done.
"Christmas" library appears as "Music Library" under Parent/Music/Christmas folder. Again, no "Christmas" library. Quit Music app.
Open "Music Library" under "Tango" folder. Surprise! It's populated with all my Christmas songs - no Tangoes!

No matter what I do: If I create five different music libraries, each one with different songs, ALL will have the same "Music Library" name and, even worse, ALL will have only the songs of the LAST created library.

Any ideas?

Thank you so much.

iMac 24″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Sep 10, 2025 5:30 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

277,949 points

Sep 10, 2025 12:03 PM in response to MartinsJr

I believe you might be going wrong at step 7. You cannot open your desired library directly from Finder, that always opens Music with the last library that was opened. You must hold down option and use Choose Library to switch from one to another.

See Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for some further background. In general the top level folder is the thing that changes, the library package inside is called Music Library.musiclibrary. (Other names would probably work, but Music doesn't give an option to set the package name, only the name of the folder.)

tt2

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Answer 2

MartinsJr Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 11, 2025 6:28 AM in response to turingtest2

"You must hold down option and use Choose Library to switch from one to another."

THAT solved the question, thank you so much!

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Answer 3

mjcm_nl

Level 3

717 points

Sep 12, 2025 5:41 PM in response to MartinsJr

Does this help?

Use multiple libraries in Music on Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 4

muguy

Level 10

90,908 points

Sep 10, 2025 6:14 AM in response to MartinsJr

It appears that when you name the library, you're naming the folder into which the library resides.

And, if you create a new library it appears that purchased music and Apple Music populates in your library automatically.

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Answer 5

MartinsJr Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 10, 2025 8:21 AM in response to muguy

"It appears that when you name the library, you're naming the folder into which the library resides. "

Agree. That's what seems to happen.

But any new created library is populated with songs I define (not with purchased/Apple Music). Problem is, this new library also overwrites ALL other libraries with those songs...

Thanks for helping.

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