Music Library Empty After Manually Adding Files

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Music Library Empty After Manually Adding Files

Music Version 1.5.6.11 / MacBook Air 13-inch. M4, 2025 / macOS Sequoia 15.6.1

I've been adding music files to iTunes since aabout 2007 and switched over to Music a couple years ago continuing to add music files (I have a few albums downloaded from Apple Music I am NOT concerned about). I bought the MacBook Air in part because Music was hanging regularly and generally slow.

The new laptop mostly improved the functionality but I had a lot of 'missing' files and was only able to find them one by one with Music as opposed to iTunes which often found others automatically in an album once one was found manually. I decided to remove all of them and add them again. My music files total around 2.5 TB (I know!) on an external hard drive so it took a couple days to copy and then about another day to analyse.

When it was finished I quit Music, restarted my computer and opened Music to find that there was no music (my Music downloaded files are intentionally hidden although that free U2 album keeps wanting to be seen). I went into settings and did a 'reset' of the Media Location and Music went through the process of organising the files which took a few hours.

Once complete I quit Music, restarted the laptop, opened Music and, again, empty library. I signed out and back into my account and deauthorised and reauthorised the computer without any changes.

My musiclibrary file in the Music folder on my laptop is being modified and is 100.3 MB in size.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Sep 12, 2025 03:30 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

277,771 points

Sep 12, 2025 02:28 PM in response to v6b3x4

Music won't add hidden files to the library. There appears to be an occasional odd issue where music can be connected to a cached copy of the library which doesn't update correctly when music is closed. Try using the option-start music method to explicitly reselect the library you think Music should be using, typically ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary where ~ is your user's home folder. You might also try holding down option+cmd when launching Music to open it in its safe mode which may do some internal repairs. Next try adding say a single album, then check that it is still present after closing and then reopening Music.

tt2

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Answer 2

v6b3x4 Author

Level 1

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Sep 20, 2025 01:03 AM in response to turingtest2

Hello @turingtest2,

Replying now so you don't consider me unappreciative of your suggestions and because I am not sure how quickly Apple closes inactive post threads.

Not sure it's entirely relevant but since my original post I have updated to (ugh) macOS 26 and was able to add and have 'save' just over 100MB of MP3s. I then option started Music and re-selected the Music library and – because of the size of the library/number of music files – it is either taking awhile or hanging (no invitation to Force Quit which is promising) but either way I am giving it some time and will respond again when results are (more) conclusive.

As for the hidden files I was trying to emphasise that they are totally irrelevant to me.

Thank you, v6b3x4

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