Getting my Mac Mini to use iTunes library on external drive

[OldCorpse]

Unfortunately, this is complicated.

Super quick back story. Some time ago, while on vacation, my house was comprehensively robbed - moving truck style. I lost my entire physical music collection assembled over decades - LPs, CDs, tapes etc. as well as all my electronics including computers, laptops etc.

Miraculously, an external HDD that I've backed my music library to was left behind. It wasn't the most recent backup (about a year out of date), but it contained some 90% of my music ripped from my LPs and CD etc. The iMac I lost was on High Sierra - I was waiting for the 27" AS to upgrade (which we now will never happen), and so I stayed way too long on High Sierra. The backup HDD with the library was also High Sierra. Subsequently, after this disaster I purchased the an AS M1 MBP 13", and hooked up the external HDD with my old library and made some vague attempts to have it work, but the MBP itself was faulty and I soon returned it back to Apple.

So now we're here: I have an external HDD (of which I have now made additional SSD and HDD backups!) with my old High Sierra iTunes library on it, which was briefly connected to an AS MBP. I would like for my new M2 Mac Mini running Sonoma 14.2 to use this iTunes library as the source of music files that can be played with the MM as a music server.

My worry and concern: I have put in years and years and years of work into that library insofar as metadata, tagging, grouping, editing, organizing etc. It represents thousands of hours of work and energy that would be in practical terms impossible to reproduce; a lot of the music is unique and obscure, plus bootlegs and concert tapes etc. and I had to tag it extensively - since I no longer have the physical media, album covers etc, I cannot even re-create this data . I would love for the Music app on the mini to recognize the library and preserver the structure and metadata that I've worked so hard and so long to put together.

I cannot use migration assistant as I lost my original iMac - all I have is the external drive with the High Sierra library. How can I get the MM's Music App to holistically take the iTunes metadata and music files without some catastrophic losses or wiping out or some new organizing that destroys my metada? Surely it cannot be as simple as firing up the Music app and pointing it at the external HDD and it'll just absorb it whole?

I have not attempted anything as yet, not only because of practically PTSD from the whole disaster and fear of loss of all of my even digital music assembled over decades, but also because I've been reading about how screwed up the Music App has been for several years now, and especially under Sonoma. Horror stories about Apple somehow substituting files, and messing up lists and so on.

So I've held off on even opening the Music app, until I know what's ahead and particularly making sure that I set up the various settings in Music app to minimize chances of Apple messing things up. Here are some additional points that might make that prospect safer:

1)I do NOT want to back up anything to the iCloud or any other cloud

2)I have never purchased music files (downloads) from Apple or any other vendor - all my music is from physical media that I purchase and rip or files that I exchange with friends or trade with others

3)I have never had any streaming music service from Apple or anywhere else and have no plans to start one - I strictly listen to stuff I own

4)I want to keep all my files strictly locally on my drive, I'm not interested in having Apple or anyone else go through my files looking for dupes, or substituting "newer" versions or whatnot

Since I will never use iCloud or any Apple service to upload/download any music files, nor subscribe to any of their streaming services etc., I'm hoping that will minimize odds of Apple messing with my files.

FWIW, I took a screenshot of a folder on my HDD that I think contains the metadata(?), not sure how this figures into everything, but here it is:

Sorry, don't know why two images appeared.

Anyhow, how can I accomplish what I want with least trouble: get the MM to absorb the iTunes library fully with all the matadata, and subsequently stream from that HDD and use that HDD as the destination of any future music files. The amount of files is about 2TB, the drive is 4TB.

Thank you!

 

[Ray2]

Make a backup of your iTunes folder shown above. Hold down the Option key while you click on Music. You will get a dialog box. Navigate to the iTunes Library.itl file and select it. Should convert and import it.

 

[chabig]

Surely it cannot be as simple as firing up the Music app and pointing it at the external HDD and it'll just absorb it whole?

I think it is that simple. But to be safe, I would recommend you make a backup of the music folder first, just as Ray2 did above. To be even more secure, make that backup to a second hard drive.

 

[OldCorpse]

Yep, I’m so PTSD paranoid after the loss of my stuff, that I have six copies of that drive, three SSD and three HDD distributed among friends for safekeeping.

Anyhow I’m super happy to hear that it may be a simple process! Thank you! I’m going to try it later today. And for the future, any settings for the Music app to make sure Apple doesn’t mess with my files?

 

[OldCorpse]

Well, I attempted to do the "option" open Music app and import the iTunes Library .itl - pointed to where the .itl file was and Music App asked me for a new name which I gave as Music1. So far so good.

When I open the Music app, it has some of my playlists showing - just a few - with some of my music; I attempted to play a track just to try it out, and Music app cannot find the corresponding sound file. OK, so that means it has no idea where all the files are. So the task is to somehow associate all the files with the corresponding metadata.

The journey begins. I opened Music app Settings --->Files--->change location simply to see where it's pointing and figure out where it's hung up:

and it's on the /1Music/iTunes/iTunes Media presumably looking inside the "Music" folder which is one of a number of folders inside the iTunes Media folder (including folders such as "Downloads" and "Automatically Add to Music", and inside that Music folder it actually has a single album (about 200MB) and nothing else. /1Music is my external SSD with my entire music library, the /iTunes/iTunes Media is part of what I showed yesterday:

However, importantly I DO know where my actual music file folder is on that external drive /1Music - if I scroll down alphabetically, I hit the Music folder which was created back in the day:

It's the one with the red dot dated as created Sept. 2010 and modified Dec 26, 2020. That's where my physical music files reside - about 1.7TB worth:

Now, as can be seen, in the screenshot - below this red dot Music folder there is the folder created today named Music 1 - which is I guess what the Music app created when it ingested the .itl file - and in that folder, we have a 45.7MB Music Library - date modified Jan 11, 2021.

OK, so now I'm thoroughly confused. How do I get the MM Music App to associate the newly ingested .itl file with the red dot 1.7TB Music file where my music is actually stored? Do I move the red dot 1.7TB Music folder somehow into the /1Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music folder - like perhaps copy the contents of the red dot 1.7TB ("select all" - copy - paste) into the /iTunes Media/Music folder and once it's all in there, then trash the red dot 1.7TB Music folder (otherwise I'd have 1.7+1.7=3.4TB out of a 4TB SSD taken). Or "move" (rather than copy and paste) the contents.

Or do not move anything, instead I somehow I point the Music app to the 1.7TB red dot Music folder? How?

So that's where I'm at - trying to get the MM Music app to associate the newly ingested .itl metada with the actual music files on my external 1Music SSD drive. Sorry, everyone, I knew this would be a giant mess, and here it is in all its confusion, apologies.

Any help in navigating this would be highly appreciated.

 

[Ray2]

Is the drive with the media connected? Where do you want it? If internal, erase/trash what you've done then move your old library to your new iTunes folder and go back to my original post.

If there's an Apple Store nearby, suggest a trip there may be productive. This is a relatively simple task.

 

[OldCorpse]

Right, Ray2, all of my music is on the 4TB external SSD hooked to the MM.

Yeah, if I can’t get this done fairly soon I may have to schlep this to the Apple store. Usually I’d try everything first, but in this case, because it’s extremely valuable to me, I am super cautious.

 

[OldCorpse]

UPDATE + MYSTERY:

I went ahead and executed on my original plan: on my external drive 1Music, I copied the contents of my old red dot 1.7TB Music folder to the iTunes-->Music folder (all of these operations are happening on the external 1Music SSD connected to my MM). I then fired up the Musc app on the Mac Mini. It now finds ALL MY MUSIC FILES.

I'm thrilled beyond words. Everything is working, and I didn't even have to go to the Apple store. The Music app now associates the .itl library with all the relevant music files location. I played a few songs just to make sure, lol.

Now the mystery, which I must say is very unnerving. I've been using macs since the 80's (no exaggeration), though not consistently. Consistently since the late 90's. Apparently I don't understand the simplest things like copy/paste.

Here's what I found: since the copy operation worked, I now expected to see my 4TB drive go from 1.79TB used, to 1.79TB+1.79TB= 3.58TB used, since I copied a folder but did not erase the original. So I checked Get Info - and it shows 2.18TB used (so slightly more than the 1.79TB originally). What? My idea was to go back into the red dot folder and now erase the contents since they've all been copied over to the iTunes-->Music folder, so I don't have massive duplication. But why is my SSD only 2.18TB instead of the 3.58TB I expected? So I looked into the original red dot folder and as expected all the files are there, and Get Info tells me that the folder is 1.79TB in size, as expected, since I did not erase it. I then went to the iTunes-->Music folder and when I open it, all the files are there, just as in the red dot folder from which I copied them. But when I do a Get Info on the iTunes-->Music folder i get the original 228MB that were there before I copied the 1.79TB files to it. So of course I have a bunch of questions regarding this mystery - why does the iTunes--Music folder show all the files as in the red dot 1.79TB folder, but has only the size of 228MB as before I copied the contents of the red dot folder into it?

I quit the Music App, ejected the 1Music drive, physically disconnected it - then reconnected it and checked all the relevant folder and drive sizes - the same situation as before, same mystery. I restarted the MM, and still the same situation.

I don't get it. I went into the red dot folder - I selected the first folder in it, held down shift, scrolled down to the last folder and it selected the contents of that folder. I then hit COPY from the Edit menu. Went over to the iTunes-->Music folder and hit PASTE from the Edit menu. It took about 3 minutes according to the progress bar and everything was copied. I did nothing unusual. In my understanding what should have happened, is that now I have the same content in both folders. And so the size should reflect that - unless there is some kind of way in which the APFS file system keeps track of what is where and to save space uses some kind of pointers, instead of actually copying data. In any case, even if that is so, why does my new folder not show the 1.79TB size of data copied to it, yet shows me all the data as being there? FWIW, I'm running the latest Sonoma 14.2.1 (just updated this morning).

I'm happy that things are working as far as my music collection goes. But can anyone explain to me what is going on? Than you!

 

[OldCorpse]

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:

I went ahead and copied the 1Music SSD with the newly copied red dot 1.79TB folder (and verified to be working with the Music app) to another external HDD using CCC and suprise surprise, the CCC claims that it discovered 3.61TB of data on the 1Music SSD, which tracks with what one would expect of a copy of 1.79TB without erasing, resulting in the 3.61TB claim - at the same time, Get Info on the 1Music SSD still shows the previous smaller amount by about half. Weird. Why is CCC claiming that 1Music is 3.61TB data and 1Music itself only claims half?

In any case, what was on the HDD? Well, it was a copy of 1Music to begin with, before I did the copy operation on 1Music. It still took 3 hours for CCC to get the HDD to look like 1Music - you'd think it would be much faster since basically all the files were already there. Nonetheless, it looks like CCC copied the whole 1.79TB all over again.

When the operation concluded, I went back to 1Music and now ERASED the files from red dot 1.79TB original Music folder. And now when I checked the iTunes-->Music folder it suddenly shows 1.79TB, and the red dot folder the expected 0. And the total size of the 1Music drive did not change in Get Info, it remained the same before and after the erasure. I then went to the HDD that just got all the data copied to it from the new state 1Music (with the red dot folder at 0), and fired up CCC. I had CCC reconcile the SSD with the HDD, and it did so, only taking a few seconds.

I then took the 1Music SSD and copied it with CCC to yet another SSD which was a copy of the original library 1.79TB. It took 3 hours.

So now I have a fully functioning 1.79TB external drive with my music library - in 3 copies. It still works with the MM Music app (I made sure to check!). Here's the crazy, inexplicable part for me. I took the original 1.79TB 1Music drive *after* I erased the extra 1.79TB folder, so now the drive shows 1.82TB used and rest free - and only then copied it first to the HDD to reconcile (using CCC), which it did, but the HDD still showed 3.61TB. I then did the same, using CCC to copy 1Music (after erasure, so size shows in Get Info as 1.82TB), to yet another SSD (which had a copy of the original library 1.79TB), and the new SSD shows 3.61TB used... even as the 1Music shows 1.82TB used! Makes no sense, and I can't explain it. Probably someone who understands the nuances of APFS gets it, but I don't.

As far as I'm concerned, this concludes my iTunes library transfer to the MM Music app. I'm hoping that there will be no complications and I've made sure in the Music app settings that Apple doesn't fetch any covers or otherwise mess with my files. So the whole thing has been a success, even if I don't quite understand the ins and outs of APFS file management and operations.

That's it for this particular thread, unless someone wants to chime in on the copy/paste and Get Info volume sizes issue with the various drives. Thank you everyone!

EDIT 12/20/23: One final addition to the saga - I went with the nuclear option and formatted both the backup drives, the HDD and the SSD, and then copied with CCC from the 1Music drive to the HDD and the SSD. Now both show the correct size of 1.82TB. I guess this concludes the last bit, with the space on both drives regained.

 

[Benz63amg]

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE:

I went ahead and copied the 1Music SSD with the newly copied red dot 1.79TB folder (and verified to be working with the Music app) to another external HDD using CCC and suprise surprise, the CCC claims that it discovered 3.61TB of data on the 1Music SSD, which tracks with what one would expect of a copy of 1.79TB without erasing, resulting in the 3.61TB claim - at the same time, Get Info on the 1Music SSD still shows the previous smaller amount by about half. Weird. Why is CCC claiming that 1Music is 3.61TB data and 1Music itself only claims half?

In any case, what was on the HDD? Well, it was a copy of 1Music to begin with, before I did the copy operation on 1Music. It still took 3 hours for CCC to get the HDD to look like 1Music - you'd think it would be much faster since basically all the files were already there. Nonetheless, it looks like CCC copied the whole 1.79TB all over again.

When the operation concluded, I went back to 1Music and now ERASED the files from red dot 1.79TB original Music folder. And now when I checked the iTunes-->Music folder it suddenly shows 1.79TB, and the red dot folder the expected 0. And the total size of the 1Music drive did not change in Get Info, it remained the same before and after the erasure. I then went to the HDD that just got all the data copied to it from the new state 1Music (with the red dot folder at 0), and fired up CCC. I had CCC reconcile the SSD with the HDD, and it did so, only taking a few seconds.

I then took the 1Music SSD and copied it with CCC to yet another SSD which was a copy of the original library 1.79TB. It took 3 hours.

So now I have a fully functioning 1.79TB external drive with my music library - in 3 copies. It still works with the MM Music app (I made sure to check!). Here's the crazy, inexplicable part for me. I took the original 1.79TB 1Music drive *after* I erased the extra 1.79TB folder, so now the drive shows 1.82TB used and rest free - and only then copied it first to the HDD to reconcile (using CCC), which it did, but the HDD still showed 3.61TB. I then did the same, using CCC to copy 1Music (after erasure, so size shows in Get Info as 1.82TB), to yet another SSD (which had a copy of the original library 1.79TB), and the new SSD shows 3.61TB used... even as the 1Music shows 1.82TB used! Makes no sense, and I can't explain it. Probably someone who understands the nuances of APFS gets it, but I don't.

As far as I'm concerned, this concludes my iTunes library transfer to the MM Music app. I'm hoping that there will be no complications and I've made sure in the Music app settings that Apple doesn't fetch any covers or otherwise mess with my files. So the whole thing has been a success, even if I don't quite understand the ins and outs of APFS file management and operations.

That's it for this particular thread, unless someone wants to chime in on the copy/paste and Get Info volume sizes issue with the various drives. Thank you everyone!

EDIT 12/20/23: One final addition to the saga - I went with the nuclear option and formatted both the backup drives, the HDD and the SSD, and then copied with CCC from the 1Music drive to the HDD and the SSD. Now both show the correct size of 1.82TB. I guess this concludes the last bit, with the space on both drives regained.

I’m in a similar situation. I had my 128gb 13 inch i5 Macbook Pro for several years and due to its small internal SSD of 128gb, i had my music library on an external Samsung T5 SSD Drive that's been connected to the Macbook at all times. Now, i just got a new M2 Macbook Pro with 256GB internal storage so i can finally afford to have my music library which is about 50gb in size on the internal drive of my Mac. What is the proper procedure to transfer my library which is used to being on an external drive over to the new Macbook Pro's internal drive? I had BigSur running on the old Intel Macbook and the new M2 Macbook is running Sonoma. I tried copying over the iTunes library from the external drive into the Music folder on the new M2 Macbook and then pressing option while clicking the Music app on the new Macbook Pro and choosing select library at which point i selected the "iTunes Library.itl" file and the Muisc app on the M2 Macbook loaded up but my music library is not up-to date at all and is missing 2-3 years of content so i'm a bit puzzled as to what i did wrong. Thank you in advance.