So I had a very scary incident regarding my Mac Pro. I had two of my hard drives that were RAID'ed together and acted as the medium for my iTunes library start making loud clanking sounds. Seeing as how the drives were almost as old as the machine, I decided to replace them with one single drive. After getting all the data moved over, however, when I tried to open the Music app all my files were showing but anything that I had imported or purchased in iTunes (pre-Catalina) had no artwork but everything since the migration did.
I decided to try creating a new Music library. Turns out that Music.app does not really change anything about your iTunes library whatsoever, instead relying on the iTunes Library Database File (normally called 'iTunes Library.itl') in your old iTunes Library. From there, the Music app creates a new directory in your Music folder (~/Music) that it will prompt you to name. This creates a new directory file (literally called "Music Library.musiclibrary")
I noticed the Music.app in Catalina wouldn't want to open my iTunes Library and I could not find out why. Apparently .itl (iTunes Library) database file was missing it's extension and could not be opened for that reason. Once I added on the extension, I was able to reload all my music into Music.app.
What came next I found disturbing. All the music I had added to Music.app after upgrading to Catalina (wether via a CD Import or purchased from the iTunes Store) was gone. Completely missing from the library altogether. I thought that it may have been data corruption from the failing drive, so I opened the old Music Library, copied the files, and imported them to the new Music Library. Everything went back in fine, but I noticed some of my music was still missing it's artwork (about 10 albums). I decided to just manually do it, as it was not a big deal. Once I got everything set back up, I decided to try creating a third Music Library file from the same iTunes Library.itl just to make sure that it was just corruption. NOPE. All the music I had just re-imported was gone once again. I decided to go digging around the iTunes folder to make sure all the songs were there and they were, twice actually from the re-import.
What's the conclusion?
Music.app relies on a confusing, convoluted mess of links and connections to make the conversion from iTunes quick and seem seamless, but if your Library ever looses it's connection to it's source you will have to rebuild your entire library or deal with missing data one way or the other, wether it's missing artwork on all your iTunes imports and purchases or the loss of all music you have imported or purchased since moving to Catalina. Either way it is not acceptable and I think Apple needs to look into a better way of dealing with this conversion. Since it seems they care more about casual listeners who subscribe to Apple Music than everyone else as evidenced by their lack of XML Export support which was a big help to DJs, I doubt anything will happen. But to other iTunes power users: BEWARE OF CATALINA.
I decided to try creating a new Music library. Turns out that Music.app does not really change anything about your iTunes library whatsoever, instead relying on the iTunes Library Database File (normally called 'iTunes Library.itl') in your old iTunes Library. From there, the Music app creates a new directory in your Music folder (~/Music) that it will prompt you to name. This creates a new directory file (literally called "Music Library.musiclibrary")
I noticed the Music.app in Catalina wouldn't want to open my iTunes Library and I could not find out why. Apparently .itl (iTunes Library) database file was missing it's extension and could not be opened for that reason. Once I added on the extension, I was able to reload all my music into Music.app.
What came next I found disturbing. All the music I had added to Music.app after upgrading to Catalina (wether via a CD Import or purchased from the iTunes Store) was gone. Completely missing from the library altogether. I thought that it may have been data corruption from the failing drive, so I opened the old Music Library, copied the files, and imported them to the new Music Library. Everything went back in fine, but I noticed some of my music was still missing it's artwork (about 10 albums). I decided to just manually do it, as it was not a big deal. Once I got everything set back up, I decided to try creating a third Music Library file from the same iTunes Library.itl just to make sure that it was just corruption. NOPE. All the music I had just re-imported was gone once again. I decided to go digging around the iTunes folder to make sure all the songs were there and they were, twice actually from the re-import.
What's the conclusion?
Music.app relies on a confusing, convoluted mess of links and connections to make the conversion from iTunes quick and seem seamless, but if your Library ever looses it's connection to it's source you will have to rebuild your entire library or deal with missing data one way or the other, wether it's missing artwork on all your iTunes imports and purchases or the loss of all music you have imported or purchased since moving to Catalina. Either way it is not acceptable and I think Apple needs to look into a better way of dealing with this conversion. Since it seems they care more about casual listeners who subscribe to Apple Music than everyone else as evidenced by their lack of XML Export support which was a big help to DJs, I doubt anything will happen. But to other iTunes power users: BEWARE OF CATALINA.