iTunes library stuck in the cloud

[lowfreq]

I am having trouble getting my iTunes library onto my new iMac.

Previously, that library resided on the hard drive of my 2014 iMac, than at some point over the past year something changed (No clue what I did to cause this) but my iTunes library somehow shifted from my hard drive to my iCloud Drive. On my 2014 iMac I am able to access all of my music that I burned to that library.

For my 2020 iMac that arrived this week, I am having some issues. I've tried the following without success:

1) Downloading the library from iCloud, this results in some kind of error, it starts to download and will create some folders, but than errors out.

2) Using the preferences menu, I've tried directing iTunes to that folder on iCloud, but I've basically ended up with a lot of orphaned songs (Meaning iTunes doesn't know where to find the files without help).

Suggestions? Fortunately the burned CD's exist elsewhere as every time I imported a CD I transferred it to an external hard drive but I don't want to re-import these and create a new library if I don't have to.

Suggestions?

 

[Mistercharlie]

I have a similar problem. My iTunes library exists on an old Mac, but on my current Mac, it’s all in the cloud. I was a user of iTunes Match, but now just Apple Music.

I could (theoretically) download the songs from the cloud library, but that’s over 50GB. Can I somehow re-add the files from my old Mac? I’d prefer not to just dump them in there, as I have almost 20 years of metadata associated with the tracks.

edit: this DougScript might help…

https://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=mxtrackcpr

 

[lowfreq]

I have a similar problem. My iTunes library exists on an old Mac, but on my current Mac, it’s all in the cloud. I was a user of iTunes Match, but now just Apple Music.

I could (theoretically) download the songs from the cloud library, but that’s over 50GB. Can I somehow re-add the files from my old Mac? I’d prefer not to just dump them in there, as I have almost 20 years of metadata associated with the tracks.

edit: this DougScript might help…

https://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=mxtrackcpr

I don't think I ever found a solution for this unfortunately.

I did have the foresight at one point in the past to transfer many things I imported into iTunes onto an external hard drive, and since the metadata transferred over also, I just had to re-import that stuff. It wasn't my complete library unfortunately, so every once in awhile I'll need to pull out a disc and burn it again but it's better than nothing.

If you still have your old Mac with the iTunes library on it all you need to do is transfer it to an external drive and re-import into new Mac.

Also, be sure to continue backing everything up to an external drive whenever you add something new. iTunes has an awful track record with me of screwing music libraries up and I'll never trust it again completely.

 

[Mistercharlie]

I can definitely re-import the old library, but it’s a bit out of date. I’m going to try it though. I think that’s the fastest way, and most likely to preserve all that old metadata.