iTunes Media Music Mess

[Alameda]

I've been maintaining a fairly small iTunes library since the early days of iPods. I moved my Music folder to my new MacBook Pro and took a look and it is a mess. What goes where?

Underneath user/myUserName/
Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music
This folder contains 11.11 GB of music files, in folders by artist/album
Music/iTunes/Music
This folder contains 9.41 GB of music files, in folders by artist/album
Music/iTunes/iTunesMedia/Apple Music
This folder contains 3.16 GB of music files

Can I consolidate these into one folder? I don't understand what's going on.

 

[edubfromktown]

I recently went through a similar total pain to copy all from M1 Studio to Pro M3.

An external drive copy as follows brought success for me:

1. On the old Mac, hold Option and open Music to see where your library lives (or check Music > Settings > Files)
2. The library folder is typically ~/Music/Music/ — copy the entire folder to an external drive
3. On the new Mac, place it in the same path: ~/Music/Music/
4. Hold down the Option key while launching Music, then point it to the moved library

 

[Alameda]

I recently went through a similar total pain to copy all from M1 Studio to Pro M3.

An external drive copy as follows brought success for me:

1. On the old Mac, hold Option and open Music to see where your library lives (or check Music > Settings > Files)
2. The library folder is typically ~/Music/Music/ — copy the entire folder to an external drive
3. On the new Mac, place it in the same path: ~/Music/Music/
4. Hold down the Option key while launching Music, then point it to the moved library

That does not seem to be right.

If I open the Music app in OS-X and choose File -> Settings, it tells me that my "Media Location" is:
~/Music/iTunes/iTunesMedia

Inside that folder are two sub-folders with gigabytes of music. So I don't know which one to consolidate everything into.

I have:
~/Music/iTunes/iTunesMedia/Apple Music 3 GB
~/Music/iTunes/iTunesMedia/Music 11 GB
~/Music/iTunes/iTunesMusic 9 GB

I also do not know how to use Finder to drag one folder full of files on top of another and replace only the non-duplicates. I guess I'll find a Unix script to do that.

 

[edubfromktown]

That does not seem to be right.

If I open the Music app in OS-X and choose File -> Settings, it tells me that my "Media Location" is:
~/Music/iTunes/iTunesMedia

Inside that folder are two sub-folders with gigabytes of music. So I don't know which one to consolidate everything into.

I have:
~/Music/iTunes/iTunesMedia/Apple Music 3 GB
~/Music/iTunes/iTunesMedia/Music 11 GB
~/Music/iTunes/iTunesMusic 9 GB

I also do not know how to use Finder to drag one folder full of files on top of another and replace only the non-duplicates. I guess I'll find a Unix script to do that.

Mhhh yeah- I copied all music from one macOS system to another. There are likely more steps involved when copying from OS X iTunes to Music (which I cannot stand!).

I play music from my library using Sonos app and stream to of anywhere from one to all four Sonos speakers in my home.

 

[Alameda]

Mhhh yeah- I copied all music from one macOS system to another. There are likely more steps involved when copying from OS X iTunes to Music (which I cannot stand!).

I play music from my library using Sonos app and stream to of anywhere from one to all four Sonos speakers in my home.

I appreciate your help.

 

[jackerin]

iTunes had a not-apparent function to consolidate your library to one location, making copies to the new location. I have not used the Music app but a quick glance shows the same option in the menu: https://support.apple.com/guide/music/change-where-music-files-are-stored-mus69248042d/mac

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

iTunes had a not-apparent function to consolidate your library to one location, making copies to the new location. I have not used the Music app but a quick glance shows the same option in the menu: https://support.apple.com/guide/music/change-where-music-files-are-stored-mus69248042d/mac

I don't see such option mentioned?

 

[jackerin]

I have not actually used the Music app myself, so I don't know if it works the way it is described:

Consolidate your files in the Music folder​

Depending on how you imported items into Music, some items in your library might be stored in different locations (for example, in another folder or on another storage device).

You can consolidate all the files in your library in the Music folder—for example, to make it easier to move your library to a new computer.

1. Go to the Music app
   
   on your Mac.
2. Choose File > Library > Organize Library, then select “Consolidate files.”
   
   Files remain in their original locations, and copies are placed in the default folder.