Problem with Music library

[Wando64]

Some time ago I moved my Music library to an external disk and changed the Path for "Music Media Folder Location" in the Music App settings to point to the new location. This appeared to be working fine.
Recently I added a large number of Albums/Songs to my library by Importing them into Music, however all of this new music has ended up in another library in my Home folder.
When I open Music I can see all of my music from both libraries, and if I ask to see the song file in Finder ("show in Finder") I can see that some of the songs are on the external library and some (the most recent ones) in the Home folder library.
What on earth is going on?
First of all why didn't Music import in the designated library as specified in Settings?
How can I avoid this in the future?
How can I merge the two music libraries?

Thanks

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

At some point you must have opened Music without the external drive connected... and/or the "unexpected ejection" macOS bug struck, you didn't notice and opened Music (app). When you open Music or Photos, etc and the assigned library is not available, it creates a new one internally and then uses that one going forward. It's one of the most aggravating parts of the "internal storage priced too high by Apple so I'll store key library stuff on an external drive" conundrum.

• You need to open Music and reassign the default library to the one on the external drive.
• You can merge the two libraries by using File (menu), Add to library or File, Import and choosing the internal iTunes library file. Then let it import them. There are other ways to do this too but this one seems simplest. After this completes, CHECK it carefully to be sure all the new music imported and then you can go in and delete the iTunes library on the internal drive, leaving you with only the external library as default again. BE CAREFUL. BE SURE that the songs have imported to the external before you delete the internal drive library.
• To avoid this happening in the future, you MUST always check to be SURE that external drive is currently attached before opening Music, Photos and similar apps. Eyeball the drive to be sure it is there before you open those kinds of apps. If you suffer the "unexpected ejection" bug, before you import new music or new photos, etc, again eyeball your screen to be sure the external is connected.

 

[Wando64]

At some point you must have opened Music without the external drive connected... and/or the "unexpected ejection" macOS bug struck, you didn't notice and opened Music (app). When you open Music or Photos, etc and the assigned library is not available, it creates a new one internally and then uses that one going forward. It's one of the most aggravating parts of the "internal storage priced too high by Apple so I'll store key library stuff on an external drive" conundrum.

• You need to open Music and reassign the default library to the one on the external drive.
• You can merge the two libraries by using File (menu), Add to library or File, Import and choosing the internal iTunes library file. Then let it import them. There are other ways to do this too but this one seems simplest. After this completes, CHECK it carefully to be sure all the new music imported and then you can go in and delete the iTunes library on the internal drive, leaving you with only the external library as default again. BE CAREFUL. BE SURE that the songs have imported to the external before you delete the internal drive library.
• To avoid this happening in the future, you MUST always check to be SURE that external drive is currently attached before opening Music, Photos and similar apps. Eyeball the drive to be sure it is there before you open those kinds of apps. If you suffer the "unexpected ejection" bug, before you import new music or new photos, etc, again eyeball your screen to be sure the external is connected.

OK, thanks. This sounds plausible and worrying.
However, the default library is (was) still assigned to the external drive, and that is why I am so puzzled about this.
Also, the other puzzling aspect is that I could see in Music the songs from both libraries. From the old one on the external drive, and from the new one on the internal one.
I think that there is a bug at play here, which might have well be kicked off by the disconnected drive, as you described.

After thinking long and hard about this, I have decided that a better way to handle my music is to create a dedicated folder on the external drive and put all my music in it. This folder will now be manually managed by me.
Then I have deactivated the option to copy music to the library, opting instead to leave it in their dedicated folder.
Then I created a new library on the external drive and added the music to it, however thinking about it, at this point the library could actually reside on the internal drive as its size will be quite limited, due to the music being in a dedicated folder on the external drive.
This way, if anything goes wrong again, all I have to do is to delete whichever rogue library has been created, create a new one, and add the music again from the dedicated folder.

 

[Wando64]

At some point you must have opened Music without the external drive connected... and/or the "unexpected ejection" macOS bug struck, you didn't notice and opened Music (app). When you open Music or Photos, etc and the assigned library is not available, it creates a new one internally and then uses that one going forward. It's one of the most aggravating parts of the "internal storage priced too high by Apple so I'll store key library stuff on an external drive" conundrum.

• You need to open Music and reassign the default library to the one on the external drive.
• You can merge the two libraries by using File (menu), Add to library or File, Import and choosing the internal iTunes library file. Then let it import them. There are other ways to do this too but this one seems simplest. After this completes, CHECK it carefully to be sure all the new music imported and then you can go in and delete the iTunes library on the internal drive, leaving you with only the external library as default again. BE CAREFUL. BE SURE that the songs have imported to the external before you delete the internal drive library.
• To avoid this happening in the future, you MUST always check to be SURE that external drive is currently attached before opening Music, Photos and similar apps. Eyeball the drive to be sure it is there before you open those kinds of apps. If you suffer the "unexpected ejection" bug, before you import new music or new photos, etc, again eyeball your screen to be sure the external is connected.

By the way, out of curiosity I have attempted to repeat the issue by opening music with the external disk disconnected.
All I got is a dialog informing me that he library cannot be accessed and asking what yo to (Opening a different library, or create a new one, or quit).

Have you experienced the behaviour you have been describing, or were you just making a hypothesis?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

The behavior of Music/iTunes is the sole reason I always upgrade my internal SSD, simply because I don't want to fiddle with Apples silent shenanigans whenever the app can't see the external drive that would contain the library. I use that app daily for hours, with a huge library, so it is worth it for me. It would have been a LOT easier if the app simply gave a message, if it couldn't see the standard path to the library, instead of defaulting to create a new library.

 

[Wando64]

The behavior of Music/iTunes is the sole reason I always upgrade my internal SSD, simply because I don't want to fiddle with Apples silent shenanigans whenever the app can't see the external drive that would contain the library. I use that app daily for hours, with a huge library, so it is worth it for me. It would have been a LOT easier if the app simply gave a message, if it couldn't see the standard path to the library, instead of defaulting to create a new library.

That is exactly how it behaved when I tried after I recreated the library. It gave me a message, giving me an option to choose another library or create a new one. So I still don’t know what happened the first time around.

In any case, with the method I am using now I can keep the music on an external drive, and the library on the internal one. This way, the library is simply an index and its size is minimal.

 

[haralds]

If you end up with songs listed in Music but somehow strewn across multiple locations, File > Library > Update Library > Consolidate Files will copy them into the location set in Settings. After it is done, you can delete the media in the other locations.
I have been using a separate Media disk for Music and TV across all my systems in the same locations. If there is only a single drive, I create a Media Volume.