I seem to have an odd situation here. For some reason I seem to have a very convoluted path to my folder with all my music:
/Users//Music/Music/Media.localized/Music/
That last folder in the path is the actual folder containing all my music. The “Media.localized” only shows as “Media” in the Finder.
Just asking for confirmation of what I am about to do.
Copy that final “Music” folder to my external drive.
Run the Music App… in settings it says the final folder is Media. In which that Music with my stuff is located.
Change that and point to that Music folder I moved on my external drive
Not sure what to do about a few items in that second Music folder, it has a Previous Libraries with a single document in it and a “Music Library” file.
In hindsight, maybe I should move the whole Media folder… correct?
So I move the Media folder then reconnect the app to it?
By far my biggest concern is all the playlists I have set up, they took a LOT of work and I do not want to lose them. Am I correct that they are contained in the “Music Library” fille? It’s not very big, about 16MBs. Thing is, those are back up a level from “Media” so my supposition about moving just the “Media” folder may not be correct?
Maybe I should move the second Music folder listed in the path?
The other thing that bothers me is the path listed in my Music.app settings goes Music/Music/Media. For some reason it seems to know there is another folder containing all the actual music? I know this sounds kindaa complicated, but I want to do it right from the get go.
Be careful storing Music on an external drive if you have the Mac set up to be a Media Server. I have my 6,000 song library on an external drive (Mac Mini M4, Thunderbolt drive, Tahoe) and it has consistent problems asking me to find songs when I ask it to play on the Mini itself. Curiously, all the music is found just fine when another Mac or iDevice on the network plays it.
I already know where to go to specify a new location, but I wanted some specific details in asking a few questions. And no, my machine is not any music server, I barely ever play any of my music from my desktop. The Music.app and my ripped music (which, btw, is about 78G worth of 128k AAC files!) essentially serves to copy stuff to my phone.
I was kinda looking for what data was stored where for Music.app. However, I just found that I can export playists to external text documents. Tested that, it works great.
Just wanted to know if I used a much simpler path to the music, like my final Music folder (with the songs) on the external drive. I am concerned about that Music Library file that seems to get “updated” every time I open the app…. as in exactly what is in there. It lives in the ssecond Music folder in the hierarchy I listed above.
The Music Library file is a package (directory), containing:
Application. musicdb
Extras.itdb
This file appears to be an SQLite database file containing CDDB data.
Genius.idtb
Library Preferences.musicdb
Library.musicdb
Preferences.plist
sentinel
I don’t know what format the other files are in, but I have always assumed that they contain everything other than the audio files themselves. Including all metadata (ID3 tags, images, EQ settings), playlists and anything else you can think of.
Each track in the Library will have a pointer to the corresponding audio file. Which could be anywhere, not just in the folder configured as your music location.
Every time you do anything in the Music app, something is going to change. If nothing more than a timestamp for the last time you launched the app. Playing music will modify metadata, because the app tracks a play-count and a last-played timestamp.
As shamino detailed, the current Music app now packages up all the database files that used to float loose in the Username=>Music=> iTunes folder.
If you move a folder of music files to an external drive and then target it in Music settings, the Music app will maintain a Music Library file in a Username=>Music=>Music folder. Mine (which I’ve added “external” to its name) looks like this:
On the external drive I suggest you place your Music folder enclosed in a Media folder, as in External=>optional folders=>Media=>Music. The Music app wants to create an Automatically Add to Music folder at the same level as the Music folder.
For proper context my external Music folder functions as a second library in addition to the original library supporting my Music+ subscription. I access the external library by launching Music with the Option held down. The original internal Music folder is similar to the one for the external music except its Media folder contains an Apple Music, Automatically Add to Music, and Downloads-Music folders as shown in my renamed internal music folder below:
That is the default location for newly-created Music libraries (e.g. new accounts or the library created from an iTunes migration). But you can move it elsewhere and it should continue to work. If the Music app doesn’t automatically find it, you can double-click the library to launch Music using it, and the app will remember the new location for next time.
Also, if you hold down Option while launching Music, you will be presented with a dialog that you can use for creating new libraries and choosing one (in case you don’t want to open the default one):
