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Unable to connect my music folder on an ext hdd to my new imac

Hi,


I have had my iTunes library on an external HDD for a little while now as I use it on both my iMac and my MacBook (when travelling).


Last year my old iMac died and I bought a new iMac as its replacement. I am now unable to connect the original HDD containing all of my music to Music app on the iMac.


Most of my music is not through iTunes, it’s almost all my downloads from many years back.


I have tried to

1: open the Music app with the option key, choose library, located the folder containing my library, but unable to ‘choose’ as it’s greyed out. The only option is to cancel.

2: open the Music app, go to preferences - files - change music media folder location - located folder containing the library - open - okay. Nothing changes.


Is there something else that I should be doing? I’d really appreciate any advice please


Thanks all

Posted on Feb 3, 2020 9:38 AM

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2 replies

Feb 3, 2020 1:17 PM in response to terrifromjarrow

Hi Terri,


It sounds like you're on the right track with your step #1. (Step #2 won't help at this stage because it only affects where music will be placed when you add it to your library.)


So to start with, I'd shut everything down and restart, and then walk through step #1 again just to be sure. I believe the only "choose" option the app will accept might be the .itl file in your old iTunes folder — the actual file name will be something like "iTunes Library.itl".


If this still doesn't work, or you can't find the .itl file, then you'll probably need to create a new library and import all your existing music from scratch. This will be a little tedious but not really difficult. Start by looking in Music > Preferences > Files to check the settings for how your new library will be managed and where the contents will be stored, to make sure these are set to how you want them. Now you can either drag the old music folder (containing all the artist and album subfolders, and the music files themselves) into the folder called Automatically add to Music — or in the Music app, go to the File menu and select "Import..." and navigate to the media folder where your files are.


With the default settings, the Music app will place copies of all your existing files into a new media folder on your iMac. If you don't want that — if for example you want to leave the files on the external drive — then you need to set that up in Preferences beforehand.


Cheers


Unable to connect my music folder on an ext hdd to my new imac

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