Download old iTunes songs to Mac

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Level 1

4 points

Download old iTunes songs to Mac

I downloaded a lot of songs from iTunes back in the day and they all appear on my iPhone. However, I'd like to download them to Apple Music on my Mac but I can't figure out how.

I've clicked on Automatic Downloads in Music > Settings > General and restarted the machine to no avail.

Could this be something to do with the location of my Music Media folder location? Mac OS seems to have gone wild and created files all over the place. For example:

Any ideas on how I can download these songs?

MacBook Pro (M1, 2020)

Posted on Nov 21, 2024 12:08 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

274,516 points

Nov 21, 2024 2:11 PM in response to Jossy79

You do seem to have a proliferation of libraries. You might take a look at Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community. Your library shouldn't be stored in the cloud, that might be part of your problem. Music might be creating a new one when the cloud library is locked during an update. The ~/Music/Music folder where your library would normally live shouldn't be included in iCloud Drive, or similar cloud storage products. The library is normally called Music Library.musiclibrary.

tt2

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Answer 2

ed2345

Level 9

62,858 points

Nov 21, 2024 1:40 PM in response to Jossy79

Jossy,

The Automatic Downloads setting does not grab past purchases. But if you are still using the same Apple ID, are in the same country, and the content is still available, you should be able to redownload fresh copies at no charge. Follow the steps in here:

Redownload music from the iTunes Store on your iPhone or iPad - Apple Support

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Answer 3

Jossy79 Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 21, 2024 11:34 PM in response to Jossy79

The issue turned out to be that I didn't have a Music library in the regulation place. I followed the instructions to set up a new library and everything populated just fine: https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleMusic/comments/12gwff4/comment/jfndkrd/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

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