No longer possible to convert .itl library files on my Big Sur Mac

Wouldn't call Apple's way to take care of the matter a solution but an alternative. Paying for a sync service that does nothing else but syncing - preferably in one direction only - would not be an issue for me. But since they unnecessarily seem to interfear in data and even replace ripped CD's it scares me to try.

Meanwhile the xml procedure is finished, but only loaded about 75% of the songs and no playlists at all. Images however did appear. I expected a full succes or a full failure, don't really get what happened. But it was worth trying of course so thank you for the edit.

Now I wanted to get back to the other library but that one doesn't load the music anymore. Perhaps because I pointed to the same media in the xml attempt which might have messed things up.

So it seems like the two option left are firstly getting over my fear and subscribe to Apple Music. But at least I hope nothing would be changed in the source library (Windows), if necessary I'd end / disable the subscription right after the transfer (when possible).

The other solution is the way as described on January 24th, which gave me all music and playlists. Ordinary playlists were empty but the smart playlists based on other smart playlists did work. Not perfect but for my needs this result is good enough as a functional copy to use for Serato.

Nathan

About 3.3k are iTunes purchases so in theory both Apple services would work. But not for much longer. By the second half of this year I will probably reach the limit with own material (ripped CD's and an estimate of 1k mp3's).

If you think there's a possibility to make the xml option work I'd like to keep on trying. But since we already experimented so much I will first clear the LaCie with the copy. In case the next attempt also fails we'll not have to refer to media / data that has been touched by the earlier experiments.

Will create the new copy offline overnight and e-mail you the new .xml tomorrow. Thanks for not giving up and keep on thinking to help out.

Nathan

Ouch I somehow thought it was a must in the procedure to achieve an automatic copy from the files from 'iTunes Media' into 'Apple Music Library'. As it happened with the previous itl attempts. With xml it obviously doesn't work like that. Anyway, the misunderstanding was my mistake and currently on the right track I hope lol

Nathan

Solved! With the 'right' xml the whole procedure of importing didn't took 30 hours like last week but only 4 hours. This time not only the smart playlists are functional but also the regular playlists are fully here with all their content. Images are still loading but I suppose that's normal for a big library. We knew at forehand at least dated added would have been resetted - which turns out to be the case - but that's hardly important.

So this is the way to go! Thank you turingtest2 for you patience and determination.

Nathan