-54 Music Library

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Level 1

8 points

-54 Music Library

I had an very large Music Library on my MacBook. One way or the other it was not saved the proper way and lots of playlists etc are lost. I have to start all over again. But that is not possible. I continually get the message (In Dutch, so maybe not good translated): "The Music Library File can not be saved. There has been an unknown mistake (-54)". It pops up every five minutes and I don't know what to do. I have emptied in the library direction the cashes associated with music and iTunes, and restarted the computer. After restart starts with an empty music library which soon ads the things I purchased in the iTunes Store. But still the message .... -54 pops up. The items I found on the internet concerning the -54 has all to do with synchronization. I'm not trying to synchronize. So that cannot be the solution. Who can help?

MacBook Pro 17", macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 4, 2020 6:35 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

raina_b22

Community Specialist

Mar 5, 2020 10:28 AM in response to ricover55

Hi ricover55,

Before completely reinstalling macOS Catalina, try repairing your internal hard drive and creating a new user account with administrator privileges. Then create a new library and redownload all of your purchased music to start. If this works, then you can begin importing music from CDs and other sources to rebuild your library.

Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Disk Utility User Guide

How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac

Set up users, guests and groups on Mac - macOS User Guide

What happened to iTunes?

Download previous iTunes Store purchases in Music on Mac - Apple Music User Guide

Import songs from CDs into Music on Mac - Apple Music User Guide

Back up your Mac with Time Machine

Take care.

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Answer 2

sterling r

Community Specialist

Mar 4, 2020 6:51 PM in response to ricover55

Good afternoon ricover55,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

I understand you are trying to restore a large music library to your MacBook. Did you use Time Machine to back up your computer? If so, you can open your iTunes library and restore that file back to a time when the library was intact. If you are able to rebuild this library, copy the Music folder to an external drive as a secondary backup to Time Machine.

Use Time Machine to restore deleted files or older files

If you see error -54 when you sync with your computer

Take care.

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Answer 3

ricover55 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 5, 2020 12:08 AM in response to sterling r

No, I didn't say I want to restore a large music library. I said "I had" (past tense). So it is lost and maybe corrupt since long. At least since the transfer from iTunes to Apple Music gave a lost of many album art, not in the files but in the display. So I want start a fresh library. Maybe I should not say rebuild but build a library. But I cannot save a library. I get the message "The Music Library File can not be saved. There has been an unknown mistake (-54)"

What I already tried:

Empty "Music directory, empty in the Library directory the cashes with Music and iTunes in the names. Restart the computer.

I even tried to reinstall Catalina (Because you can't reinstall only Apple Music) but it doesn't help.

Maybe a clean new install of Catalina would help but that is a lot of work to get all my apps and files reinstalled. So avoiding a complete new install of Catalina. How can I solve this problem?

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Answer 4

ricover55 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 6, 2020 8:58 AM in response to raina_b22

Thank you! That was a good suggestion. First I tried to scan my complete library into Apple Music in my new account and that was to great a challenge. But I do it now alphabetically (my library is ordered by album artist alphabetical). That works and it gives Apple Music the time to insert the album cover, which is already in all the music files. That is the first time that I see in all the files the album cover. Apple Music has more work to incorporate the cover than Ituned had.

Fortunately my library is very well tagged and all that work is easily restored by Apple Music.

I can tell you that I tried many alternatives for Apple Music, but – although not as good as Ituned – it beats them al!

So thank you for this excellent tip!

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