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Music app in Catalina - cannot change song details

Hi I am using Music 1.1.3.3 with Big Sur 11.2.3 on a Mac Mini (2018) and have been having problems with my music library over the past few months with bot Catalina and Big Sur. I have approx 57,000 songs, most of which are my own files from CDs plus some bought music from Amazon.

Specific problems:

  1. When I load Music, under the sidebar of Library, Albums and Songs are blank. All playlists appear and I have created a smart playlist of all songs and that shows all music. Usually, after about 6 hours all songs do eventually appear under the Library sidebar
  2. When I change details under the get info option for songs, most times the details do not change - it looks as though the info is changed, but if I move forward to the next song and then back it has reverted to previous info. There does not appear any logic as to when the changes work or do not work. In one session with Music opened, the changes will work for a while and then stop. The most frequent problem is when adding artwork - about 90% of the time this fails.

Any suggestions please?

Posted on Mar 19, 2021 3:18 AM

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Posted on Mar 19, 2021 9:01 AM

MikeCMW wrote:

I will try the safe restart at the weekend - any specific validation checks that you recommend as all I have used is Disk Utility to check the disc in safe mode. Thanks again


You don't need to restart the computer in safe mode. Hold down option+cmd as you hit the Music icon and you should get this:



tt2

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15 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 19, 2021 9:01 AM in response to MikeCMW

MikeCMW wrote:

I will try the safe restart at the weekend - any specific validation checks that you recommend as all I have used is Disk Utility to check the disc in safe mode. Thanks again


You don't need to restart the computer in safe mode. Hold down option+cmd as you hit the Music icon and you should get this:



tt2

Mar 19, 2021 8:44 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks again. Ah you may have solved part of this - I missed your note about AirPlay in you post about permissions etc - I switched to computer speakers and have been able to update details. As this is intermittent it is too soon to declare victory though.

My library is still missing as in screenshot below. I have also signed out of my account to see if that changes anything but no difference.

Mar 19, 2021 4:01 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you tt2 - I tried the repair permissions to both my music folder (and enclosing files) and also the external drive that stores my media but still have the same issue. would it matter whether I had music open at the same time? i.e. should I be quitting music, make the changes, restart the Mac? Any other suggestions? Many thanks Mike

Mar 19, 2021 5:10 AM in response to MikeCMW

Music should be closed when attempting to fix permissions on the main ~/Music/Music folder. It shouldn't matter as far as the external drive is concerned. Try going into ~/Music/Music, right click on Music Library.musiclibrary and click show package contents. Do you see a bunch of .tmp files? Do you have any third party security software?


tt2

Mar 19, 2021 6:39 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you again for helping. The only hidden file seems to be the sentinel file at the top and the Shift+Cmd+. toggles that file to visible/hidden. The same issue happens when I import new music so I don't think it is the MP3 tags. Is there a way to validate/rebuild the library without losing my history. Should I try creating a new library and see if that works OK? This has been gradually getting worse over the past 16 months or so since I switched from iTunes to Music.

Mar 19, 2021 9:04 AM in response to MikeCMW

The no tag updates while using AirPlay will be a big part of the problem. Do you have a subscription to the Apple Music service? You may be seeing the splash screen in the Songs view if you do, but haven't added any content from the service yet. I see plenty of playlists so your library is obviously loading up somewhere. Music may be expecting you to click that Browse button, and will keep showing that overlay until you do.


tt2

Mar 22, 2021 12:44 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you I think there were 2 separate issues - 1) the not changing the tags and 2) the initial load of music. For the tags (1), it looks like your suggestion about AirPlay is the solution - I usually use AirPlay and now that I just use computer speakers I have been able to make changes for last couple of days. For the initial load screen (2), I do not use Apple Music but if I leave Music running overnight it does load everything; when starting Music all my music playlists are OK. What I discovered this weekend is if I right click on any of the items under library (eg Albums or Songs) and then select "update smart playlist" it is all fine after 1 or 2 seconds - so it looks like the Albums/songs/recently added etc under library are non updating smart playlists. So I just need to do the right click every time I start Music and it iOS OK. Not sure what I did to get that to start happening! Thanks again for all your help

Mar 22, 2021 5:30 AM in response to turingtest2

I agree. Curious as to why they suddenly stopped auto update about 6 weeks ago - I assumed a short glitch after one of Big Sur updates but it has not gone away. Not a big deal though as can workaround with the right click and also created a smart playlist with all my music as well. Thanks again for your solving my bigger issue. Mike


Music app in Catalina - cannot change song details

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