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apple music with music on hard drive, how synchronize?

Hello, since years and years I have all my music on a external hard drive and I use Apple Music. I always change te settings of the files in Music to the hard drive and than Apple Music synchronizes correctly. I thought this make Apple search in their own library and the library is paralleled with my own files. But if I disconnect the external drive, my Mac does not find my music files anymore, while in iPhone it still works. Also I see that my music on the external drive is not 'lossless'. So I am actually wondering how the synchronization works and if there is a difference if I play the album from my own library (based on the synchronized files on the external drive) or directly from the Apple Music libary. Thanks a lot, Bert


Posted on Oct 15, 2022 3:09 AM

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Posted on Oct 15, 2022 10:04 AM

Hi Bert.


If I understand correctly, you're not seeing your music on your computer once you disconnect your external hard drive which contains all your music.


Your Mac will not "remember" what's on your external hard drive. The drive needs to be connected to access what's on it.


Once you sync the music to your phone, there is an actual copy of that song on your phone, so it doesn't need your computer to access it.


Please let me know if this helps.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 15, 2022 10:04 AM in response to pomiani

Hi Bert.


If I understand correctly, you're not seeing your music on your computer once you disconnect your external hard drive which contains all your music.


Your Mac will not "remember" what's on your external hard drive. The drive needs to be connected to access what's on it.


Once you sync the music to your phone, there is an actual copy of that song on your phone, so it doesn't need your computer to access it.


Please let me know if this helps.

apple music with music on hard drive, how synchronize?

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