Strange Behavior with Music Files

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Level 1

7 points

Strange Behavior with Music Files

I recently purchased an M4 Mac mini and have been setting it up over the last few days. I'm running OS 15.1.1 and have two external HD's attached through a CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Pro Doc. One HD is a Time Machine Backup, the other is a G-Drive USB-C drive which contains my music files and photos. I was having some problems telling Music where to find the music files on the external HD. The folder Named "Music" on the HD originally had the following folders in it: Automatically Add to Music, Media (which I renamed from Music), and Previous Libraries. There is also a file named "Music Library.musiclibrary". I changed the location in Music settings to /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music and I thought it worked. I could see all my albums, artists, etc in Music. I then run into two problems when I tried to play songs:

1. Not every track would play. I'd select a track and hit play and nothing happened. I'd select a second track in the same album and it would play fine. Then I could go back and play the original track. If I tried to play another track, I would get the same problem. 2. I noticed after playing a number of tracks, that now there was a newly created "Music" folder and that the tracks I played were moved into this folder from the Media folder, keeping the same file structure. Why is this happening? Is there a way I can fix it? Can I move the tracks I played back into the Media folder? Here are some screenshots for illustration purposes.

Thanks for reading and any advice

Ed

Posted on Nov 22, 2024 11:33 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

274,540 points

Nov 22, 2024 1:33 PM in response to ELFritzen

See Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for some background on the standard shape of a Music library, which should also explain why a folder called Music may appear in your designated media folder. The standard layout is a folder called Music containing the Music Library.musiclibrary database, and a media folder called Media which contains all of the music connected to the library. There may also be an additional Music subfolder before you get to artist subfolders, which is a legacy of iTunes Media Organization in previous versions of iTunes. See the article for steps to remove this additional layer by editing a .plist file.

You would ideally set your media folder to /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music/Media rather than /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music. Hopefully this will resolve the issue where some tracks don't play at the first attempt. You should then consolidate the library (File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files) after which the files that remain in /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music/Music should be duplicates that you can discard. You should really backup everything to another drive before you start making changes, just in case of a misstep.

tt2

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Answer 2

ELFritzen Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 22, 2024 4:56 PM in response to turingtest2

tt2,

Thank you for your prompt reply. I changed the location of to /G-DRIVE USB-C/Music/Media as you suggested and consolidated the libraries. That created another "Music Folder" within the Media Folder with most of my music. It looks like this now:

How can I get all the music files into one folder again? Thanks so much for your help.

Ed

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

274,540 points

Nov 22, 2024 5:38 PM in response to ELFritzen

From the section on iTunes Media Organization:

To remove this additional (Music) folder (inside the meda folder) if required first use shift+cmd+. to show/hide hidden files, then open the hidden file .Media Preferences.plist inside the media folder with TextEdit and change the integer value from 1 to 0. Save the change, restart Music and turn the Keep Music Media folder organized preference off and on again to enforce the new layout.

This should move everything currently in ../Media/Music/ up into ../Media/.

tt2

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