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

Thank you for explaining the purpose of those files and how they (can) work. I cleaned my iTunes data early January 2024 - right before the transfer to an external drive - so today you learned me one should always keep previous iTunes libraries. But in this case they wouldn't have been helpful since there have been made too much changes to my existing music-data and I really need all recently added music on the mac.

Strangely I discovered that my playlist now on the mac look complete, including very recently created lists. While all my attempts to import any library file simply failed. How did that happen? Absolutely no idea...

So currently I'm doing something drastic:

1) Making a folder named 'Apple Music Media' in the external LaCie with the copy of the Windows iTunes files

2) In Apple Music pointing that folder as location

3) In Apple Music deleting all content (music albums) while keeping all the playlists

4) Through 'File Import' I chose the entire iTunes Media folder (over 102k songs will take a while to finish)

Wondering now which (meta)data will come along with the iTunes media files. Discovering those recent playlists prior to this action really intrigues me. Did they somehow got in during an attemtt to import the .itl?

It took over 30 hours but my mac finally succeeded finishing the try-out as described yesterday. For the purpose needed (Serato) the result is satisfying enough. But for the sake of learning and understanding I'd still like to dive deeper into this issue.

After the proces Apple Music must still have tried to import something more about the library. Perhaps it did another attempt because both .itl and xml are currently located in the same drive where it extracted the media files from? This time I got an error number which was 3201, Google didn't gave me any conclusive answers for that one...

I suggest to try all this as an extra effort:

1) Import the recent .itl through a network (which will probably fail)

2) accept your offer to try to convert the .itl through Catalina and if that works see if it's usable on this end to chose that adjusted library the regular way

3) No matter which result I'd upgrade from Big Sur to Monterey (probably the final upgrade this 2014 retina will present)

4) Try step 1 and 2 on Monterey instead of Big Sur

5) If all of the above fails there's still the xml attempt we can do. Which would show the content of regular playlists I have, and the artwork. The path as I read it in the iTunes info field for that track starts with /LaCie/Apple Music Media/Music/2 Fabiola/Magic Flight/

Nathan

Well you were right, all didn't work out... Your explanation why it was going to be wasted effort sounded logical but wanted to give it a try anyway, since unexpected things happened in the recent past also ;-)

So would love to try the .xml edited file whenever you find the time to create it and then compare both results. If it works I would also like to learn how to do it myself, for future updates.

I also believe Apple should provide us the iOS update needed to import the .itl files. Or even better: Provide Apple Music on our Windows machine(s). Since we've been purchasing songs for decades they simply owe us a customer-friendly procedure.

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