Apple Music Apple Music on 2015 iMac

[jmckenzie]

I have a fairly large music library (98,000 tracks) on my 2015 Core i5 iMac, running Monterey. I have noticed for about a year that Apple Music really struggles — I frequently can't search at all, et cetera. Relaunching the app helps.

Here is my question: we all know Apple Music is a really terrible piece of software. BUT, does it get better on modern hardware?

My work laptop is a well-specced 2019 MBP, but I keep my work files and personal files separate, so can't/would rather not test.

Thanks for any anecdotes.

 

[pup]

Can't say anything about the Apple Silicon Macs, but certainly Music is more responsive on my 2012 Mac mini running Catalina than it is on my iMac Pro running Ventura. So I don't think the app or OS are improving, lol.

Having said that, I was having similar problems as you on my iMac - slowiy getting worse until the app was basically unusable in Ventura. I discovered that the problem was that the external drive where I kept my music library had never been upgraded to APFS. After converting it, those problems went away. Worth a look, since I assume that with a library that large you also keep it on an external.

 

[jmckenzie]

Interesting info, @pup. But, it looks like the external HD my library lives on is already in APFS. Oh well.

I should clarify that the problems seem to occur with streamed music as well as the local library. I wish I weren't addicted to being able to stream music I didn't own, as well as play back my own library, or I would probably just set up a linux box for the purpose... running my music is the only thing this iMac does.

 

[appltech]

@pup has a good point, APFS mess performance on HDD, FusionDrive, SSHD.

Found seed about forcing defragmentation on APFS drives, but wasn't able to test it:

Should you enable defragmentation on APFS hard drives?

You’re stuck using hard disks with High Sierra or later. Could enabling defragmentation on them overcome the performance problems of APFS?

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