Easiest way to transfer music library to new MacBook Air?

[Jessica08]

I have a very old Mac Mini. A few years ago, I got a MacBook Air. I never transferred all my music library over to the new computer. The only thing showing in the MacBook are songs I bought off iTunes but I want all the ones I’ve added from cd’s or what not over the years put on there.

What’s the easiest way to get the music library over to my Air? Would Migration Assistant work?

Thanks!

 

[velocityg4]

Migration assistant would be a mess. Since you are already using the MBA.

You can use an external HDD/SSD/Flash to transfer the files. Just drag and drop to the drive. Then drag and drop to the MBA. Probably, the easiest option.

You can also turn on file sharing. Then copy everything over, over your network. Pretty easy too. But you'll need to configure file sharing. Using Ethernet is usually the fastest way if you have a dongle for the MBA. Next would be Mini Ethernet to router to WiFi MBA. Slowest would be WiFi on both.

You can just drag and drop. But you'll need to monitor the copy occasionally to skip any files which may not copy. Although more complex. You can setup a program like Freefilesync. To automate the transfer, compare folders and ignore errors.

 

[bogdanw]

Why not copy-paste the library and Choose Library?
https://support.apple.com/guide/music/mus7663a920a/
Similar thread Transfer Music Library to new Mac https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/transfer-music-library-to-new-mac.2373109/

 

[Jessica08]

This is what happened:

I had all my music on my iPhone without any issues. I used to plug my iPhone into the Mac Mini before I started using iCloud.

There were two mp3 files I wanted to transfer over to my iPhone so I plugged my iPhone into the MacBook thinking I could just transfer the two songs. I created a playlist with those two songs and clicked on the transfer only that playlist option. It deleted my entire library of music from my phone.

So I did a restore from backup from the previous nights backup thinking it would restore all my songs. It did not. Now I can’t get my library onto my iPhone again. It’s like the songs I added from cds in the pre iTunes era isn’t there anymore. They are still on my Mac mini so that’s why I’m wanting to get everything to my newer computer because I’m afraid the mini is going to crap out at any time lol

 

[Jessica08]

Migration assistant would be a mess. Since you are already using the MBA.

You can use an external HDD/SSD/Flash to transfer the files. Just drag and drop to the drive. Then drag and drop to the MBA. Probably, the easiest option.

You can also turn on file sharing. Then copy everything over, over your network. Pretty easy too. But you'll need to configure file sharing. Using Ethernet is usually the fastest way if you have a dongle for the MBA. Next would be Mini Ethernet to router to WiFi MBA. Slowest would be WiFi on both.

You can just drag and drop. But you'll need to monitor the copy occasionally to skip any files which may not copy. Although more complex. You can setup a program like Freefilesync. To automate the transfer, compare folders and ignore errors.

Thanks!

Question: since I never did a complete transfer of all my data from the mini to the air, could I restore my air to factory settings and then use migration assistant to transfer everything? I haven’t used my mini in a while and when I turned it in today it was very sluggish and I’m afraid it’s going to crap out at any time lol

 

[MarkC426]

I have all my Music in iTunes on my cMP (purchases/CD's/Vinyl), everything is local (i.e. downloaded).
When I got my Studio, I copied the 'Music' folder to an external drive (which is where I store them to save space).
In the Music app, point to the new location of the files.
I had to import each playlist (which didn't take long using the keyboard shortcut 'cmd 0').

 

[velocityg4]

Thanks!

Question: since I never did a complete transfer of all my data from the mini to the air, could I restore my air to factory settings and then use migration assistant to transfer everything? I haven’t used my mini in a while and when I turned it in today it was very sluggish and I’m afraid it’s going to crap out at any time lol

Yes, you can do that if you want and don't care about anything on the Air. If you want to keep anything on the Air. You'll want to put those files on an external drive, cloud service or something else. So, that you can move it back.

If the OS and apps are really old. You may just want to transfer your user account only and manually install the latest versions of your software.