Help Transferring Music & Photos Library to New Mac Mini External SSD

[ugadawgs311]

I recently purchased a new M2 Mini and would like to transfer my existing Photos and Music library to an external SSD to use on the new Mini. Currently, the Photos and Music libraries are on my old, 2012 Mini. Can I take the libraries from the old Mini, move to an external SSD, and use the external SSD as the library "home" for use on the new Mini?

I'd normally just put the libraries directly on the new Mini, but to save hard drive space, I'm going to use an external SSD. Is this a feasible option? If so, what's the best way to transfer the libraries so that I can keep playlists, music ratings, albums, etc. As a note, I do use iCloud Photos. However, I'd like to have a "safe place" to store the actual files.

EDIT: I may have solved the Photos part. The "Use as System Photo Library" is greyed out on both the old and new Minis - doesn't that mean that I'm using each library as the "main" photos library? I guess that means that these two libraries are actually the same? So, maybe I don't need to do anything with Photos.

 

[ovbacon]

I did exactly that when I moved from my iMac with 2TB internal to a mini m2 with 512GB. Depending on what software you use it is easy or a little more difficult. In "photos" you can very easily set the Library location on startup of the program. I simply copied my "Pictures" folder to an external drive and then used it on the mini. I mainly use Adobe Lightroom which was a little more of a hassle but I got it running smooth off the external drive as well.

Just remember that if you use "time machine" and you want your external drives info to also be backed up you have to remove the external drive from time machines "exclude" list.

I do not use Apple Music or a music library on my mac but I would guess it would work the same.

 

[Rich B22]

I recently purchased a new M2 Mini and would like to transfer my existing Photos and Music library to an external SSD to use on the new Mini. Currently, the Photos and Music libraries are on my old, 2012 Mini. Can I take the libraries from the old Mini, move to an external SSD, and use the external SSD as the library "home" for use on the new Mini?

I'd normally just put the libraries directly on the new Mini, but to save hard drive space, I'm going to use an external SSD. Is this a feasible option? If so, what's the best way to transfer the libraries so that I can keep playlists, music ratings, albums, etc. As a note, I do use iCloud Photos. However, I'd like to have a "safe place" to store the actual files.

EDIT: I may have solved the Photos part. The "Use as System Photo Library" is greyed out on both the old and new Minis - doesn't that mean that I'm using each library as the "main" photos library? I guess that means that these two libraries are actually the same? So, maybe I don't need to do anything with Photos.

It's fairly easy to use an external or any drive for your Music Media folder. Copy your old Music Media folder to the new external drive, then attach that drive to the new computer. Open Music, then in the menubar, click Music>Settings>Files>Change, then choose the Media folder on the external drive, click OK and you're done.
The Photos folder should be a similar procedure. Can you see the Photos on the new machine? If not, follow the instructions in this link https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204414 . If you can't find it, are you sure it resides on the external? What OS is on the old Mini; perhaps it's incompatible with the newer OS. If so, you may need to use Migration Assistant to bring it over. I'm just guessing at that as I don't know if that will do any necessary conversions.
Good luck

 

[ugadawgs311]

It's fairly easy to use an external or any drive for your Music Media folder. Copy your old Music Media folder to the new external drive, then attach that drive to the new computer. Open Music, then in the menubar, click Music>Settings>Files>Change, then choose the Media folder on the external drive, click OK and you're done.
The Photos folder should be a similar procedure. Can you see the Photos on the new machine? If not, follow the instructions in this link https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204414 . If you can't find it, are you sure it resides on the external? What OS is on the old Mini; perhaps it's incompatible with the newer OS. If so, you may need to use Migration Assistant to bring it over. I'm just guessing at that as I don't know if that will do any necessary conversions.
Good luck

The old Mini is running Catalina 10.15.7.

Would the method you mention above (copying music library from old Mac to external drive, then connecting external drive to new Mac) copy over my playlists, album artwork, song ratings, etc.? Or is it just the music files that will be copied?

 

[spatlese44]

Yet another 2012 Mini owner transitioning to an M2, I also looked into doing this. In the end, I think I'm going to keep photos and music on the main SSD, but transfer some less used files to an external to free up a little space. This will still mean going up to 512GB, but I guess I'm ok with that. I've got two mini's with the one I'm on now being a base model M1. For what it's worth, I'm perfectly happy with 8GB and 256GB SSD on it right now, but the M2 just came out and I plan to keep it until they stop giving it updates. When the M3 gets to the mini, I plan on selling the M1 and going a little crazy.

 

[Rich B22]

The old Mini is running Catalina 10.15.7.

Would the method you mention above (copying music library from old Mac to external drive, then connecting external drive to new Mac) copy over my playlists, album artwork, song ratings, etc.? Or is it just the music files that will be copied?

AFAIK, If you copy the complete Music Folder, which at least on my system contains Media, Music Library.musiclibrary and Previous Libraries, it should keep all the information. Try it as you have nothing to lose so long as you COPY it from the old Mini to the SSD rather than move it. Assuming all goes well, you can then delete it from the old computer if you wish.
Also, I don't believe there's any conversion isssues moving from Catalina to Ventura, but others may have better information than I

 

[ugadawgs311]

Yet another 2012 Mini owner transitioning to an M2, I also looked into doing this. In the end, I think I'm going to keep photos and music on the main SSD, but transfer some less used files to an external to free up a little space. This will still mean going up to 512GB, but I guess I'm ok with that. I've got two mini's with the one I'm on now being a base model M1. For what it's worth, I'm perfectly happy with 8GB and 256GB SSD on it right now, but the M2 just came out and I plan to keep it until they stop giving it updates. When the M3 gets to the mini, I plan on selling the M1 and going a little crazy.

It’s crazy to think these 2012 Minis are still running! I wish I could ad more RAM to keep it more operable, but I believe 8GB is the max.

Edit: never mind, I can do 16GB! Well this has me thinking…

 

[Rich B22]

It’s crazy to think these 2012 Minis are still running! I wish I could ad more RAM to keep it more operable, but I believe 8GB is the max.

These machines are workhorses. I just retired my wife's 2010 machine earlier this year as it couldn't run some apps she needs, but other than that, it still ran fine

 

[oneseattleguy]

These machines are workhorses. I just retired my wife's 2010 machine earlier this year as it couldn't run some apps she needs, but other than that, it still ran fine

That's true!

 

[Fishrrman]

First, I would advise you to NOT "move your home folder" from it's default location. Leave the home folder where it is, but you can still have the SSD be "your media drive".

Having said that, if you have the external SSD, here's what I'd suggest:

a. connect the SSD to the old Mac.
b. I recommend that you format it to HFS+ (Mac OS extended, journaling enabled, GUID partition format). Others will disagree.
c. Now (on your old Mac), open the home folder.
d. Copy the Music library (is it still named "iTunes Music folder?") and the Photos library (icon) to the SSD.
e. When that's done, take the SSD to the NEW Mini and connect it
f. Let the SSD's icon mount on the desktop, but DO NOT open it yet.
g. Click ONE time on the icon to select it, then bring up the "get info" box (type command-i)
h. At the bottom of get info, click the lock icon and enter the password you are using on the NEW Mini
i. Put a check into "ignore ownership on this volume" (sharing & permissions)
j. Close get info
(now you have "overcome" any permissions problems between the old and new Macs)

OK, now to set up the respective apps...
1. Hold down the option key (and keep holding it down)
2. Open Photos
3. This will cause Photos to ask you WHICH library it should use.
4. "Point the way" to the SSD and the Photos library icon
5. This should cause Photos to open the library. BE AWARE that some "updating" of the library may occur.

6. For Music, I'm going to GUESS you do the same thing. I said "guess" because I don't use Music, I still use iTunes on Monterey and Ventura (using the nifty and free app named "Retroactive").

One final thing:
Since you now have an "external media drive", you must BACK THAT UP (as you would back up the internal SSD, as well).
For this, I recommend the BEST way to do it is to use a drive cloning app such as SuperDuper or CarbonCopyCloner.
Do this, and your backup will be an exact copy of the source drive.
Once a week ought to be ok.

 

[ugadawgs311]

Thanks, everyone. I just finished getting Music set up. I decided to just put everything on the new Mac's internal SSD. It was really just a simple copy/paste.

I copied the "Music" contents from the old Mac to the external HDD. I copied everything in the Music folder including iTunes library, apps, etc. and (what I assume to be) the new app's "Apple Music Library." I then copied all those contents from the external HDD to the Music folder on the new Mac. Apple Music was completely closed during this whole process.

Once complete, I reopened Apple Music on the new Mac, and all the music, art work, ratings, playlists, etc. were there. Pretty simple.

EDIT: It looks like my entire photo library has synced well over iCloud photos, so I'm not sure there's anything I need to do there. My only concern is that the actual files (not copies stored on iCloud) are still saved on my old Mac. So, I could copy those to an external drive or the new Mini, but that would purely be for backup purposes, which is what iCloud is doing anyways...

 

[spatlese44]

Thanks, everyone. I just finished getting Music set up. I decided to just put everything on the new Mac's internal SSD. It was really just a simple copy/paste.

I copied the "Music" contents from the old Mac to the external HDD. I copied everything in the Music folder including iTunes library, apps, etc. and (what I assume to be) the new app's "Apple Music Library." I then copied all those contents from the external HDD to the Music folder on the new Mac. Apple Music was completely closed during this whole process.

Once complete, I reopened Apple Music on the new Mac, and all the music, art work, ratings, playlists, etc. were there. Pretty simple.

EDIT: It looks like my entire photo library has synced well over iCloud photos, so I'm not sure there's anything I need to do there. My only concern is that the actual files (not copies stored on iCloud) are still saved on my old Mac. So, I could copy those to an external drive or the new Mini, but that would purely be for backup purposes, which is what iCloud is doing anyways...

Looks like you're just about done. My files in iCloud was that final piece I was trying to figure out and think I found an answer. Apparently, files on iCloud will still be accessible from your new machine, but won't get backed up by Time Machine unless they've been downloaded to your new computer. You could click on the cloud download icon for individual files or whole folders to get it downloaded and then do a backup to make sure it's there. The video link below does a good job of explaining this.