Migrating iTunes Library from MBP on High Sierra to MBA M1 on Big Sur with iCloud Music Library, iTunes Match, & Apple Music Subscriptions?

[jsoto]

Hello All,

Just got a M1 MBA a couple of days ago. So I setup as new and didn't use migration assistant. From iCloud it copied all my Photos, iCloud Music Library, Apple Pay, Etc. I upgraded from a Mid 2010 MBP on High Sierra.

I have iCloud Music Library, iTunes Match, and Family Apple Music subscriptions. My question is since I have not copied my iTunes Media Folder over to the M1 MBA from my old MBP as of yet. Is that why I see download icons next to the "Time" in the length of songs section? Basically my entire iCloud Music Library is playable on my M1 MBA but all songs have the download icon? Where my old MBP on iCloud Music Library does not. Just curious if once I copy the iTunes Media folder from my old MBP will these download icons go away.

 

[hg.wells]

Yes you are likely streaming it and that’s why it’s showing the download icon.

 

[casperes1996]

Yeah, as Wells said. - You do not need you music locally stored on your device to play it if you have an internet connection. The cloud symbol just indicates that it's not stored locally, but as long as you have internet it doesn't much matter

 

[jsoto]

Yes you are likely streaming it and that’s why it’s showing the download icon.

That makes sense. I just never experienced an instantaneous stream. It could because of the performance of the M1. Thanks for the answer. Now I need to start looking in how to copy my iTunes Media Folder to it from my old MBP.

 

[jsoto]

Yeah, as Wells said. - You do not need you music locally stored on your device to play it if you have an internet connection. The cloud symbol just indicates that it's not stored locally, but as long as you have internet it doesn't much matter

Oh okay, thanks! Makes sense.

 

[casperes1996]

That makes sense. I just never experienced an instantaneous stream. It could because of the performance of the M1. Thanks for the answer. Now I need to start looking in how to copy my iTunes Media Folder to it from my old MBP.

Coming from a 2010, perhaps, but I've had instant streaming for quite a while on Intel devices too. 2010 is quite a bit back so it could very well be though. Could also be server-side depending on when you last tried streaming something; Apple after all operates Apple Music now and have substantially increased the amount of server locations they have around the world in the last couple of years for their growing services business.

As for copying iTunes Media to the new split up apps there are articles on that around the webs so that should be an easy thing to deal with - The Music folder also still has an "Automatically add to Music" just like iTunes had an "Automatically add to iTunes"

 

[dmccloud]

That makes sense. I just never experienced an instantaneous stream. It could because of the performance of the M1. Thanks for the answer. Now I need to start looking in how to copy my iTunes Media Folder to it from my old MBP.

What I wound up doing was purchasing a WD EasyStore drive (5TB) and keeping my iTunes library on it. Since those drives are formatted in ExFAT, it works on both my Windows and Mac machines without any issue, meaning I only need to keep one copy of my iTunes library to use across both machines.

 

[jsoto]

Coming from a 2010, perhaps, but I've had instant streaming for quite a while on Intel devices too. 2010 is quite a bit back so it could very well be though. Could also be server-side depending on when you last tried streaming something; Apple after all operates Apple Music now and have substantially increased the amount of server locations they have around the world in the last couple of years for their growing services business.

As for copying iTunes Media to the new split up apps there are articles on that around the webs so that should be an easy thing to deal with - The Music folder also still has an "Automatically add to Music" just like iTunes had an "Automatically add to iTunes"

Thanks

 

[jsoto]

What I wound up doing was purchasing a WD EasyStore drive (5TB) and keeping my iTunes library on it. Since those drives are formatted in ExFAT, it works on both my Windows and Mac machines without any issue, meaning I only need to keep one copy of my iTunes library to use across both machines.

I currently formatted an external to exFAT and I am currently copying my iTunes Folder which has all my music, playlists, etc. I always maintained it organized, so it was centralized. Since I have iCloud Music Library, iTunes Match, and Apple Music subscriptions, and the iTunes Music Library already synced up to to the new M1 MBA. Do I run any risk doing the following?

1. Copy iTunes Folder to the desktop which has all my music, playlists, etc. from my old MacBook Pro to the M1.
2. Copy the iTunes Music Folder over from the Desktop of the M1 to the Music Folder.
3. Rename iTunes Music Folder to just "Music Media" or just "Media".
4. Option start Music and click on "Choose Library" and choose the iTunes Library. itl from the M1 Desktop inside the iTunes Directory.
5. Let Music do its importation. I have about 96GB. I really care about the playlists, etc.
6. Then go into Music Preferences and point the new location of the Music directory for example user~/music/Music Media
7. Delete the iTunes Folder from the desktop on M1.
8. Open the Music App normally and use it and it should all magically work, with playlists, artwork, etc, all there?

That is it.

Will this not mess up my iCloud Music Library, etc.? Everything is currently working fine across my devices (iPhone, iPad Pro, MacBook Mid 2010 on High Sierra). Would like to keep it good wit the M1 on Big Sur.

I have googled Apple forums and users reported that Apple Support gave them these instructions and I have seen them in MacRumors. Only issue I have is that I have iCloud Music Library. Should I shut it off first on my M1 and do the import first then turn it on? Or just import and leave iCloud Music Library turned on for the M1?

 

[hg.wells]

Well the other question is how does your music library look on the M1 does it have all your music and playlists?

You could just download music as you play it on the M1 rather than worrying about copying the old library across.

If songs are missing from your music library after you turn on Sync Library - Apple Support

Make sure that all of your devices have Sync Library turned on and signed in with the same Apple ID that you use with Apple Music. If your music library is stored on your computer, check the cloud status of songs to find missing music and resolve issues.

support.apple.com

 

[jsoto]

Well the other question is how does your music library look on the M1 does it have all your music and playlists?

You could just download music as you play it on the M1 rather than worrying about copying the old library across.

If songs are missing from your music library after you turn on Sync Library - Apple Support

Make sure that all of your devices have Sync Library turned on and signed in with the same Apple ID that you use with Apple Music. If your music library is stored on your computer, check the cloud status of songs to find missing music and resolve issues.

support.apple.com

I currently formatted an external to exFAT and I am currently copying my iTunes Folder which has all my music, playlists, etc. I always maintained it organized, so it was centralized. Since I have iCloud Music Library, iTunes Match, and Apple Music subscriptions, and the iTunes Music Library already synced up to to the new M1 MBA. Do I run any risk doing the following?

1. Copy iTunes Folder to the desktop which has all my music, playlists, etc. from my old MacBook Pro to the M1.
2. Copy the iTunes Music Folder over from the Desktop of the M1 to the Music Folder.
3. Rename iTunes Music Folder to just "Music Media" or just "Media".
4. Option start Music and click on "Choose Library" and choose the iTunes Library. itl from the M1 Desktop inside the iTunes Directory.
5. Let Music do its importation. I have about 96GB. I really care about the playlists, etc.
6. Then go into Music Preferences and point the new location of the Music directory for example user~/music/Music Media
7. Delete the iTunes Folder from the desktop on M1.
8. Open the Music App normally and use it and it should all magically work, with playlists, artwork, etc, all there?

That is it.

Will this not mess up my iCloud Music Library, etc.? Everything is currently working fine across my devices (iPhone, iPad Pro, MacBook Mid 2010 on High Sierra). Would like to keep it good wit the M1 on Big Sur.

I have googled Apple forums and users reported that Apple Support gave them these instructions and I have seen them in MacRumors. Only issue I have is that I have iCloud Music Library. Should I shut it off first on my M1 and do the import first then turn it on? Or just import and leave iCloud Music Library turned on for the M1?

Bump

 

[jsoto]

Well the other question is how does your music library look on the M1 does it have all your music and playlists?

You could just download music as you play it on the M1 rather than worrying about copying the old library across.

If songs are missing from your music library after you turn on Sync Library - Apple Support

Make sure that all of your devices have Sync Library turned on and signed in with the same Apple ID that you use with Apple Music. If your music library is stored on your computer, check the cloud status of songs to find missing music and resolve issues.

support.apple.com

It looks fine. I proceeded with deauthorizing the computer and signed out of the Music app. The Music App now is clean.

I am now going to copy my media over and try importing my iTunes library via the Option-Start Music and choose my iTunes Library file for importing.

 

[jsoto]

For anyone that this may help. This is what I did from what I gathered and worked for me.

1. I de-authorized my M1 MBA on the Music App, then signed out of my account within the Music App.
2. Once that was done my iCloud Music Library was gone which is what I wanted.
3. I manually deleted the playlist names that iCloud Music Library left in the Music App.
4. Deleted the Music directory under ~user/myhomedirectory/music/music (it gets confusing because Apple Music App uses 3 directories with the same "Music" name.
5. Emptied my trash can
6. Copied my iTunes folder from my Mid 2010 MBP 15 i7 on macOS High Sierra to an external drive.
7. Then from the external drive copied the iTunes folder the the desktop of the M1 MBA
8. I option-started the Music App and selected to "Choose Library" option and pointed to the "iTunes Library.itl" file and it imported the playlists, artwork, etc.
9. Then opened the Music App, followed by Preferences, under "Files" changed the music media location to the Music folder created from within the "Media" directory created by Apple Music App.
10. Then proceeded to consolidate my library by having Apple Music copy iTunes Media over to the location I specified in the Music Preferences by using File/Library/Organize Library/Consolidate Files. It then copied all my iTunes Media over to it.
11. Sign into the Apple Music App with my account.
12. Authorize my computer.
13. iCloud Music Library, iTunes Match, Apple Music subscriptions activated with my sign-in and computer authorization.
14. Zero issues with Apple Music App. Everything in working order.
15. Delete the copied iTunes Folder from my old MBP from the desktop of the M1.
16. Empty the trash.
17. Enjoy Apple Music App to learn the changes from iTunes.

 

[KrisKT]

I did exactly as you recommended and it worked perfectly. THANK YOU so much