Moving iTunes library to Catalina with a clean install

[JamesMay82]

Hey Guys,

I'm running my laptop on Catalina and have been happy with it so want to make the move on my main machine, which is a 2014 iMac 5k.

I want to do a clean install but I also have a large iTunes Library on a external drive to migrate over. With doing a clean install I assume I need to do that manually. So how does it work? normally I'd just hold down option and select the iTunes Library but im guessing it won't work that way now its been split across 3 diff new apps?

Thanks

 

[mikzn]

Using the option key and choosing the old iTunes library worked for me and it populated the podcast app movies info etc.

I have all my media files on an external drive as well and it left the old iTunes library in tact and created a new library called “Music Library.musiclibrary” and my play lists and play counts were imported - however some album artwork did not migrate

that said I would back up the .itl file before you start (just in case)

Ymmv - Seems like there have been many comments about the migration not working very well

 

[JamesMay82]

Using the option key and choosing the old iTunes library worked for me and it populated the podcast app movies info etc.

I have all my media files on an external drive as well and it left the old iTunes library in tact and created a new library called “Music Library.musiclibrary” and my play lists and play counts were imported - however some album artwork did not migrate

that said I would back up the .itl file before you start (just in case)

Ymmv - Seems like there have been many comments about the migration not working very well

Thanks - I've just completed it all and thought I got away unscathed till I checked my purchases. I had everything downloaded but its now saying its not even though the files are in Finder. Whats worrying is that's its easy tell on the purchase through iTunes stuff but not for anything that I've ripped myself. Obviously if I download the stuff again its duplicating it on my hard drive.

Any ideas?

 

[haralds]

My approach was to clean everything up in iTunes, create another location for a duplicate set of libraries and have iTunes consolidate it by copying to that location.
I then cleared all the data folders for Music, Apple TV, and iBooks (the latter is in ~/LibraryContainers) and then opened the ITL in Music. Music asked to save to a new Data file (it thought the original library file was still there, labeled it just Music anyway.) Everything came across except for the album art bug.
Next I made sure that both Music and Apple TV pointed to the correct data folders (I targeted a new folder for Apple TV) and let them organize their folders. Books also showed the Audio books including audible files.
I then restored the original iTunes data folder so its hierarchy would not get screwed up. Will keep it around until things fully settle. My libs are 3TB +, but there is a lot of time and effort invested in these.

 

[JamesMay82]

My approach was to clean everything up in iTunes, create another location for a duplicate set of libraries and have iTunes consolidate it by copying to that location.
I then cleared all the data folders for Music, Apple TV, and iBooks (the latter is in ~/LibraryContainers) and then opened the ITL in Music. Music asked to save to a new Data file (it thought the original library file was still there, labeled it just Music anyway.) Everything came across except for the album art bug.
Next I made sure that both Music and Apple TV pointed to the correct data folders (I targeted a new folder for Apple TV) and let them organize their folders. Books also showed the Audio books including audible files.
I then restored the original iTunes data folder so its hierarchy would not get screwed up. Will keep it around until things fully settle. My libs are 3TB +, but there is a lot of time and effort invested in these.

Thanks for this, I'm just doing the consolidation method now and it seems to be working.

I'm also making the brave decision to keep all my movies in the cloud and to not keep any downloads on the computer anymore as it was getting expensive to keep buying hard drives. I was using a Drobo and its slow as well which was getting my nerves.

So the new plan is music and home movies only onto a Lacie 2 big which will then back up to another external or Drobo as an emergency back up etc.

 

[haralds]

Works if you do not have ripped movies from your collection.