Macos Catalina Itunes

Farewell iTunes: How to Use the Music App in macOS Catalina. Apple's macOS Catalina removes the iTunes app but lets you access all your songs, playlists, and Apple Music from a new Music app. For macOS Catalina, Apple finally got the message and has jettisoned iTunes in favor of smaller dedicated applications for your music, podcasts, TV shows and movies, and audiobooks. From what I have experienced after upgrading to macOS Catalina, I can say that the decision to replace iTunes with three separate apps is a good move. It offers a more simplified experience. Moreover, Finder has always been a top-notch file manager for macOS, and therefore I find it up to the mark when it comes to handling iPhone and iPad.

1. Is Itunes Gone
2. Macos Catalina Itunes

Can't seem to get the iTunes remote app working on your Mac running macOS Catalina?

With the launch of macOS Catalina, Apple has introduced a new app call Apple Music that has gone onto supersede the popular iTunes app. This new app was thought to be similar to that of the iTunes app. However, there have been issues faced with the iTunes Remote app for the iPhone and iPad, where several users have reported that is doesn't work for them anymore.

We understand that it can be confusing now to figure out how to go about controlling the volume as well as playback options using the iTunes remote app. Nevertheless, we assure you that after reading this guide, you'll be able to understand a little better as well as fix your iTunes Remote for iPhone that doesn't work with macOS Catalina. Additionally, if the possible fix does not apply to you, we will also provide a workaround for this issue so that you will be able to control your music either way on macOS.

Install iTunes on macOS 10.15. MacOS 10.15 Catalina has removed iTunes, if you are familiar with using iTunes, this article will guide you how to install iTunes 12.6.5.3 on macOS Catalina (using iTunes 12.6.5.3, you can still use it App Store). Install iTunes 12.6.5.3 on macOS Catalina. Turn off System Integrity Protection (SIP). When you upgrade to macOS 10.15 Catalina, you won't find an iTunes app anywhere. Where did all my stuff go? In place of iTunes will be new apps: Music, Podcasts, and TV.

Without wasting another minute, let's dive in!

How to Fix iTunes Remote for iPhone Don't Work with macOS Catalina: 5 Ways.

1. Downgrade to macOS Mojave.

Since iTunes is not supported in macOS Catalina, you can opt to downgrade your operating system to macOS Mojave. Now, of course, this can be a little tad difficult to surmount since you're switching between macOS versions but for the time being that has shown to be the most reliable fix. Some users who hesitated on downgrading have also shown to have done the same thing and report their successes over on the Apple Support Community page.

Now, this is not to say everybody should leave macOS Catalina and hop on the back on to macOS Mojave. This method is one of several ways in this guide that has proven to be a fix, but it comes at the expense of rolling back your macOS version back to the previous, which can also result in bugs as well as hindering your machine from performance upgrades.

If you're interested then here's how you can do it:

1. First and foremost, it is crucial that you back up all of your data. Learn more about how to back up your Mac.
2. Then, connect your computer to the internet using Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable. Download the macOS Mojave installer from Apple App Store on your Mac and click on the Get option.

1. Next, confirm that you want to download the software on the message prompt and ignore the message warning you about an older version of the OS.
2. Wait for the installer to download completely. Once finished, DO NOT click the Open option.
3. Next, create a bootable installer using a flash disk. You will need to connect the bootable installer to your computer later for the installation.
4. Now, restart the computer by clicking on the Apple menu icon and click on the Restart option. During the startup, press and hold the Command and R keys until the computer reboots again and open the Recovery Mode screen.

1. Then, click on Disk Utility on the OSX Utility screen and click on the Continue option.

1. Select the current startup disk and click on the Erase option at the top portion of the screen. Label the file 'Catalina' to continue on the deletion process of the current OS.
2. You may select Mac OS Extended (journaled) for HFS+ format, or you may choose AFPS from the list if you are using AFPS format. Select GUID Partition Map if applicable and click on Erase to confirm the deletion process.

1. Next, make sure you are still connected to the internet and connect the macOS Mojave bootable disk that you made into your computer.
2. Restart the computer again by clicking on the Apple menu icon and click on the Restart option. While your computer restarts, press and hold on the Option button to select the startup disk.
3. Finally, click on your bootable disk with macOS Mojave from the list of startup disk option and click on Continue to install the macOS Mojave on your computer. Agree on the licensing terms, and your computer will restart after that.

Likewise, you can also opt to restore your macOS Mojave using the Time Machine Backup Disk. When using this alternative option, you may be able to restore your previous macOS, including your old files.

Once you've downgraded back to macOS Mojave, you can install back your iTunes app and then test the iTunes Remote app on your iPhone to see if it works.

2. Install Retroactive App on Catalina.

If you don't want to downgrade your macOS, you can download an app that allows you to install iTunes on macOS Catalina. This app is called Retroactive, and it is an open-source application. All credit goes to Tyshawn Cormier, and you can check all about the Retroactive application on his Github page.

But how can you install and use it to enable iTunes? Here's how:

1. Go ahead and download the Retroactive app on your macOS Catalina.
2. Next, double click the file to open the installer. It may prompt 'Retroactive cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.', click on the OK button.
3. Then, find the app in Finder, right-click on the Retroactive installer icon and click Open. If it doesn't open, check your GateKeeper settings. Click on the Open Anyway option to launch the app.

1. After that, find and choose the iTunes app to enable and install it on your macOS Catalina with the use of the Retroactive app.
2. Finally, choose the iTunes version to install. If you don't know which version to install, keep the default settings, and click on Continue.

Now that you are able to run iTunes on macOS Catalina with the help of the Retroactive app, you may return to your previous setup on how to play your music. By doing this, you will be able to use the iTunes Remote app again on your iPhone.

3. Enable iTunes Remote App on Music App.

Due to public demand, Apple has enabled the iTunes Remote app to work with the Music App on macOS Catalina. Although some of the users are still not familiar with the new app as all that it requires is a simple tweak to get it up and running on your iPhone.

Now before you jump onto your iPhone and begin configuring, it's crucial in order to make this solution a success that you have the latest version of both the iOS for your iPhone as well as macOS Catalina for your Mac.

Apple com mac. Here's how to update your macOS Catalina and Music App to the latest version on your Mac:

1. Go ahead and click on the Apple menu on your macOS Catalina.
2. Then, click on System Preferences and then click on Software Update.

1. Now, click on the Update Now button to install the latest updates if they are available. You can click on More info to see the details of the updates.
2. Finally, if the software update prompts that your macOS Catalina is up to date, all of your apps, including the Music App, is also up to date.

Here's how you can update your iOS on your iPhone:

1. Go ahead and tap on the Settings of your iOS device, then General, and then choose Software Update.
2. Now, choose and tap Download and Install. If prompted that you will be temporarily removing apps because of space requirements for the update, tap Continue. Don't worry. iOS will reinstall apps that it removed after the process.

1. After that, tap Install to install now. You can also choose to tap Later where you can select Install Tonight or Remind Me Later. If you choose Install Tonight, just plug your device into power before you go to sleep. Your device will update automatically overnight.
2. Finally, if you are asked to enter your passcode, make sure that you have the correct one.

Having made sure your devices are up to date, you are now ready to set up the iTunes Remote app on your iPhone to work with the Music app on your macOS Catalina. Here's how you can do it:

1. Go ahead and connect your iOS and macOS Catalina devices on the same Wi-Fi network.
2. Then, launch the iTunes Remote app on your iPhone. Tap the Add an iTunes Library, and it will prompt a four-digit code.

1. Next, go back to your macOS Catalina and launch the Music app. Find your iPhone device with a black Play icon next to it under the Devices section.
2. Now, click on the Play icon beside the name of your iPhone.
3. Finally, enter the four-digit code from your iPhone's iTunes Remote app to complete the process.

Slots a fun casino las vegas. After this process, your iTunes Remote app on your iPhone will be able to control the Music app on your macOS Catalina. If this process will not work, try to delete your iTunes Remote app on your iPhone and then reinstall the iTunes Remote app. Repeat the same Steps 1-5 above with the iTunes Remote app again.

4. Check your Firewall Settings.

This was perhaps the obstacle that hindered us from using our iTunes Remote app on our iPhone, and it was all because the firewall settings were blocking the access.

It could also be highly likely that this may be the case for you too. The reason why the firewall settings play a huge part is that your Music app is sending and receiving data for the remote control function to work and can easily be interpreted as a security issue that your Mac immediate acts to block the process. Hence, to resolve this, you will need to jump into your Mac's firewall settings and temporarily turn it off to see if this is the case.

To turn off your firewall on your Mac, here are the steps:

1. Go ahead, open your Apple menu, and then click System Preferences.
2. Next, select Security (or Security & Privacy).
3. Now click the Firewall tab.
4. If the firewall was turned on by default, then you will want to temporarily turn it off by clicking on Turn Off Firewall.

Once you've turned off your firewall, open up your iTunes Remote app on your iPhone and try once again to establish a connection. Additionally, if you have installed any third-party security solutions such as BitDefender or Symantec's Norton AntiVirus, then you will want to turn them off as well temporarily.

If the iTunes Remote works, you will have to contact the support of the third-party app that you are using so they can guide you on how to allow your app to work. By doing this, you will be able to use the Music app without comprising your computer's security.

5. Contact Apple for Support

Lastly, if none of the above potential solutions have proven to be useful, then this may be an issue from Apple's end and one where you will need to reach out to them directly. Information like hardware version, operating system version, and application version of your device can be helpful to diagnose the problem. You can easily achieve this by choosing to send them feedback on their website.

Of course, that will depend on what device you think is having a problem. It could be your Mac, iPhone, or the particular application itself. To be sure, talk to an Apple representative over the phone. They can help you with which device needs to be reported for a bug fix. If not, have an Apple-certified technician help you out with this issue at your nearest Apple Store.

Hopefully, the options and methods provided above can be useful to you. This wraps up our post for today. We hope that this guide has helped you fix your iTunes Remote for iPhone that doesn't work with the macOS Catalina issue. Thank you for having the time to read this article. If you have questions related to this topic, please feel free to leave a comment below, and we will try our best to help out. ❤

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂

Status: Dec 2020 - Confirmed that Big Sur uses the same Media file locations

Apple decided to abandon iTunes with its Catalina macOS release. In Catalina the iTunes media swiss army knife has been replaced with three seperate applications and some functions that are now 'hidden' in sharing.

The impact is that upgrading to Catalina changes quite a lot of macOS media handling. This is likely to be problematic, for many Mac users, as media content is one of the most valuable things on a well used Mac.

This note provides guideance as to where the various media files are stored and what you can do to make things managable.

With iTunes all your media was contained within:

• ~/Music/iTunes (by default)

Sitting under this you had:

• 'iTunes Music' or 'iTunes Media' - folder (depending on how old your library is) where your various media files were kept
• 'iTunes Music Library.xml' - the old library index file
• 'iTunes Library.itl' - the new library index file

If you have set iTunes to manage your library then all your media files will be sitting under this directory structure, including: Music, Movies, TV & Podcasts

This was nice as you could move the library by just copying/moving the entire directory structure and all was well.

This is no longer the case with Catalina.

With macOS Catalina what was once handled by one big iTunes application is now handled by three big applications and Books ;-) .

• Music - for your music content and music videos
• TV - for your Movies and TV content
• Podcasts - for your podcasts
• Books - for your books which was moved out of iTunes some time ago

Each of these has its own media storage location, but depending on how you started, the actual media content could still be held within your prior iTunes Library (above).

The default locations for media in this new world are:

• ~/Music/Music - for you music files
• ~/Movies/TV - for your movie and tv files
• ~/Library/Group Containers/243LU875E5.groups.com.apple.podcasts/Library/Cache - podcasts are now held in special container and not directly manageable
• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books - iBooks were moved into a special container sometime ago, again to some surprise and have a habit of disappearing ..

The details for the various apps and storage locations are described in turn.

Is Itunes Gone

NOTE: These media file locations are also valid with 'Big Sur'

Music

• ~/Music/Music

Sitting within this you will have:

• Media - folder where media content files are kept
• 'Music Library.musiclibrary' - the new music library catalog file (replacement for 'iTunes Library.itl', but this is really a directory which contains a further set of files including Preferences.plist file)

NOTE: the plist file is a binary files, but you can see contents using the plutil command.

Macos Catalina Itunes

If you had an existing iTunes library then on starting the new Music app, you will be prompted to migrate your library Music. This will load the catalog and set the media location to the existing iTunes media location.

If you want re-consolidate your music and music videos under the new Music library then:

1. Ensure you have a Media directory in ~/Music/Music (i.e. ~/Music/Music/Media)
2. Change Media location via: Music - Preferences - Files to: /Users//Music/Music/Media . Then select - 'Keep Music folder organised' and 'Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to library'. You will get prompted to copy files as per preferences, so select 'Yes'.
3. Now in Music - select: 'File - Library - Organise Library..' and when prompted select 'Yes'. It is only now that it will copy all the content from you existing iTunes media folder to the new location.

NOTE: There is a signficant bug in new Music App when it comes to keeping your iTunes cover art. There are many reports of intital migration resulting in lost cover art, and if you have very large iTunes libray then the cover art migration process can take more than a day to complete. I have found that even it you do manage to get the inital migration to Music to process the cover art successfully, if you move your library to different a machine then the cover art will get lost again and fixing is either a programming exercise or a laborious manual process.

See 'Music Cover Art' below for more information.

Music Cover Art

Music cover art is one of the problem areas in moving from iTuness to Music. In iTunes cover art is managed via a special catalog within the iTunes media library. There are a number of different levels of cover art that iTunes and Music manage:

• Indivdiual Media File - such as .mp4 or apple .m4a / .m4p variations. These can have cover art embedded into then using 'meta tags'
• Album - this is a collection of Individual Media Files within a directory/folder. Unlike an individual media files the director/folder does have directly embedded graphics, so instead the cover art graphic that is displayed must be managed as part of the overall library catalog. In the case of iTunes this cover art catalog/cache was held within the iTunes media directory. In Music the catalog is stored in seperate & fixed location.
• Artist - these are the small icon graphics that are displayed in middle panel if you view your library by Artist. Many moons ago these used to be based on Album cover art. Now they are created automatically by iTunes or Music app and there does not appeary to be a way to manually populate this data.

In Music the cover art directory appears to be maintained seperately in:

• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.APMArtworkAgent/Data/Documents

This container based catalog is obviously not in the same directory tree as ~/Music/Music .

The consequence of this is that if you move your Music directory to another machine, then you will be leaving behind the cover art catalog. Can you play game pigeon on mac.

Apple answer to this problem is that any moving of media data from one Mac to another should be done via the Migration Assistant, which is aware of all the various files and locations.

NOTE: Big Sur appears to have address some of the cover art bugs. See my Big Sur update.

TV

• ~/Movies/TV

Sitting within this you will have:

How to Fix iTunes Remote for iPhone Don't Work with macOS Catalina: 5 Ways.

1. Downgrade to macOS Mojave.

Since iTunes is not supported in macOS Catalina, you can opt to downgrade your operating system to macOS Mojave. Now, of course, this can be a little tad difficult to surmount since you're switching between macOS versions but for the time being that has shown to be the most reliable fix. Some users who hesitated on downgrading have also shown to have done the same thing and report their successes over on the Apple Support Community page.

Now, this is not to say everybody should leave macOS Catalina and hop on the back on to macOS Mojave. This method is one of several ways in this guide that has proven to be a fix, but it comes at the expense of rolling back your macOS version back to the previous, which can also result in bugs as well as hindering your machine from performance upgrades.

If you're interested then here's how you can do it:

1. First and foremost, it is crucial that you back up all of your data. Learn more about how to back up your Mac.
2. Then, connect your computer to the internet using Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable. Download the macOS Mojave installer from Apple App Store on your Mac and click on the Get option.

1. Next, confirm that you want to download the software on the message prompt and ignore the message warning you about an older version of the OS.
2. Wait for the installer to download completely. Once finished, DO NOT click the Open option.
3. Next, create a bootable installer using a flash disk. You will need to connect the bootable installer to your computer later for the installation.
4. Now, restart the computer by clicking on the Apple menu icon and click on the Restart option. During the startup, press and hold the Command and R keys until the computer reboots again and open the Recovery Mode screen.

1. Then, click on Disk Utility on the OSX Utility screen and click on the Continue option.

1. Select the current startup disk and click on the Erase option at the top portion of the screen. Label the file 'Catalina' to continue on the deletion process of the current OS.
2. You may select Mac OS Extended (journaled) for HFS+ format, or you may choose AFPS from the list if you are using AFPS format. Select GUID Partition Map if applicable and click on Erase to confirm the deletion process.

1. Next, make sure you are still connected to the internet and connect the macOS Mojave bootable disk that you made into your computer.
2. Restart the computer again by clicking on the Apple menu icon and click on the Restart option. While your computer restarts, press and hold on the Option button to select the startup disk.
3. Finally, click on your bootable disk with macOS Mojave from the list of startup disk option and click on Continue to install the macOS Mojave on your computer. Agree on the licensing terms, and your computer will restart after that.

Likewise, you can also opt to restore your macOS Mojave using the Time Machine Backup Disk. When using this alternative option, you may be able to restore your previous macOS, including your old files.

Once you've downgraded back to macOS Mojave, you can install back your iTunes app and then test the iTunes Remote app on your iPhone to see if it works.

2. Install Retroactive App on Catalina.

If you don't want to downgrade your macOS, you can download an app that allows you to install iTunes on macOS Catalina. This app is called Retroactive, and it is an open-source application. All credit goes to Tyshawn Cormier, and you can check all about the Retroactive application on his Github page.

But how can you install and use it to enable iTunes? Here's how:

1. Go ahead and download the Retroactive app on your macOS Catalina.
2. Next, double click the file to open the installer. It may prompt 'Retroactive cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.', click on the OK button.
3. Then, find the app in Finder, right-click on the Retroactive installer icon and click Open. If it doesn't open, check your GateKeeper settings. Click on the Open Anyway option to launch the app.

1. After that, find and choose the iTunes app to enable and install it on your macOS Catalina with the use of the Retroactive app.
2. Finally, choose the iTunes version to install. If you don't know which version to install, keep the default settings, and click on Continue.

Now that you are able to run iTunes on macOS Catalina with the help of the Retroactive app, you may return to your previous setup on how to play your music. By doing this, you will be able to use the iTunes Remote app again on your iPhone.

3. Enable iTunes Remote App on Music App.

Due to public demand, Apple has enabled the iTunes Remote app to work with the Music App on macOS Catalina. Although some of the users are still not familiar with the new app as all that it requires is a simple tweak to get it up and running on your iPhone.

Now before you jump onto your iPhone and begin configuring, it's crucial in order to make this solution a success that you have the latest version of both the iOS for your iPhone as well as macOS Catalina for your Mac.

Apple com mac. Here's how to update your macOS Catalina and Music App to the latest version on your Mac:

1. Go ahead and click on the Apple menu on your macOS Catalina.
2. Then, click on System Preferences and then click on Software Update.

1. Now, click on the Update Now button to install the latest updates if they are available. You can click on More info to see the details of the updates.
2. Finally, if the software update prompts that your macOS Catalina is up to date, all of your apps, including the Music App, is also up to date.

Here's how you can update your iOS on your iPhone:

1. Go ahead and tap on the Settings of your iOS device, then General, and then choose Software Update.
2. Now, choose and tap Download and Install. If prompted that you will be temporarily removing apps because of space requirements for the update, tap Continue. Don't worry. iOS will reinstall apps that it removed after the process.

1. After that, tap Install to install now. You can also choose to tap Later where you can select Install Tonight or Remind Me Later. If you choose Install Tonight, just plug your device into power before you go to sleep. Your device will update automatically overnight.
2. Finally, if you are asked to enter your passcode, make sure that you have the correct one.

Having made sure your devices are up to date, you are now ready to set up the iTunes Remote app on your iPhone to work with the Music app on your macOS Catalina. Here's how you can do it:

1. Go ahead and connect your iOS and macOS Catalina devices on the same Wi-Fi network.
2. Then, launch the iTunes Remote app on your iPhone. Tap the Add an iTunes Library, and it will prompt a four-digit code.

1. Next, go back to your macOS Catalina and launch the Music app. Find your iPhone device with a black Play icon next to it under the Devices section.
2. Now, click on the Play icon beside the name of your iPhone.
3. Finally, enter the four-digit code from your iPhone's iTunes Remote app to complete the process.

Slots a fun casino las vegas. After this process, your iTunes Remote app on your iPhone will be able to control the Music app on your macOS Catalina. If this process will not work, try to delete your iTunes Remote app on your iPhone and then reinstall the iTunes Remote app. Repeat the same Steps 1-5 above with the iTunes Remote app again.

4. Check your Firewall Settings.

This was perhaps the obstacle that hindered us from using our iTunes Remote app on our iPhone, and it was all because the firewall settings were blocking the access.

It could also be highly likely that this may be the case for you too. The reason why the firewall settings play a huge part is that your Music app is sending and receiving data for the remote control function to work and can easily be interpreted as a security issue that your Mac immediate acts to block the process. Hence, to resolve this, you will need to jump into your Mac's firewall settings and temporarily turn it off to see if this is the case.

To turn off your firewall on your Mac, here are the steps:

1. Go ahead, open your Apple menu, and then click System Preferences.
2. Next, select Security (or Security & Privacy).
3. Now click the Firewall tab.
4. If the firewall was turned on by default, then you will want to temporarily turn it off by clicking on Turn Off Firewall.

Once you've turned off your firewall, open up your iTunes Remote app on your iPhone and try once again to establish a connection. Additionally, if you have installed any third-party security solutions such as BitDefender or Symantec's Norton AntiVirus, then you will want to turn them off as well temporarily.

If the iTunes Remote works, you will have to contact the support of the third-party app that you are using so they can guide you on how to allow your app to work. By doing this, you will be able to use the Music app without comprising your computer's security.

5. Contact Apple for Support

Lastly, if none of the above potential solutions have proven to be useful, then this may be an issue from Apple's end and one where you will need to reach out to them directly. Information like hardware version, operating system version, and application version of your device can be helpful to diagnose the problem. You can easily achieve this by choosing to send them feedback on their website.

Of course, that will depend on what device you think is having a problem. It could be your Mac, iPhone, or the particular application itself. To be sure, talk to an Apple representative over the phone. They can help you with which device needs to be reported for a bug fix. If not, have an Apple-certified technician help you out with this issue at your nearest Apple Store.

Hopefully, the options and methods provided above can be useful to you. This wraps up our post for today. We hope that this guide has helped you fix your iTunes Remote for iPhone that doesn't work with the macOS Catalina issue. Thank you for having the time to read this article. If you have questions related to this topic, please feel free to leave a comment below, and we will try our best to help out. ❤

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂

Status: Dec 2020 - Confirmed that Big Sur uses the same Media file locations

Apple decided to abandon iTunes with its Catalina macOS release. In Catalina the iTunes media swiss army knife has been replaced with three seperate applications and some functions that are now 'hidden' in sharing.

The impact is that upgrading to Catalina changes quite a lot of macOS media handling. This is likely to be problematic, for many Mac users, as media content is one of the most valuable things on a well used Mac.

This note provides guideance as to where the various media files are stored and what you can do to make things managable.

With iTunes all your media was contained within:

• ~/Music/iTunes (by default)

Sitting under this you had:

• 'iTunes Music' or 'iTunes Media' - folder (depending on how old your library is) where your various media files were kept
• 'iTunes Music Library.xml' - the old library index file
• 'iTunes Library.itl' - the new library index file

If you have set iTunes to manage your library then all your media files will be sitting under this directory structure, including: Music, Movies, TV & Podcasts

This was nice as you could move the library by just copying/moving the entire directory structure and all was well.

This is no longer the case with Catalina.

With macOS Catalina what was once handled by one big iTunes application is now handled by three big applications and Books ;-) .

• Music - for your music content and music videos
• TV - for your Movies and TV content
• Podcasts - for your podcasts
• Books - for your books which was moved out of iTunes some time ago

Each of these has its own media storage location, but depending on how you started, the actual media content could still be held within your prior iTunes Library (above).

The default locations for media in this new world are:

• ~/Music/Music - for you music files
• ~/Movies/TV - for your movie and tv files
• ~/Library/Group Containers/243LU875E5.groups.com.apple.podcasts/Library/Cache - podcasts are now held in special container and not directly manageable
• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books - iBooks were moved into a special container sometime ago, again to some surprise and have a habit of disappearing ..

The details for the various apps and storage locations are described in turn.

Is Itunes Gone

NOTE: These media file locations are also valid with 'Big Sur'

Music

• ~/Music/Music

Sitting within this you will have:

• Media - folder where media content files are kept
• 'Music Library.musiclibrary' - the new music library catalog file (replacement for 'iTunes Library.itl', but this is really a directory which contains a further set of files including Preferences.plist file)

NOTE: the plist file is a binary files, but you can see contents using the plutil command.

Macos Catalina Itunes

If you had an existing iTunes library then on starting the new Music app, you will be prompted to migrate your library Music. This will load the catalog and set the media location to the existing iTunes media location.

If you want re-consolidate your music and music videos under the new Music library then:

1. Ensure you have a Media directory in ~/Music/Music (i.e. ~/Music/Music/Media)
2. Change Media location via: Music - Preferences - Files to: /Users//Music/Music/Media . Then select - 'Keep Music folder organised' and 'Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to library'. You will get prompted to copy files as per preferences, so select 'Yes'.
3. Now in Music - select: 'File - Library - Organise Library..' and when prompted select 'Yes'. It is only now that it will copy all the content from you existing iTunes media folder to the new location.

NOTE: There is a signficant bug in new Music App when it comes to keeping your iTunes cover art. There are many reports of intital migration resulting in lost cover art, and if you have very large iTunes libray then the cover art migration process can take more than a day to complete. I have found that even it you do manage to get the inital migration to Music to process the cover art successfully, if you move your library to different a machine then the cover art will get lost again and fixing is either a programming exercise or a laborious manual process.

See 'Music Cover Art' below for more information.

Music Cover Art

Music cover art is one of the problem areas in moving from iTuness to Music. In iTunes cover art is managed via a special catalog within the iTunes media library. There are a number of different levels of cover art that iTunes and Music manage:

• Indivdiual Media File - such as .mp4 or apple .m4a / .m4p variations. These can have cover art embedded into then using 'meta tags'
• Album - this is a collection of Individual Media Files within a directory/folder. Unlike an individual media files the director/folder does have directly embedded graphics, so instead the cover art graphic that is displayed must be managed as part of the overall library catalog. In the case of iTunes this cover art catalog/cache was held within the iTunes media directory. In Music the catalog is stored in seperate & fixed location.
• Artist - these are the small icon graphics that are displayed in middle panel if you view your library by Artist. Many moons ago these used to be based on Album cover art. Now they are created automatically by iTunes or Music app and there does not appeary to be a way to manually populate this data.

In Music the cover art directory appears to be maintained seperately in:

• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.APMArtworkAgent/Data/Documents

This container based catalog is obviously not in the same directory tree as ~/Music/Music .

The consequence of this is that if you move your Music directory to another machine, then you will be leaving behind the cover art catalog. Can you play game pigeon on mac.

Apple answer to this problem is that any moving of media data from one Mac to another should be done via the Migration Assistant, which is aware of all the various files and locations.

NOTE: Big Sur appears to have address some of the cover art bugs. See my Big Sur update.

TV

• ~/Movies/TV

Sitting within this you will have:

• Media - folder where media content files are kept
• 'TV Library.tvlibrary' - the TV/movie library catalog (again like Music this is a directory which contains the various library catalog files)

The migration from iTunes to Catalina TV is equivalent to that for Music. The migration to TV library occurs when you first run TV app. Playtech free slots. This generates a new catalog and media files will be left in iTunes folder.

If you want to consolidate into new ~/Movies/TV directory then you will need to follow simillar step to Music above:

1. Ensure you have Media directory in ~/Movies/TV (ie ~/Movies/TV/Media)
2. Change Media location via: TV - Preferences - Files to: /Users//Movies/TV/Media . Select - 'Keep Media folder organised' and 'Copy files to Media folder when adding to library'. You will get prompted to copy files as per preferences, select 'Yes'.
3. Now in TV - select: 'File - Library - Organise Library..' and when prompted select 'Yes'. It is only now that it will copy all the content from you existing iTunes media folder.

NOTE: The Movie / TV content migration seems to work and be less problematic than music one. One reason is that there is no Cover Art. A problem I have seen is that if you have downloaded movies from the iTunes Store, then these now appear twice in your Movie library, one for the downloaded copy and a second one for the iTunes store cloud version. If you delete the downloaded version from your library and then re-download the file, this fixes the problem. If you have a large number of Movies then this will result in a lot of very large downloads.

Podcasts

Be aware that the Podcasts app, will want to automatically delete played podcasts and if you have old podcast that are no longer available then this will result in lost podcasts. So ensure you change your Preferences to stop auto deletion of played podcasts.

I have sucessfully moved Podcasts from one machine to another by copying the entire directory tree and contents:

Why bother and some good things & bad things

All this moving media content around is a nuisance, so why bother. The reason is that media files take up lot of storage space and many people move them to external storage for both more storage, but also to provide greater data security. Having a large media store on a single disk has high risk of failure, in fact it is guaranteed to fail eventually.

With iTunes this was pretty easy to do as you could simply move/copy the entire iTunes directory to an alternate location and then restart iTunes holding the 'Option' key and select the new location.

When you have the catalog and media content in different directories and music and music and movies managed seperately this is not possible. So the easiest way is to accept the Catalina change and move to two seperate consolidated directories.

Having seperate library for Music and Movies means you have some additional flexibility in the files location.

I have also found that when consolidating under the new directories that the new APFS file system must be using some type of hard linking as my 700GB existing media library, did not grow to double the size on consolidation.

Once I had consolidated my content into each of the seperate directories, Movie and Podcasts appear to be readily movable, but music is problematic due Cover art bugs. On consolidating to new location I was able to remove the old iTunes directory, to help recover disk space.

This blog posting was driven by desperation, as recently our family media Mac mini running Catalina crashed and I had to go to some substantial lengths to get back all the media content on it.

The recovery process meant peeling off the details of changes that have occured to iTunes and its storage solution. The documentation for Catalina was very limited and less detailed than what was previously available on iTunes.

To validate and test this I have used a combination of repaired Mac, a KVM virtual machine based on Time Machine backup of dead Mac and a MacBook Pro laptop, so process of recovery of Catalina based media required quite a lot time, 3 Macs and lots of storage to test various alternate recovery techniques.

References & Links:

Reading and Modifying OS X plists - very old blog on plists tools

Move or Manage the Music, Apple TV and Podcasts Libraries - Rocket Yard (MacSales) partial information on how to manage Catalina media libraries

What happened to iTunes ? - Apple's answers to the surprise they gave us ..

Big Sur - does this change things, fix things or it is the same. I have done some initial testing and documented finding in my 'Big Sur' update

Low Res Image (based on Arcade Fire - Funeral) - via SoundCloud - Out of Tune