Can't find playlists on Music on Catalina

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Can't find playlists on Music on Catalina

I have many libraries and when I migrated from iTunes, I brought MacbookAir to Store, and nice support person, seemed to have fixed everything. I don't know how she did it, but the libraries were still scattered but everything was there. Now I've been trying to organize libraries by Music>preferences>files, pointing to each file. I have lost all of my play lists. I don't synch w iphone, so playlists, albiet outdated, are there. Can I get the current playlists back on my Mac?

Posted on Sep 11, 2020 11:07 AM

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Answer 1

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ed2345

Level 9

62,858 points

Sep 13, 2020 11:04 AM in response to Elizabeth Kenny

Hi Elizabeth,

Hard to tell exactly what went on there. The right way to migrate is to Consolidate the library and then move it, as described in here:

Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support

If the library is moved without being consolidated, files that are outside the designated Media folder may get "lost" in the sense that iTunes does not know where to look for them. However, if all the audio files are still there, which I assume is the case, you can re-add them to the new library.

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Answer 2

ed2345

Level 9

62,858 points

Sep 11, 2020 11:29 AM in response to Elizabeth Kenny

Elizabeth,

Playlists should be unaffected by the migration from iTunes to Music. Maybe they got hidden? Hover your mouse over the word Playlists in the left sidebar and see if the option to Show appears.

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Answer 3

Sep 11, 2020 2:59 PM in response to ed2345

Thanks for your kind reply. This is not an ITunes to Music situation. This is post migration to iTunes and a result of directing Music to look at a variety of music files Files (Music>Preferences>Files). Now I'm lost in the cosmos.

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Answer 4

Sep 12, 2020 8:11 AM in response to ed2345

I have many libraries and when I migrated from iTunes, I brought

MacbookAir to Store, and nice support person, seemed to have fixed

everything. I don't know how she did it, but the libraries were still

scattered but everything was there. I have found the playlist files and imported but they are empty.

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Answer 5

Sep 14, 2020 11:20 AM in response to ed2345

Sorry to keep harping on about this. I found the file that contained the names of playlists, imported it, voila' the playlists appeared but are empty. When I opened the .xml file, I see name of playlist with I believe are pointers to songs. Can I repopulate?

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Answer 6

ed2345

Level 9

62,858 points

Sep 11, 2020 6:04 PM in response to Elizabeth Kenny

Elizabeth,

What was done for that "migration"? Maybe that will give clue how the files got lost.

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Answer 7

ed2345

Level 9

62,858 points

Sep 14, 2020 5:14 PM in response to Elizabeth Kenny

Elizabeth, yes, those library XML files contain the listings but do not contain the audio files. Feel free to go ahead and re-add the audio files to your library.

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Answer 8

Sep 18, 2020 10:02 AM in response to ed2345

Thanks to all for their kind replies. To summarize, they have to be repopulated manually.

"There ain't no cure for the empty playlist blues."

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Can't find playlists on Music on Catalina

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