It’s official, iTunes is on the way out. When Apple releases macOS Catalina this fall, iTunes will vanish from your Mac and split into three new apps instead. Your iTunes library should transfer to these apps automatically, but we recommend you back it up just in case.
For years, iTunes has been the window through which we consume most media on our Macs. It stores all your music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks. But it’s a problematic app, and even Apple jokes about how bloated iTunes is.
So what happens to your content when Apple splits iTunes into separate Music, TV, and Podcasts apps?
Fans of Apple’s unofficial slogan should know what to expect: It just works. When you upgrade to macOS Catalina, your music collection goes to the Music app and your videos go to the TV app. Everything’s automatic, seamless.
Upgrading to macOS Catalina should automatically move content to the new Music, Podcasts, and TV apps.
What if it goes wrong?
This is why we’re here. Software isn’t perfect, especially when it’s a new operating system such as macOS Catalina. There’s every chance some users will experience errors when their content transfers from iTunes to the Music and TV apps.
Make a backup of your Mac using Time Machine before upgrading.
This is usually included in a Time Machine backup, but a separate copy — outside of Time Machine — is easier to work with if you need it.
What is my iTunes Media library?
This is where music, movies, home videos, and any other iTunes media is normally saved on your Mac. Backing up your iTunes Media library allows you to manually import content to macOS Catalina if anything is missing after the upgrade.
How do I back up my iTunes Media library?
Making a backup of your iTunes Media library is as simple as copying it to an external hard drive. But before you do so, you need to organize it into clear folders and ensure all your iTunes content is present.
Organize your iTunes Media library
When you import iTunes media to macOS Catalina, you need to manually separate your content for the Music and TV apps. Otherwise, all your videos save as music videos to the Music app and your music doesn’t go into the TV app at all.
The easiest way to keep your content separate is to make iTunes organize your media library. This automatically moves media to separate folders based on their content type: Music, Movies, TV Shows, etc.
How do I make iTunes organize my library?
Open iTunes on your Mac.
From the menu bar, go to iTunes > Preferences > Advanced.
Select the box to Keep iTunes Media folder organized.
This option organizes your media into separate folders for Music, TV Shows, and Movies.
Consolidate your iTunes Media library
There are several cases where content appears in iTunes but isn’t saved to your iTunes Media folder:
iTunes Store purchases that aren’t downloaded to your Mac
Apple Music content that isn’t downloaded to your Mac
content that you imported to iTunes from elsewhere on your Mac.
Anything you purchased from iTunes or synced over iCloud is still available when you sign in to macOS Catalina with the same Apple ID. You don’t need to worry about making a backup of this content.
You don’t need to download iTunes purchases because they are still available to download in macOS Catalina.
However, content you imported to iTunes from elsewhere on your Mac could get lost during your upgrade. Depending on your preferences, iTunes may not have copied this content to the media library when you imported it.
To fix this, you need to consolidate your iTunes Media library, which creates a copy of missing content in the iTunes Media folder. After consolidating your library, you may want to delete the original files on your Mac to save space.
How do I consolidate my iTunes Media library?
Open iTunes on your Mac.
From the menu bar, go to File > Library > Organize Library.
Select the box to Consolidate files in the window that appears.
If it’s available, also select the option to Reorganize files in the folder “iTunes Media.”
Click OK.
If the option to Reorganize files in the folder “iTunes Media” is grayed out it’s because they’re already organized.
Find the iTunes Media folder on your Mac
Now you’ can be certain everything you need to back up is saved to your iTunes Media folder, the next step is to find out where it is saved on your Mac.
Open Finder, and from the menu bar select Go > Home. The default location for the iTunes Media folder is in Music, within the iTunes folder. If your iTunes Media folder is missing or doesn’t contain all your content, there must be a second folder elsewhere.
You can usually find the iTunes Media folder in your Home folder on the Mac.
Open iTunes, and from the menu bar select iTunes > Preferences > Advanced. This page lists the location of your iTunes Media folder at the top of the window. You can also click Change… to move it elsewhere or click Reset to return it to the default location.
Copy your iTunes Media folder
Copy the iTunes Media folder to your external drive.
To back up your iTunes Media library, all you need to do is copy it to an external hard drive. Make sure you close iTunes first.
You can either drag-and-drop the folder or use control-click to see Copy and Paste options. Wait for macOS to finish copying the iTunes Media folder before you remove your external drive.
How do I restore my iTunes library to macOS Catalina?
Hopefully, after upgrading to macOS Catalina all your iTunes content automatically transferred to the new Music and TV apps. If that wasn’t the case, you can use your iTunes Media backup to manually restore anything that’s missing.
Instead, you need to manually import content to each app from the File menu.
How do I import iTunes media to the Music or TV app?
Connect your external drive to your Mac.
Open the Music or TV app in macOS Catalina.
From the menu bar, go to File > Import.
Choose to import individual items, one-at-a-time, or your import entire iTunes Media folder at once.
Find the iTunes Media folder you copied to your external drive.
Select the content you want to import, choose individual files or entire folders:
For the Music app: import music, voice recordings, and audiobooks.
For the TV app: import movies, TV shows, and home videos.
Click open to import the selected content, you will find it within the Music or TV app under Recently Added.
You may need to edit the metadata of imported media (Name, Date, Artwork, etc). Do this by control-clicking it in Music or TV and selecting Get Info.
How do I import Podcasts and Audiobooks to macOS Catalina?
Although there is a dedicated Podcasts app in macOS Catalina, there doesn’t appear to be any way to import podcasts to the app. This is probably because most podcasts are freely available to stream or download through the app itself.
Similarly, you cannot import audiobooks to the Books app — despite having a dedicated section for them. Any audiobooks you purchased from the Book Store are automatically available.
Alternatively, you can import audiobooks as music to the Music app.
Unless you’re listening to underground podcasts, they’re probably already available for free in the Podcasts app.
What are your thoughts on the death of iTunes? Are you excited to have more specialized apps in Catalina? Or does it feel like a step in the wrong direction?
Dan writes tutorials and troubleshooting guides to help people make the most of their technology. Before becoming a writer, he earned a BSc in Sound Technology, supervised repairs at an Apple Store, and even taught English in China.
I have a problem that I’m hoping you might make a suggestion to fix or workaround.
For various reasons, I’ve not been synching my iPhone with my MacBook Pro running Mojave 10.14.6. My iPhone 6+ recently died & I replaced it with a new iPhone 11 pro.
I took the SIM card from my 6+ & put it into my 11.
A few of my iTunes songs were on the SIM card, so I attempted to synch with my new phone. My new phone won’t sync with my laptop until I upgrade to Catalina.
I’ve not upgraded to Catalina, & since I really don’t want to lose the use of my 32bit apps, I’d like to delay the upgrade for as long as possible.
Are you aware of any way to import my full iTunes library into my new phone without using iTunes?
I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s facing this issue. From what I gather, Apple has replaced iTunes with 3 other apps. My calendar, notes, etc all synch fine.
It’s just the iTunes music files that won’t do so. Please advise. Bob
PS: As long as I’m asking, I back up my iPhone to iCloud. Why Apple won’t permit me to back up my laptop in the cloud as well is really frustrating.
I currently have a ridiculous amount of cloud storage space. My laptop data & apps can’t back up to the cloud.
Any suggestions as to how to back up the data on my laptop?
In the past, I used SuperDuper.
A few years back I had a disastrous upgrade from one version of the iOS to the next. The SuperDuper software said I had 790 GB of HD data, whereas my internal HD holds a mere 750GB. Apple couldn’t help & it took months before I recovered most of my data from the backups I made to external HDs.
It also took a long time to restore my apps.
I suspect I lost a lot of data but had no way of knowing. If possible, it’d be really nice not only to get a recommendation on how to automatically backup all the data but have a restorable copy of all my apps & whatever system software I have to restore me to full functionality when (not if) an eventual crash happens.
Does your Mac recognize your iPhone 11 Pro? Trying to figure out if it’s just not syncing or if it’s not seeing the iPhone at all.
Do you use iCloud or subscribe to Apple Music monthly services? If you use iCloud or services like Apple Music to keep your content up to date across all of your devices, some syncing features via iTunes and Finder are automatically turned off. Take a look at your syncing options and make sure they are checked.
Try syncing manually, but first, make sure Apple Music’s Sync Library (iCloud Music Library) is toggled off for both iTunes on the computer and on the iPhone, then try syncing again by selecting your music manually.
If that doesn’t do anything, consider backing up your iPhone and setting it up as new again
Backup your iPhone 11 Pro
Restore it as a new device
Restore that backup (the one you made in the first step)
Try syncing again
Regarding your question about importing your full iTunes library into that new phone without using iTunes, there are some third-party apps that claim to do this. We haven’t tested any, but some of our readers do use these and had success. You can also manually move music out of your iTunes Media folder.
However, any music files in iTunes that you purchased with copyright protection built-in will likely NOT play due to those music rights protections. Any music you imported into iTunes from your own CDs, DVDs, etc. or purchased without copy restrictions should play without restriction.
Finally, for backing up your Mac we recommend Apple’s own Time Machine. You can use Time Machine with external drives and also networked drives–but it does not backup to iCloud (at least not yet.)
Apple’s current reasoning behind this is the time it takes to backup and restore a Mac is much longer than an iPhone or iPad AND its a much more complicated operating system and environment. Although iOS and iPadOS have some problems restoring from iCloud, a Mac iCloud restore would likely be much more prone to errors and flaws. We expect that to change in the coming years–but it appears we aren’t there yet.
You can however currently backup your Mac’s Documents, Desktop, and Photos to iCloud.
Most of us at ATB use Time Machine–but we also back up to two different drives for redundancy and in case a drive fails.
We also recommend Carbon Copy Cloner for folks that don’t want to use Time Machine or who want a bootable backup solution for their Mac. Like Time Machine, it requires an external drive. It’s currently a one-time fee of about $40.
If you want a cloud-based solution for your Mac backups, a lot of our readers with Macs use BackBlaze. And it’s pretty affordable with unlimited data storage (currently) at $6/month, $60/year, or $110/2-years. Prices are per computer–so if you have multiple Macs, it does cost more!
Great article. I have a couple of questions if you don’t mind.
(1) I always worried about sending my large (35000 song) library into the cloud, so I never allowed Apple Music to ‘Sync’ my music – is that a valid worry or can I do it?
(2) I’m on Mojave and in addition to a CCC clone of my internal drive and BackBlaze, I’ve copied my entire HD>Users>Me>Music folder to an external drive. It’s 475Gb. I copied it all instead of your recommendation because my iMac does not *have* a HD>Users>Me>Music>iTunes>iTunes Media folder.
Instead inside HD>Users>Me>Music>iTunes I have 3 folders: Album Artwork (2.76Gb), iTunes Music (471.56Gb)), and Previous iTunes Libraries (which has a 27.3Mb file called iTunes Library 2018-09-25.itl inside). That folder also has some files alongside those 3 folders, like iTunes Extras.itdb (2.9Mb), iTunes Library Genius (662.9Mb), iTunes Library.itl (29.7Mb), iTunes Library.xml (80.2Mb), and a few small temp files dated from 2012-2015.
So, have I been right to copy that whole higher-level folder, or should I just copy the slightly smaller “iTunes Music” folder and not worry that it’s not called “iTunes Media”, or will this possibly be a problem when I go to Catalina and it might be expecting an “iTunes Media” folder?
We haven’t run into this exact scenario before, so we are not exactly sure of the outcome of updating to Catalina. But we think you’ve made the right call in backing everything up–it’s likely those additional files are not needed but it can’t hurt to have them.
When I opened Music on my newly-updated computer for the first time, none of my music was there. I’ve now followed these steps, but lost massive amounts of stuff, namely all my old playlists and smart playlists, as well as original dates added and play counts.
How do I go about getting that stuff back? Seems to all be untouched in my iTunes folder still?!
I note the comment that there seems to be no way to import my Podcasts Library into iTunes Podcast under IOS Catalina, but, it is said, all of the Podcasts are freely available in the Apple Store.
In fact I have been collecting selected Podcasts for some 20 years and have thousands, most of which I still enjoy, but many of which are no longer available from the Apple Store.
This is disappointing as I would like to import my entire Library of Podcasts into iTunes Podcast, but it seems this cannot be done. There appears to be no way to select the target directory from my hard disk where I store all of my Podcasts.
Tim says
I guess I’m just dumb, but I still am not able to load music onto my iPod Touch. Only about 4 o5 albums were able to be downloaded.
Tim
Peter Curnutte says
I have a macbook pro 2019 now.
I also have an old macbook pro 2011 with the CD/DVD player.
When I migrated my things from Itunes to this new macbook I noticed anything from CD’s has not come over to my 2019 macbook pro.
Needless to say this macbook pro does not have a CD player. How do I transfer/airdrop my CD files from itunes to the new macbook pro.
Bob S. says
Hi, Dan et al, Very useful article. Thanks.
I have a problem that I’m hoping you might make a suggestion to fix or workaround.
For various reasons, I’ve not been synching my iPhone with my MacBook Pro running Mojave 10.14.6. My iPhone 6+ recently died & I replaced it with a new iPhone 11 pro.
I took the SIM card from my 6+ & put it into my 11.
A few of my iTunes songs were on the SIM card, so I attempted to synch with my new phone. My new phone won’t sync with my laptop until I upgrade to Catalina.
I’ve not upgraded to Catalina, & since I really don’t want to lose the use of my 32bit apps, I’d like to delay the upgrade for as long as possible.
Are you aware of any way to import my full iTunes library into my new phone without using iTunes?
I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s facing this issue. From what I gather, Apple has replaced iTunes with 3 other apps. My calendar, notes, etc all synch fine.
It’s just the iTunes music files that won’t do so. Please advise. Bob
PS: As long as I’m asking, I back up my iPhone to iCloud. Why Apple won’t permit me to back up my laptop in the cloud as well is really frustrating.
I currently have a ridiculous amount of cloud storage space. My laptop data & apps can’t back up to the cloud.
Any suggestions as to how to back up the data on my laptop?
In the past, I used SuperDuper.
A few years back I had a disastrous upgrade from one version of the iOS to the next. The SuperDuper software said I had 790 GB of HD data, whereas my internal HD holds a mere 750GB. Apple couldn’t help & it took months before I recovered most of my data from the backups I made to external HDs.
It also took a long time to restore my apps.
I suspect I lost a lot of data but had no way of knowing. If possible, it’d be really nice not only to get a recommendation on how to automatically backup all the data but have a restorable copy of all my apps & whatever system software I have to restore me to full functionality when (not if) an eventual crash happens.
Elizabeth Jones says
Hi Bob,
Does your Mac recognize your iPhone 11 Pro? Trying to figure out if it’s just not syncing or if it’s not seeing the iPhone at all.
Do you use iCloud or subscribe to Apple Music monthly services? If you use iCloud or services like Apple Music to keep your content up to date across all of your devices, some syncing features via iTunes and Finder are automatically turned off. Take a look at your syncing options and make sure they are checked.
Try syncing manually, but first, make sure Apple Music’s Sync Library (iCloud Music Library) is toggled off for both iTunes on the computer and on the iPhone, then try syncing again by selecting your music manually.
If that doesn’t do anything, consider backing up your iPhone and setting it up as new again
Backup your iPhone 11 Pro
Restore it as a new device
Restore that backup (the one you made in the first step)
Try syncing again
Regarding your question about importing your full iTunes library into that new phone without using iTunes, there are some third-party apps that claim to do this. We haven’t tested any, but some of our readers do use these and had success. You can also manually move music out of your iTunes Media folder.
However, any music files in iTunes that you purchased with copyright protection built-in will likely NOT play due to those music rights protections. Any music you imported into iTunes from your own CDs, DVDs, etc. or purchased without copy restrictions should play without restriction.
Finally, for backing up your Mac we recommend Apple’s own Time Machine. You can use Time Machine with external drives and also networked drives–but it does not backup to iCloud (at least not yet.)
Apple’s current reasoning behind this is the time it takes to backup and restore a Mac is much longer than an iPhone or iPad AND its a much more complicated operating system and environment. Although iOS and iPadOS have some problems restoring from iCloud, a Mac iCloud restore would likely be much more prone to errors and flaws. We expect that to change in the coming years–but it appears we aren’t there yet.
You can however currently backup your Mac’s Documents, Desktop, and Photos to iCloud.
Most of us at ATB use Time Machine–but we also back up to two different drives for redundancy and in case a drive fails.
We also recommend Carbon Copy Cloner for folks that don’t want to use Time Machine or who want a bootable backup solution for their Mac. Like Time Machine, it requires an external drive. It’s currently a one-time fee of about $40.
If you want a cloud-based solution for your Mac backups, a lot of our readers with Macs use BackBlaze. And it’s pretty affordable with unlimited data storage (currently) at $6/month, $60/year, or $110/2-years. Prices are per computer–so if you have multiple Macs, it does cost more!
Chip says
Great article. I have a couple of questions if you don’t mind.
(1) I always worried about sending my large (35000 song) library into the cloud, so I never allowed Apple Music to ‘Sync’ my music – is that a valid worry or can I do it?
(2) I’m on Mojave and in addition to a CCC clone of my internal drive and BackBlaze, I’ve copied my entire HD>Users>Me>Music folder to an external drive. It’s 475Gb. I copied it all instead of your recommendation because my iMac does not *have* a HD>Users>Me>Music>iTunes>iTunes Media folder.
Instead inside HD>Users>Me>Music>iTunes I have 3 folders: Album Artwork (2.76Gb), iTunes Music (471.56Gb)), and Previous iTunes Libraries (which has a 27.3Mb file called iTunes Library 2018-09-25.itl inside). That folder also has some files alongside those 3 folders, like iTunes Extras.itdb (2.9Mb), iTunes Library Genius (662.9Mb), iTunes Library.itl (29.7Mb), iTunes Library.xml (80.2Mb), and a few small temp files dated from 2012-2015.
So, have I been right to copy that whole higher-level folder, or should I just copy the slightly smaller “iTunes Music” folder and not worry that it’s not called “iTunes Media”, or will this possibly be a problem when I go to Catalina and it might be expecting an “iTunes Media” folder?
Elizabeth Jones says
Hi Chip,
We haven’t run into this exact scenario before, so we are not exactly sure of the outcome of updating to Catalina. But we think you’ve made the right call in backing everything up–it’s likely those additional files are not needed but it can’t hurt to have them.
Jamie says
When I opened Music on my newly-updated computer for the first time, none of my music was there. I’ve now followed these steps, but lost massive amounts of stuff, namely all my old playlists and smart playlists, as well as original dates added and play counts.
How do I go about getting that stuff back? Seems to all be untouched in my iTunes folder still?!
Monk says
I just made the upgrade to Catalina by mistake and am facing the same problem. Have you ever found a solution?
Peter A says
I note the comment that there seems to be no way to import my Podcasts Library into iTunes Podcast under IOS Catalina, but, it is said, all of the Podcasts are freely available in the Apple Store.
In fact I have been collecting selected Podcasts for some 20 years and have thousands, most of which I still enjoy, but many of which are no longer available from the Apple Store.
This is disappointing as I would like to import my entire Library of Podcasts into iTunes Podcast, but it seems this cannot be done. There appears to be no way to select the target directory from my hard disk where I store all of my Podcasts.
Any suggestions?