Manage and Share Media Files
One of the advantages of apps such as Music, TV, Podcasts, and Books is that you don’t need to think about files. When you add files to these apps’ libraries, they are stored on your Mac in specific locations. Most people can work with these files without ever going into the Finder. However, if you have a large media library, you may need to consider offloading your files.
In this chapter, I discuss how you can manage large media libraries, and also how to share your music over a network to other devices.
How the Media Apps Organize Files
A useful aspect of the Music and TV apps is that they free you from having to worry about organizing the actual files it manages. When you add a file to Music or TV, the app stores a pointer to its location, so all you need to think about is whether you want to play the file, and how you sync it to your iOS device (if you still sync music and don’t use the cloud).
Music App File Organization
By default, Music stores your files in a Media folder. When you download files from the iTunes Store, they go there automatically; when you rip CDs the same thing occurs. When you add files to your music library from your drive, assuming you’ve left the “Copy files…” checkbox enabled (it’s described just ahead), Music copies them from their original location, and you can delete the originals.
By default, the Music app puts files in its Media folder in a set of subfolders by artist, and then, in each artist’s folder, by album. Some people don’t want Music to put files in folders that way. Music’s Media preferences have several related options (Figure 59).
Here’s what the options do:
Music Media folder location: The default location is that shown in Where Are All Those Files?, but I’ll discuss why you might change the location ahead, in Manage a Huge Music Library.
Keep Music Media folder organized: This checkbox controls whether or not Music will re-file your media after you’ve initially added it to your Music library. With this checkbox selected, if you modify certain tags for an item in your library (including Artist, Album, Compilation, and Title), Music re-files the item so its location in the Music Media folder matches its tags. This is probably the best way for most people to organize files, because you can easily sift through your music in the Finder.
Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to library: Finally, you can have Music copy files to the Music Media folder. Why would you want to uncheck this box? Well, if you are uptight about letting Music control your files, you can put them anywhere you want (you’ll want to uncheck the first option too), then add them to your library (see Add Your Own Files Own to the Music App). When this option is unchecked, Music saves pointers to the files, but it doesn’t move them, so you can have the organization that you want, and be totally responsible for keeping files in the correct locations. But, if you manually move any files after you’ve added them to your library, Music won’t be able to find them again.
If you’ve prevented Music from copying and organizing files, but change your mind, you can enable the two checkboxes and then choose File > Library > Organize Library. Music will then copy all your files to the folder structure that it uses.
File Organization for TV, Podcasts, and Books
Your options for organizing files managed the TV app are similar to that of the Music app, described above. However, you cannot change the location where the Podcasts and Books apps store their files.
Store Media Files on an External Drive
If you have lots of media files—such as videos, which take up much more space than music files—you may find yourself short on space, especially if your Mac has an SSD instead of a more capacious hard disk. If you buy a few movies, and a couple of season passes for your favorite TV shows, you’ll be using up dozens of gigabytes. And if you’re a music fan, like me, you’ll definitely need more room.
Fortunately, you can store your Music and TV Media folders on an external disk, or even on a network volume.
I keep my Media folder on an external disk that I use for just that one purpose. You may reach the point where you’ll need to make this move, a process that I’ve divided into two sets of steps. You can repeat the same steps for both the Music and TV apps, if you have media for both of them that you to offload to an external drive. (I cite only the Music app below; the steps are exactly the same for the TV app, with the exception of the folder names and paths.)
Move the Folder
Do the following to move your media folder to an external disk or volume:
Back up your files, using whatever method you regularly use, just in case. You do back up your files, right? (See Back Up Your Media Files.)
Connect the external disk, or prepare the network disk by mounting it. If you’re short on space now, plan ahead; if a 1 TB disk will hold all your media without much extra space, get a 2 TB disk so you won’t have to change again soon. Hard disks are cheap; these days, a 4 TB external hard drive costs about $100.
Go to Music > Preferences > Files.
If “Keep Music Media folder organized” is not checked, check it. (After you’ve moved your files, you can go back and uncheck this option if you so desire.)
In the “Music Media folder location” section of the Files preferences, click Change.
In the dialog that appears, navigate to your external disk or network volume. Continue navigating to where you want to keep your Music Media folder (this may be at the root level of the disk). Click New Folder, name this folder Music Media, and then click Open.
Click OK to save your changes.
Choose File > Library > Organize Library.
In the Organize Library dialog, select “Consolidate files” and then click OK.
Music (or TV) copies all your media files to the new location. This may take a while if you have a lot of files; go make a cup of tea or coffee. If you have a very large library, you may even have time to make lunch.
Verify the Transfer
Make sure that everything has copied correctly, then delete the original:
When the copy has completed, check in Music and TV to make sure that the files are found correctly: Control-click a file and choose Show in Finder. If the file is indeed in the correct location, then everything’s fine. (If not, you may need to repeat the process; but if you followed these instructions to the letter, you should have no problem.)
Working on your computer’s regular disk, move the original copy of your Media folder to the Trash. (To find the folder, read Where Are All Those Files?, a few pages earlier.) Don’t delete any of the other items in your Music folder, such as the Music Library file.
When you’re double-certain everything is working correctly from the new location, and when you’ve checked again (you can never be too careful; you did make a backup, right?), empty the Trash to free up the space that was used by the original files.
Now that you’ve moved these files, you’ll have a lot more room on your startup volume, but you’ll need to make sure to back up the files in this new location. I’ll talk about backing up your media files in Back Up Your Media Files.
Manage a Huge Music Library
My main Music library currently has some 70,000 music tracks. It took a long time to rip the thousands of CDs I’ve added to the library, as well as to buy music from the iTunes Store and other sites. My library has gradually increased to what is, some might say, a disturbing size. I’ve culled some music, creating a second library with, currently, another 70,000 tracks, so neither library is too unwieldy.
There are two problems with a large library: one is managing all that music in the Music app, and the second is syncing to an iOS device that can’t hold everything. (I’ll look at the latter issue in Sync Media to Your iOS Device or iPod.)
As far as managing music files goes, Music is a pretty good app for dealing with a large library. The most important thing you can do is carefully tag your music so you can find what you want. I find that using a maximum number of genres makes it easier to sort and drill down into my music collection. I mentioned earlier, in Tag Your Music Files, that you can add a genre to Music by typing it in the Info dialog.
But do you need all that music in your library? Do you listen to it all? Maybe you should check what you don’t listen to. Make a smart playlist with the rule [Last Played] [not in the last] 6 [months] and see what comes up. I do this occasionally and then remove music I don’t listen to, placing it in a second Music library (see below, Create More than One Music Library on Your Mac). Having multiple Music libraries doesn’t change the amount of space the files take up, but it does make my primary library less daunting. You can also back up those files to an external drive and then remove them from your disk entirely, to save space.
Create More than One Music Library on Your Mac
Back in the days when the largest capacity iPod was 40 GB, I had one iTunes library (and one iPod) for classical music, and one for the rest of my music. I’d switch libraries to sync each iPod. When iPod capacities increased, I merged the two libraries. These days, however, I use a second library to store music that I don’t listen to often, in order to keep my main library more manageable.
If you use Cloud Music Library, you can have up to 100,000 tracks, so probably won’t need a second library unless you have a special reason, perhaps to set up a simplified library for your kids, so they can more easily find music that they want.
Here’s how to make an additional library:
Launch Music, and immediately press and hold the Option key.
Music displays a dialog, as in Figure 60.
Figure 60: This dialog lets you either create a new library or choose an existing one. Click the Create Library button, enter a name for the library, and then click Save. The name you enter will be applied to a folder.
Music opens with that new empty library. You can add any of your media to it and make playlists, as you can with your main library. (To populate the new library, open your original library’s Music Media folder, find what you want to add, and then drag it to the Music window.) You can make several libraries like this.
To switch back to the original library, quit Music, launch the app while holding down the Option key, then click the Choose Library button and select the folder for the main library.
Share Your Music and TV Libraries over a Network
You can share your Music and TV libraries over a local network, such as at home, in your dorm, or in your office. You can use a feature built into macOS Catalina called Media Sharing. When you activate this, anyone on your local network can browse and play music from your library, as well as movies and TV shows in your TV app.
Media Sharing lets your family members not only play your media, but also copy your files to their libraries. If you buy new music, or rip a new CD, others in your family can copy it to their libraries easily. Media Sharing works not just on computers running Music (and TV), but also with iOS devices and Apple TVs that are on the same local network.
To activate Media Sharing, go to System Preferences, then click the Sharing icon. Enable Media Sharing, then check Home Sharing (Figure 61).
With Home Sharing, people can share your music on devices signed in with the same Apple ID as you are. If you check “Share media with guests,” you can allow anyone to access your Music library. Click Options to require a password, and to limit what you share to selected playlists.
Mount a Shared Music or TV Library
To view a shared Music library on another computer on the local network, click Library in the sidebar and select the name of the library you want to load (Figure 62).
A shared library may take a while to load if it’s large and if your home network isn’t speedy. It can notably take a long time for album artwork to appear if you load a large library. When it’s loaded, you access its contents via the Music app’s sidebar. If you click the library’s name in the sidebar, you can switch back to your library.
Playing content is the same as from your own library. You can even drag music from a shared library to your Up Next queue. However, if you load a shared library that contains Apple Music tracks on a computer that is not subscribed to Apple Music, you will not see the Apple Music content.
You can also access a Media Sharing library on a local Apple TV or iOS device:
Apple TV: On a second-, third-, or fourth-generation Apple TV, go to Settings > Users and Accounts > Home Sharing and sign in using the same Apple ID that your copy of Music is using for Home Sharing. You can now play media from the shared library using the Computers app.
iOS device: Go to Settings > Music, or go to Settings > TV > iTunes Videos, and sign in to Home Sharing at the bottom of either screen. You can now play music and videos from the Music or TV app by accessing Home Sharing on these apps’ main screens.
Copy Media from One Music Library to Another
Although you can transfer files over a network and add them to the Music or TV app manually, Home Sharing is an easy way to copy content across Macs or PCs in your home.
Set up Home Sharing, and load the shared library by choosing it in the Library section of the sidebar. (If you need help, read Share Your Music and TV Libraries over a Network and Mount a Shared Music or TV Library, both earlier in this chapter).
Select a view in the sidebar, such as Albums, Artists, or Genres, in Music, or Movies, TV Shows, or Home Videos, in the TV app. You’ll see a pop-up menu and two buttons (Figure 63) in the bottom of the window.
Let’s consider each option:
Show pop-up menu: Choose what type of content to display—either All Items or Items Not in My Library. With the latter, you can see what’s new or what you don’t have in your library, compared with the library you’re sharing.
Import button: You can import any item(s) by selecting them and clicking Import. Music or TV copies them over the network and adds them to your library. You can select Recently Added in the sidebar, for example, to see new music in the Home Sharing library.
Set up automatic transfers: The real advantage to Home Sharing, however, lies behind the Settings button. You can set your Mac to automatically transfer music, movies, and TV shows, and this content is placed in the appropriate app’s library. However, there’s a hitch: automatic transfers apply only to iTunes Store content. If the library’s owner buys a movie or an album, those items will transfer. But if they rip a CD or add music from another music vendor, that content will not transfer, though you can import it manually. So it’s probably just as easy to turn on automatic downloads for this content on each computer (see Automatically Download Purchases to the Music App to find out how to turn on automatic downloads from the iTunes Store).
Back Up Your Media Files
No matter how you add content to your media library—whether you rip your own CDs and DVDs or buy music and videos from the iTunes Store or from other vendors—this content is as ephemeral as all digital files. If you don’t back it up regularly, there’s a chance that you’ll lose it. While this is less of a problem for CDs you’ve ripped, since you can always rip them again, think of the amount of time you’d have to spend to re-rip and re-tag your CDs. Backing up media files is as important as backing up all the other files you have on your computer.
You can use any of a number of backup apps to back up your data locally to an external disk or DVDs. On a Mac, you can use Time Machine, which is a feature of macOS.
However, all manner of catastrophes can happen, so a local backup may not be enough. If you live in California or Japan, you know that the ground moves occasionally. Excessive rain may flood your home. And in the U.S. state of Kansas, your computer could be taken to Oz without warning. For these reasons, you should consider keeping a backup of your media collection—if it’s as important to you as mine is to me—in an offsite location. And I don’t mean in the house next door, but, perhaps, at a friend’s or relative’s house a fair distance away, or in a safe deposit box in a bank. You can rotate the backups regularly—every few months, for example, if you have to mail the hard disks, or monthly, if it’s nearby—so you can always have a backup that’s more-or-less up to date.
In any case, I urge you to back up your media library regularly. While you can re-download some of your purchased content from the iTunes Store, if, like me, you have spent a lot of time ripping and tagging CDs, losing those files would be terrible.
Also, if you have the bandwidth, consider an online backup service such as Backblaze.
I recommend that you read Joe Kissell’s Take Control of Backing Up Your Mac for information about making effective backups.