Got my Mac Mini. Set up was a breeze and I decided not to transfer everything from my old iMac to the new computer for various reason.

Most important iPhone stuff was automatic. Contacts, notes, stuff like that. Music, not so much. Everything I bought from Apple is on the new computer. But my iMac (with iTunes) and my phone have tons of music burned from CDs years ago. The new Mac Mini doesn't have the files. When I connect my phone it wants to sync music from the new Mac to the phone, deleting stuff not on the Mac. I don't want to delete. I want all my music on the Mac.

Searching google only shows results for going in the wrong direction. Seriously ridiculous. There has to be an easier way so I ask you guys...

Why not just get a SSD like a Samsung T5, plug it in to the old machine and copy the files to the SSD? Do the reverse on the new machine. Yes, it won’t be fast, but you can set the copy off and check it in the morning.

For a company that prides itself on this kind of thing I've been distinctly underwhelmed by Apple's (specifically: iOS/iPadOS) handling of music. Or should I say: Not handling.

Near as I've been able to tell: Your choices are iTunes. That's it. No iTunes, no music.

So I've no music on my iThings and the music in the Jeep, instead of being played off my iPhone, which would've been tres convenient, I write to a card I plug into the Jeep's entertainment system.

I can do a manual transfer. Just need to figure what folder to put it so it shows up in Music. iTunes is not used anymore.

Since it’s a new computer, I’d call Apple.

iTunes Match (this is an Apple service) to store all your music files, regardless of source) with Apple. It costs something like $25/year.

Download copies to your new Mac mini

Back it up to a Bluetooth or WiFi enabled SSD.

My work here is done.

 
Go to the iTunes Library on the old iMac and find your songs/albums. Copy them to the new mini in a temporary folder, named something like "MyMusic".
 
Open Music on the new mini. Use the command File/Add to Library, or the keyboard shortcut Command-O(pen). Browse to your temporary folder, open it and highlight everything in it, and click Open. That should import all of your old music to Music on the mini.
 
If you have Playlists, you will have to manually export/import them, individually. On the iMac, in iTunes, highlight a Playlist, go to Library/Export Playlist. It will export the Playlist to a file. Do that for each Playlist, then copy the files to the mini. Open Music on the mini, use File/Import Playlist and import each one individually.
 
Do the music files first, then the Playlists.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
For a company that prides itself on this kind of thing I've been distinctly underwhelmed by Apple's (specifically: iOS/iPadOS) handling of music. Or should I say: Not handling.

Near as I've been able to tell: Your choices are iTunes. That's it. No iTunes, no music.

So I've no music on my iThings and the music in the Jeep, instead of being played off my iPhone, which would've been tres convenient, I write to a card I plug into the Jeep's entertainment system.

100%
Same with video files. I have zero videos or music on my phone.
They also are a gigantic pain about photos. Just let me plug the phone into the computer then drag and drop to and from.
You used to actually be able to do this.

I just stream from my phone all the rest use a flash drive.
One day however I will get myself in gear and setup a Plex server and be able to stream my music and videos on the phone.

There is a certain irony to Apple’s 1984 TV ad.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
They also are a gigantic pain about photos.

Photos and videos aren't so bad, IMO. You have to use your iCloud storage, and, sometimes, that means waiting for whatever it is to show up there, but a web browser logged into your iCloud account makes it relatively easy.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Just let me plug the phone into the computer then drag and drop to and from.

One of the conveniences I miss from my Android days, I admit.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
You used to actually be able to do this.

I thought that on MS-Win and Mac PCs you still could?

There's a driver for Linux that allegedly allows this, but Apple keeps mucking with the protocol and breaking it.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
There is a certain irony to Apple’s 1984 TV ad.

More than you know, I bet.

About a year ago Apple announced a new initiative: CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) scanning on Apple devices. Not just iPhones and iPads, either. In Mac OS as well!

Yes, that's right: Apple planned to scan users' photos and videos on-device for CSAM. What could possibly go wrong, eh?

The outcry was so great that, after a bunch of singing and dancing they were finally obliged to "suspend" their plans "for review." They still haven't cancelled them. In fact: Some of the software to accomplish this has been in iOS, iPadOS, and Mac OS for over a year.

(Unsurprisingly, to everybody but Apple, it seems, talented hackers broke thier CSAM-scanning algorithms nearly right away, causing them to generate false positives.)

This is why our plans to invest several thousand dollars in new Apple kit (a new iPad for me and a couple Mac desktops) remain in abeyance, we cancelled Apple TV+, and I disabled Siri everywhere - essentially doing-away with everything Apple we didn't need.



Yeah, not so much

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
They also are a gigantic pain about photos.

Photos and videos aren't so bad, IMO. You have to use your iCloud storage, and, sometimes, that means waiting for whatever it is to show up there, but a web browser logged into your iCloud account makes it relatively easy.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Just let me plug the phone into the computer then drag and drop to and from.

One of the conveniences I miss from my Android days, I admit.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
You used to actually be able to do this.

I thought that on MS-Win and Mac PCs you still could?

There's a driver for Linux that allegedly allows this, but Apple keeps mucking with the protocol and breaking it.

I use Amazon for photos and video as it is seamless. All our phones/tablets (both Apple and Android) and Upload to Amazon as soon as I take the pic or video and have the Amazon photos app on everything.
Simple, not so much for Apple.

If there is still a way to plug the iPhone into a PC and just have it show up like a USB drive I would love to know how to do it.
Have not been able to do it in years.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
If there is still a way to plug the iPhone into a PC and just have it show up like a USB drive I would love to know how to do it.

I don't think it'll do that--show up as USB storage. My impression was there's an app for that?

Dunno. Don't own any MS-Win or Mac PCs.

There should be an option to export all your old music from old Mac to new Mac and like someone mentioned, iTunes is no more.

With your iPhone plugged in USB to your Mac, run Music, and in the left pane you will see "Devices." Select your phone and the music on the phone will be listed, then drag away.

iPods (remember them?) work the same way, I don't know about iPads, or Android phones.

Apple Music is simply Apple iTunes renamed, perhaps with a few "improvements." I think it is still named iTunes on non-Apple platforms.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
With your iPhone plugged in USB to your Mac, run Music, and in the left pane you will see "Devices." Select your phone and the music on the phone will be listed, then drag away.

iPods (remember them?) work the same way, I don't know about iPads, or Android phones.

Apple Music is simply Apple iTunes renamed, perhaps with a few "improvements." I think it is still named iTunes on non-Apple platforms.

Nope, no can do. No dragging. Yesterday it didn't even show my music on the iPhone. Today it does but I think there was an issue with authorizing the computer that fixed that issue.

Well screw it. Apple Wins. I just subscribed to Apple Music. Figured I'd see what the trial had and I'm listening to stuff I didn't have but wanted to buy. I can afford it and it seems pretty good. I have Amazon Music through the wife's account but it's not Mac friendly I guess.