Manage Music Libraries in macOS 13 Music App

Managing your music collection in macOS 13 Ventura involves creating separate libraries, organizing media files, switching between different databases, and consolidating your tracks. Whether you want to separate work audio from personal playlists or maintain distinct collections for different users, the built-in Music app offers direct controls to manage, split, and maintain your audio files efficiently.

Creating or Switching Between Libraries

You can maintain multiple distinct music libraries on macOS 13 by using a startup modifier key:

  1. Quit the Music app completely (press Command + Q).
  2. Press and hold the Option key on your keyboard, then click the Music app icon in your Dock or Applications folder.
  3. Keep holding Option until a pop-up window titled "Choose Music Library" appears.
  4. Select one of two options:
    • Choose Library: Browse your local or external drives to select an existing .musiclibrary file.
    • Create Library: Name your new library and choose a directory to save it in, creating a fresh, empty music database.

To switch back or alternate between libraries in the future, repeat this process and select your desired file.

Configuring Media Storage and Organization

To ensure your music files do not get scattered across different drives, configure the app's file management settings:

  1. Open the Music app.
  2. In the menu bar, navigate to Music > Settings (or press Command + Comma).
  3. Click the Files tab.
  4. Enable Keep Music Media folder organized to automatically sort your tracks into Artist and Album subfolders.
  5. Enable Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to library to ensure imported audio files are duplicated into your dedicated media directory rather than linked from temporary folders.
  6. To change where your physical media is stored (such as on an external hard drive), click the Change... button in this tab and select a new path.

Consolidating Your Music Library

If you have added tracks from various locations over time and want to gather every file into a single directory:

  1. Open the Music app with the target library active.
  2. Go to the menu bar and select File > Library > Organize Library.
  3. Check the box for Consolidate files.
  4. Click OK.

The Music app will scan your library, copy any tracks stored outside your designated media folder into the primary folder, and update the file paths without creating duplicate entries in your playlists.

Backing Up and Exporting Library Data

To safeguard your playlists, ratings, and play counts:

  • Back up the database file: Navigate to ~/Music/ in Finder and copy the Music folder (containing your .musiclibrary file) to a secure backup drive or cloud service.
  • Export library XML: Go to File > Library > Export Library to generate an XML file containing all metadata and playlist structures, which can be imported into other software or used for recovery.