After the release of new macOS Catalina or any other Mac operating system I sometimes prefer clean install of the latest operating system on my iMac / MacBook / MacBook Pro or Mac Pro.
I back up all of the current user home folders on external storage or external hard disk or external solid-state drive.
Once the operating system is installed on ‘Macintosh HD’ and admin user account created on Mac now it’s time to start transferring data from the external drive to Mac’s user home folder.
Once you are ready with account already setup then follow these steps to transfer music.
Step 01: Copy your old ‘iTunes’ folder to your user’s Music folder located at e.g. User > Music > iTunes
Step 02: Hold down the ‘Option’ key while opening the Apple ‘Music’ app from the dock or application folder. You will be presented with a dialogue box called ‘Choose Music Library. Now click on button ‘Choose Library’.
Step 03: Now select ‘iTunes Library.itl’ file which is located in your iTunes folder which you just copied at ‘Step 01’ e.g. User > Music > iTunes > iTunes Library.itl
Step 04: Now Music app will then ask you to save this as a new Music Library. Give it a name than your other library and now pick a location. e.g I choose ‘Music’ as a library name and choose User > Music > Music as a location for the new library.
Step 05: You are done. You have just imported your old iTunes library to your new Music app on your newly installed Mac operating system with intact songs and album play counts and star ratings.
Hope this tutorial helps you to import your old iTunes Library to your new Mac computer.
Thanks & Regards
Mandar Apte