Can I recover lost playlists from Time Machine backup on iMac running Sequoia?

My old 2017 Imac was in a reboot cycle demise, so i took it to the genius bar for repair. The unplugging seemed to fix the problem temprarily, but all the music files and playlists were lost from Music app.


The problem continued so I bought my new (refurb) Imac, with its sequoia upgrade. Finally found the music files and imported them, but the playlists (a lifetime's work) seem to be lost.


Can I get them back from a Time machine backukp of the old machine?


[Re-Titled by Moderator]



iMac 24″, macOS 15.3

Posted on Apr 1, 2025 7:22 AM

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Apr 4, 2025 10:21 AM in response to homestretch-harry

What OS was the 2017 iMac running? Playlists would be stored either in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl if it was a pre-Catalina OS or ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary for Catalina or later. You should be able to extract a suitable backup file and option-start-Music to access it.


See also Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community in case there is still some post-iTunes clean up to do.


tt2

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Can I recover lost playlists from Time Machine backup on iMac running Sequoia?

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