On Ventura do I still open a .itl file after Option-clicking on the Music app?

Question

After a few steps:

1. Connect external drive to (old) macOS running Big Sur.
2. Format drive (APFS).
3. Still on macOS running Big Sur: cp -pr ~/Music /Volumes/MyDisk/
4. Connect external drive to (new) macOS running Ventura.
5. Option-click on Music app; select /Volumes/MyDisk/Music/iTunes

At this point I can load the file iTunes Library.itl and everything seems OK, but that file (iTunes Library.itl) is several years old, and the music collection, including "Last Played", reveals that I'm looking at old data.

On Ventura do I still open a .itl file after Option-clicking on the Music app?

If a .itl file is not the right one to select; which one is?

Answer 1

No, do not choose the .itl file. It is a leftover file from the iTunes app (the one with the CD icon).

The new Music app uses ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary (rather than ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl).

Notice that by default Finder conceals the extension (of both files and, in this case, folders). Hence the folder appears as Music Library.

If you've been maintaining your library for many years, the actual music files will be inside the ~/Music/iTunes folder.

(Future work: The two checkboxes Keep Music Media folder organized and Copy files to Music Media folder when adding to library are already checked. Find out how to move out of ~/Music/iTunes and into ~/Music/Music for good.)