“Is your Apple Music library missing? Are songs you believed were securely stored in iCloud mysteriously gone? Here’s how to take action.”
“Apple Music serves as an excellent tool for enjoying your music collection on various Apple devices. With the capacity to stream both new favorites and cherished classics across all your devices, maintaining an up-to-date and well-synchronized Apple Music library ensures a consistently harmonious soundtrack to your life. If you find yourself, like countless other users, grappling with the issue of missing songs in your Apple Music library, consider these tips to regain your musical groove.”
1. Synchronize Your Library Again
“While Apple Music offers a substantial music library for streaming, its synchronization system leaves room for improvement. Apple Music relies heavily on iCloud to sync a user’s music across all their devices, which can lead to a variety of issues, from the deletion of your music collection to playlists appearing empty and duplicate songs.
One of the most common instances of an incorrect music library occurs when users initially sign up for Apple Music, especially when enabling iCloud Music Library. This feature allows you to create a synchronized library of streaming music across all Apple devices. Apple scans your music library, replacing known songs with links to its own versions and uploading unfamiliar tracks to its servers.
If you’ve enabled iCloud Music Library and discover that files have disappeared from your iOS device, such as an iPhone or iPad, and you can’t easily re-add them from Apple’s Music Library, you can resolve this by re-syncing your library on a computer.
To re-sync your Apple Music library, follow these steps:
1. Ensure a stable internet connection on your device.
2. Open the Apple Music app and select ‘Account.’
3. Choose ‘Check for Available Downloads.’
4. If prompted, enter your Apple ID and password.
5. Purchases not already on your device will be automatically downloaded.”
2. Retrieve the Specific Tracks That Are Absent
Should you discover that a recent purchase is absent from one of your streaming devices, you can resolve this by utilizing the respective device to directly download the content. This can be effortlessly accomplished via the Apple Music app.
To download a particular title, adhere to the following steps:
1. Launch the Apple Music app on your device.
2. Choose the iTunes store from the left sidebar.
3. Click on ‘Purchased’ situated on the right side of the iTunes window.
4. Locate the content you wish to download and click on the ‘Download Cloud’ icon.
3. Verify Whether Apple Is Encountering a Problem
When you encounter an individual occurrence of your Apple Music library not functioning as expected, it might be indicative of a broader platform problem. Therefore, consider investigating the operational status of the Apple Music platform by consulting the Apple system status page.
4. Additional Problem-Solving Choices
If you’ve allowed your Apple Music subscription to lapse and as a result, you’re missing your previous libraries and curated playlists, there are troubleshooting steps you can take to recover access to that content:
1. Confirm that your Apple Music settings are correctly configured. To ensure your library is set to sync, navigate to the Settings menu and enable the Sync option.
2. Ensure you’re using the most up-to-date version of Apple Music. To check this, look for software updates in the General section of your Apple device.
3. Examine your device’s available storage. If your music isn’t syncing properly, it might be due to insufficient space on your selected device.
4. Check other devices, such as a Mac or Windows computer running iTunes, for a copy of your old library. You may need to transfer it manually, and you might want to consider disabling that device’s internet connection to prevent unwanted updates.
5. If you’ve shared playlists with friends, ask them for a playlist link (accessible through the share button on iOS devices or by right-clicking on a computer). This way, you can gain access to the playlist and copy it to your desired device.
6. If everything has disappeared, inspect your Followed artists in your Account settings. By default, Apple Music follows all artists you’ve added to your collection, and any songs you’ve added to playlists are included in your collection as well. If you haven’t altered these settings, you may have a list of every artist you’ve ever added to your library or a playlist that can assist you in locating albums and songs.
7. If all else fails, consider reaching out to Apple. Visit Apple Support and arrange for them to contact you via phone or chat to explore options for restoring your content.
Create a Backup of Your iCloud Music Library
There have been troubling reports of users encountering an issue where Apple Music deletes files from their primary library without authorization. Apple states that their scanning, compressing, and replacing policy should not affect original files.
To ensure the safety of your downloaded music, it’s advisable to regularly back up your device. The most effective way to recover your valuable lossless files, years of metadata, rare recordings, personally edited music, and even voice memos is by restoring a backup.
Never assume that your data is perpetually secure in the cloud, and don’t take the availability of content for granted. Services like Spotify, Netflix, and Apple Music can remove content without prior notice. In the case of iCloud Music Library, this can result in the loss of years’ worth of collected songs that you assumed were safeguarded. Fortunately, there is a way to back up your library using a third-party tool.
“Free Your Music” is a versatile application that facilitates music migration between various services, including Apple Music. One of its standout features is the ability to export your library to a .CSV (comma-separated value) file. Additionally, you can use such a file to restore your library, which might become necessary if things go awry.
The more frequently you back up your library, the better. Since these .CSV files only contain text (without the actual music), they occupy minimal storage space. You pay for the service just once, and if you ever decide to switch to Google Music or Spotify, you can utilize it for that transition as well.