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iPhone All synced music randomly deleted

V

verdi1987

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 19, 2010
698
511
Running iOS 13 beta 4.

I have Apple Music but iCloud Music Library disabled. I have (or had) nearly 100 GB of synced music from iTunes.

A few days ago, all my synced music suddenly disappeared, and all that remained was the music I've added in Apple Music. (I don't have iCloud Music Library enabled on this iPhone, but there is Apple Music in iCloud Music Library that I access from other devices.)

I re-synced all my music back from iTunes.

Then the same thing happened today. All my synced music disappeared, and all that remains is what is contained in iCloud Music Library, which is still disabled on this iPhone.

These events happened randomly and independent of an iTunes sync. There is sufficient space on the iPhone (only half of the 256 GB were used when the synced music was present). I confirmed that the music is in fact deleted, as it is now free space.

This had never occurred before, and now it happened twice in a handful of days.

Has anyone else experienced this?
 
verdi1987 said:
Running iOS 13 beta 4.

I have Apple Music but iCloud Music Library disabled. I have (or had) nearly 100 GB of synced music from iTunes.

A few days ago, all my synced music suddenly disappeared, and all that remained was the music I've added in Apple Music. (I don't have iCloud Music Library enabled on this iPhone, but there is Apple Music in iCloud Music Library that I access from other devices.)

I re-synced all my music back from iTunes.

Then the same thing happened today. All my synced music disappeared, and all that remains is what is contained in iCloud Music Library, which is still disabled on this iPhone.

These events happened randomly and independent of an iTunes sync. There is sufficient space on the iPhone (only half of the 256 GB were used when the synced music was present). I confirmed that the music is in fact deleted, as it is now free space.

This had never occurred before, and now it happened twice in a handful of days.

Has anyone else experienced this?
Click to expand...

Yes. Twice now. Just happened this morning and it’s very frustrating. When I sync back, not all of the artwork comes back. I refuse to turn on the Library Syncing/iCloud music library because it really messes up my collection.

I really hope this is a bug. If it’s their way of trying to get us to turn that feature on, I will be very upset.
 
In the thread on "how to sync music, movies, and more using iTunes on your Mac or PC"


it says this near the top (bolding is mine, it's not bolded in the document)

"Before you use iTunes to sync content to your iOS device, consider using iCloud, Apple Music, or similar services to keep content from your Mac or PC in the cloud. This way, you can access your music, photos, and more on your iOS devices when you aren't near your computer. Learn more about using Apple Music or iCloud Photos instead of iTunes.

If you use iCloud or other services like Apple Music to keep your content up to date across all of your devices, syncing through iTunes might be turned off."
​
-----------

More info from my own experience:

Now that doesn't say "... and previously sync'd music from iTunes library may be removed from your iOS device" but that could be what's happening and why it's happening.

On an iOS device you can't actually mix music that is sync'd straight from your own library via iTunes with stuff downloaded from Apple Music. You can only mix AM downloads with downloads from your iCloud Music Library.

A workaround if you don't want to turn on iCloud Music Library: You could just skip sync of your stuff to your iOS library and then use Apple Music versions when you want to make a playlist on your device that includes music you do already own... just pretend you don't own any music and download it all off AM when you want it on the device.

The only problem there is if you do own stuff that AM doesn't have and you want to be able to use that with some Apple Music downloads. That is why they suggest you turn on ICM because when you do that then stuff of yours that they can't match in the cloud gets uploaded from your library to your iCloud and then downloaded again as AAC versions that get stashed in your Apple Music Library. They don't upload the stuff you own that you bought from iTunes because it's already "in the cloud" so to speak and you can redownload it for free onto your iOS devices so long as it remains available. (you should always back your itunes purchases up someplace in case the store quits selling it for some reason).

Personally, I only download any AM to one laptop on which I have a special iTunes library that started out containing nothing, and on that library I turned iCloud Music Library on. It does show me everything i've bought from iTunes when I have it in "show all music" view, and makes all that available for me to redownload selectively and mix with AM downloads if I want to do that.

So the way I work it, I just have to remember to open iTunes on my laptop with the option key held down so I can pick the library I want to use.

I use my regular library to sync my iOS devices and sync them manually so their content is all different. I stream AM on them but never turn on ICM and so I never download Apple Music picks onto them.

I use my special library when I want to listen on my laptop to Apple Music I've downloaded into that machine, with the option to redownload stuff I've purchased to make mixed playlists if I want to have them. I have iCloud Music Library turned on in that library on my laptop, but not in my laptop's other reguar iTunes library.

I do not and cannot "sync" from that special library on my laptop to any of my iOS devices.​
 
On an iOS device you can't actually mix music that is sync'd straight from your own library via iTunes with stuff downloaded from Apple Music. You can only mix AM downloads with downloads from your iCloud Music Library.
Click to expand...

That has never been true in the past. Since iPhone 3G, I’ve had a perfect blend of purchased and uploaded music on my phone.
To go through everything you typed out is ridiculous to have to do.
I’ve never had any issue before this week. There’s no reason why the 250GB of non Apple Music shouldn’t be available in my phone at all times. Especially without turning on the awful iCloud Library.
 
Last edited:
LizKat said:
I quite agree. but you still can't just plug a device that has AM downloaded on it already into a laptop and try to sync it to the regular itunes library on that machine.
Click to expand...

I have done exactly that every single day for over a decade. I’m not sure what you are talking about.
 
pudge104 said:
Yes. Twice now. Just happened this morning and it’s very frustrating. When I sync back, not all of the artwork comes back. I refuse to turn on the Library Syncing/iCloud music library because it really messes up my collection.
Click to expand...

I leave iCloud Music Library disabled for the same reason. The one time I enabled it, it really screwed up my meticulously maintained library. I do use it on a separate iPhone and separate MBP where I do not store my collection.
 
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Yes I leave it turned off for the same reasons. Really screws with all the metadata you have carefully constructed over the years. Never had issues syncing until Catalina and iOS 13. I’ve had all the problems mentioned on various threads and have also had my entire library randomly vanish off my phone numerous times. Frustrating!
 
Thank god I don’t even have Apple Music in the first place. I can’t imagine how frustrating it goes for me when what OP described happens, as I mix Japanese with English, and include metadata that is more accurate sometimes than iTunes Store version.

What I would suggest is trying to log out of iTunes Store and App Store from your device and sync, see how it happens. Without an account, iTunes library content should not be messed up with whatever ICM has downloaded. Maybe Apple applies their “iOS device can only sync to one library” policy over here as well. Anybody remember this back in old days?
 
Shirasaki said:
What I would suggest is trying to log out of iTunes Store and App Store from your device and sync, see how it happens. Without an account, iTunes library content should not be messed up with whatever ICM has downloaded. Maybe Apple applies their “iOS device can only sync to one library” policy over here as well. Anybody remember this back in old days?
Click to expand...

The thing is I do use Apple Music without iCloud Music Library, so I need to be logged in to iTunes at some point.

My synced music had coexisted fine with AM without iCloud Music Library until iOS 13 beta 4. And even in beta 4, it behaves as expected for a few days until your synced music suddenly disappears.

It must be a bug. I reported it. Hopefully, it gets resolved soon.
 
verdi1987 said:
The thing is I do use Apple Music without iCloud Music Library, so I need to be logged in to iTunes at some point.

My synced music had coexisted fine with AM without iCloud Music Library until iOS 13 beta 4. And even in beta 4, it behaves as expected for a few days until your synced music suddenly disappears.

It must be a bug. I reported it. Hopefully, it gets resolved soon.
Click to expand...
Finger crossed.
 
Beta 4 deletes music library’s entirely after a few days and embedded album art doesn’t show in the music app or get synced across. Was fine in iTunes
 
Madonnnaaaaaaaaa said:
Beta 4 deletes music library’s entirely after a few days and embedded album art doesn’t show in the music app or get synced across. Was fine in iTunes
Click to expand...
Do you also use iCloud Music Library or not? Are you using Catalina alongside iOS 13?
At this point, yeah, there is nothing much you can do. Finger crossed.
If your old iTunes library file is still around (Previous iTunes library), see if you can go back to whatever version you were upgraded from in Mojave. I am using iTunes 12.6.5.3 and so far so ok. No delete and changes are synced across multiple devices properly.
 
pudge104 said:
Is all of your artwork present? Mine is still severely messed up. Seems to be the purchased iTunes files that aren’t working.
Click to expand...

My artwork seems to be OK.

I had to sync my entire library (about 130 GB) twice. The first time, after all the music had finished syncing, iTunes hung on the final step of syncing artwork. After about an hour I killed iTunes and rebooted my phone. As a result, most of the synced music disappeared (not because of the bug described in the original post but because iTunes never fully completed the sync). So then I had to re-sync my entire library again.
 
pudge104 said:
Is all of your artwork present? Mine is still severely messed up. Seems to be the purchased iTunes files that aren’t working.
Click to expand...
No. iTunes synced one does not work either. Playlist artwork Is still a huge mess.
 
It is a beta. If you really care about things not getting deleted, messed up, lost, etc. due to bugs, you shouldn't be using a beta.

It doesn't help fix what's happening and I can imagine it's frustrating. Take it as a lesson, simply don't use betas if you're not prepared to encounter precisely these kinds of scenarios - as it can and does happen with pre-release software.
 
dumastudetto said:
It is a beta. If you really care about things not getting deleted, messed up, lost, etc. due to bugs, you shouldn't be using a beta.
Click to expand...

I think everyone understands that betas have bugs and accepts the risks. I reported this deletion bug to Apple.

I have two iPhones. One always remains on GA.
 
verdi1987 said:
I think everyone understands that betas have bugs and accepts the risks. I reported this deletion bug to Apple.

I have two iPhones. One always remains on GA.
Click to expand...

Yeah I wasn't aiming my comment specifically at you. I don't think everyone understands that these things can happen with betas, which is the problem. People get seduced by the shiny new features and jump right in, ignoring all the warnings.

Again not aiming any of this at you. You're doing exactly what is expected as someone helping test the beta. :D
 
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