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Apple Music / iCloud Music Library has made a right old mess of my iTunes library :(
- Thread starter andyp350
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Just discovered this, too. This issue needs a dedicated front page article on MacRumors, too - if only to save others who toggle the iCloud music library switch on, have to witness how their iTunes library is destroyed within minutes and don't have a proper backup.
This is going to ruin my "all in with Apple" approach with Apple. iCloud Photo Library works well enough (but still bizarre in it's implementation), but iCloud Music Library is a mess. I want MY MUSIC separate from APPLE MUSIC.
Looks like I'll have to continue using 2 apps (ie along with Spotify) to get this.
Looks like I just wasted my 3 month trial.
My other option his to "archive" my stuff and strictly get everything from Apple Music and make a brand new, fresh iTunes Library for this. I think that's what I'm going to do.
Looks like I'll have to continue using 2 apps (ie along with Spotify) to get this.
Looks like I just wasted my 3 month trial.
My other option his to "archive" my stuff and strictly get everything from Apple Music and make a brand new, fresh iTunes Library for this. I think that's what I'm going to do.
I would definitely do so if you want to be sure. If your iTunes media files are in a different location (e.g. external hard drive) than your iTunes music folder (which contains the library file etc.), maybe even backup both. I can't really imagine that this iCloud mess goes that far to directly rewrite the tags of the "physical" mp3s, but at this point, I consider everything possible...
I keep my iTunes media folder/files in the standard place on my Mac. But I will direct copy the whole deal to my NAS for safe storage.
If it's sacred you should already have a backup or two, if you haven't already got one do it now.
Not only is it rewriting tags, it's changing the name of your files.
I do copy each and every track I add to my library to my NAS. However I don't have the .itl stuff to rebuild so that's why I asked.
Not knowing there was a new sub-forum for Apple Music I started a thread with this same issue in another sub-forum.
Same happened to me: duplicates everywhere, missing files or files with incorrect names, and incorrect tags in my iTunes library. A complete mess.
But I was able to fix it, here is what I did:
I hope this helps!
Same happened to me: duplicates everywhere, missing files or files with incorrect names, and incorrect tags in my iTunes library. A complete mess.
But I was able to fix it, here is what I did:
- I restored from a past backup of my iTunes library (from Time Machine). I deleted my current Music folder and replaced it with the one I had backed up. Make sure it is a recent one, so you don't loose anything.
- Then I turned iCloud Library on. All my duplicates/incorrect tags/etc. appeared again.
- Purchase an iTunes Match subscription.
- Manually deleted every song from my library, specifying when doing so to also delete it from the cloud. (for some reason, I couldn't make this if I didn't purchase iTunes Match).
- Disabled iTunes Match.
- Restore my library from my backup again.
I hope this helps!
Really?! Jesus, what black evil magic is this iCloud Music Library disaster??? I thought it "only" (!) re-writes your iTunes Library itl file... (Then again: if you have "manage iTunes media folder automatically" enabled, probably ends in the same thing anyway - touching your files directly because of the new information.)
Please Apple, let us simply choose - like we did before – which playlists from our library we want to sync with our iPhone and iPad and IN ADDITION be able to use Apple Music as a paying customer to add songs for online and offline listening in these playlists and to create new playlists with them, and all this without the stupid whole "all or nothing" (and faulty) iCloud approach!
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As I posted in my own thread, all seems to be working now after a full restore. I think the problem stems from having music already loaded onto our phones, and in some cases choosing Merge instead of Replace when activating iCloud Music Library.
Once all music and playlists were removed and a full restore performed there was no music to conflict with what iTunes was sending to the cloud. All is downloading normally now. When merging your phone with the cloud is what most likely caused duplicates to appear.
Best thing to do is just restore your entire phone and start from scratch when it comes to downloading tunes. I'm happier now. Yes, songs are loading much faster than with the old iTunes Match.
Once all music and playlists were removed and a full restore performed there was no music to conflict with what iTunes was sending to the cloud. All is downloading normally now. When merging your phone with the cloud is what most likely caused duplicates to appear.
Best thing to do is just restore your entire phone and start from scratch when it comes to downloading tunes. I'm happier now. Yes, songs are loading much faster than with the old iTunes Match.
Same issue here. Half my library now completely mislabelled as duplicates of other songs. Talked with Apple support and they said a fix is coming, but no ETA. They seemed to imply it should fix everything, but I have my doubts as the metadata seems totally wiped (even the file names in the Finder were changed).
I'm going strictly streaming WITHOUT turning on iCloud Music Library. This is such a mess. Typical of Apple these days.
Wouldn't "merge" be the correct choice if you want to keep your local music and iCloud music separately? I would have chosen this option over "replace"... But I guess that's part of the problem: I don't even understand what exactly the concept behind the "iCloud Music Library" is, what it uploads and what not, what the difference between "merge" and "replace" is. If I am really forced to turn this thing on only to save AM songs offline and create playlists, I expected that it simply shows/syncs those AM playlists on all my devices where I have turned this option on and keeps the other part of my music management as it was before. Nothing more, and especially not this iCloud iTunes-Match wannabe "keep every device exactly the same, don't be able to sync only selected and/or smart playlists anymore, destroy your handpicked tags/artwork" crap. No problem if Apple offers this as an additional option, but why should this mess be necessary for only creating AM playlists with or without offline listening?!
This is the first time I am really upset about something Apple does – mainly because Apple Music would simply be PERFECT for me if it worked the "normal" way. Like Spotify, but much better integrated into the Apple music ecosystem I chose.
Could we just sync our iOS devices with all music unchecked in Music options? That would remove all the sync'd iTunes music.
Wow ... this is bad. I'm glad I had a time machine back up from before this mess. My system is currently crawling along restoring the media. This had better work ...
My iTunes library on my macbook was also looking a bit mess after activating the service (duplicates being reported & mixed up artwork etc ... the playlists were suddenly a disaster), but then I discovered the problem was not just cosmetic.
I was looking at the details of a track that actually had no cloud status symbol next to it (Killer by adamski) when it suddenly vanished from the list right before my eyes. I used search in itunes to look for the song, but no results were returned. Then in finder I navigated to the media folder and found the album folder which had just one track left in it (this used to be a complete album which I had ripped from CD myself).
Thinking i was losing my mind, I grabbed my time machine back up and located the album in the last back up. It was indeed a compete album.
There was no sign of the 'deleted' files on my system .. not in the trash .. nowhere.
I have no idea how many other files have 'vanished', but I have given up looking. Once this time machine restore finishes, I'm done with this service.
My iTunes library on my macbook was also looking a bit mess after activating the service (duplicates being reported & mixed up artwork etc ... the playlists were suddenly a disaster), but then I discovered the problem was not just cosmetic.
I was looking at the details of a track that actually had no cloud status symbol next to it (Killer by adamski) when it suddenly vanished from the list right before my eyes. I used search in itunes to look for the song, but no results were returned. Then in finder I navigated to the media folder and found the album folder which had just one track left in it (this used to be a complete album which I had ripped from CD myself).
Thinking i was losing my mind, I grabbed my time machine back up and located the album in the last back up. It was indeed a compete album.
There was no sign of the 'deleted' files on my system .. not in the trash .. nowhere.
I have no idea how many other files have 'vanished', but I have given up looking. Once this time machine restore finishes, I'm done with this service.
Anyone else not just seeing duplicates, but duplicated that don't even match their metadeta?
Like, for example, for one Foo Fighters album, each song had a duplicate. But the duplicate wasn't Foo Fighters. It was something else, with Foo Fighters metadeta. It did that for a bunch of albums. It was completely fubared. Thank goodness for a TM backup.
Like, for example, for one Foo Fighters album, each song had a duplicate. But the duplicate wasn't Foo Fighters. It was something else, with Foo Fighters metadeta. It did that for a bunch of albums. It was completely fubared. Thank goodness for a TM backup.
I'm not sure. Everything I've done in the past was no help for this. I literally had to wipe my entire phone. It's just bizarre. I only had luck when the phone was a clean slate for the iCloud Library to download to.
I don't see the option to turn off iCloud Music Library in the iTunes preferences (desktop). Anyone have a screenshot?
Also, how do I delete everything that was "match/upload" to iCloud Music Library?
I'm going to make a fresh, empty iTunes Library tonight and use the service with that. I'm going to bascially archive my real iTunes library.
Also, how do I delete everything that was "match/upload" to iCloud Music Library?
I'm going to make a fresh, empty iTunes Library tonight and use the service with that. I'm going to bascially archive my real iTunes library.
Ok. I spoke too soon. LMAO. I just about downloaded 2000 songs when the app crashed and deleted all my music. This is rich.
What a complete and utter disaster. Deleting or functionally destroying files automatically. Can you imagine how many people had this happen without backups? So thankful I just updated my backup 2 days earlier.
Wow, wish I would have saw this tread. Mine is uploading 23,050 songs again to iCloud Music, (old match?)
I am clearly not sure what to do here. This will get ugly.
I am clearly not sure what to do here. This will get ugly.
This is why I'm waiting on all Apple software from now on.
That's what I did for iCloud Photo Library, and it works like a charm and is fast.
I was just too hyped and ready to get away from Spotify, I jumped the gun. This is what I get. My library still seems to be intact, but I need to reload some albums from my back because the name name changed/got the DRM'd version of the Apple Music download.
This is a cluster ****.
That's what I did for iCloud Photo Library, and it works like a charm and is fast.
I was just too hyped and ready to get away from Spotify, I jumped the gun. This is what I get. My library still seems to be intact, but I need to reload some albums from my back because the name name changed/got the DRM'd version of the Apple Music download.
This is a cluster ****.