iPhone Did iOS really delete all my downloaded music because I switched stores?

[chris4565]

Hi guys,

I'm using the German iTunes store (Apple Music etc.). I couldn't find a particular album so I just googled it and found an Apple Music link to the Japanese Store. I clicked it and it asked me if I wanted to switch stores. I thought to myself: "Sure, let's check it out, what could go wrong?" Boy, was I wrong...

This is what happened:
1.) Apple Music launched and was completely frozen. Eventually it crashed.
2.) Launched Apple Music again and saw that everything was in Japanese now.
3.) Panicked ;-)
4.) Went into settings and saw that I was completely signed out of iTunes.
5.) Signed back in and wanted to change regions.
6.) Got the message that I can't change regions because I have an Apple TV+ and Apple Music subscription.
7.) Panicked again ;-)
8.) Went into Apple Music again and now it's back to German (the signing back in presumably did that).
9.) Now I noticed that all of my downloaded Music is missing from my device.

So do I now really have to re-download everything or is there any setting etc. that brings my downloads back?

Thanks and best wishes
Chris

 

[ParagJain]

Yes. I’ve had similar issues because i have store from 2 countries. Some how switching stores deletes the downloaded music.

 

[chris4565]

Yes. I’ve had similar issues because i have store from 2 countries. Some how switching stores deletes the downloaded music.

Okay, thanks for the clarification.

Have a nice day
Chris

 

[KALLT]

As a tip for the future: you should not change country settings once you set up an Apple ID. Accessing an iTunes Store for another country where you don’t have an address or payment method is not really supported by Apple. Your purchases (music, apps, subscriptions) will not carry over when switching. The iTunes Store usually only works with payment methods or credit cards registered in that country anyway, including Apple gift cards.

If you must access the iTunes Store for another country, you should do that on another device or on another user account (in macOS), and if needed, create a new Apple ID. This will insulate your other Apple ID.

 

[chris4565]

You could try restoring the iTunes library with Time Machine or any other backup software you might use.

Thanks, but luckily my music library isn't so big. So re-downloading everything wasn't too bad

Just really strange that iOS lets you change stores with one single tap which results in a complete loss of downloaded music without displaying some kind of warning message that this will sign you out of iTunes etc.

 

[jpn]

Hi guys,

So do I now really have to re-download everything or is there any setting etc. that brings my downloads back?

Thanks and best wishes
Chris

chris, yes. and you are right. it is totally off the wall rediculous.
my main store is actually japan.
but when i need an app from the hong kong store (like the HSBC Hong Kong business app) I need to log out and back into my main store. and redownload everything.
[automerge]1576320364[/automerge]

As a tip for the future: you should not change country settings once you set up an Apple ID. Accessing an iTunes Store for another country where you don’t have an address or payment method is not really supported by Apple. Your purchases (music, apps, subscriptions) will not carry over when switching. The iTunes Store usually only works with payment methods or credit cards registered in that country anyway, including Apple gift cards.

If you must access the iTunes Store for another country, you should do that on another device or on another user account (in macOS), and if needed, create a new Apple ID. This will insulate your other Apple ID.

KALLT,
along the lines of yr post, i was thinking that maybe you would be able to tell me if this might be possible:

if i keep an old device (device 2) just for this purpose, and log out of my usual store (store A) on that device, and log into store B with a unique ID for that store, download the app to that device, then log back into store A on that same device 2, my previous apps from store A + the newly downloaded app from store B is there on the device. that's for sure.

but my question is: if i have the setting turned on in Settings that says all devices should automatically download apps that were downloaded to other devices, then would that store B app also appear on / downloaded to my main device (device 1) that i never logged out of even if that device never logged into store b?

or, if it doesn't download to device 1, how about using Finder to somehow transfer it???

its a long shot, but hoping to find a better way than being required to download all music again.

 

[chris4565]

As a tip for the future: you should not change country settings once you set up an Apple ID.

What I think is strange is that it just switched the Apple Music store to the Japanese one. I can't even completely switch region in the settings app because then I get the message that my Apple TV subscription/Apple Music subscription prevent that.
So it just signed me out of iTunes and switched the Apple Music store to the Japanese one and by logging back into iTunes I got the German store back. Strange 🤔

 

[Puppuccino]

Content will be licenced differently depending on the region so the chaos experienced shouldn't be unexpected.

 

[chris4565]

Content will be licenced differently depending on the region so the chaos experienced shouldn't be unexpected.

Sure but at least a message that the store change will sign you out of iTunes (and delete the downloaded music) should come up in my opinion.

 

[elmateo487]

I have used the Apple Music api, and each song has unique IDs on each store. So one song on the US store will be 12345, but that same song on a European store will be 32445. This might explain why they delete your downloaded music, as those songs no longer match.

Combine that with licensing agreements and I can see why.