How to Reset iTunes Library Without Losing My Playlists

[powderizedbookworm]

I am frequently playing with my local iTunes library, since I find that everything goes much more smoothly the more I can have properly matched files and things, so I usually am pretty good at manipulating iCloud Music Library.

I am at a bit of a loss right now. I am trying to reset my iCloud music library. My first step was to remove the playlists I care about from iCloud music library - I do this by adding an iCloud ineligible file (super low bit-rate file of silence), which removes them from iCloud. I then turned off iCloud music library on my primary iTunes account. I then logged in to iCloud music library on a new iTunes library on another mac, and deleted all the songs and playlists (except the list of Apple Music playlists I'd saved). I waited awhile, and repeated this step a few times, and caught many straggler files, but after awhile nothing new showed up.

I was hoping to basically replace iCloud music library with the library on my mac, but when I try to enable iCloud Music Library on my mac, it leaves the playlists in place, but removes all the songs from them (except my iCloud ineligible "silence" track, and the handful of purchased tracks I have. It does this no matter what changes I make to them before I enable iCloud music library (i.e. - renaming, and placing in new folders).

I'm not panicked, since I have a clean copy of my iTunes library, so if there is a way to basically overwrite iCloud Music Library, I will be fine.

Any advice?

 

[Brookzy]

What... the...

1. This sounds like a mess!
2. Ineligible tracks don't make a whole playlist ineligible for iCloud Music Library, just that track
3. There is no concept of "resetting" your iCloud Music Library. You simply determine which Mac you want to be your master Library, sign out everywhere else and delete their libraries, and then on the master Library go to File > Update iCloud Music Library and leave it overnight. The next morning sign back in everywhere else and boom, it's done.

If I was you I would start from scratch. Rebuild the library how to you want it without any Apple Music or iCloud Music Library features enabled. Then, once you're happy, turn Apple Music and iCloud Music Library back on.

You don't need to worry about 'losing' your Apple Music playlists because these are just attached to your Apple Music account as subscriptions. They will automatically propagate when reenabling Apple Music.

 

[powderizedbookworm]

Oh yes, it is definitely a mess.

Ineligible tracks definitely do yank the playlist from iCloud (after a fashion). Its how I play little shell games to get all my tracks to be "Matched," while still maintaining my playlist structures. Sadly, I lost quite a few of my more nostalgic playlists before I realized that deleting songs on iCloud (from my iPhone or other mac) deleted them from their playlists on iTunes. I still regard this as a serious issue.

I feel like I've basically been trying point 3, but I'll keep at it!

David