Apple Music How To Use Apple Music For 3 Month Trial Without Screwing Up My Existing Locally Stored Library & Playlists

[mikey8811]

Hi

I just began a 3 month trial of Apple Music. I want to add some albums to a separate playlist entitled Apple Music and keep that separate from my existing music library and playlists which are stored locally so that if I do not continue with the subscription, the status quo is not screwed up.

Apparently there is no way of doing this. I am unable to do as I described as to add songs from Apple Music to a new playlist, I have to sync my existing library. A call to Apple Support and they inform me that if I stop the subscription, I will lose not just the new songs from Apple Music I have downloaded to the new playlist but also my entire local music library and playlists that have been synced with Apple Music in the iCloud Music Library - even the music that I ripped from my own CD collection and playlists I created for the last 15 years before I began the Apple Music trial.

Is there a way to avoid this?

 

[joggy]

You can but it should be two separate libraries ideally. And you may need a Mac to do so.

When I made the same switch, I had the same concerns since my local library is as organized as yours seems to be and if I wasn't going to stick with an Apple Music subscription I wanted to do the same as you make note of, go back to status quo.

You can try Apple Music without touching your local library by creating a new library in addition to your existing local library and that's how I have run it on my Mac. See this post from a bit ago for more details - https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-library.2328310/?post=30717078#post-30717078

 

[mikey8811]

You can but it should be two separate libraries ideally. And you may need a Mac to do so.

When I made the same switch, I had the same concerns since my local library is as organized as yours seems to be and if I wasn't going to stick with an Apple Music subscription I wanted to do the same as you make note of, go back to status quo.

You can try Apple Music without touching your local library by creating a new library in addition to your existing local library and that's how I have run it on my Mac. See this post from a bit ago for more details - https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-library.2328310/?post=30717078#post-30717078

Thanks for that.

I do have a Mac.

My library is from iTunes days and all the files are stored on an external drive.

How do I create another one just for Apple Music? Do I hit option and create a new library rather than launchong the existing one?

 

[ahmede]

What happens to your free 3 month music compilation if you don't renew ?

 

[mikey8811]

I have tried it and created 2 libraries on my Mac. What happens to the Music library on my iPhone, can I have it as before ie. as it is on the old Music library on my Mac? What settings do I have to do to enable that?

Basically, the only instance of the "new" Apple Music library I wish to have is as one of the selectable libraries on my Mac and nowhere else.

 

[joggy]

I have tried it and created 2 libraries on my Mac. What happens to the Music library on my iPhone, can I have it as before ie. as it is on the old Music library on my Mac? What settings do I have to do to enable that?

Basically, the only instance of the "new" Apple Music library I wish to have is as one of the selectable libraries on my Mac and nowhere else.

For that I believe it's just Settings->Music->Sync Library on your iPhone. You may need to force close the Music app after toggling that to off, but that should do it from what I recall.

 

[mikey8811]

For that I believe it's just Settings->Music->Sync Library on your iPhone. You may need to force close the Music app after toggling that to off, but that should do it from what I recall.

My default on the iPhone is already off. So if that is the case, it is pretty safe right?

The setting on the Music app on the Mac though says:

Sync Library (My Apple ID) - checked
show all the music you've added, purchased and uploaded. The music on this computer will appear on your other devices after syncing with the cloud

So if the default setting on the iPhone is already off, it will not sync with this instance of the library on the Mac even though the setting on the Mac's Music app is to Sync Library right?

Usually to sync the library on my iPhone to my old library (which is the one I would like to keep), I plug the phone into the Mac and then sync it manually.

 

[joggy]

In my experience that has been the case, yes. If Sync Library is off, no Apple Music integration. If it's on, then there is Apple Music integration.

For syncing your phone on your Mac to function like you want, you would first launch the old Library via the Opt key method to load that into Music on the Mac and then once that has been done, plug the iPhone in for its syncing.

It was a few years ago when I wrestled with this decision myself, but that's exactly how I recall the functionality behaving. I've since gone all in on Apple Music so it's set to Sync Library on for all my devices and I can't really test it now.

It always helps to have backups if you already don't (i.e. back up of the music media files and Library file(s) of your old Library on your Mac) in the event something does go the way you would prefer it didn't. That way it's easy enough to reverse any changes.

 

[nn88]

In my experience that has been the case, yes. If Sync Library is off, no Apple Music integration. If it's on, then there is Apple Music integration.

For syncing your phone on your Mac to function like you want, you would first launch the old Library via the Opt key method to load that into Music on the Mac and then once that has been done, plug the iPhone in for its syncing.

It was a few years ago when I wrestled with this decision myself, but that's exactly how I recall the functionality behaving. I've since gone all in on Apple Music so it's set to Sync Library on for all my devices and I can't really test it now.

It always helps to have backups if you already don't (i.e. back up of the music media files and Library file(s) of your old Library on your Mac) in the event something does go the way you would prefer it didn't. That way it's easy enough to reverse any changes.

Question: If you turned off Apple Music Sync or cancelled subscription for whatever reason, would you still have original access to all those local files or would they completely disappear?

 

[joggy]

Question: If you turned off Apple Music Sync or cancelled subscription for whatever reason, would you still have original access to all those local files or would they completely disappear?

That I'm not sure of. I've always kept two separate libraries, one for local and one for Apple Music.