A few months ago I started a thread about how the iCloud Music Library was messing with my offline music collection. I'm happy to report that I got it to work on three devices, keeping the metadata and custom artwork (I use the single covers for classic songs where I only have the song and not the album).
Please note these are my personal observations, your success may vary and if you value your offline music collection MAKE A BACKUP just in case Apple Music messes it up. That said, these are the steps I took.
1) I enabled iCloud Music Library on my Windows 10 Desktop.
2) I deleted any duplicate songs. I think this really helped with the metadata issues I had before.
3) I unified my computer offline and iCloud music collections by either downloading or deleting the stuff from the iCloud Music Library not on my computer. There are still a few iCloud only items but not many.
4) I saved to the iCloud after any changes.
5) I enabled iCloud Music Library on my iPad. I have about 170 gigs of music on it but it isn't my primary music listening device. Plus I don't use it as often as my iPhone so if I had to not use it for several hours to resync it isn't as big a deal. Once it went through the "unification" process most of the metadata stayed the same. I found the cause for what didn't and fixed it.
6) On the Surface Pro I use for work (I do own it) I checked the iCloud music collection. I have nothing downloaded on this device, iCloud only. Everything was as I wanted it metadata wise.
7) Finally my primary listening device, my iPhone 8+ (same on device library as my iPad). I enabled iCloud Music Library on it. Again complete success. Also almost instant changes when I edited metadata or artwork.
The one issue as far as iCloud only is that you get Apple Music's version of your tunes. So on The Doors debut album no F-bombs from Jim on "The End". But if you have it downloaded on your device it will play the version you have. Also playlists were a bit problematic but I think I got that one licked too (delete from the iDevice, deleting and saving from my computer wasn't working).
I hope this helps someone. Again if you are picky about music like me (I really should lighten up a bit lol) BACKUP.
Please note these are my personal observations, your success may vary and if you value your offline music collection MAKE A BACKUP just in case Apple Music messes it up. That said, these are the steps I took.
1) I enabled iCloud Music Library on my Windows 10 Desktop.
2) I deleted any duplicate songs. I think this really helped with the metadata issues I had before.
3) I unified my computer offline and iCloud music collections by either downloading or deleting the stuff from the iCloud Music Library not on my computer. There are still a few iCloud only items but not many.
4) I saved to the iCloud after any changes.
5) I enabled iCloud Music Library on my iPad. I have about 170 gigs of music on it but it isn't my primary music listening device. Plus I don't use it as often as my iPhone so if I had to not use it for several hours to resync it isn't as big a deal. Once it went through the "unification" process most of the metadata stayed the same. I found the cause for what didn't and fixed it.
6) On the Surface Pro I use for work (I do own it) I checked the iCloud music collection. I have nothing downloaded on this device, iCloud only. Everything was as I wanted it metadata wise.
7) Finally my primary listening device, my iPhone 8+ (same on device library as my iPad). I enabled iCloud Music Library on it. Again complete success. Also almost instant changes when I edited metadata or artwork.
The one issue as far as iCloud only is that you get Apple Music's version of your tunes. So on The Doors debut album no F-bombs from Jim on "The End". But if you have it downloaded on your device it will play the version you have. Also playlists were a bit problematic but I think I got that one licked too (delete from the iDevice, deleting and saving from my computer wasn't working).
I hope this helps someone. Again if you are picky about music like me (I really should lighten up a bit lol) BACKUP.
