New iPad Pro won’t download Apple Music

[BF1M]

It shows my library but it won‘t let me download any songs. Apple Music or iTunes Match. I’ve tried resetting network settings per their suggestion and it downloaded a few then stopped again. All I get is a spinning circle that eventually goes back to the cloud symbol.

The iPad Pro is brand new and I transferred it from the last one.

Turning off sync library and even signing out and into iCloud didn’t do anything.

Very frustrating.

 

[3460169]

Hey there, sorry for this trouble. Just writing in to say I don't think you're alone with this problem. I've been looking into a similar, or the same, issue for a few days now. In my case this is on an iPhone 11 Pro Max and an 11" iPad Pro, both on iOS/iPadOS 13.5.1. It doesn't seem to affect my MacBook Pro however, but that is actually still on Mojave 10.14.6. I subscribe to Apple Music with a Family plan and have for at least the last year or so.

The problem seems to be an inability to consistently download songs that have "Matched" or "Uploaded" iCloud status. While you can't view the iCloud status of a song within the Music app on iOS (to my knowledge), you can on macOS. In iTunes or Music app on macOS, select the song and then press command-I to view the information panel about the song. You should see the iCloud status of the song on the File tab. For example this song was Matched:

And this one was uploaded:

No songs I have with either of these iCloud status values download consistently for me. I see the same nonsense as you when I initiate a download on either my iPhone or iPad: just a bunch of spinning. Sometimes I get partial circles. Sometimes songs actually download and if they do it takes for-ev-er. However, songs that are directly from Apple Music, e.g. have iCloud status = Apple Music, typically download fine.

To try to remediate this I've tried all the things you have done as well, including:

• Turning Music Library sync off and back on
• Resetting network settings on device
• Restarting home network
• Trying other networks (cellular and WiFi)
• Restarting the iPhone and iPad devices, more times in the last few days than the entire year-to-date prior to that

The only other person on my Family plan is my wife and she doesn't have this issue but she also doesn't have Matched or Uploaded content in her library. All of her stuff is exclusively from Apple Music's catalog.

Essentially my older music library, which is what most of my Matched and Uploaded content is, is being held hostage lol. I think I will be having to get on the phone with Apple.

It's important to note that this seems to affect only downloading of the music. Streaming it is not an issue.

Lastly, I've attached a video showing the issue here.

 

[BF1M]

Yes, I could stream them as well just not download. After testing I found out that playlists made up entirely of Apple Music songs would download, any playlists that had iTunes Match\purchased would not. I’ll save you all the details but this is how I fixed it.

Turned off iCloud Library Sync

Manually synced the iPad with my iMac which of course only resulted in the purchased music being moved over. Funny aside, I was warned that doing this would replaced the iTunes Library from a MacBook Air I haven’t owned in 3 years. Again, this iPad Pro is brand new. Whatever.

I then turned on iCloud Library Sync and was asked if I wanted to delete what was already on there or merge, I deleted. After a few moments all my Apple Music appeared and I could then download everything again. Apple Music and iTunes Match.

I’m tired of buying new devices and having to trick them into working but here we are.

 

[3460169]

...

I’m tired of buying new devices and having to trick them into working but here we are.

Agreed. One-zillion percent.

In any case, thanks for the work and hack on this. I'm in the midst of trying it now. I honestly didn't even consider syncing the phone with the computer; my library is entirely in the cloud, aside from an ancient archive of my pre-matched collection on some archived DVD media. My stuff nowadays is exclusively in the cloud and is predominantly streamed (HomePod, AppleTV, etc) -- except when traveling and I need some of that stuff downloaded to device.

So I thought I could cheat this method and just download and sync one or two albums, then flip Music Library syncing back on and just have it work again. Nope. No dice. I had synced a few AD/DC albums from computer to phone, flipped Library syncing back on and had it delete/replace the stuff on the phone. I then went to download another AC/DC album that had "Uploaded" iCloud status and that actually worked. False hope though because an attempt to download another Matched or Uploaded album was back to the spinning circle shenanigans.

I'll let you know how this works out for me. Taking a bit to download stuff to the Mac.

 

[BF1M]

Good luck. My guess was this is all a DRM issue of course.

 

[TallGuyGT]

Thank you for this, it's been driving me crazy all weekend! I've tried multiple restores, signing out and then back in, turning iCloud sync off and then back on. Of course none of it worked, and Apple Support was not helpful.

Glad I found this!

 

[TallGuyGT]

Yes, I could stream them as well just not download. After testing I found out that playlists made up entirely of Apple Music songs would download, any playlists that had iTunes Match\purchased would not. I’ll save you all the details but this is how I fixed it.

Turned off iCloud Library Sync

Manually synced the iPad with my iMac which of course only resulted in the purchased music being moved over. Funny aside, I was warned that doing this would replaced the iTunes Library from a MacBook Air I haven’t owned in 3 years. Again, this iPad Pro is brand new. Whatever.

I then turned on iCloud Library Sync and was asked if I wanted to delete what was already on there or merge, I deleted. After a few moments all my Apple Music appeared and I could then download everything again. Apple Music and iTunes Match.

I’m tired of buying new devices and having to trick them into working but here we are.

So I wrote too soon. This worked great to get my existing purchased music on my iPhone. But when I try to add a new album from Apple Music, it won't download either. Are you able to add new music after you turn iCloud Library Sync back on?

 

[BF1M]

So I wrote too soon. This worked great to get my existing purchased music on my iPhone. But when I try to add a new album from Apple Music, it won't download either. Are you able to add new music after you turn iCloud Library Sync back on?

Yes. Downloads fine now.

 

[TallGuyGT]

So I updated to the latest iOS 13.6 public beta and everything works fine now on both iPhone and iPad. That’s a weekend of frustration I’ll never get back!

 

[BF1M]

So I updated to the latest iOS 13.6 public beta and everything works fine now on both iPhone and iPad. That’s a weekend of frustration I’ll never get back!

Yea, I’m with you. It seems we have to dedicate more and more of our time to products that once upon a time “just worked”

Glad you are up and running though.

 

[Luc Blanchet]

Followed your advice to update to iOS 13.6 public beta, but still. only Apple Music files will download. Any music purchased, uploaded or matched is still spinning. So tired of wasting time trying to make an Apple device work as it should be. I see Android in the near future, however, transferring all iTunes music over will likely be a nightmare.

 

[ics4ajd]

I have noticed this problem myself - and along with it, a similar issue. On my iPhone 11 Pro recently (since the latter part of last year) uploaded music randomly changes the album name to whatever it likes - the problem isn't replicated on my iPad, Apple TV or Mac - but only the iPhone. I can rename the album on the Mac, and 24h later the phone renames the album to something of its choosing. I've turned Apple Music on and off and also restored the phone - but to no avail