Saving music for off line listening

[tmanto02]

I've noticed in Apple Music that if you download an entire album for offline listening that the little iphone symbol does not appear on the tracks like if you were to download one single track for offline listening.

This has me worried as I can't tell if my phone is using data when listening to tracks that I think are saved for offline use.

Can anyone clarify?

 

[lagwagon]

I've noticed in Apple Music that if you download an entire album for offline listening that the little iphone symbol does not appear on the tracks like if you were to download one single track for offline listening.

This has me worried as I can't tell if my phone is using data when listening to tracks that I think are saved for offline use.

Can anyone clarify?

The icon will be on the album art when selected in into that album. (First image)

To make sure you're playing offline music only tap the red "artists" (or whatever sorting view you have selected) to bring up the options and at the bottom toggle "show music available offline". This ensures you only see what is downloaded to your phone for offline. (Second image)

 

[tmanto02]

The icon will be on the album art when selected in into that album. (First image)

To make sure you're playing offline music only tap the red "artists" (or whatever sorting view you have selected) to bring up the options and at the bottom toggle "show music available offline". This ensures you only see what is downloaded to your phone for offline. (Second image)

Thanks for that mate! I've changed it to only show offline music so no more data worries.

I think Apple should still change this so that each offline song shows the little symbol so that it's clearer, as when you're selecting songs from playlists rather than albums only the individually downloaded tracks appear as if they're saved for offline listening. Screenshot below.

 

[lagwagon]

Thanks for that mate! I've changed it to only show offline music so no more data worries.

I think Apple should still change this so that each offline song shows the little symbol so that it's clearer, as when you're selecting songs from playlists rather than albums only the individually downloaded tracks appear as if they're saved for offline listening. Screenshot below.View attachment 568597

There are reasons it doesn't (even though many dislike it)

There is a two layer offline that happens.

An example is you find a playlist in Apple Music and make that offline (the playlist icon show the little iPhone) and the songs don't. You listen to the playlist and discover you only like a few of the songs and wish to keep those and get rid of the rest. You can then tap on those songs and make them available for offline (this time giving the song the little iPhone icon.) You can then remove the playlist with one button and keep those few songs you wanted to keep. The offline "layering" is to make it easy to keep what you like and discard the rest in playlists/albums. Without having to delete one by one what you don't like or delete all and re search the songs you did like and re add.

It's a bit confusing at first (and not very clear) but once it's understood, it's works quite well.

But yeah, those little iPhone icons are 100% irrelevant if you just use the "show music available offline" mode, since all that it allows you to see is what's on the phone only anyways. Avoiding all confusion.

 

[manu chao]

There are reasons it doesn't (even though many dislike it)

There is a two layer offline that happens.

An example is you find a playlist in Apple Music and make that offline (the playlist icon show the little iPhone) and the songs don't. You listen to the playlist and discover you only like a few of the songs and wish to keep those and get rid of the rest. You can then tap on those songs and make them available for offline (this time giving the song the little iPhone icon.) You can then remove the playlist with one button and keep those few songs you wanted to keep. The offline "layering" is to make it easy to keep what you like and discard the rest in playlists/albums. Without having to delete one by one what you don't like or delete all and re search the songs you did like and re add.

It's a bit confusing at first (and not very clear) but once it's understood, it's works quite well.

But yeah, those little iPhone icons are 100% irrelevant if you just use the "show music available offline" mode, since all that it allows you to see is what's on the phone only anyways. Avoiding all confusion.

There are more twist to that (that I either don't understand or are simply bugs).

1. I've added a playlist, then went to the My Music section and removed about half of songs from 'My Music'. They got greyed out both in 'My Music' and in the playlist. The next day, that greyed out status is gone (ie, those that were greyed out are 'black' again) and several of the songs I had not removed from 'My Music' and not removed from my downloads are not available offline.
2. Several times over the last two (?) weeks, I have marked songs as to be available offline and they weren't available offline anymore the next day (and I did not remove the playlist via which I discovered them).
3. Songs added to 'My Music' on my phone only occasionally also show up in iTunes (under 'My Music'). Sometimes waiting a day adds some of them. They show up under the playlist (with a download cloud icon). And I do have 'Show Apple Music' and 'iCloud Music Library' checked in iTunes preferences).
4. Most all songs I already had on my phone (originally coming from a ripped CD or purchased from the iTMS) that already had a star rating show up in new playlists (from the 'For You' and 'New' sections) as having no rating at all. If I then rate them, they show up in iTunes with a black rating with the other songs from that album having their rating turned into grey stars (see screenshot below).
5. Another thing that can happen with music from new playlists that were already on the phone is that adding them to 'My Music' makes them show up twice in the 'My Music' section (within the same album) and starting to play one of these double entries shows the animation for 'Now playing' twice (see second screenshot below).

 

[blasto2236]

I wonder if this is related to the issue I've been having.

If I select a playlist and "Make Available Offline", and also have saved an album containing some of those songs, it wipes every song on the album from my download save the one from the playlist. For example, I saved a playlist containing "Buddy Holly" by Weezer, and it wiped the rest of the Blue Album from My Music which had previously been saved on my phone for offline listening. This is infuriating but I am more and more worried this is a feature, not a bug.

 

[bushido]

i deactivated Music in the mobile data setting, this way everythings that not on my device is greyed out and wont play. easy to tell and solved my issue of streaming stuff over mobile data by mistake

 

[lagwagon]

i deactivated Music in the mobile data setting, this way everythings that not on my device is greyed out and wont play. easy to tell and solved my issue of streaming stuff over mobile data by mistake

Or you could just enable "show music available offline" in the sort view type at the top of My Music. This ensures you only see what is on your phone offline.

 

[bushido]

but it always takes forever to reload all the cover art when i disable it again. also cached songs arent considered offline songs and disappear as well even tho they would play without dat