Why aren't the music in offline playlists added to offline music?

[Banan911]

I abandoned iTunes, when Spotify launched in Denmark in 2011, but recently I've been giving Apple Music a chance. I really want to love Apple Music but it is really hard to love .

Is it a bug or a strange feature that music from offline playlists isn't showed under offline music? So so not logical in any way, and generally that seems to be the underlying thought you have in general after using Apple Music for a while I really want to love it, but it's so difficult to love

Offline playlists:

Containing offline songs:

But there are no offline songs on device?:

 

[Julien]

I abandoned Apple Music wise, when Spotify launched in Denmark in 2011,....

So you abandoned Music in the Denmark in 2011? Music launched less than a year ago

Do you have 'Only Downloaded Music' switched on?

 

[Banan911]

So you abandoned Music in the Denmark in 2011? Music launched less than a year ago.

Yep - I abandoned iTunes in 2011 I can see that my wording could be misunderstood hehe, so I just edited the initial post.

Yes - "Only downloaded music" is on. It is also indicated on the top of the screenshots.

 

[bumbo]

It looks like all your playlists are Apple-curated rather than ones you've created?

If so then yes it's a defined difference between 'Library' and 'Playlists' where songs from one won't appear in the other.

For playlists that YOU create, you have the option (in iOS 9.3) to have those songs also added into your library. In this case I'd imagine those songs would also appear as Offline in 'Library'.

Not sure it's a bug as such but definitely seems that Apple-curated playlists have been ring-fenced away from 'Library', presumably to avoid confusion between the two. I'm guessing here though...!

 

[Banan911]

For playlists that YOU create, you have the option (in iOS 9.3) to have those songs also added into your library. In this case I'd imagine those songs would also appear as Offline in 'Library'.

Not sure it's a bug as such but definitely seems that Apple-curated playlists have been ring-fenced away from 'Library', presumably to avoid confusion between the two. I'm guessing here though...!

You're sort of right. I just made a playlist myself and made it available offline. The songs from this playlist first appeared as Offline in 'Library', when I also added the playlist to "My Music". It sort of makes sense.
But the songs on the Apple-curated playlists are also added to "My Music", because you have to do that in order to make the playlist offline (it's a 2-step process - at least on an iPhone). It's a really odd behaviour, that these songs doesn't appear as offline in "Library" as well - it doesn't make sense at all.

It also leads to another problem. Let's say that I don't have an internet connection and I want to play a song that I know is downloaded to the device, because it's on an offline playlist, not added to "My Music". There is no way for me to find that song, unless I find that specific playlist it is on. That is really bad UI.

I'm starting to believe that Apple is slightly confused as well. Because when you try to delete a playlist, not added to "My Music", it asks you if you want to delete this playlist from "My Music" - ohh the irony

 

[bumbo]

You're sort of right. I just made a playlist myself and made it available offline. The songs from this playlist first appeared as Offline in 'Library', when I also added the playlist to "My Music". It sort of makes sense.
But the songs on the Apple-curated playlists are also added to "My Music", because you have to do that in order to make the playlist offline (it's a 2-step process - at least on an iPhone). It's a really odd behaviour, that these songs doesn't appear as offline in "Library" as well - it doesn't make sense at all.

It also leads to another problem. Let's say that I don't have an internet connection and I want to play a song that I know is downloaded to the device, because it's on an offline playlist, not added to "My Music". There is no way for me to find that song, unless I find that specific playlist it is on. That is really bad UI.

I'm starting to believe that Apple is slightly confused as well. Because when you try to delete a playlist, not added to "My Music", it asks you if you want to delete this playlist from "My Music" - ohh the irony

I agree there are some UI and wording tweaks that need to be made that leave you scratching your head a bit! I've always treated them as separate entities essentially. I think if you can get used to doing it that way you won't go far wrong...

 

[Banan911]

I agree there are some UI and wording tweaks that need to be made that leave you scratching your head a bit! I've always treated them as separate entities essentially. I think if you can get used to doing it that way you won't go far wrong...

But it is not because they are separate. The problem is that if you add an Apple-curated playlist to "My Music", nothing happens and the songs in the playlist are not added to the library. That is clearly a bug, and as far as I've been able to google, it has been present since day one of Apple Music. If its not a bug the option of being able to add an Apple-curated playlist should not be available for the user.

Lastly it would be nice with an option to see all downloaded music, regardless whether it is a part of the library/My Music or not. It just doesn't makes sense not to have an option like that.

 

[bumbo]

But it is not because they are separate. The problem is that if you add an Apple-curated playlist to "My Music", nothing happens and the songs in the playlist are not added to the library. That is clearly a bug, and as far as I've been able to google, it has been present since day one of Apple Music. If its not a bug the option of being able to add an Apple-curated playlist should not be available for the user.

Lastly it would be nice with an option to see all downloaded music, regardless whether it is a part of the library/My Music or not. It just doesn't makes sense not to have an option like that.

I don't see that as a bug as I personally do not want songs from a Playlist I've added to appear in my Library, so to that end I like and agree with the way this is implemented.

As far as I can tell this is the same process in Spotify. I've just added a playlist then searched for one of the songs in the playlist under the 'Songs' tab and it doesn't appear.