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iPhone Apple music changes album art of downloaded music

M

michael31986

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
4,590
704
hey. So I have Apple music and somehow it changes album art of my downloaded songs that are actually saved to my phone.

Is there a way that it doesn't touch my downloaded music but still let's me ask it to play anything I want.
 
It could be a multitude of things: the artists themselves changed the artwork, they’ve uploaded “new” versions of the music to AM and now it’s being pushed to your device, the algorithm Apple uses to “match” music could be confusing it with other music in the main library, etc.

Best thing I think is to delete the music from your library and re-add it from the artist page then re-download it to your device(s).
 
stoopkidblues said:
It could be a multitude of things: the artists themselves changed the artwork, they’ve uploaded “new” versions of the music to AM and now it’s being pushed to your device, the algorithm Apple uses to “match” music could be confusing it with other music in the main library, etc.

Best thing I think is to delete the music from your library and re-add it from the artist page then re-download it to your device(s).
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thats seems like a lot of work I have over 8,000 songs physically downloaded and manually put in my iphone.. just seems strange that it can't be seperate.
 
Well it normally is separate but since you have AM enabled it’ll also try to match your music with what’s already in the store. I’m not sure there’s a way to disable this and I know this has been a headache for a lot of users just wanting to upload their own music. I’d just try to go through the albums that have incorrect artwork and delete them from your library and then re-add them via AM.

I’m assuming what happened was you had all your music locally stored in your iTunes library and then you subscribed to AM. When you subscribed it then ran the algorithm over your entire library to see what may have already been available in AM and attempted to match it. This is what can cause your locally stored music to change. Basically if the match was positive your music is still available in your iTunes library but you’ll actually be streaming it from AM and same goes for when you download it, you’re actually downloading the AM versions rather than your own physically stored music.

If it wasn’t a hit (no match) you’ll still have the physically stored music but it’s actually streaming from your locally stored versions rather than AM.
 
stoopkidblues said:
Well it normally is separate but since you have AM enabled it’ll also try to match your music with what’s already in the store. I’m not sure there’s a way to disable this and I know this has been a headache for a lot of users just wanting to upload their own music. I’d just try to go through the albums that have incorrect artwork and delete them from your library and then re-add them via AM.

I’m assuming what happened was you had all your music locally stored in your iTunes library and then you subscribed to AM. When you subscribed it then ran the algorithm over your entire library to see what may have already been available in AM and attempted to match it. This is what can cause your locally stored music to change. Basically if the match was positive your music is still available in your iTunes library but you’ll actually be streaming it from AM and same goes for when you download it, you’re actually downloading the AM versions rather than your own physically stored music.

If it wasn’t a hit (no match) you’ll still have the physically stored music but it’s actually streaming from your locally stored versions rather than AM.
Click to expand...
Maybe if i toggle off the apple music and music library tabs it will still work. the way it should. Okay so what i did was toggled off show apple music and icloud music library. This seems to still let me ask siri to play songs that i don't have, but it doesn't change my library. Only down fall i don't think i can search actual music since apple music isn't really showing, but more like hidden.
 
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michael31986 said:
Maybe if i toggle off the apple music and music library tabs it will still work. the way it should. Okay so what i did was toggled off show apple music and icloud music library. This seems to still let me ask siri to play songs that i don't have, but it doesn't change my library. Only down fall i don't think i can search actual music since apple music isn't really showing, but more like hidden.
Click to expand...

Yeah that’s a potential workaround but you’re right that you won’t have access to search features since AM is disabled. You should be able to search but it’ll only show what’s in your library, no access to anything outside of that. Kind of defeats the purpose of paying your subscription imo but if all you want is access to what’s locally stored on your computer then you really don’t need an AM subscription. This way you can just have access to whatever you download to your computer/external drive and play from the Music app (similar to an iPod). This, of course, means you’ll be using actually storage but if you have one of larger iPhone models it might be okay for you
 
stoopkidblues said:
Yeah that’s a potential workaround but you’re right that you won’t have access to search features since AM is disabled. You should be able to search but it’ll only show what’s in your library, no access to anything outside of that. Kind of defeats the purpose of paying your subscription imo but if all you want is access to what’s locally stored on your computer then you really don’t need an AM subscription. This way you can just have access to whatever you download to your computer/external drive and play from the Music app (similar to an iPod). This, of course, means you’ll be using actually storage but if you have one of larger iPhone models it might be okay for you
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Yea cause I asked it to play a demo version of a song and cause of Apple music it played the original that is on iTunes. Why can't it know the difference to play songs on my phone and Apple music.
 
michael31986 said:
Yea cause I asked it to play a demo version of a song and cause of Apple music it played the original that is on iTunes. Why can't it know the difference to play songs on my phone and Apple music.
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Because you have AM music enabled and because of that it’s matching all of your music with what it *thinks* is available in the iTunes/AM store. If you have the music stored in your library you can delete it from iTunes > choose keep files (not move to trash) > then re-add the album from the iTunes folder in Finder and force Apple to re-upload it to the cloud but it more than likely will match it again with what’s in the store so you’ll probably be in the same boat.

If you can change the tracks/albums names it might notice it can’t find a match and just upload it in the cloud (i.e. <Track Name> in the store vs. <Track Name 01> in your library)
 
Hi,
it is possible to get rid of Recently Added in the Music app under iOS 12 ?
 
stoopkidblues said:
Not currently.
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Dont understand why this should be mandatory? They can make it as option similar to other items which are removable in Music. But apparently all kind of emojis are more important as functionality and user friendlies.
 
1252 said:
Dont understand why this should be mandatory? They can make it as option similar to other items which are removable in Music. But apparently all kind of emojis are more important as functionality and user friendlies.
Click to expand...

I understand but I think it’s to do with creating a “stock” page for quick access. I think it could easily be changed to any of the other options if chosen first (i.e. My Artists, My Albums, My Playlists, etc.) but I think it’s just a design feature Apple prefers. All other streaming services have similar designs to this with Apple allowing you to access further views from the list (adding and removing what you’d want the most) but with the current design I don’t see it changing.

You can always use the Feedback app to send your thoughts to Apple and they’ll consider it a feature request but we’ll have to see a larger update to the music app as a whole before any *real* changes take place. Maybe iOS 13 will have an even better Music app.
 
This exact same thing happened to one of the single I bought from iTunes. I find out later that the album cover being updated even I have my copy saved on hard drive. At the time, I had iCloud Music Library turned on - which led me to believe it was the reason.

When contacted Apple, they said that it is not possible that Apple or iTunes Match/iCloud Music Library would change a locally saved cover art. They couldn't give me explanation of why or how it happened. They offered me a refund for the song but it wasn't what I wanted.

Anyway, it is safe to say that do not turn on iCloud Music Library on if you value your music collection. Definitely lesson learned for me.
 
1252 said:
Dont understand why this should be mandatory? They can make it as option similar to other items which are removable in Music. But apparently all kind of emojis are more important as functionality and user friendlies.
Click to expand...
you can delete those Smart Playlists in iTunes.
 
stoopkidblues said:
Because you have AM music enabled and because of that it’s matching all of your music with what it *thinks* is available in the iTunes/AM store. If you have the music stored in your library you can delete it from iTunes > choose keep files (not move to trash) > then re-add the album from the iTunes folder in Finder and force Apple to re-upload it to the cloud but it more than likely will match it again with what’s in the store so you’ll probably be in the same boat.

If you can change the tracks/albums names it might notice it can’t find a match and just upload it in the cloud (i.e. <Track Name> in the store vs. <Track Name 01> in your library)
Click to expand...
So even if it's labeled demo it can't separate the two? I can't ask Siri. Play bad romance demo without it always playing the official version? Doesn't Siri read what I actually say and search.
 
michael31986 said:
So even if it's labeled demo it can't separate the two? I can't ask Siri. Play bad romance demo without it always playing the official version? Doesn't Siri read what I actually say and search.
Click to expand...

It’s a hit or a miss sometimes. Try:

Song: Bad Romance (Demo) or Bad Romance (Demo Version)
Artist: Lady Gaga
Album: Bad Romance (Demo) - Single or Bad Romance (Demo Version) - Single

But you’ll have to remove/delete the track from your library first > update iCloud library > re-add the track and then try either of the combinations above.
 
stoopkidblues said:
It’s a hit or a miss sometimes. Try:

Song: Bad Romance (Demo) or Bad Romance (Demo Version)
Artist: Lady Gaga
Album: Bad Romance (Demo) - Single or Bad Romance (Demo Version) - Single

But you’ll have to remove/delete the track from your library first > update iCloud library > re-add the track and then try either of the combinations above.
Click to expand...
I don't have iCloud music library set up
 
michael31986 said:
I don't have iCloud music library set up
Click to expand...

If you’re using AM you do by default. That’s what I mean by it “matching” your music with tracks that are available in the AM/iTunes store. If you don’t have AM then it should just upload songs via normal syncing since it would have to store music physically on your device(s) rather than streaming them from your library.
 
BeatCrazy said:
This is an issue with iCloud Music Library since at least iOS 10.

I recently asked about it here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...art-issues-with-icloud-music-library.2125288/

Member @slooksterPSV indicated it was fixed??
Click to expand...

Honestly I can’t say whether it’s been fixed or not as I haven’t run into this particular issue. What I have noticed is with iCloud music library enabled it is going to try and match your music with what’s already in the store. Because of this it’s almost completely up to the service and/or artists (adding, removing, altering, etc. their own catalog) for how this works.

Again the best workarounds I’ve found are listed above but if still occurring I’d say it has something to do with how Apple is matching tracks.

I do know if you add something like an 01 or 1 to a track/album/artist it will force iCloud to upload it to your devices rather than attempting to match since it can’t locate a matching track. This, however, also isn’t foolproof.
 
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