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kh3khalid

macrumors regular
Dec 2, 2012
140
6
I just restored my iTunes library as some of you guys did and disabled iCloud Music Library from my iTunes and iPhone. I'm not enabling it again until Apple fixes this mess.
 
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Jstuts5797

macrumors 6502a
Dec 15, 2013
566
153
I want to see if I can't narrow down who is exactly having this problem even more....Before I install the iTunes for windows update. It seems as if people with messed up libraries have at some point used iTunes Match IN THE PAST but had stopped using it long before updating today? Is that correct? I've been and am a current iTunes Match subscriber and after updating my phone and iPad my library on those devices were actually just fine. Actually it FIXED just about any and all album art issues I had before hand. Are people in my situation experiencing this messed up library as well?? Or just people who had match then turned it off BEFORE upgrading today?
 

Supermallet

macrumors 68000
Sep 19, 2014
1,874
1,848
Well, so the problem description right now is: If you have ever used iTunes Match in any form, then your library is a mess now, even if you didn't upgrade iOS or iTunes.

Just trying to state it clearly, so the Macrumors team (which is certainly skimming the forums to look for major recurring issues) can pick it up. I hope they will publish an article that will get some attention.

I am wondering, is there any iTunes Match user who is not having problems?

I'm wondering if there is anyone who hasn't used iTunes Match who is having these problems. I've never used iTunes Match but I don't want to be the one to activate this and find out that it's not isolated to just iTunes Match users.
 

allan

macrumors member
Nov 16, 2004
47
9
I do not use (nor have I ever used) iTunes Match. All my songs are either ripped from my personal CD collection or purchased from iTunes.

This morning, I updated my iPad, which had all my music and all my playlists. I signed up for the Apple Music 3-month trial and promptly turned on iCloud Music Library in the Settings. It asked me to merge the libraries and I did.

Some of my playlists got borked, as well as a lot of my album cover art. When I say borked, I mean that the number of songs in each playlist on my iPad didn't match what was in the corresponding playlist in iTunes on my Mac mini. Some playlists on my iPad were completely emptied out! Also, on my iPad some albums had different cover art for each song within the same album. WTF? Needless to say, I was pissed because I spent years organizing and carefully tagging all my music.

Luckily, I had just backed up my iPad the night before. So I restored it and this time I made sure iCloud Music Library was turned off. Thankfully all the cover art and playlists on my iPad were like before. I made sure to compare it with the corresponding playlists in iTunes on my Mac mini and they matched perfectly like they always did in the past.

A few hours later, with great trepidation, I decided to download the iTunes update when it finally became available. But before I did, I made sure to backup everything. I made sure my backup was backed up. I also took the time to write down the number of songs in each playlist on a piece of paper, as well as the total number of songs in my iTunes Library before I did the update. This way I could know for sure if something got deleted or not after I did the update.

When I launched the new iTunes, the first thing I wanted to do was make sure that iCloud Music Library was switched off. Fortunately there's a prompt as soon as you launch it asking if you want to turn iCloud Music Library on or not. Of course, I said no.

I'm happy to report that all my cover art and playlists were intact as before, pre-iTunes 12.2.0. Nothing was lost, thank goodness. After all that I was finally able to sit down, relax and try out Apple's new streaming service. I think it's pretty good so far.

I guess for me, turning off iCloud Music Library was the key. But what exactly is the idea behind the iCloud Music Library? Does it perform a similar function to iTunes Match? As stated earlier, I have never used iTunes Match and therefore have zero experience with it. I can't imagine why anyone would turn iCloud Music Library on if it so easily borks one's playlists and cover art! I'm afraid to ever turn it on again.
 

lars666

macrumors 65816
Jul 13, 2008
1,192
1,292
I can't imagine why anyone would turn iCloud Music Library on if it so easily borks one's playlists and cover art! I'm afraid to ever turn it on again.

I'm afraid, too - on the other hand, as long as the iCloud music library has to be turned on to add AM songs to personal playlists and/or offline listening, Apple either has to fix this problem ASAP or this service becomes *a lot* more useless.
 

Supermallet

macrumors 68000
Sep 19, 2014
1,874
1,848
I have such a vast personal library that I'm fine with not having Apple Music songs on my iTunes playlists or for offline play on my Mac. I've turned on iCloud Music Library for my iPhone, where I do care about including songs and offline playback.

I hope the kinks get worked out on the service though, because I think it would be incredibly useful if it worked correctly.
 
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harry20larry

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2008
574
14
Has anyone else had the issue where enabling iCloud Music Library on your iPhone and then Mac has caused so many problems. I have duplicate playlists, duplicate songs and artists, it has decided to delete one my playlists in its entirety. It has been a massive headache.

I am currently saving my old library, I have wiped my phone's library, and I am trying to delete all data from my iCloud Music Library with little success (it keeps re-adding songs I have just deleted)
 

darkinners

macrumors member
Mar 15, 2013
85
30
Sigh, I spent an entire afternoon trying to make icloud music library work.
And I am still struggling and trying to find solutions on MacRumors and Apple Support forum.

I have almost 20,000 songs and when I enable icloud music library.
iTunes either
- trying to upload my entire library to iCloud@ 20kbps (regardless I have 1000Mbps+500Mbps broadband)
- keep saying error "cannot access icloud" (while icloud photo works perfectly fine)
- iTunes crash (both PC and Mac version 12.2)
- keep making duplicate songs/playlist in my iTunes library
- I have no way to check uploading progress, I can't even know if it's uploading or not.

Apple music works very well in my iPhone and iPad but disastrous in both Mac and PC
 
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zacheryjensen

macrumors 6502a
May 11, 2009
801
187
Sigh, I spent an entire afternoon trying to make icloud music library work.
And I am still struggling and trying to find solutions on MacRumors and Apple Support forum.

I have almost 20,000 songs and when I enable icloud music library.
iTunes either
- trying to upload my entire library to iCloud@ 20kbps (regardless I have 1000Mbps+500Mbps broadband)
- keep saying error "cannot access icloud" (while icloud photo works perfectly fine)
- iTunes crash (both PC and Mac version 12.2)
- keep making duplicate songs/playlist in my iTunes library
- I have no way to check uploading progress, I can't even know if it's uploading or not.

Apple music works very well in my iPhone and iPad but disastrous in both Mac and PC

On the My Music tab, when the iCloud Music Library is enabled, you can add a column in songs list view that shows the iCloud Status. You can use that to get an idea of what is or is not checked/uploaded/etc. Further, there will be a little cloud icon at the top right below the search box. If it's got a lightning bolt it's not working at all. There are other variations but that's usually what you see when it's offline for any reason.

For me, it has been offline since about 8 hours ago making it impossible to update my library from OS X. When things are flowing properly, things are working properly. Though I did suffer a destroyed library initially, since I went for broke and deleted it all and started adding things back, it has been fine, just the issue with this connectivity.
 

darkinners

macrumors member
Mar 15, 2013
85
30
On the My Music tab, when the iCloud Music Library is enabled, you can add a column in songs list view that shows the iCloud Status. You can use that to get an idea of what is or is not checked/uploaded/etc. Further, there will be a little cloud icon at the top right below the search box. If it's got a lightning bolt it's not working at all. There are other variations but that's usually what you see when it's offline for any reason.

For me, it has been offline since about 8 hours ago making it impossible to update my library from OS X. When things are flowing properly, things are working properly. Though I did suffer a destroyed library initially, since I went for broke and deleted it all and started adding things back, it has been fine, just the issue with this connectivity.
Thanks! That works!
So now all I need is wait patiently for another 130 hours to fully upload my library.
 

andyp350

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 14, 2011
807
460
I think most of my issues relate back to me previously being on iTunes Match.

I think I'm just going to move all my local files to my backup drive and start again with a completely empty library and re-populate it from the apple music albums. I think once I've got my library sorted it's something I'll end up keeping and paying for so it may be worth the effort on the long run. Only downside I can think of is that I'll lose all my playlists and play counts but I can live with that.
 

andyp350

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 14, 2011
807
460
Seriously Apple? . I am choosing to see the funny side to this and hope when I get home from work and have some time to spend on it I will get it sorted!
 

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harry20larry

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2008
574
14
Is everyone who is having problems with seeing duplicates and playlists messing up previously a member of iTunes Match?
 

From A Buick 8

macrumors 68040
Sep 16, 2010
3,114
127
Ky Close to CinCinnati
On the My Music tab, when the iCloud Music Library is enabled, you can add a column in songs list view that shows the iCloud Status. You can use that to get an idea of what is or is not checked/uploaded/etc. Further, there will be a little cloud icon at the top right below the search box. If it's got a lightning bolt it's not working at all. There are other variations but that's usually what you see when it's offline for any reason.

For me, it has been offline since about 8 hours ago making it impossible to update my library from OS X. When things are flowing properly, things are working properly. Though I did suffer a destroyed library initially, since I went for broke and deleted it all and started adding things back, it has been fine, just the issue with this connectivity.

Can you go into more detail on what you mean by "went for broke and deleted it all", did you literally delete all songs from you iTunes library?
 

Bloodbuzz459

macrumors newbie
Jul 1, 2015
7
4
Hi Guys, Joined here because of this mess!

I was NOT an iTunes Match customer and I've had all kind of problems similar to the above.

Spoke to Apple today said they would log it but its caused because the info comes from their database and not our iTunes Library.

Really disapointed I can't use Apple Music until its fixed (if ever)
 

lars666

macrumors 65816
Jul 13, 2008
1,192
1,292
iTunes either
- trying to upload my entire library to iCloud@ 20kbps (regardless I have 1000Mbps+500Mbps broadband)

Sorry, I am still confused, but really afraid to turn this thing on after everything I have read here and elsewhere ... If I enable "iCloud Music Library" in iTunes, as I seem to be forced to on any device on which I want to share/edit my AM playlists - will iTunes try to upload my local music (or "only" the music not in the AM catalogue) to the cloud like iTunes Match would do and/or even rewrite my tags, change my existing playlists, delete files etc.?! If I enable iCloud Music Library on my iPhone and sync the device back to iTunes on my Mac, is it able to "destroy" my local library because of this CloudMatchwhatever chaos? This is so damn confusing ... I want to be absolutely sure that AM doesn't "physically" touch my existing iTunes files, playlists and tags ... I simply want to be able to create AM playlists with and without offline listening possibility, but I DON'T want it to mess up my iTunes library!
 
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Bloodbuzz459

macrumors newbie
Jul 1, 2015
7
4
If it helps. I turned iCloud on, on my iPhone which then messed up my library. In an effort to rectify my phone I synced with my Mac and it then started to return all iTunes purchases back to the default metadata, fortunately I had a back up.

I would strongly advise if you're concerned to not do it.
 

harry20larry

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2008
574
14
I think the best way to do an initial set up is to clear your iPhone and iPad of music before starting Apple Music on it. Then allow your Mac to go through the set up and upload your entire library to iCloud. Only then set it up on your iPhone and iPad.
 

lars666

macrumors 65816
Jul 13, 2008
1,192
1,292
If it helps. I turned iCloud on, on my iPhone which then messed up my library. In an effort to rectify my phone I synced with my Mac and it then started to return all iTunes purchases back to the default metadata, fortunately I had a back up.

I would strongly advise if you're concerned to not do it.

Thanks for the feedback, really appreciated. I will stay away from activating the iCloud music library for now. And in any case, even if I am told in the future that everything is fine now, I'll make sure to have backups!

Man, why does this seem so complicated? I don't want the whole all or nothing "cloud experience", I simply want to be able to sync 95% of my music old-school-like with handpicked playlists from my hard drive through iTunes like I always did (also don't want see everything else I have ever purchased with a little cloud icon) and "only" use AM in addition like I would use Spotify. (Except maybe with the additional comfort to mix AM "rented" tracks with "owned" ones synced from my hard drive.
 

Bloodbuzz459

macrumors newbie
Jul 1, 2015
7
4
I think the best way to do an initial set up is to clear your iPhone and iPad of music before starting Apple Music on it. Then allow your Mac to go through the set up and upload your entire library to iCloud. Only then set it up on your iPhone and iPad.

But doesn't iTunes revert any changes we've made to metadata when it upload to the cloud? That was the impression I got from Apple when they said the data for your iCloud library comes from our servers and not your iTunes.

Is it ever likely this will ever be fixed? I seem to think Match has been plagues with error similar to this since the start.
 
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harry20larry

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2008
574
14
Ok I have a makeshift half-workaround for at least deleting whatever is in iTunes Match so you can start fresh (I believe). I'm not re-enabling iCloud Music Library on my main computer until tomorrow in case it ****s up again, but I think this may have cleared out the iTunes Match files that were screwing everything up. I used two Macs, but you should be able to do it by creating a new iTunes library if you have only one Mac.

1. Re-sync your iPhone or iPad with music sync turned off (so there should be NO local music on your device). Turn off iCloud Music Sharing and sign out of Apple Music. Essentially, the Music app should be empty.
2. On your Mac, turn off iCloud Music Sharing in the library in question and close out of iTunes. Obviously make a copy of any iTunes library files somewhere safe just in case.
2. Create a new empty iTunes library (option click on the itunes icon)
3. In the new iTunes library, sign into iCloud Music Sharing. You should see the little cloud icon on the right working and after a bit the list should start populating with music that is currently in the cloud.
4. Once everything is loaded, select 999 or less files at once, right click, press delete. Let it sit for a little bit. Repeat until you've cleared everything out.
5. Turn OFF iCloud Music Sharing, exit itunes
6. Re-open, and sign in to iCloud Music Sharing again. If it worked, no items should populate. It took a couple times before I got everything out of the list. Exit iTunes.
7. Sign back into Apple Music on your iDevice. In My Music, with Show Music Available Offline unticked (no green circle) nothing should appear which would confirm everything has been deleted from the Cloud/Match.
8. Option Click on iTunes and re-select your main library.

From here, I don't know what happens when you re-enable iCloud Music sync, but I am able to download music off Apple Music with correct album art.

I have followed this through, however, whenever I try to delete songs from iCloud, it waits 10 seconds then they get readded. Nothing I can do deletes them!
 
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lars666

macrumors 65816
Jul 13, 2008
1,192
1,292
At this moment, I am more confused by what the exact concept behind the "iCloud music library" is than I dare to admit. Maybe I should create a "dummy library" for testing out what exactly Apple does with my tracks, playlists and tagging when enabling it and what not.

In fact, as I have more than 25.000 tracks in my real iTunes library, I am not sure if I could enable "iCloud music library" on my Mac even if I wanted to - although I don't want to use AM as an iTunes Match kind of service for my existing "physical" library in the first place, I just want to use it like (almost) any other streaming service. Just don't upload my music, "match" it, change tags on my files or whatever, Apple! Why am I forced to activate this mess to simply create playlists in AM and save them for offline listening?!
 
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