So, it seems after considering myself lucky for so many years to have largely avoided all common (or even uncommon) Apple bugs, this one has finally hit me hard...and it's the one I feared the most.
Had grown fed up with how disorganized & seemingly dysfunctional my library had become over the last couple years, especially since it seemed that iTunes Match was not properly syncing my files to the cloud. It seemed that some albums that I knew I had were constantly showing up on my main computer (the one that the local library has been on for years) as "download from the cloud" instead of being available locally. Also, somehow, some duplicates had been created, and there seemed to be strange behavior often times when trying to listen to songs from "my" library on my iPad or iPhone, often times versions of albums that I knew were incorrect were played instead and represented as "my" music. I do use Apple Music, but I have an extensive, 22k+ local library, much of it in high-res as well. And I've spent countless hours over the years growing and maintaining it.
I decided I would simply re-point my library to the music folder again, since I had decided to rename the hard drive anyway. I also signed out of my iTunes account to ensure only local files would be visible and to make sure that I was only cleaning up music I actually have on my local drive.
Imagine my surprise when multiple albums (still going through and discovering more) were simply gone...files I knew I had downloaded and for years had been listening to. In fact, a few albums I had only recently acquired were gone as well. Even the artist folders...completely gone. Seems that the bug many have reported over the last few years has done the same to me...simply wiped some of my local files for good. I suppose I should be grateful it's not even close to all of them. But now I'm quite worried that this will continue to happen. I use iTunes Match extensively, since it's impractical to try to sort out which songs out of a 20k+ song library to sync to your mobile devices. I also do make extensive use of Apple Music, and I enjoy, theoretically, having my local files and Apple Music files mesh seamlessly in my library. But...if it's going to continue to disappear random local files, some of which are rare or hard-to-find albums...I'm more than a bit apprehensive.
Has anyone else dealt with this and had success in avoiding it after the fact? I must admit that even though I consider myself extremely tech-literate especially when it comes to Mac OS and Apple hardware/software...iTunes is still sort of a black box to me, and it seems to have a mind of its own with little regard for what you'd like it to do.
Apologies if this is the millionth thread on this issue as well...hoping that maybe by now this bug has been fixed, or is at least less likely to occur again.
Thanks
Had grown fed up with how disorganized & seemingly dysfunctional my library had become over the last couple years, especially since it seemed that iTunes Match was not properly syncing my files to the cloud. It seemed that some albums that I knew I had were constantly showing up on my main computer (the one that the local library has been on for years) as "download from the cloud" instead of being available locally. Also, somehow, some duplicates had been created, and there seemed to be strange behavior often times when trying to listen to songs from "my" library on my iPad or iPhone, often times versions of albums that I knew were incorrect were played instead and represented as "my" music. I do use Apple Music, but I have an extensive, 22k+ local library, much of it in high-res as well. And I've spent countless hours over the years growing and maintaining it.
I decided I would simply re-point my library to the music folder again, since I had decided to rename the hard drive anyway. I also signed out of my iTunes account to ensure only local files would be visible and to make sure that I was only cleaning up music I actually have on my local drive.
Imagine my surprise when multiple albums (still going through and discovering more) were simply gone...files I knew I had downloaded and for years had been listening to. In fact, a few albums I had only recently acquired were gone as well. Even the artist folders...completely gone. Seems that the bug many have reported over the last few years has done the same to me...simply wiped some of my local files for good. I suppose I should be grateful it's not even close to all of them. But now I'm quite worried that this will continue to happen. I use iTunes Match extensively, since it's impractical to try to sort out which songs out of a 20k+ song library to sync to your mobile devices. I also do make extensive use of Apple Music, and I enjoy, theoretically, having my local files and Apple Music files mesh seamlessly in my library. But...if it's going to continue to disappear random local files, some of which are rare or hard-to-find albums...I'm more than a bit apprehensive.
Has anyone else dealt with this and had success in avoiding it after the fact? I must admit that even though I consider myself extremely tech-literate especially when it comes to Mac OS and Apple hardware/software...iTunes is still sort of a black box to me, and it seems to have a mind of its own with little regard for what you'd like it to do.
Apologies if this is the millionth thread on this issue as well...hoping that maybe by now this bug has been fixed, or is at least less likely to occur again.
Thanks
