Tuff Ghost
Level 1 (5 points)

Q: WARNING: iCloud Music Library just destroyed my Mac's iTunes Library

I have a 13000 song library on my iMac. Installed iOS 8.4 on my iPhone this morning and had Apple Music and iCloud Music Library going...Everything was working fine on the device. Got home and installed 10.10.4 and iTunes 12.2 on my iMac. It asked to turn on iCloud Music Library and I accepted. All of the sudden it starts overwriting my album art with completely wrong art (example: Weezer showed art for a Radiohead album) on both my iMac AND my iPhone, screwing up metadata by putting random songs in albums where they didn't belong (there was a Cursive album where the first track was listed as a Foo Fighters song). Even worse, when I'd click to listen to certain songs, it would play the wrong song/artist, like the metadata was hijacked. What in the ****?  I've had this library organized perfectly for the better part of a decade and Apple Music screwed it up in minutes.

 

I was able to restore everything through a Time Machine backup and made sure NOT to turn on iCloud Music Library when I re-opened the .itl file. What a disaster. Hopefully someone from Apple reads this. Thinking it may have something to do with a iTunes Match account I had briefly a few years back. But yikes, can't believe how much damage it did in 5 minutes.

Posted on Jun 30, 2015 7:45 PM

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Q: WARNING: iCloud Music Library just destroyed my Mac's iTunes Library

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  • by Quarksta,Helpful

    Quarksta Quarksta Jun 30, 2015 7:50 PM in response to Tuff Ghost
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 7:50 PM in response to Tuff Ghost

    I am having exactly the same problem. I just thought it was the album artwork that was messed up but after reading your post I went back and tried playing some of the songs. It seems that the artwork matches each of the songs, but all the metadata, including title, artist etc. is incorrect. I'm not sure how Apple are going to fix this, but it is pretty frustrating.

  • by Tuff Ghost,

    Tuff Ghost Tuff Ghost Jun 30, 2015 7:58 PM in response to Quarksta
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 7:58 PM in response to Quarksta

    Ok "glad" it's not just me (never glad that someone's library got effed). Apple definitely needs to FIX this. I was so excited to jump ship from Spotify to Apple's more integrated service, but not with problems like this.

  • by tobonfranco,Helpful

    tobonfranco tobonfranco Jun 30, 2015 8:48 PM in response to Tuff Ghost
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 8:48 PM in response to Tuff Ghost

    I'm having exactly the same problem: 19000 songs messed up...

  • by Scott B. Silverman,Helpful

    Scott B. Silverman Scott B. Silverman Jun 30, 2015 9:10 PM in response to Tuff Ghost
    Level 1 (70 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 9:10 PM in response to Tuff Ghost

    I'm having the same issue and am incredibly frustrated. Literally years worth of work – collecting music, creating playlists, tweaking metadata, downloading album art and more. After "upgrading" to iTunes 12.2 my library is now showing 2 or 3 copies of some songs/albums, my playlists have been gutted, some track metadata has been changed to be incorrect, and old albums that I deleted from iTunes Match have suddenly reappeared in my library as "in the Cloud." What a disaster.

  • by ntomallen,

    ntomallen ntomallen Jun 30, 2015 9:14 PM in response to Tuff Ghost
    Level 1 (74 points)
    iPod
    Jun 30, 2015 9:14 PM in response to Tuff Ghost

    Same. Saw a few other threads as well. This is a major issue.. Anyone who DOESN'T have any problems?

     

    I will say that Apple Music on my iPhone is pretty cool, though!

  • by Rysz,

    Rysz Rysz Jun 30, 2015 9:45 PM in response to Quarksta
    Level 7 (20,274 points)
    iTunes
    Jun 30, 2015 9:45 PM in response to Quarksta

    SEems to be the same issue that many users experienced when switching to iTunes Match. One would think Apple would have had it figured out by now.


    Let Apple know here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

  • by AppleThree,

    AppleThree AppleThree Jun 30, 2015 9:51 PM in response to Tuff Ghost
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 9:51 PM in response to Tuff Ghost

    Same thing happened to me. If you don't have a backup, look for a "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder next to your iTunes Library.itl file. iTunes at least backed up your previous library before wrecking it, so you can just drag that one back over the ruined one to get back to where you were. Turn off iCloud Music Library first, of course, or it'll just get trashed again.

     

    Awesome job, Apple.

  • by tobonfranco,

    tobonfranco tobonfranco Jun 30, 2015 9:53 PM in response to Tuff Ghost
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 9:53 PM in response to Tuff Ghost

    I just recover all my files and playlist throught my iPod classic and an application called iExplorer. I've used iTunes match and I don't have any problems...

  • by Tuff Ghost,Helpful

    Tuff Ghost Tuff Ghost Jun 30, 2015 10:33 PM in response to Tuff Ghost
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 10:33 PM in response to Tuff Ghost

    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 ***** 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.

  • by undeadguy,

    undeadguy undeadguy Jun 30, 2015 11:10 PM in response to Tuff Ghost
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apple Music
    Jun 30, 2015 11:10 PM in response to Tuff Ghost

    How did you restore everything with Time Machine? I can't seem to get it to work! please help!!!

  • by Tuff Ghost,

    Tuff Ghost Tuff Ghost Jun 30, 2015 11:15 PM in response to undeadguy
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 11:15 PM in response to undeadguy

    Delete (or move) the .xml file, restore the entire iTunes Music folder where all your music files live, then restore the .itl file. Open the restored .itl file and it should be back to normal..the xml file will recreate itself.

  • by huhublau,

    huhublau huhublau Jun 30, 2015 11:19 PM in response to Tuff Ghost
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 11:19 PM in response to Tuff Ghost

    I did not update ANYTHING, but my music on iphone and ipad are srewed up totally. Jerry Garcia hijacked most of my Dylan albums. I knew he would try some day...Steve! Look down on us!!!

  • by Zackadelic,Helpful

    Zackadelic Zackadelic Jun 30, 2015 11:38 PM in response to Scott B. Silverman
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 11:38 PM in response to Scott B. Silverman

    SOLUTION! SOLUTION! SOLUTION! SOLUTION!

     

    This is a simple super solution and it worked for me instantly, turning a couple hours of frustration into instant joy.

     

    Close iTunes

    Navigate to you iTunes folder

    Choose a former .itl file from Previous iTunes Libraries (preferably the most recent one before the Apple Music disaster) and drag it into the iTunes folder

    Rename the messed up .itl to iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl

    Rename the previous iTunes library that you just dragged in to iTunes Library.itl

    Open iTunes

     

    Your music library should be restored to perfection!

     

    MAKE SURE TO NOT ACCEPT THE REQUEST FOR ICLOUD MUSIC LIBRARY OR THIS WILL ALL HAPPEN AGAIN

  • by bravewolverine,Helpful

    bravewolverine bravewolverine Jun 30, 2015 11:50 PM in response to Zackadelic
    Level 1 (20 points)
    Jun 30, 2015 11:50 PM in response to Zackadelic

    How do I turn it off on my MacBook?

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