Codycgb
Level 1 (62 points)

Q: iPhone won't download entire playlist for offline playback on iOS 8.4

I'm about to give up on using apples new "iCloud music library". I've been trying to download all my music for offline use so I made a smart playlist that contained all my songs (3763, 29.49GB). The downloads start and the problems quickly arise. First off every so often i get an error promoting a song couldn't download then to retry or hit done. Second the downloads seem to do alright for the first several hundred downloads but then start to freeze and go really slow. My internet connection is fast and other downloads, like my podcast in my downcast app download gb's of data rather quickly. This has caused me to make several attempts to download them over night. However when i wake up i find the download halts at some random number. My most recent attempt got me down to about 200 songs however there were no ways to restart those stuck download. Restarting the phone and or hitting make available offline (again) results in all the songs already downloaded being removed. So basically at this point there is no easy way to download all my music. You think by now we are far enough in computing that downloading gb's of data should occur with out a hitch and as i said before for other apps and iTunes on desktop everything is fine. But right now my iPhone can just not download all my music. This a feature of both iTunes match and apple music that is essentially broken for me. And alternatives like turning off iCloud music library result in me not being able to use apple music.

 

So it seems i'm left with two options. 1. just deal with not having all my music offline and have said streaming eat up my data plan and battery. And hope that apple pushes an update that fixes these download issues. 2. Completely turn off iCloud library and as such apple music + iTunes match as well which ends up making all apples recent music product usless.

 

Does anyone have any solution to these problems?

iPhone 6, iOS 8.4, null

Posted on Jul 2, 2015 7:09 AM

by Codycgb,Solvedanswer
Codycgb Codycgb
Level 1 (62 points)
A:

Alright so it seems I've stumbled upon a solution to downloading big libraries for offline use. I discovered it while I was organizing my library with smart playlists. In my experience it seems that problems tend to arise when you try downloading a lot of songs from only one playlist. After several hundred songs there are errors and sometimes downloading completely stops (usually after 2k). Also the offline badge may disappear on your playlist which causes all downloaded songs up to this point to be deleted on the next reboot. Given these insights it seems apple didn't optimize the software enough to handle large playlist offline requests. Until they do, the only way to get all your music on your device is to break your library into smaller chunks, download those playlist one by one for offline use and it should be smooth sailing once you got all your music on your device. The best way to do this is to use smart playlists to auto separate your music (and auto download new songs). Now there are many ways to do this and a lot of its up to personal preference. I kept it simply with two folders. Owned music (folder 1) and apple music (folder 2). I then made the following smart playlists:

 

Folder 1

Albums (CD Owned)

I got all my full albums together in a regular playlist (ones that I have physical copies of), selected all the tracks, hit get info and then in the comment section put "Entire Album (CD Owned)". After that I created a smart playlist with the following rules: Media kind is music, Comments is "Entire Album (CD Owned)" & iCloud Status is not Apple music.

 

Albums (Digital Copy Owned)

Same as above however it was music that I only had a digital copy off. Just replace "Entire Album (CD Owned)" with "Entire Album (Digitally Owned)".

 

Solo Tracks

Made a smart playlist with the following rules: Media Kind is Music, Comments is not "Entire Album (Digitally Owned)", Comments is not "Entire Album (Digitally Owned)" & iCloud status is not "Apple Music". This created a playlist with songs that are not part of an album that i have all the songs to.

 

Folder 2

Apple Music Library

I don't have many songs on apple music yet so I just have one playlist with the following rules: Media kind is music, iCloud status is "Apple Music".

 

Now my 3819 song library is split into smaller playlists (1842, 1351, 626 & 37 respectively). Next I just hit download (make available offline) on one playlist at a time (downloading all the songs on said playlist before i tried moving on to another). However some tracks still hanged up. What i did was wait until all the songs that could download did and all that was left in the download que were frozen songs. Rebooted the iPhone, opened up the music app and the other few songs download like a charm. Repeated until all my music was download.

 

So basically you want to use smart playlists and the comment sections of songs to break down your library into smaller manageable chunks that your iPhone can handle, then download. Once you do the downloads can go through and any new music will be downloaded automatically. Like I said before how you do this is up to you, i explained how i did it above.

 

Lets hope that apple can make some positive changes before iOS 9 so that their will be a easy way to download all your music. Making a bunch of smart playlists to do the job is tiresome. Until then this is the only solution I found. Hope it helps out any other music lovers. Thanks!

Posted on Jul 4, 2015 11:14 PM

Close
Codycgb

Q: iPhone won't download entire playlist for offline playback on iOS 8.4

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 3 of 4 last Next

  • by Bob Timmermann,

    Bob Timmermann Bob Timmermann Jul 3, 2015 9:29 PM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jul 3, 2015 9:29 PM in response to Codycgb

    I had been having the same problem, but it seems to have improved today. I went and redownloaded all the music that I had purchased through the iTunes store and that went very quickly. I've been adding other music back in smaller batches and that seems to be working more smoothly.

  • by ralvi,

    ralvi ralvi Jul 4, 2015 12:04 AM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 4, 2015 12:04 AM in response to Codycgb

    UUuh, there are working parts on Apple Music?

     

    Which are they?

     

    - Deleting files, not from iTunes

    - Change covers

    - More boring radio stations, added to millions that already exists

     

     

    For me even easist tasks, as music add to an playlist doesn' t work.

     

    Apple has done a very, very bad job with Apple music.

     

    Shame on.

  • by AG007,

    AG007 AG007 Jul 4, 2015 12:07 AM in response to ralvi
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 4, 2015 12:07 AM in response to ralvi

    I Disagree....

    the sync has problems.. The service is awesome !

  • by Codycgb,

    Codycgb Codycgb Jul 4, 2015 12:34 AM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (62 points)
    Jul 4, 2015 12:34 AM in response to Codycgb

    **Bump**

  • by ralvi,

    ralvi ralvi Jul 4, 2015 4:16 AM in response to AG007
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 4, 2015 4:16 AM in response to AG007

    Are you kidding?

     

    The sync is part of Apple Music and it totally failed.

     

    At the moment Apple Music is crap.

  • by Codycgb,Solvedanswer

    Codycgb Codycgb Jul 4, 2015 11:14 PM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (62 points)
    Jul 4, 2015 11:14 PM in response to Codycgb

    Alright so it seems I've stumbled upon a solution to downloading big libraries for offline use. I discovered it while I was organizing my library with smart playlists. In my experience it seems that problems tend to arise when you try downloading a lot of songs from only one playlist. After several hundred songs there are errors and sometimes downloading completely stops (usually after 2k). Also the offline badge may disappear on your playlist which causes all downloaded songs up to this point to be deleted on the next reboot. Given these insights it seems apple didn't optimize the software enough to handle large playlist offline requests. Until they do, the only way to get all your music on your device is to break your library into smaller chunks, download those playlist one by one for offline use and it should be smooth sailing once you got all your music on your device. The best way to do this is to use smart playlists to auto separate your music (and auto download new songs). Now there are many ways to do this and a lot of its up to personal preference. I kept it simply with two folders. Owned music (folder 1) and apple music (folder 2). I then made the following smart playlists:

     

    Folder 1

    Albums (CD Owned)

    I got all my full albums together in a regular playlist (ones that I have physical copies of), selected all the tracks, hit get info and then in the comment section put "Entire Album (CD Owned)". After that I created a smart playlist with the following rules: Media kind is music, Comments is "Entire Album (CD Owned)" & iCloud Status is not Apple music.

     

    Albums (Digital Copy Owned)

    Same as above however it was music that I only had a digital copy off. Just replace "Entire Album (CD Owned)" with "Entire Album (Digitally Owned)".

     

    Solo Tracks

    Made a smart playlist with the following rules: Media Kind is Music, Comments is not "Entire Album (Digitally Owned)", Comments is not "Entire Album (Digitally Owned)" & iCloud status is not "Apple Music". This created a playlist with songs that are not part of an album that i have all the songs to.

     

    Folder 2

    Apple Music Library

    I don't have many songs on apple music yet so I just have one playlist with the following rules: Media kind is music, iCloud status is "Apple Music".

     

    Now my 3819 song library is split into smaller playlists (1842, 1351, 626 & 37 respectively). Next I just hit download (make available offline) on one playlist at a time (downloading all the songs on said playlist before i tried moving on to another). However some tracks still hanged up. What i did was wait until all the songs that could download did and all that was left in the download que were frozen songs. Rebooted the iPhone, opened up the music app and the other few songs download like a charm. Repeated until all my music was download.

     

    So basically you want to use smart playlists and the comment sections of songs to break down your library into smaller manageable chunks that your iPhone can handle, then download. Once you do the downloads can go through and any new music will be downloaded automatically. Like I said before how you do this is up to you, i explained how i did it above.

     

    Lets hope that apple can make some positive changes before iOS 9 so that their will be a easy way to download all your music. Making a bunch of smart playlists to do the job is tiresome. Until then this is the only solution I found. Hope it helps out any other music lovers. Thanks!

  • by avlambo21,

    avlambo21 avlambo21 Jul 5, 2015 10:32 AM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 5, 2015 10:32 AM in response to Codycgb

    huh gonna have to give this a try later thanks!

  • by avlambo21,

    avlambo21 avlambo21 Jul 6, 2015 5:34 AM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 6, 2015 5:34 AM in response to Codycgb

    Unfortunately this didn't work for me :/

     

    it downloaded 293/293 of the Country Playlist (most important one so yay lol), but 71/73 of the Alternative, and the 9/26 Easy Listening. I'm gonna try the rest of them but it's inconsistent with me still... Apple really dropped the ball here

  • by Codycgb,

    Codycgb Codycgb Jul 6, 2015 9:33 AM in response to avlambo21
    Level 1 (62 points)
    Jul 6, 2015 9:33 AM in response to avlambo21

    Did you reboot your phone after all you were left with was your stuck downloads? I had to do it for each playlist. Once I did the phone downloaded the rest no problem.

  • by avlambo21,

    avlambo21 avlambo21 Jul 6, 2015 9:36 AM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 6, 2015 9:36 AM in response to Codycgb

    i did i'm gonna give it another shot tonight bc it worked perfectly for one playlist... i downloaded that one first

  • by avlambo21,

    avlambo21 avlambo21 Jul 6, 2015 3:21 PM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 6, 2015 3:21 PM in response to Codycgb

    oh my god i may have gotten it to work. fingers crossed....... IT WORKEDDDD, i don't know what i did lol

  • by vicastello,

    vicastello vicastello Jul 13, 2015 7:36 PM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 13, 2015 7:36 PM in response to Codycgb

    I think i found a temporary solution. I have a smart playlist with all my music and it stopped downloading some music too.

    So I edited the "recently added" smart playlist to 500 itens, and made it available offline too, and then clicked to "remove downloads" and all my 280 songs that were not downloading started to download again.

  • by chelg,

    chelg chelg Jul 18, 2015 4:40 AM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 18, 2015 4:40 AM in response to Codycgb

    I've never used iTunes until the husband advised of this trial deal - so to make things simple I've moved my entire library and have been playing around with new music in iTunes. A week into it and I'm more irritated then pleased. After reading this thread I hate to admit I'm happy to see I'm not the only one having issues here and while my feet are barely wet I'm about to jump ship. I see a lot of "I hope Apple takes care of these issues before trial ends" which would be great, but I think Apple should extend the trial due to the issues so we can see that they're actually fixed before deciding to stay or not. I'm so hesitant to run to spotify (after all the time I've spent on iTunes) as I know Apple will hit us with this perfect fix...but dang man, I just wanna be able to listen to my music without hiccups! I wish I could make it as far as updating a playlist, but I can't even get my edits to changing an artists name to save! Grrr.

  • by ksupbye,

    ksupbye ksupbye Jul 31, 2015 5:11 AM in response to avlambo21
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 31, 2015 5:11 AM in response to avlambo21

    I am having same problems as everyone here. So Frustrating! Apple hope you are listening because it sounds like im not the only one getting ready to cancel and go back to previous service!

  • by HopeAmongstUs,

    HopeAmongstUs HopeAmongstUs Aug 18, 2015 6:10 AM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 18, 2015 6:10 AM in response to Codycgb

    I'm wondering if anyone has any updates on this issue or further solutions?

     

    I had gone through each of my artists, one by one, and made them available offline. This seemed to work for the most part, but was extremely annoying and time consuming. However, once I updated to iOS 8.4.1, all my music available offline was deleted. Now I'm back to where I started and not sure what my next step should be.

first Previous Page 3 of 4 last Next