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
Codycgb
Level 1
(62 points)
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!
