iPhone playlists disappeared after fresh restore and manual sync to iTunes - iCloud Music Library Issue?

Question

iPhone playlists disappeared after fresh restore and manual sync to iTunes - iCloud Music Library Issue?

I'm running the latest ios12 and latest Mojave and iTunes software on my Mac. I've been syncing iTunes with my iPods/iPhones since the dawn of iTunes. I never use iCloud Music Library since I have a massive iTunes library (150,000+ songs) and it has destroyed my Mac iTunes playlists before.

I feel there's an issue with iCloud Music Library being initially turned on when restoring your iPhone?

Anyhow, my iPhone X music playlists synced from iTunes first showed up as normal this morning...then after a few minutes I went to my Playlists section on my iPhone and they completely disappeared! It now just says "Loading Playlists."

I did NOT have iCloud Music Library turned on - both on my Mac and my iPhone. Why would all my synced playlists disappear? I tried restarting the phone, turning iCloud Music Library on then off (it was off to start with), turning wi-fi off and on again, logging out of Apple ID. Nothing seems to work.

Anyhow, I'm a huge music fan and radio DJ and need my custom playlists and playlist folders to work on my iPhone. I sync multiple times a week as I create new playlists. Any ideas?

I feel like it's an Apple Music, iCloud Music Libary issue, but don't know why. Would any other family account user under my Apple ID affect this? Like, if they had iCloud Music Library on for some reason?

Help!

iPhone X

Posted on Aug 16, 2019 9:56 AM

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Answer 1

Leanne_68

Community Specialist

Aug 17, 2019 8:52 AM in response to Christopher Felax

Hello Christopher Felax,

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. It see that your iPhone playlists have disappeared after recently restoring and syncing with your Mac. I know playlists can be important, especially for a DJ. I'm happy to help.

If you haven't already, I recommend using the steps in the following resource to remove the playlists from the iPhone using iTunes. Once the playlists have been removed, try syncing one or two playlists at a time and see if the issue persists.

Sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod using iTunes on your computer

Let us know the results. Please include specific error messages and any other troubleshooting steps you may have tried.

Have a wonderful day!

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Answer 2

Joseph_S.

Community Specialist

Aug 22, 2019 6:08 AM in response to Christopher Felax

Christopher Felax,

Thank you for trying the suggested steps and following up. Next, we recommend reinstalling iOS with iTunes. This step can resolve possible software issues. When reinstalling iOS, iTunes will completely remove your current software and install a fresh version. Make sure you have a recent backup before trying this step.

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Use the steps in the link below to reinstall iOS with iTunes:

If you can't update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Cheers!

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Answer 3

Aug 20, 2019 4:50 PM in response to Leanne_68

So, I tried syncing many times after removing all playlists and hitting the sync button. I still get the loading playlists prompt when I go into my iPhone music app and click "Playlists." Even if I go to "Downloaded Music > Playlists" I still get that prompt. I'm running out of ideas. I added a few playlists back and synced and still get the "loading playlists" prompt. I even tried creating a new playlist folder and adding the playlists there. Still no luck. Any other ideas? (screenshots attached)

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Answer 4

Aug 17, 2019 5:56 PM in response to Leanne_68

Hi, thanks for the reply. I’ll try it one more time and then follow up with results.

Currently, it’s showing “loading playlists” and will show playlists once or twice in a day and then go back to loading. Weirdly, it shows my playlist when plugged into Apple Car Play in my VW.

best,

Chris

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Answer 5

Aug 22, 2019 10:14 AM in response to Joseph_S.

Thanks, Joseph. So I've restored my phone to factory settings and set it up as a new phone twice in the past week. Nothing has worked.

I've made sure all my family users and devices have iCML (iCloud Music Library) turned off as well. I'm still getting a "loading playlists" screen. Sometimes when I restart my phone (soft reset) the playlists come back for a few minutes. But, when I come back to the playlists screen on the iPhone again it disappears.

I just tried putting it in airplane mode, quit my iPhone Apple music app and opened it, and the playlists are now showing. HOWEVER, when I take my phone of airplane mode, the loading playlists thing happens again.

I feel like it's trying to connect to iCML (and obviously needs an internet connection). The first time I restored it, I did it from iTunes and started directly syncing my music. I think iCML is automatically on by default after restoring the phone. If that's the case, then I had unknowingly synced to iCML and maybe this is why it keeps looking for it.

I don't see why this would happen since the 2nd time I restored my iPhone and set it up as a new phone, I made sure to have iCML off and I waited to sync directly from my iMac iTunes library after my iPhone was finished with the setup steps.

So, is there a way to cancel all iCML transfers/processes/syncs? I believe this is what's happening - it's trying to connect to iCML but can't

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