You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Catalina Music for Mac Needs to be Fixed!

I've struggled with this for too long on Catalina 10.15.0 and 10.15.1. Essentially, only the few hundred songs I've downloaded are in white text and will play. My 4,000 songs in the cloud will not play on the Mac even if "cloud status" is "matched" or "Apple Music."


Earlier, if I logged out and back in, then all my songs were available for about an hour, and I could download favorites, which can then play anytime. Now, even that pathetic trick doesn't work, and I cannot find any way to play or download music.


Why am I paying for Apple Music if I can't listen to my songs? In 1 month I will give up, cancel the subscriptions, and go back to using a local library even if it means rebuilding all my ratings. At least I'll be able to hear by song. What a huge failure on the Mac platform.


Separately, I've noticed that several songs that I own that were "matched" are now "no longer available", so I can't listen to them unless I re-add them from my MP3 library or find them again in Apple Music. (while trying not to create duplicates) That defeats the whole purpose of using Apple Music.


Note: I've tried signing out while online/offline, reauthorizing computer, opening in safe mode, removing some Library files, but nothing works. I can't even create a new Library (by launching with option key) because Catalina throws a weird error about connected devices and prevents that.


[Edited by Moderator]


MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Posted on Nov 11, 2019 6:16 AM

Reply

Similar questions

3 replies

Nov 11, 2019 3:12 PM in response to Rempart

Rempart wrote:

Separately, I've noticed that several songs that I own that were "matched" are now "no longer available", ... That defeats the whole purpose of using Apple Music.

I see that there are two very different concepts intermixed here.


  • ”Matched” relates to Apple’s iTunes Match subscription service. This has nothing to do with Apple Music. It does provide access to an iCloud Music Library while your iTunes Match subscription is active.
  • Apple Music allows you access to the Apple Music catalog in iCloud. You do not own any music accessed through Apple Music. And your right to access the Apple Music catalog would end if and when you let your Apple Music subscription expire.

Nov 11, 2019 9:06 PM in response to sberman

Sberman is mistaken. Apple Music Essentially includes the iTunes Match service. For more details see the bottom line at https://www.imore.com/apple-music-vs-itunes-match-whats-difference


For 30 minutes yesterday things worked perfectly: full access to my music. Then it reverted to graying out non downloaded music. Signed out and back in but can’t get the “sync iCloud” Che inbox to stick, even after another set of system restarts. Same today. Not good!

Nov 12, 2019 1:21 AM in response to Rempart

I’ll amend my remarks above to say that if you subscribe to Apple Music and not iTunes Match, marching ripped songs may occur, but with DRM, which would make the matched songs unusable if the Apple Music subscription terminates.


On the other hand, an iTunes Match subscription allows matching ripped songs to occur without DRM.

Catalina Music for Mac Needs to be Fixed!

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.