Music library is duplicating, deleting, unable to sync, etc.

I use the music app, subscribe to Apple Music, and use iCloud Music Library to sync music not available on Apple Music streaming across my devices. It's worked beautifully for a couple of years.


In the last few weeks, everything has gotten screwy. I will import a CD (or sometimes just music files, typically ALAC but sometimes other supported formats) and the Music app will update the Cloud Library. It will all seem fine (and appear on my iPhone, etc.), but when I return to the Music app, many of those same music files are now missing. Almost invariably, when I click on an album, each track now appears duplicated – one is on the hard drive, followed by a duplicate with the "download from the cloud" icon next to it. (So if I played this album on my Mac, it would play each track twice.) If I delete the duplicates with the cloud icon and just keep the ones on the drive (a torturous process), it seems fine but hours or a day later, every single track now has the cloud-with-an-x-through-it icon, and if I click on that it tells me it won't sync, or doesn't exist. And now they're not on my iPhone (etc.) anymore.


My imports from weeks ago to years ago are all still working fine. It's only new imports that are having this problem. I deleted my .itl and .xml files, which briefly looked like it had cleared up the problem, but no such luck. Sometimes, I drag the files into a folder, delete them in Music, then reimport them. For a while, this seemed to work, but in the last few days, it doesn't, even if I try multiple times.


For the most part, these are .m4a files generated by Music (importing an obscure CD), so they certainly should be completely compatible.


Anybody have any suggestions? This is driving me crazy!

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Aug 6, 2020 12:11 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 7, 2020 5:18 AM

See Duplicate songs in iTunes - Apple Community, particularly the first paragraph on cloudy duplicates.


For tracks that appear to become broken, i.e. show with the exclamation mark, you could try FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music - Apple Community.


tt2

Similar questions

3 replies

Aug 7, 2020 5:35 PM in response to MikeSchiff

See Identify cloud status icons in your music library on your Mac or PC - Apple Support for more on library status indicators. Sometimes you can use a second cloud library to clear out problem items from the cloud, then go back to the main library and add things back in. Though obviously iTunes/Music has to be able to locate the tracks you want it to use.


If you're seeing tracks with exclamation marks can you see what Music shows through Song Info > Don't Locate > File tab and find the true location of the same track? Perhaps I might be able to spot something or perhaps improve my script.


tt2

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Music library is duplicating, deleting, unable to sync, etc.

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