User profile for user: nathanwarnock
nathanwarnock Author
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Help! Itunes/Apple Music Library Syncing ruining my library!

For years since I had my iPod Mini back in 2004, I have been very meticulous with the organisation of my music library. Since then I have uploaded CDs, demos, live albums, rarities etc and spent my time creating album artwork and organising them how I see fit. Since getting Apple Music, I have tried several times to turn on the Sync Library function, only to have it erase songs, change album artwork, move songs around into different albums (ie. taking a song from an album and giving it the artwork/data from a generic compilation album). It'll even take a songs from a live album or a remix and convert them into the studio recordings, therefore giving me doubles/triples of the song. Each time I've had to back up to before I synced the library with Apple Music.


I suppose what I'm asking is there anyway to work around this? I want to sync my Apple Music so I can download songs and add them to my library but without ruining years of collecting/downloading my other music. At the minute if I want to listen to a new album or song, I just search for it in Apple Music and don't add it to my library, which makes it impossible to make playlists compromising of my old/own music and any new music from Apple.


Any help, advice, workarounds would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks

Posted on Mar 9, 2021 7:30 AM

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
278,351 points

Posted on Mar 12, 2021 3:28 AM

One possible approach is to have two libraries. I have a primary library of about 65,000 tracks and a second iCloud library with about 10,000. The cloud library started with my unhidden purchases in the cloud and I gradually introduced copies of content from the main library that I wanted to be able to access everywhere over time. This was originally an iTunes Match library but is now Apple Music so I can add in new albums without necessarily purchasing them. Adding content in smaller blocks makes it easy to fix up any oddities as they arise. All my artwork is embedded. I have found that the store version of metadata for some purchases does occasionally reassert itself, but the workaround for this is to hide the purchase and have my local copy be matched or uploaded, which keeps my version of the metadata.


tt2

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
278,351 points

Mar 12, 2021 3:28 AM in response to nathanwarnock

One possible approach is to have two libraries. I have a primary library of about 65,000 tracks and a second iCloud library with about 10,000. The cloud library started with my unhidden purchases in the cloud and I gradually introduced copies of content from the main library that I wanted to be able to access everywhere over time. This was originally an iTunes Match library but is now Apple Music so I can add in new albums without necessarily purchasing them. Adding content in smaller blocks makes it easy to fix up any oddities as they arise. All my artwork is embedded. I have found that the store version of metadata for some purchases does occasionally reassert itself, but the workaround for this is to hide the purchase and have my local copy be matched or uploaded, which keeps my version of the metadata.


tt2

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Help! Itunes/Apple Music Library Syncing ruining my library!

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