After the latest update of Big Sur I lost a bunch of playlists on my iTunes. I have everything backed up on a Time Machine, but I can't figure out how to restore Music to a prior time and recover those playlists. Please advise.
MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.13
Typically you would restore the contents of ~/Music/Music to restore the entire library or ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary to restore just the database, which contains the playlists. ~ is your user's home folder. After restoring it is advisable to use the option-start-Music method to explicitly select your restored library.
tt2
Typically you would restore the contents of ~/Music/Music to restore the entire library or ~/Music/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary to restore just the database, which contains the playlists. ~ is your user's home folder. After restoring it is advisable to use the option-start-Music method to explicitly select your restored library.
tt2
Hello Wasthat4us,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you'd like to restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup. We are happy to share information that may help.
Check out the information here about how to restore files from a Time Machine backup: Restore items backed up with Time Machine on Mac.
You may also want to take a look at this article for more information: About Time Machine local snapshots
Take care.
Hello Wasthat4us,
We appreciate the additional details. Were the playlists made of songs from Apple Music, purchased through, iTunes, or from a different source? If you have an Apple Music subscription, try the steps here: If songs are missing from your music library after you turn on Sync Library.
Check the "Locate your Music files" section of this article for guidance about where to locate your music library: Change where your music files are stored on Mac.
Take care.
Hello Wasthat4us,
Thank you for following up. We have a few questions in order to assist further:
Take care.
Hi Melissa,
I changed from Catalina to Big Sur about a month ago and everything was fine. The playlists went missing after the most recent software update for Big Sur. The playlists have also disappeared from my iPhone and iPad.
Thank you for your assistance.
The songs were either purchased through iTunes, or mp3 files from a different source. I also subscribe to iTunes Match. I don't think that I have lost any songs, it's some of the playlists that disappeared that I'd really like to get back. I still don't know which file to restore on my Time Machine to get those playlists back.
Thank you for your assistance.
How do I find the folder in the Time Machine that will restore my iTunes playlists?
Restore iTunes playlists from Time Machine on Big Sur OS
