Accidentally deleted my entire iTunes library off my phone!!!!

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Chuck1906 Author

Level 1

12 points

Accidentally deleted my entire iTunes library off my phone!!!!

Before you ask, no I did not back up my phone first, I didn't because it had just did a backup to iCloud and I thought I was good to go. I hardly never sync my phone to my computer via USB but I wanted to remove a lot of songs out of my many playlists and doing it on the computer is a whole lot faster. When I connected my phone to the computer it said the library on my phone was different than the one on my computer and did I want to continue. I figured its backed up to the cloud so I clicked yes. It completely wiped out my library from my phone! Yikes! I ended up doing a full phone reset. I wiped it completely and started fresh. I then did a restore from icloud back up. When it began putting music back on my phone, not everything came back and there were only a few songs in each of my playlists. Before all this happened I had well over 70-100 if not more songs per playlist I created.

I checked my other Apple devices like my iPad and I can see my music there BUT it does not show my playlists on the other devices. Just shows my music. I want to get my library back to how I had it and not sure of what the best solution of that is.

I have been backing my phone up to iCloud for a few years now. My last synced back up to my computer was back in 2018.

I am guessing had I chose to Back up my phone with iTunes first, before I did that sync, everything would have been saved in the cloud just how I had it. Now I have to go to iTunes and look through all my recent purchased music and re-download them to my library which I am sure will take a long while.

Any other solutions?

iPhone 8 Plus

Posted on Nov 6, 2021 1:52 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

javaliga

Level 10

120,179 points

Nov 6, 2021 9:13 PM in response to Chuck1906

Your actual music files are not included in an iCloud backup. Basically, to backup the music to iCloud would take a lot of storage and I believe the assumption is that you can always redownload music you purchased (on any device - to any device) from the iTunes Store (as long as you use the same Apple ID). I believe what is actually backed are "pointers" to your purchase history and things like that to make the redownloading process easier.

To backup your music to your computer would essentially be redundant since it should already be in your music library on that computer. However, can backup the music library separately: See How to move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Support for Apple's approach to this topic. You should also be able to get the music you acquired by any other means on your device in the same way you got it there in the first place.

Redownload music - Apple Support

Sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod using your computer - Apple Support

Turn on Sync Library with Apple Music - Apple Support

As your situation stands now, maybe this will help:

Recover your iTunes library from your iPo… - Apple Community

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Answer 2

ande6519

Level 1

8 points

Nov 6, 2021 11:21 PM in response to Chuck1906

I heard some people can transfer music and data from their iPad to their iPhone using a third party app, like iMazing. However, it will cost you money. I have never tried this method, but it's worth looking into if you have the $$$ but no time to do it manually.

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Accidentally deleted my entire iTunes library off my phone!!!!

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