Music library uneditable (Monterey 12.1)

I have this issue as well, and it seems to be tied into a mechanic in which the cloud library supersedes anything done locally. From discussions (unofficial) I have had, it seems that the general belief from the AM developers is that a) most users are on an iDevice and b) most users are using Apple Music files and not their own. So it seems to me that Apple deprecated the ability of the desktop jukebox to manage and curate one’s own catalog.

I can’t stay this is exactly the case (and I am kind of hoping that Cunningham’s Law will kick in at this point) but I have spent the better part of this last year fighting with Apple Music’s curation (or lack thereof) of my extensive collection. I’ve even resigned to re-rip my entire CD collection - except I can’t even delete what I have! I have spent the last three days now re-deleting albums over and over again.

This is why I think that Apple changed the logic - so whatever you have in the cloud is the default, which then feeds to all your iDevices - instead of having the desktop be the “hub” like iTunes was under Steve Jobs. And I think because there is no way to manage the Cloud files from your iPhone or iPad (you can only delete local downloads), Apple removed that ability from the desktop app without providing any means to manage your cloud library elsewhere. At least in iTunes you could go to your account settings and “reset” your library (empty it, essentially) if you needed to rebuild from scratch.

And for the record, none of the documented procedures Apple has will address your issues or mine, and all the online guides only work with iTunes.

Is your library available for Home Sharing? Perhaps you have an Apple TV, or iOS device that has accessed the Home Sharing library and hasn't disconnected properly. Try rebooting the computer. If you still cannot switch libraries take the computer offline and reboot once more.

tt2

I've created a similar thread here - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253562032 - and as of today, it seems everything is now working as it should: deleting music, rating songs or modifying metadata is now updating my library in the cloud!

Did it start working for you as well?

Well, I've upgraded my iMac in 12.2. it's not better for me. I'm currently testing Strawberry Player. I've lost faith with Apple and they seem unable to patch this. All this mess around iCloud sync between devices let me asking if I'm dumb and the only one who experiencing such random bugs. My main library litteraly almos never sync... but sometimes it does. Look, I'm not retarded. I create a simple playlist, add 2 files. Yeah, it sync music.apple.com/library/playlist.

10 minutes later, I add 2 other files to this playlist. They never appear on the web version and after minutes/hours it disapear from the iMac. I am so discouraged... I've tried every tricks available. I've disable library sync on all I device (iPad, iPhone) and also on my MacBook.... I can't understand this mess.

I reported similar problems in a different thread. On my iMac, Monterey 12.1, whenever I rate songs, or add or delete songs from playlists, or move those playlists, the library refreshes back to where it was earlier, and my changes are lost. Given I am forever tweaking my playlists, this is very frustrating, as it messes with the way I like to listen to music.

I seem to have developed a tedious and less-than-100% reliable workaround that I am finding helpful while we wait for a bug fix.

1. Quit music on ALL of my devices (in my case: iMac, MBP, iPad, iPhone, AppleTV). Quit every app on the iMac and restart (I do this once a week on all devices as a hygiene routine anyway).
2. DO NOT open Music on other devices (MBP, iPad, iPhone, AppleTV). ONLY open Music on the iMac.
3. Go to the File menu in Music on the iMac, and run File > Library > Update Cloud Library.
4. Make my changes for the day / week. i.e. Update ratings, playlists etc.
5. When done, run File > Library > Update Cloud Library again.
6. At this point, if my updates haven't "stuck" the library will revert to the previous version (the problem we're all having). But sometimes, my updates are sticking!

As I say, it's a tedious and hopefully temporary workaround, but it's giving me some relief!. :)

Good luck all and here's hoping for a fix in 12.2

Interesting. Have you tried my suggestion above? I'm able to make changes in Music in Monterey, Big Sur, or Catalina, which then get mirrored in my other libraries, including those in Windows and on my iPhone and iPad. A change with Music as opposed to iTunes is that a Home Shared library remains available even when the app isn't running. I wonder if perhaps Music gets fixed on displaying this shared library locally, and then won't save the changes you make. Making sure it really is opening the local library rather than a cached copy might help.

tt2

I tried your suggestion and it tells me that I cannot switch libraries, because the current library is used by a device.

Then it tells me to log in without connected devices to switch library.

How do I solve this? Do I have to log out of Apple Music on my phone and then try your suggestion on my Macbook?

I am on Monterey 12.1 by the way.

Thank you so much!

Library is now editable in Monterey 12.1 after I logged out from Apple Music and turned off Home Sharing on my phone. Then I rebooted my computer and switched the library successfully.

One more question, what does Home Sharing exactly do? I do not have it on, and everything is still synced in Apple Music on my iPhone and Macbook, so what is the point of Home Sharing?

Then short of going through the same steps as before I don't know what else to suggest. Are you making sure to close all apps cleanly before shutting down the computer? Does this issue occur after the system has been to sleep? If so does it help to quit Music first? You could also reach out to Apple Support in case they have any suggestions, and to log this issue.

<Edit> Well good to know a reboot is a workaround at least, but yes it ought not to be necessary. </Edit>

tt2

I have this same issue. I have several hundred tracks that are greyed out, I can't delete them and they don't seem to exist. They also are very odd in that the title of the song doesn't go with the album it's being pulled from. I am extremely frustated with this issue, and if I could move to another service I would consider it strongly. My "love" designations don't stick, and I'm terrified to hit the "update cloud library" button because it means I'll have to go through and re-import my "love" tracks which I saved as a seperate playlist and the exported so i can at least bring them back easily. I'll have to re-delete the grey "waiting" tracks that never resolve, and I will make playlist changes that never propagate to my phone or ipad.

I have re-synced everything. literally 100s of gigabytes had to be redownloaded to 3 devices (Mac, iPad, iPhone).

Home Sharing is turned off (and was never on on my Macbook).

restarting doesn't do anything. it's only when the cloud library gets involve that things become a complete and utter disaster.

it's very difficult to believe a major tech company can't get this to work. shaken my faith considerably. "It just works" seems dead post-Steve.

Been using Apple products since 1983. Never wanted to punch my computer as much as I have the past 3 days.

Issue started when I was finding my library had a gazillion missing tracks (exclamation points) so I started a new library and moved the local tracks back in afresh. (They were all there, the missing ones were in a pocket "Music" folder inside the "Music" folder inside the "Media" folder inside the "Music" Folder. That's resolved now.)

Sorry for rant. I don't know where to go to get help for this. Do the genius bar people knwo this stuff?

Jeff Melrose wrote:

They were all there, the missing ones were in a pocket "Music" folder inside the "Music" folder inside the "Media" folder inside the "Music" Folder.

That would suggest the media folder was incorrectly set to ~/Music/Music/Media/Music rather than ~/Music/Music/Media at some point.

Do the genius bar people knwo this stuff?

Probably not. Repairing broken libraries is an arcane art. I don't see a support article on the topic, and I doubt there is a support script for it.

tt2

I'm having the same issues – any changes I make to song/album/artist titles only save for a couple of minutes, and then revert back to the Apple Music default. Same with attempting to delete/remove albums from my library – after a few minutes, it just shows back up. This is extremely frustrating, as I've been using iTunes Music for 20 years and have never experienced this level of bugginess. Severely disappointed and aggravated.

I've tried this and just keep receiving the same error message as another poster ("You cannot change the music library at this time because the current library is in use by a device. Sign in without connected devices to change your music library.")

I have never used any other library previously, and I signed out on my iPhone (my issues are in Music for macOS Monterey).

I initially thought that making these changes from the "Albums" tab, rather than the "Recently Added" one was making the changes stick, but it was just delayed – after a few minutes, same issues.

Hi. I updated to Monterey 12.1 a week ago and now I'm having this same problem =( I don't have Home Sharing activated, and in my case the problem is happening very randomly and messing all the metadata in multiple scenarios.

Example, I rated dozens of songs a few days ago (after the update) and now, three days later, about half of those songs have the ratings disappeared. I start rating again and a few of them are losing the rating as soon as I open any other app and return to Music.

Playlists: I add a song to a playlist, and then a few hours - days later, the song is gone from the playlist.

And finally, I noticed is happening even to old songs that I just played. Example, a song that I added to my library like a year ago, was rated, and present in multiple playlists. I played that song for the first time in months, and a few minutes after playing it the rating was lost, it was removed from all playlists, it's like I just added it today (though the reproduction count shows correct number of plays).

This is extremely frustrating =(