Vanished playlists in upgrade from iTunes to Music!

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Vanished playlists in upgrade from iTunes to Music!

I held off from the upgrade from iTunes to Apple Music for a long time, then in one jump went from Catalina to Monterey. When I opened Music for the first time, my library still contained all my songs, but all the playlists I'd made had vanished from the left margin (years of work!). I've scoured the online message-boards, but no solution seems to apply to my specific problem (including using iTunes, which Monterey isn't compatible with). How do I restore my vanished playlists?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 12.1

Posted on Jan 28, 2022 1:09 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

275,010 points

Jan 28, 2022 2:54 AM in response to nygy

Check to see if there is a disclosure triangle next to Playlists in the sidebar in case this menu is simply collapsed.

Otherwise see Empty/corrupt iTunes/Music library after upgrade/crash - Apple Community.

tt2

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Answer 2

nygy Author

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Jan 28, 2022 3:04 AM in response to turingtest2

Afraid not (that would be great)! And as to your 'corrupt library' suggestion (thanks!), well, the library is all there, it's only the Playlist folders that are missing.

Here's a screenshot: the white space on the right is the empty window when I highlight All Playlists:

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

275,010 points

Jan 28, 2022 4:19 AM in response to nygy

Just to be clear you were running Catalina, and have updated to Monterey, so you were using Music before and after the update? Slightly confused. Mojave was the last version of macOS that ran iTunes. If you were using iTunes before the upgrade then option-start-Music, click Choose Library, and pick the old iTunes Library.itl file to convert to a new Music library. With luck the playlists will be included this time. Do you have Time Machine? Do you have any devices that might hold playlists synced from your computer?

tt2

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Answer 4

nygy Author

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Jan 28, 2022 5:09 AM in response to turingtest2

I have an old iMac still running iTunes with my playlists. Could manually duplicate them, at least they have a record of their contents. Thanks for the suggestion, which I'll try when I can (Music currently syncing with iCloud for the first time, could be a while). I appreciate the reply and will report back :)

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Answer 5

nygy Author

Level 1

7 points

Jan 31, 2022 2:51 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks Turingtest, that worked! All my Playlists are there.

I'm assuming this is the library I used in iTunes before upgrading to Music -- because I notice that any recent playlists and adds I've since made from the Store don't show up. Can this old library somehow be merged with the new - while retaining the old playlists? Or failing that, do you know of some way of easily copying the old iTunes playlists INTO my new library? Worst case scenario, I guess could screenshot the tracks in the old Playlist windows and manually rebuiId them in Music. Guess I've got something of a learning curve ahead, but at least you've restored access to the old decision-lists. Many thanks for your help!

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