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User profile for user: Gary Davison
Gary Davison Author
User level: Level 1
89 points

Restoring a music playlist from a Time Machine backup 2

I am hoping to reach turingtest2. This will be a continuation of the same question posted on Jan 23, 2022 by JazzmanJohn.


I am having the same problem as Jon did, but I am trying to restore all of my playlists that I created. I am using Mac OS Monterey. The playlists in question are from the "MUSIC" app and are self created playlists, not SMART playlists. I have followed a few of the steps that you outlined and the best I can get is the playlists names are showing but are empty. All of the music files are intact.


I have tried restoring the entire ~/Music File in My user folder. I have tried restoring the ~/Music/Music file. I have tried restoring the ~Music/Music/Music file. I have tried restoring just the Music Library.musiclibrary file. Still no music in the playlists. I attached a few screen shots.


It seems tike there is another file somewhere controlling the contents of the playlists and things may also be different with the Monterey OS.





iMac 27″, macOS 12.4

Posted on Apr 18, 2022 5:39 PM

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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
274,516 points

Posted on Apr 19, 2022 4:53 AM

Hi Gary,


In principle it should be sufficient to restore the Music Library.musiclibrary package from a suitable date. In practice it seems that having done so you may also need to use the option-start-Music method and choose the restored library file. It may be that Music has become attached to a cached copy of the database that it uses when Music isn't running to support device syncing, home sharing, etc. A final complication arises if you have a subscription to either Apple Music or iTunes Match and sync library is enabled. In that is the case you must disconnect from the internet before attempting to open the restored library, then export your playlists, reconnect to the internet, and import the exported lists.


tt2



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User profile for user: turingtest2
turingtest2
User level: Level 10
274,516 points

Apr 19, 2022 4:53 AM in response to Gary Davison

Hi Gary,


In principle it should be sufficient to restore the Music Library.musiclibrary package from a suitable date. In practice it seems that having done so you may also need to use the option-start-Music method and choose the restored library file. It may be that Music has become attached to a cached copy of the database that it uses when Music isn't running to support device syncing, home sharing, etc. A final complication arises if you have a subscription to either Apple Music or iTunes Match and sync library is enabled. In that is the case you must disconnect from the internet before attempting to open the restored library, then export your playlists, reconnect to the internet, and import the exported lists.


tt2



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User profile for user: Gary Davison
Gary Davison Author
User level: Level 1
89 points

Apr 19, 2022 4:47 PM in response to turingtest2

tt2


Everything that you wrote was very helpful.

I finally got my playlists back. I opened the ~Music folder and deleted everything in it. Then restored the same files from an earlier Time Machine backup.




Also I had the internet disconnected. I think the whole problem started when I tried to sync my iPhone to my iMac for the music. Some files were duplicated on the iMac and the iPhone and I deleted a few. After searching around for some more answers when I was getting nowhere with what I was trying previously, I ran into some chatter about music automatically backing up to the music icloud. I do not have iCloud Drive turned on and I don't know how they were getting up into the cloud but somehow things were. I verified this by deleting every song on my iPhone, deleting the Music app, then reinstalling the Music app. When I started back up it'll automatically populated with files from the cloud. So I turned off all automatic downloads on the phone I turned off handoff between my computer my iPad and my iPhone.


I am going to try to sync the iPhone to the iMac again this evening, I sure hope it works.


I thank you for all your help!!!!

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Restoring a music playlist from a Time Machine backup 2

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