Songs I literally listened to a few days ago are now completely missing from my iTunes and when I go into the store to redownload, I can't because it seems Apple has forgotten that I purchased them.
iMac 27″, macOS 13.1
The Apple Music folder contains DRM content associated with the Apple Music subscription. This includes any lossless audio downloads whether of purchases or other Apple Music content. The purchased version you get to keep regardless of a subscription is still the 256k AAC version. You would need to turn off lossless downloads in order to get those reliably. See About lossless audio in Apple Music - Apple Support and the section How to turn lossless audio on or off.
See my user tip Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for more on the folder layout. The section on iTunes Media Organization describes how to eliminate the last Music folder from that set of nested folders if you wish.
tt2
The Apple Music folder contains DRM content associated with the Apple Music subscription. This includes any lossless audio downloads whether of purchases or other Apple Music content. The purchased version you get to keep regardless of a subscription is still the 256k AAC version. You would need to turn off lossless downloads in order to get those reliably. See About lossless audio in Apple Music - Apple Support and the section How to turn lossless audio on or off.
See my user tip Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for more on the folder layout. The section on iTunes Media Organization describes how to eliminate the last Music folder from that set of nested folders if you wish.
tt2
turingtest2 wrote:
You would need to turn off lossless downloads in order to get those reliably. See About lossless audio in Apple Music - Apple Support and the section How to turn lossless audio on or off.
Thanks - that was my hunch when trying to set up a Music library on an external drive earlier - i.e. having lossless/hi-res downloads might prevent the lossy versions of audio and perhaps newer HD video (with HD video downloads selected) from showing correctly.
So much has become unintuitive over the years, and if content really does go by the wayside for any reason I wish they would actually email you to advise that this will happen on a particular date as now you only potentially find out when it's too late (assuming you even notice).
See if they have been inadvertently hidden: Hide and unhide music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and books - Apple Support
Thank you so much for the response. Nothing is hidden, but also no purchases show before 2011, which is just crazy. That's about 7 years of purchases lost. No account change, still using the same email. But thank you for the link. It actually allowed me to see how far my purchase history went back and it does not go back as far as it should.
Do have these tracks backed up anywhere? Are they on an old computer or device? Prior to 2009 songs from the iTunes Store were sold on a single download only basis with DRM. You needed to back them up and potentially burn to audio CD and rip back to make them easier to use. Some content from the back catalog, particularly older items, is at risk of being removed if the rights holders decide to remove content from the store. I believe changes in licencing terms may make that less of an issue for more recent purchases, but still a really good idea to make your own physical backups rather than rely on availability in the cloud.
tt2
Hi tt2
Having always in the past downloaded purchases in iTunes I've not started doing so until recently in Monterey.
I'm probably just not used to the Music app way of doing things (hate change), but any idea why if I go to iTunes Store>Purchased and download pas purchases some are going to the Apple Music folder as HLS Media encoded files, whereas others go to the Music folder as actual downloads?
When you look at default folder naming too it's confusing:
Username>Music>Music>Media>Music
Utterly daft in my view to have nested folders with those names.
Not sure if the nested folder structure has changed vs the tip as in Monterey I have :
User>Music>Music>Media>Music>'Artist name' folders> etc for purchases:
Does tip need a quick edit?
Thanks for that. It is covered already though I've added this bit of text to the Special folders section for clarity. A new empty library shouldn't generate the extra /Music/ layer.
Music [Optional] Artist folders and Compilations may be nested into
a Music subfolder, typically when a library has been migrated
from iTunes. See iTunes Media Organization below for more
tt2
picas wrote:
If you have a question it is courteous to start your own post rather than hijacking someone else's.
Apologies, you are of course correct, as I've responded in frustration in a few different threads due to a similar issue though often there's quite some overlap.
Alley_Cat wrote:
Whatever. Don't be so precious. Genuine reply to a helpful response from another poster.
Sorry, I don't normally reply in a cranky manner but I find that comment patronising.
Best wishes.
AC
Note to self:
Review full thread to ensure you're referencing the correct one! 🤦🏼♀️
Hijacking maybe/maybe not, certainly unintentional.
If you have a question it is courteous to start your own post rather than hijacking someone else's.
Whatever. Don't be so precious. Genuine reply to a helpful response from another poster.
Sorry, I don't normally reply in a cranky manner but I find that comment patronising.
Best wishes.
AC
Missing hundreds of dollars of music.
