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Apple Music deleted 3000 local files of my personal, pre-existing music collection that are gone unless I continue to pay for their service..

I just got off the phone with Apple Support and I'm really upset about this, so heed this as a warning. I will never subscribe to Apple Music again after this. I know this is partially my own fault for not having a better and more recent backup but I also think Apple is at fault for a lack of transparency with this.


I've had years worth of music files in my Music library from old CDs, etc. and I've spent a lot of time and effort curating my library for my phone. I thought I'd give Apple Music a try to easily add new music but for budgetary reasons I decided to cancel after a recent promotional trial. I did have syncing my music library turned off on my phone since I only wanted selected playlists and predominantly used Apple Music on my phone as well to keep up with new releases, etc. Today, a few days after my subscription ended, I discovered that half my library was stuck in the cloud, would not play, would not download. These same songs were also missing from my own documents folders where iTunes media files sit. I talked to Apple Support and I was told that since these songs were 'matched' with Apple Music files, my pre-existing files were overwritten and deleted, and so the only way to get these songs back is to resubscribe to Apple Music - which would consequently be deleted again even if I downloaded them off the cloud and turned off iCloud sharing/storage, as they are now Apple Music files rather than my own.


As you can imagine I'm quite distraught about this and would appreciate if anyone does have a workaround for this. A lot of the files (though not anywhere close to all) are still on my iPhone but I'm afraid of losing them as soon as I plug it in if the files sync the wrong way. I acknowledge that I could have saved myself the trouble by being better with backing up my library, perhaps missing some sort of fine print somewhere, but the lack of transparency or assistance from Apple through this whole thing has left me very sour.

Posted on Feb 27, 2023 3:14 PM

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7 replies

Feb 27, 2023 4:42 PM in response to c0nsiderthesea

Yes, you absolutely should have kept a backup of your library, and checked that you had local working copies of your files before terminating your subscription. You should have turned off iCloud Music Library AKA Sync Library before the subscription expired. Local non-Apple Music files should not have been deleted as a consequence of closing the subscription, but there are circumstances in which the library could become disconnected from local files in a way that may not have been immediately apparent. Have you actually looked inside the media folder to see if the files that you think are missing are still there. If they are we can discuss how to repair the library. Otherwise see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device - Apple Community for advice on reclaiming the files that are on your device.


tt2

Feb 27, 2023 5:21 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi tt2,


Thanks for your reply, and had I realized that Apple Music was using alternate copies and that Sync Library was turned on (I had it turned off on my phone, didn't think of my computer, again I do take responsibility for that oversight), I would have done so.


My local files are definitely missing from the media folder - the one where any songs added to my library are automatically added to. That's really what baffles me the most about this whole situation, clearly it's linked but unless I manually delete a song from my library and select 'Move to Trash' as well (and these files are not in my Trash), I wouldn't have thought there'd be a risk of it happening without my knowledge.

Feb 28, 2023 2:37 AM in response to c0nsiderthesea

Have you moved from one computer to another while you had an active subscription? Did you ever remove downloads to free up space for something else? Was this an iTunes library that has migrated to Music? If so have you checked the old iTunes Media folder, or was that consolidated to Music's media folder, or is it your current media folder?


tt2

Feb 28, 2023 12:58 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi tt2, none of the above in the last year. When iTunes became Music, the files all remained in/around the same place ([user folder] > Music > iTunes > iTunes Media > Music, there are no other copies in any of the surrounding folders within that pathway, nor did I move anything myself), and I believe that took place before I ever subscribed to Apple Music. Same RE any changing computers or manually removing files.

Feb 28, 2023 1:27 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi tt2, I was informed by the Apple Support representative that doing so would just temporarily regain my access to the rewritten Apple Music files in the cloud, and would disappear again upon the new expiry/cancellation regardless of turning off iCloud sharing. They offered no help or suggestion regarding my own pre-existing files that were lost.

Apple Music deleted 3000 local files of my personal, pre-existing music collection that are gone unless I continue to pay for their service..

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