Apple Music replacing songs in playlists

Before starting a subscription to Apple Music it is a good idea to take a complete backup of the library. The original copies of your files that were matched or uploaded from the computer should remain in place unless you actively use the remove download option to free up local storage. When accessing the iCloud Music Library on a different computer or device you will get 256k copies of the matched or uploaded tracks, or potentially the new Apple Music Lossless versions where supported. There is a rare issue when an updated library is unreadable where Music may replace it with an empty library, but will also include your purchase history and any iCloud Music Library in the cloud but presumably you would have noticed that as it would affect the whole library. Restoring the Music Library.musiclibrary database from backup would re-establish the link to the local files. If there is no backup to work with then you should be able to import your local files and Music should resolve the references.

tt2

So you mean the tracks have gone cloudy? You still have a local file but Music is linked to a copy in the cloud, streams that, and would let you download it as a potentially duplicate file? See Empty/corrupt iTunes/Music library after upgrade/crash - Apple Community. You may need to restore a backup of the database if that is possible. Alternatively if you import local files they should merge with the cloud content letting you play locally stored tracks from their better quality originals rather than the 256k matched versions from the cloud.

tt2

My experience is that my original files have stayed in place. That said my iCloud Music Library is a subset of about 10,000 of my tracks that sync between my Mac, PC, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and HomePods. I have a main library of about 65,000 tracks that Apple Music never sees. And backups of everything.

tt2

Can't stand that Apple does that. Example - I downloaded Def Leppard's "Hysteria" into my Library from the original CD and put it in a playlist. Apple replaced a number of the tracks (most of the hits) with live versions, which I do not want. Tried to replace the playlist tracks from what is in my library - my downloads - and Apple Music still plays the live version. Even the Apple library "Hysteria" studio album has these live tracks. If I wanted the live tracks, I would have pulled the live tracks. Very frustrating. This is just one example - this happens a lot.