How to transfer playlists from iPhone to iMac without losing data?

Dana Abrams wrote:

I'm stuck in the same situation. Looking for an answer as well.

As above:

See Recover your iTunes/Music library from your iPod or iOS device - Apple Community. The easiest method is probably a temporary subscription to the Apple Music service. You would enable this on the iPhone, allowing the playlists to upload to the cloud, then download all your contents and playlists your Mac and backup the library before turning off the subscription.

tt2

See Recover your iTunes/Music library from your iPod or iOS device - Apple Community. The easiest method is probably a temporary subscription to the Apple Music service. You would enable this on the iPhone, allowing the playlists to upload to the cloud, then download all your contents and playlists your Mac and backup the library before turning off the subscription.

tt2

TheLittles wrote:

What's the Subscription You are Referring to?

With an iCloud+ Plan, it would be accessible between devices.

This is wrong. The Apple Music app on an iOS device cannot transfer content to or from iCloud Drive, which is a feature of an iCloud+ Plan. The method that can potentially work to recover music from an iOS device into an Apple Music or iTunes library on a computer is to take a subscription to the Apple Music service, enable Sync Library (see Use Sync Library with your Apple Music subscription - Apple Support) on the device and merge the content of the device with the iCloud Music Library when prompted, then enable Sync Library on the computer which will gain access to the playlists and the matched/uploaded tracks that were added from the device. Once all has been downloaded to a computer and backed up it would be safe to turn off the Apple Music subscription if desired. As noted in my post above other recovery routes are available, some free, but iCloud+ is not relevant in this context.

tt2

leonardfromsweeny wrote:

Any possibility of getting my songs back once they have disappeared?

If they are still on a device then as above:

See Recover your iTunes/Music library from your iPod or iOS device - Apple Community. The easiest method is probably a temporary subscription to the Apple Music service. You would enable this on the iPhone, allowing the playlists to upload to the cloud, then download all your contents and playlists your Mac and backup the library before turning off the subscription.

Third party transfer tools are also available.

Otherwise no.

tt2

GRW157 Said:

"iTunes doesn't exist any more. when I connect my phone to my iMac and launch the Music app, I get an option to sync music onto iPhone, when I click here I get the following - [...]I am trying to keep the playlists which are on my phone and transfer to my iMac, I do not want them removed."

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Thank you for the screenshot.

Save Playlists with an Apple Music Subscription:

iTunes still exists --for pre-Catalina and Windows. it was canned when releasing macOS Catalina. So, do you have an Apple Music Subscription? if so, use second link I provided: Use Sync Library with your Apple Music Subscription - Apple Support

GRW157 Said:

"Transfer playlist from iPhone to iMac: Had to rebuild my iMac so lost all my playlists. They are still on my iPhone but can’t find a way of transferring them to iMac. Can only find option to sync iMac to iPhone which overwrites everything on my phone."

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Syncing Music Library:

• Use iTunes to Sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your Computer - Apple Support

• Use Sync Library with your Apple Music Subscription - Apple Support

leonardfromsweeny Said:

"Unable to transfer my songs from iPhone to MacBook Sonoma 14.4: I've tried the subscription route and nothing loads on to my computer. My songs disappeared. Grrr, very frustrating!"

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What's the Subscription You are Referring to?

With an iCloud+ Plan, it would be accessible between devices. From there, you'd download the Music Library. Without the subscription, they cannot bee seen among devices. So, log out of iCloud on all of your devices --Computers, Tables, Phones, PDAs, Virtual Machines and more. Then, restart each device. Once restarted, log in, on device at a time. Perhaps it all needs to resync?

Thanks, this is why I’ve found.

If you canceled your subscription to Apple Music or iTunes Match, your music library is removed on all of your devices except for the device your music library is stored on. Any music, including playlists, that you added or downloaded from the Apple Music catalog is also removed.

I'm stuck in the same situation. Looking for an answer as well.

Unable to transfer my songs from iPhone to MacBook Sonoma 14.4

I've tried the subscription route and nothing loads on to my computer.

My songs disappeared. Grrr, very frustrating!

Any possibility of getting my songs back once they have disappeared?