Playlists disappeared in IOS 8.4

Trying to sync with iTunes did not work for me, since I'd already upgraded that to 12.2 with the Apple Music support. However, toggling "iCloud Music Library" under Settings -> Music brought everything back!

I have been searching for a solution for my post 8.4 upgrade playlist disappearance... and I found it...

All songs purchased were still on the phone, however, the associated playlists were simply unchecked. I needed to go back into iTunes | click on the connected device | Music | and reselect the playlists you want on your phone. All of the playlists were deselected for some reason. Music flowed back

FWIW, I seemed to have dodged playlist, imported CD issues with my upgrade.

After seeing all the different reports, I still decided to go ahead and update.

This was my process:

Updated to iTunes 12.2 on all my Macs using the full installer download (not the App Store Update).

Opened iTunes on each machine and immediately went to Preferences->General and unchecked

"Show Apple Music" (did not see anywhere in any preference pane any reference to "iCloud Music Library"

that all have been talking about). Of course, it promptly told me it would shutdown the iCloud Music Library

(perhaps this is what people were referring to).

I then downloaded and updated my iPhone via USB with iTunes. When complete,

and rebooted, turned off "Show Apple Music" in the Music settings and opened

the Music app and all playlists, imported CDs (including artwork), and individual

LP track rips were all there and intact.

So, the big question is, if I want to subscribe to Apple Music sometime in the future,

I assume the "Show Apple Music" needs to be re-enabled. If this is done, will this then end up

trashing all the hard work over the years of importing and playlist creation?

My playlists survived the turning on of Apple Music. My artwork was replaced in Music but the files are still there. Suggest you sign up to iTunes Match to prevent Apple Music from DRMing your private collection of CDs. Even without Match the files are there but I think it hoses iTunes should you choose to turn off Apple Music one day.

THANK YOU!!!

After I upgraded to IOS 8.4 I still had my playlists but many of my playlists were empty. It took a while for me to figure it out with the new UI but what got them back is:

1. Select My Music from bottom menu
2. Select Playlists on top of screen
3. Tap on "All Playlists", it doesn't look like it is something to tap but you then get a small window at bottom with the option "Show Music Available Offline(only show music stored on this iPhone)" . This option was turned on and much of my music is store on Cloud. I disabled this option and all of my songs showed up again.

I was pretty bummed for a while but I'm glad it was this easy. I missed any documentation about this change and the change wasn't so intuitive to find.

I hope this helps some of you.

Thanks for this, @petey47! After turning iCloud Music Library off and re-syncing with my PC to restore my missing playlists, I was wanting a way to get the songs I downloaded through Apple Music. Your tip allowed me to do this.

However there *might* be another step you need to do if you want to keep your playlists available at all times - even when you're offline without any data/wi-fi connection. When in Apple Music > My Music > Playlists view (after restoring your playlists and re-enabling iCloud Music Library), each playlist would have the three dots symbol to the right. Tapping on this brings up a few options, one of which is "Make Available Offline". I have a feeling you will now need to select this for each playlist you want available at all times. I disabled my data and wifi just now, and it seems all the playlists I made "available offline" are still accessible. Don't know if it's just me or only for now though.

If confirmed, this is kind of a hassle. I went on a trip for the 4th of July weekend, much of it on the road where there is no data. Apple Music made my playlists disappear right before I was about to leave home, and I had to scramble to find the solution to restore them. I only re-enabled iCloud Music Library today after seeing this tip, but if somehow I did this during my trip and had not made my playlists available offline, Apple would have screwed up the music I had prepared for my drive (it almost did by deleting the playlists in the first place)! Tsk tsk, Apple! You're usually better at releasing updates than this...

I lost all my playlists on my iPhone 6 after updating to IOS 8.4. I had been backing up and syncing my iPhone with iTunes on my computer. I simply synced my iPhone with iTunes and all my playlists have been restored. Kind of making me rethink my switch to go to the iCloud for backups.

I'd love to shut off "iCloud Music Library," but I don't have it on my Music settings. I see many people's screenshots showing it, but my ios 8.4 phone doesn't have it. In Music, I have "Sort Albums" and below it is "Genus" (switched off), but "iCloud Music Library" just ain't there.

Hi All,

I solved this issue with Apple Support. 8.4 and ICloud Music and ITunes 12.2.0.145

You find suddenly no Playlist are on your Phone.

Fix.

1. Got to Settings => Music

2. If ICloud Music is on, turn it off.

3. Turn it back on.

4. Choose 'Merge

5. You will see the 'Loading Playist' Message come up. * This will take longer, the more playlists you have. Be patient. 15 minutes for my 30 Playlists.

Once Complete, you will see your playlist Again !

Solved !

Perfect! I see my playlists now. Thanks.

I had this same problem, and like others on here, the option to turn off iCloud was not available to me. I fixed the problem by doing the following:

1. Manually backup iphone to itunes (backup to computer and make sure "Encrypt iPhone backup" is checked)

2. Restore iPhone

3. When prompted, restore to backup (If you restore to factory settings, your phone will have nothing on it)

All of my playlists are back and all of my music that was from CDs is back as well.

I have an iPhone 6 and my playlists disappeared tonight. I am going to the news media. Tis is just an example of Apple's arrogance where they don't even tell you what has happened and how to fix. I don't know how to get my playlists back. There is a reporter in Seattle for the one of the network stations. When I get back to Seattle on Saturday I am going to reach out to him and tell hm what's happening and Apple's explanation (actually Apple's arrogant lack of explanation.) I like their products but I am tired of their attitude.

RMarlonMiller wrote:

.... I don't know how to get my playlists back. ....

There have been several suggestions given here.

I resolved my lost playlists... all the organization of playlists was gone and wrong songs were in wrong places... I resolved it by disabling icloud music and Genius on the iphone... It's all back to normal now!