Apple Music / iTunes 12.2 corrupting all my library

This has happened to me too. I have over 10 years worth of music in a 77GB local library. iTunes 12.2 / iCloud Music Library has completely scrambled all the album tracks and artwork.

I feel your pain, trust me. It also happened to me... but I had a very very large library (over 500 GB), the result of a decade of music I organized from all my CDs, Converted Vinyls, MP3s from Amazon and such. Now, it's not only a huge mess, it did corrupt some files, but also iTunes 12.2 is just completely unresponsive as soon as I try to add only 1 album manually.

iTunes 12.2 is just a mess and I completely lost my trust in Apple software!

I am having similar problems. In one of my playlist, I have over a 1,000,000 duplicates of the same song. I tried deleting the list but now all I get is a spinning wheel and have to force quit the program.

Tom,

OMG! - I upgraded to 12.2 yesterday a 9AM, thought I would try the new Music service and give the new Radio stations a try.

Today I opened my music and it's full up duplicate file errors and iCloud music errors. In "My Music" make sure the "iCloud Status" and "iCloud Download" columns are visible and I have tons of the following errors reported by icons in these columns:

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"This song is already in your iCloud Music Library"

[Keep Duplicate] [Delete Duplicate]

So I right clicked on the file in iTunes and chose “Show in Finder” and it takes me to the local directory where the file should be stored. In their there is now a bunch of .MP3 files all with timestamps following 9AM yesterday’s update to 12.2. Now I never use MP3 files, I made the choice to be an AAC snob (whatever) but now looking in my iTunes directory across all of my purchased iTunes albums, it is loading up these directories with MP3 files!

Why is iTunes suddenly spawning MP3 files and for what purpose?

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"This song has been deleted from you iCould Music Library, and does not appear on any of your iOS devices using your iCloud Music Library"

[Keep Duplicate] [Delete Duplicate]

All of my self imported, CD Burn, or other AAC files that were not purchased from Apple have the message above. I never had these files in iCould Music! Why would I want to Delete this file, it’s my local copy, it’s not a duplicate, it the only file on my local drive for this song.

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I never really used iCloud, did turning on apple Music sign me up for iCloud music, where all my files are in the cloud? If so why is my iTunes generating .mp3 files? To upload them to my iCloud? I though the point was that purchased AAC files would be served from Apple and I would never need to upload my purchased AAC files.

I did run iTunes Match for one year about 3 years ago. Seamed like a good deal to upgrade all my hated MP3 files and low quality CD copies to up to 256kb AAC files from Apple. Even fixed some CD that had scratch / errors in the AAC files. Then I disconnected and just kept local files.

I have a HUGE library over 7000 some songs I keep moving around computer to computer and backing up. YES I would love to offload this library to the cloud but Apple has never had a compelling offering that was going to cost an arm and a leg. NOW I THINK ITUNES 12.2 AND MUSIC IS THE PERFECT PLAN TO MESS UP YOUR LIBARARY AND GET YOU TO DUMP YOU LOCAL MUSIC AND PAY $15.00 A MONTH TO PULL ALL YOUR FILES FROM THE CLOUD ALL THE TIME! “If we really jack up you iTunes library, maybe you will give it up, and pay a monthly fee for us at Apple to keep your library in the cloud!”

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Can some others confirm the same thing is happening? Is iTunes spawning duplicate files and duplicate .MP3 files in you local directories?

Cult of Mac

iCloud Music Library adds DRM without buying you dinner first

George Tinari (3:00 pm PDT, Jul 1st)

http://www.cultofmac.com/327936/icloud-music-library-drm/

Well i have tried it too. After enabling Apple Music. I was able to play songs, but as soon as i tried to add in playlist or save for offline. It started to give me alert of Starting iCloud. And as soon as i started it, it started to mess my library. I have to remove all from iphone. Also removed cloud backup. But again when i start iCloud server, all songs comes back to phone. How do i completly remove it?

I think they didnt tried that options. Also i am unable to add new songs after enabling iCloud for Apple music. its not good. Why cant user add new songs from external / locally.

I don't know if there is a better way to solve this, but I have solved the problem by following these steps:

1. Disable iCloud Music Library on iTunes.
2. Quit iTunes.
3. Open a finder window showing your iTunes library (~\Music\iTunes\).
4. Open Time Machine, and find the latest backup of the Music folder under your iTunes library folder, that hasn't been affected.
5. Select the "Music" folder, and Restore. (If it gives a disc space error, temporarily move some other files to an external drive, delete the local copies, and make sure there is more free space than the size of the Music folder.)
6. Go to the iTunes library folder. Find the file named "iTunes Library.itl", and change its name to something like "iTunes Library mess.itl".
7. Look under "Previous iTunes Libraries", and find the latest "itl" file dated before the mess. Copy it.
8. Paste the old version of the itl file that you had copied, under the iTunes library folder. Change its name to "iTunes Library.itl".
9. Open iTunes. DO NOT ACCEPT TO ACTIVATE ICLOUD MUSIC LIBRARY WHEN THE POP UP WINDOW ASKS YOU!
10. Enjoy your fixed library.
11. Do NEVER turn on iCloud Music Library again, unless you feel like giving it another chance, and are ready to do all these again.

zdlo, steps will help and fixed some of my issues.... combined with some other task....

Did iCloud Music Library break your collection? Here’s a fix

Rob LeFebvre (12:27 pm PDT, Jul 1st)

http://www.cultofmac.com/327897/did-icloud-music-library-break-your-collection-h eres-a-fix/

First off I never trust TimeMachine, it’s a great product and a great idea, probably even works 99% of the time. But you are trusting the same company with your master backups, that just butchered our 100s of GB of media data with a simple software update and poor user interface. Do we really trust them with the be all end all solution to back up our user data? I use a program called GoodSync that provides full directory back up and replication services. I run incremental back ups as needed.

I went into my GoodSync back up and found the old media files that were missing and overwrote my current iTunes 12.2 iTunes Media directory (see notes and observations below). Then I did the same for the top level iTunes user folder to bring back all the .itl files , and Album Artwork directories Basically I did a full restore of the ~/Music/iTunes directory. Since GoodSync does incremental back ups with a difference report, I could actually see a thumb print of what had changed from iTunes 12.1 to 12.2 in these directories and have a visual comparison. Many files had not been touched (did not need to be copied back) but many had been modified, deleted, converted to mp3.

Notes and Observations

When you upgrade to 12.2 and or enable Apple Music you do get a pop up that say’s something like “Enable iCloud Music… to allow other devices…” (Really sorry I should have taken a screen shot or something). Selecting yes or ok enables iTunes and iCloud to step all over you music library in effort to make an iCloud copy of your music files and have it match your local iTunes library. I cannot confirm for sure, but here is what I think it does based on my review if the files missing or changed. [Please note I did not have time to confirm all these items with research, just my observation here.]

• Any AAC files that are not purchased from Apple, make a low bit rate mp3 copy of these files an upload them to your own personal storage on iCloud. These MP3 copies appear to get left in your iTunes directory sometimes and are created at an unknown time and sequence. Some songs have mp3 copies made, some do not.
• Compare and register any and all AAC files that are legitimate purchases with your iTunes account, and enable your remote devices to have access to these same songs
• Any AAC files, purchased from Apple but with another iTunes account (songs from my Wife or son’s account, manually copied to my iTunes library) these are removed from my iTunes library. No replacements are provided.
• Any really, really, really obscure AAC files that you copied from a obscure artist and CD may get totally blown away, removed from you iTunes directly and database, just gone, no replacement.

Apple's approach here seams to be if you do not have legitimate registered music from Apple, then you give up all rights to those files, if Apple has agreement with the Artist and the song is successfully found in iTunes Store (via some match lookup) then you may get an updated copy but with Apple’s licensing restriction on new replacement files. Any files Apple’s iTunes Store does not know about, they may be replaced with MP3 files and or removed from you iTunes library. I cannot find any logic on how and why iTunes and iTunes Store make these determinations. Good Luck to all.

After recovering my ~/Music/iTunes directory, and opening 12.2 again, I was given a prompt to enable iCloud music. Say no and keep saying no. I got my iTunes library back and now keeping an eye on the directory to see what if anything iTunes 12.2 is going to do now.

My mistake was that thinking this option to enable iCloud music was needed to allow the new Apple Music trial period to work. It’s SOOOO confusing where Apple Music (listen to what I don’t own whenever I like) ends and where iCloud Music (my own files sort of copied to the cloud) begins.

@titussmith I'm seeing that a lot in the songs and playlists that were uploaded from my iMac to Apple Music... A large number of songs are displaying that same error message on my iOS devices when clicked on or played "ITEM HAS NOT BEEN PURCHASED _______ cannot be downloaded because it was not purchased with your Apple ID." I have purchased all of them from iTunes, with my Apple ID and some as recently as four days ago. I thought the whole point of Apple Music was that purchasing songs doesn't matter and that you have access to all music... so it's an interesting and frustrating error. I think the potential for Apple Music is great... but man... these bugs are enough to scare serious users, like myself, off. I have personally taken my iMac library back off of iCloud Music Library until these bugs are worked out. Hopefully these issues get worked out quickly.

I'm done with this cloud experiment.i'm going back to using only a hardcopy. What happened to Apple being simple to use. I'm ******, I've spent a lot of money with Apple. You spoiled me and I expect better. I don't have time to sort and fix your ****.

I have been following this with great interest. I saw very similar behavior, but as I backup to Backblaze and home NAS, I chose the wait-and-see approach to see what response apple would have... still waiting of-course.

I did poke around a bit and find the problem (at least for me) is isolated to 22 albums. (I have 1800 albums and 24k song files). Ironically enough, the 22 albums are ones which were part of a. Family Purchase b. Downloaded to an iOS device c. hearted/recently played and in cache.

This could be all coincidental,.. and I'll just hang here and watch and listen...

Let me also add, that it is times like these that I think of google and android,... yes, that is a constant state of "beta" but I never had problems with them locking down my content or purchases. Once it is mine, I can do what I want with it,... Came back because I missed my phone and desktop working together seamlessly. And I'll stick around as my family is absorbed in the Apple eco-system. I share the frustration of many in this thread.

CCBeatty:

I am an Android user, so I have never "synced" my music library with iTunes. With my older phone, I could just plug in a USB cable, open the phone storage music folder in the Finder on my Mac, and click and drag the songs I want to the phone. Very quick and easy.

I have a new LG G4, and this no longer works (but I'm hoping it will soon). I have to use a 2 step method now: copy to a thumb drive, then copy from the thumb drive to the phone.

In my opinion, still easier than having to maintain a playlist of what I want on the phone, and having to "sync" the whole 10GB when I just want to add 1 song or album. It also reduces the risk of deleting a song from the phone, and having the sync remove it from my computer (a friend lost half their library this way).

On the other hand, if you do LIKE to sync there are apps for that. They work through WiFi, Bluetooth or USB connection.

I have my calendar in iCloud, and it syncs perfectly with the Android phone using an app.

So, there are advantages to Androids, and disadvantages. I'm holding off on updating iTunes until this cloud problem is fixed.

AppleMusic is practically malware. It's wreaked havoc on my music collection too. Some of their other recent software releases have been similarly error filled but without the actual active destruction of the effort we've gone into to organise and load our music. I doubt that they can come up with a fix to recover the damage already done, but will wait a few days before starting to recover.