Q: WARNING: iCloud Music Library just destroyed my Mac's iTunes Library

Ok guys.... I need to share this... I took the leap of faith (after making sure I have a recent backup of my music files as well as iTunes library) and activated the iCloud Music Library. Let's make a note here that I am NOT a Match subscriber. and that my local library is about 10000 songs.

Hear this...

It seems that no metadata has been changed, not a single wrong cover art appears (few were missing though!), most importantly, no song has been changed from a live version to a studio version as well as all cover versions are still cover versions...

So far I only checked few most obvious options but they were all ok!

edit: forgot to add that I did a had few duplicate albums... they were all albums that I have been purchasing in iTunes.

My guess is that this is because I had made mp3 conversions of the m4a-files and I had only the mp3-"versions" in my iTunes library... I'm just guessing here but I assume that Apple Music automatically added the purchased albums on my library!? Hence they were doubled -> mp3 and m4a of the same song.

I'm happy!

I have been searching sites for an iTunes music library alternative since I read your post, and I've come up with zilch. What I want is an alternative third party database that I OWN myself. Something that I can use to import all of the music I have in iTunes and any other sources on my computer. So, if iTunes continues to be problematic with updates in the future, I can use my third party program. I've researched many programs, but I have found nothing satisfactory yet.

I spoke to Customer Relations today about this. They got an iTunes Senior advisor on the telephone.

We shared a screen he was not able to fix or suggest a fix for my many issues.  He said they are software bugs and would forward to engineering.

Two new issues today: Adding my computer to Match doesn't work; it simply hangs on the add screen. Also, my new purchases have disappeared (it won't allow a re-download of this specific song) and he wasn't able to push them down to me.

JazzmanJohn wrote:

 

I have been searching sites for an iTunes music library alternative since I read your post, and I've come up with zilch. What I want is an alternative third party database that I OWN myself. Something that I can use to import all of the music I have in iTunes and any other sources on my computer. So, if iTunes continues to be problematic with updates in the future, I can use my third party program. I've researched many programs, but I have found nothing satisfactory yet.

I have decided that nothing is as good a database as my own highly customized set of folders and files on my NAS drive, leaving the only other decisions to be 1. What do I want to sync my ipod (either iTunes or a 3rd party sync) and 2. What do I want as a player?  I have always loved VLC, but I have also had good luck with Clementine. I am now ready to checkout VOX, and some of the commandline players (CLI - still the best interface!).  There is a discussion of alternatives here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/osx/comments/36okme/what_music_player_do_you_use_as_an_ itunes/

@JazzmanJohn

Maybe you'll be interested in these two different programs I've been experimenting with lately.

Vox is a free minimal music player for the Mac. It has an iTunes Match-like paid component called Loop. The big difference with Loop is you can upload unlimited files in multiple formats, including lossless. Anything from MP3s & AACs to FLAC & ALAC is fair game.

I haven't fully jumped in yet, as the cloud component is yet another paid service, but I am beta testing it and it has a lot of promise. Check it out: http://coppertino.com/vox/mac

Plex is a free media server that uses a slightly different approach. There's no cloud library... instead, your home computer becomes the cloud. You can stream music (and video) directly to your iPad, Android, TV, Chromecast, Playstation, etc. You can play music at work or watch movies at your friend's house.

There's an iOS app that's about five bucks, and there's some paid subscription extras. Both optional.

You are in complete control of your files. In fact, since Plex can't touch your files, you'll need to keep iTunes (or another tagging program) around to make changes.

It's a bit tricky to set up at first, but once you have it working it's awesome. It's what I'm using now and I'm pretty happy with it. More info here: https://plex.tv/

Ha! We both mentioned Vox at the same time.

Thanks for the info. I'm not a real techie, but I am a music guy. So, please tell me something. Do these programs allow me to IMPORT all my songs from iTunes and play them? I'm not interested in a player that just plays songs from my iTunes library. I want a data base that IMPORTS the songs, stores them and plays them. I want this for my Mac computer. I do not care if it syncs with my iPhone or iPad or even has a cloud service. I just want it to serve as a database and player on my Mac. I also want it available in case iTunes keeps messing up my database in the future, and I want it to be something I own that will not be subject to updates that might week havoc with it like this latest iTunes debacle. In other words, I want something that I own and control myself. Will one or both of these do the job?

By IMPORT, do you mean you want the program to make a copy of the songs that it uses, instead of just referencing the songs in their original places? Neither one of these programs does that.

If you use Vox by itself (without the cloud part), it just plays music files from wherever you've stored them. It's a small window, very basic, with not a lot of display options. Your "database" would be the folders in the Finder.

Plex also references song files and plays them from their original locations. However the presentation is the opposite of Vox. It's fancy looking and looks good displayed on a big screen. It does require the Finder folder structure to be a certain way, but you might already have them set up that way. If you let iTunes arrange your music in it's media folders, they will work fine. Here's a link that explains how the files should be arranged: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/sections/200058637-Naming-and-Organizing-Music- Media

I would just try each one and see what it offers. It's better to experience them for yourself and they won't break anything. Worst case, they don't work the way you want, and you've scratched two more apps off your list.

I want a program that will be self contained. In other words, I want it to make a copy of the songs it uses instead of just referencing them from iTunes. Something that will always work if iTunes gets corrupted again. A program that I have to buy and own so I can control it so it won't be so susceptible to corruption.

So you want two copies of your music library? One for iTunes and one for this other app? That would be a lot of GBs for me.

Like I said, neither one of the apps I suggested touches your files, so they are relatively safe to use on your originals. In any case, you should always have a backup (or two).

We've gone way off the subject and we should let it get back to iCloud Music Library. If you want to talk about this any further, I started a new thread here:

Alternatives to iTunes (Mac)

Ok - I'm back to normal.

The itunes update didn't automatically fix anything, but the procedure to reset my itunes match library was almost perfect.  The only odd hiccup was that one of my smart playlists got converted to a genius playlist.  I was able to reload my old .itl library and take screenshots of my old smart playlist, then revert to the new fixed .itl and recreate my old smart playlist. Shouldn't have been required, but didn't take long.

I have now added my itunes music files to my time machine backup.  I never considered it would be possible that they would get screwed up.... live an learn.

Obviously after reading almost 30 pages of comments on this since June 30 I too am very hesitant on activating iCloud Music Library on iTunes on my MacBook as well as my iPhone and iPad - but I really, really want to able to take advantage of the service beyond just streaming music on the go! However, I have a large iTunes library of songs on my MacBook along with a lot of customized metadata and album artwork that I DO NOT want changed on my computer or any of my iOS devices.

In addition to jopu's comment above, can anyone else who: 1) is NOT a previous iTunes Match user; 2) downloaded the latest 12.2.1 iTunes update; and, 3) has activated iCloud Music Library across their iMac/MacBook and iPhone or iPad, etc. please share their feedback?

I am very curious on hearing your results on what did or did not happen to your music collection across your devices and iTunes library.  Thank you for helping!

The operative words here are identify and compare. Supposedly iTunes looks at your songs and compares them to what they have. If they can match them, they are instantly in the Cloud. What I found is they were putting songs whose metadata did not match mine in the Cloud and leaving my customized songs out. I would like to know what their definition of a "match" is. I don't think their definition of "match" and mine are the same.

Thanks for this thread. After having my library trashed when Apple Music first came out, I was able to restore from a Time Machine backup. Yesterday I ventured to use iCloud Music Library with the latest iTunes and running the fix Apple suggested. In a nutshell, I turned off iCloud Music Library on all my devices. Then in iTunes I went to my account page, scrolled to the bottom of the page and pressed the button to delete my previous iTunes Match library. Then I quit and opened iTunes while holding Command + Option, then chose to restore my iTunes Library. Once done, I turned on iTunes Music Library in iTunes and let it upload all night (I have 4000 songs). After that worked without any problems, I turned on iTunes Music Library on my iPhone and iPad (choosing to "Replace" not "Merge"). It's all working as it should now. Easy as 1, 2, 3.... 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.......

Apple support document here: If your music library shows incorrect details with iTunes Match or Apple Music, and you previously cancelled an iTunes M…

Seems like more and more people are reporting that it's finally working.

Can anyone WITH CUSTOM ARTWORK confirm that it doesn't change it?