Codycgb
Level 1 (62 points)

Q: iPhone won't download entire playlist for offline playback on iOS 8.4

I'm about to give up on using apples new "iCloud music library". I've been trying to download all my music for offline use so I made a smart playlist that contained all my songs (3763, 29.49GB). The downloads start and the problems quickly arise. First off every so often i get an error promoting a song couldn't download then to retry or hit done. Second the downloads seem to do alright for the first several hundred downloads but then start to freeze and go really slow. My internet connection is fast and other downloads, like my podcast in my downcast app download gb's of data rather quickly. This has caused me to make several attempts to download them over night. However when i wake up i find the download halts at some random number. My most recent attempt got me down to about 200 songs however there were no ways to restart those stuck download. Restarting the phone and or hitting make available offline (again) results in all the songs already downloaded being removed. So basically at this point there is no easy way to download all my music. You think by now we are far enough in computing that downloading gb's of data should occur with out a hitch and as i said before for other apps and iTunes on desktop everything is fine. But right now my iPhone can just not download all my music. This a feature of both iTunes match and apple music that is essentially broken for me. And alternatives like turning off iCloud music library result in me not being able to use apple music.

 

So it seems i'm left with two options. 1. just deal with not having all my music offline and have said streaming eat up my data plan and battery. And hope that apple pushes an update that fixes these download issues. 2. Completely turn off iCloud library and as such apple music + iTunes match as well which ends up making all apples recent music product usless.

 

Does anyone have any solution to these problems?

iPhone 6, iOS 8.4, null

Posted on Jul 2, 2015 7:09 AM

by Codycgb,Solvedanswer
Codycgb Codycgb
Level 1 (62 points)
A:

Alright so it seems I've stumbled upon a solution to downloading big libraries for offline use. I discovered it while I was organizing my library with smart playlists. In my experience it seems that problems tend to arise when you try downloading a lot of songs from only one playlist. After several hundred songs there are errors and sometimes downloading completely stops (usually after 2k). Also the offline badge may disappear on your playlist which causes all downloaded songs up to this point to be deleted on the next reboot. Given these insights it seems apple didn't optimize the software enough to handle large playlist offline requests. Until they do, the only way to get all your music on your device is to break your library into smaller chunks, download those playlist one by one for offline use and it should be smooth sailing once you got all your music on your device. The best way to do this is to use smart playlists to auto separate your music (and auto download new songs). Now there are many ways to do this and a lot of its up to personal preference. I kept it simply with two folders. Owned music (folder 1) and apple music (folder 2). I then made the following smart playlists:

 

Folder 1

Albums (CD Owned)

I got all my full albums together in a regular playlist (ones that I have physical copies of), selected all the tracks, hit get info and then in the comment section put "Entire Album (CD Owned)". After that I created a smart playlist with the following rules: Media kind is music, Comments is "Entire Album (CD Owned)" & iCloud Status is not Apple music.

 

Albums (Digital Copy Owned)

Same as above however it was music that I only had a digital copy off. Just replace "Entire Album (CD Owned)" with "Entire Album (Digitally Owned)".

 

Solo Tracks

Made a smart playlist with the following rules: Media Kind is Music, Comments is not "Entire Album (Digitally Owned)", Comments is not "Entire Album (Digitally Owned)" & iCloud status is not "Apple Music". This created a playlist with songs that are not part of an album that i have all the songs to.

 

Folder 2

Apple Music Library

I don't have many songs on apple music yet so I just have one playlist with the following rules: Media kind is music, iCloud status is "Apple Music".

 

Now my 3819 song library is split into smaller playlists (1842, 1351, 626 & 37 respectively). Next I just hit download (make available offline) on one playlist at a time (downloading all the songs on said playlist before i tried moving on to another). However some tracks still hanged up. What i did was wait until all the songs that could download did and all that was left in the download que were frozen songs. Rebooted the iPhone, opened up the music app and the other few songs download like a charm. Repeated until all my music was download.

 

So basically you want to use smart playlists and the comment sections of songs to break down your library into smaller manageable chunks that your iPhone can handle, then download. Once you do the downloads can go through and any new music will be downloaded automatically. Like I said before how you do this is up to you, i explained how i did it above.

 

Lets hope that apple can make some positive changes before iOS 9 so that their will be a easy way to download all your music. Making a bunch of smart playlists to do the job is tiresome. Until then this is the only solution I found. Hope it helps out any other music lovers. Thanks!

Posted on Jul 4, 2015 11:14 PM

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Codycgb

Q: iPhone won't download entire playlist for offline playback on iOS 8.4

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  • by Geeks,

    Geeks Geeks Jul 2, 2015 10:31 AM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iPhone
    Jul 2, 2015 10:31 AM in response to Codycgb

    Oh boy what a nightmare. This is just one of the problems I'm having with Apple Music. I spent a whole day manually adding 1300 songs from my Spotify account. Now when everything is done, can't download the whole playlist. Gets stuck on the last 20 songs out of 1300.

  • by etburnes,

    etburnes etburnes Jul 2, 2015 10:49 AM in response to avlambo21
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 10:49 AM in response to avlambo21

    I just started trying to use Google Play All Access for the first time and even IT won't let me put songs from my computer on there despite its advertisement. And Spotify won't load my local playlists at all. It's like they're all conspiring to make music streaming s*ck on purpose.

  • by avlambo21,

    avlambo21 avlambo21 Jul 2, 2015 10:55 AM in response to etburnes
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 10:55 AM in response to etburnes

    hmmm that's really weird, i've never had an issues. i've had them match incorrectly a few times but always was correct really quickly. try downloading the Music Manager app from Google. If that doesnt work you could manually add by dragging them into the Add Music box that appears on the Play Music Website

  • by Codycgb,

    Codycgb Codycgb Jul 2, 2015 11:19 AM in response to etburnes
    Level 1 (62 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 11:19 AM in response to etburnes

    I wouldn't be so quick to jump to other services. I know everyone has their personal preference but i've tried all the major streaming services and by far apple's is the best in my opinion. So far its only the offline playback that is not working for me that well. But the recommendations, artist connect pages, radio and seamless integration with my existing library is nice. Plus iTunes can be a powerful program especially compared to the competition. However I know many are struggling with their libraries getting screwed up by apple music so that kinda *****. I hope over the next three months apple irons out some of these issues as I think it has a lot going for it.

  • by kory1137,

    kory1137 kory1137 Jul 2, 2015 11:36 AM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 11:36 AM in response to Codycgb

    I'm having the same exact problem. I tried downloading a playlist with 4,500 songs and it seemed like it was downloading them all, but now it's just stuck in an infinite loop of it downloading some songs, deleting everything it downloads, then showing errors that it can't download anything. I can't even use my phone now because it keeps trying to download things and it's just wasting battery. I can't cancel anything, signing out of Apple Music doesn't help at all either.

     

    I switched from Spotify to use this new "revolutionary" service, but now my phone is just ******. Thanks Apple!!

  • by FrankH0112,

    FrankH0112 FrankH0112 Jul 2, 2015 11:44 AM in response to kory1137
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 11:44 AM in response to kory1137

    *Bump*...Same issue here.  Just want to see updates in here.

  • by AG007,

    AG007 AG007 Jul 2, 2015 12:14 PM in response to FrankH0112
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 12:14 PM in response to FrankH0112

    See if this helps..

    After i updated to ios 8.4 and itunes 12.2..  And synced my ipad and iphone... all my playlists got messed up.. most got deleted  and iPad and iPhone showed different playlist... Total mess.... re-syncing just jumbled things around and still left the mess .

     

    After many trials and errors the followng workd for me:

     

    1- Back up all devices in iTunes to the  computer .. Not icloud ( for safety reasons)


    2- Turn on "iCloud music liberary" in itunes 12.2 preferences/general .. ( default is off.. but on on ios.. This may be one sourse if the problem )

    Wait for iCloud library sync to complete.

     


    3- Sync your devices, if things get messed .. Its ok .


    4- Go to your device Settings on iphone or ipad...  , settings/music and turn off iCloud music library .

    Dont panic.. Playlists and some some or all  songs will disappear. ( on iPad all songs disappeared , on iPhone only playlists)


    5- Turn "iCloud music library" back on . Wait for library to load .

     

    At this point all playlists and songs should reappear and nothing should be missing

     


    6 - Try resyncing  to make sure all is smooth and clear.

     

     


    also.. If u have problem with streaming songs added to playlists not showing try the following:


     

     

    For streaming songs to show up in playlists once they are added ... Go to playlist tab on your device. Click on the "my/all/apple playlist PINK  link" to show the drop down menu

    From the menu turn off "music available offline( only show music on device)" option.. Turn it off.. No green .


     

     

    All of the above worked on my ipad and iphone.. Both of which got screwed up after ios 8.4 , itunes 12.2 followed by sync through itunes.

  • by resetti,

    resetti resetti Jul 2, 2015 1:04 PM in response to Codycgb
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 1:04 PM in response to Codycgb

    There needs to be a simple 'available offline' switch like there is on Spotify - along with the missing shuffle button! Anyone know when Apple Music will update?

  • by AG007,

    AG007 AG007 Jul 2, 2015 1:27 PM in response to resetti
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 1:27 PM in response to resetti

    Maybe when ios9 is officially released ( around seltember )  we will see a more polished applemusic  app.

  • by resetti,

    resetti resetti Jul 2, 2015 1:35 PM in response to AG007
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 1:35 PM in response to AG007

    Hopefully it'll be in time for when everyone's free trial ends - if this isn't fixed (along with all the other bugs) by 30th September then Spotify will see many returning customers!

  • by AG007,

    AG007 AG007 Jul 2, 2015 1:38 PM in response to resetti
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 1:38 PM in response to resetti

    YUP.. Agree.

     

    Apple are you listening ? .... Im sure you are.. But are you hearing ?

  • by Codycgb,

    Codycgb Codycgb Jul 2, 2015 3:02 PM in response to resetti
    Level 1 (62 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 3:02 PM in response to resetti

    Yeah. I love the "working parts" of apple music a lot. But I must be able to store my music offline when needed. And right now apple music can't do that reliably. If its not fixed by the trial end date then I'll go back to using plan old cable sync or go back to Spotify (although their far from perfect as well).

  • by Codycgb,

    Codycgb Codycgb Jul 2, 2015 3:07 PM in response to AG007
    Level 1 (62 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 3:07 PM in response to AG007

    AG007. We weren't discussing the library glitches that some users are experiencing  in this thread. We're talking about how offline sync is not working properly. Many users here are trying to download entire playlists for offline use but are running in to issues outlined in my original post. Thanks for the insight however for fixing messed up libraries. I had to do something similar yesterday to fix my library.

  • by Codycgb,

    Codycgb Codycgb Jul 2, 2015 3:11 PM in response to kory1137
    Level 1 (62 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 3:11 PM in response to kory1137

    Ran into the stuck download thing too. However I found that if your turn off like everything related to music, delete all your local music, hit the cancel on the downloads and restart your iPhone it may stop the downloads. However you may have to do a complete restore to fix the issue if what i just mentioned doesn't work.

  • by Codycgb,

    Codycgb Codycgb Jul 2, 2015 3:51 PM in response to AG007
    Level 1 (62 points)
    Jul 2, 2015 3:51 PM in response to AG007

    It would be ironic if apple music works better on android when it's released. I hope iOS 9 fixes a lot of the issues too.

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