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Step by Step Workaround for Apple Music Issues

I've found a way to enable the iCloud Music Library without it screwing up metadata. This technique will force upload your songs and allow you to add new music to your collection without any problems.


  1. First make sure your ICloud library is empty. I did this by copying my music folder to another location and then deleting everything in iTunes. Make sure you copy the folder so it doesn't try to actually delete all of your music.
  2. With nothing in the library, disconnect from the Internet and copy your music back to the original iTunes location. I suggest copying instead of moving the original files because it will prevent you from having to manually enter the metadata yourself.
  3. This step is optional, but I downloaded the program MP3Tag to work with metadata on a large scale instead of having to edit everything in iTunes.
  4. I recommend doing this next step in small chunka instead of your entire library all at once. Readd the music to your iTunes library, make sure you're disconnected from the Internet still, and begin changing the song titles. If you're using MP3Tag, you can more easily change the song titles before readding them to iTunes. I made every song title "!" You don't have to change artist, album, genre, track number or anything else, everything should look like normal except the songs will all be "!"
  5. Connect to the Internet and tell iTunes to Update the ICloud Music Library. After a brief scan, it will start to manually upload all of the music.
  6. Once the music is uploaded, go back and change the song titles back to the correct title, and then tell iTunes to Update the iCloud Music Library again. If you're using MP3Tag, you can mass copy song tags to the new files so you don't have to manually change every song title. The songs you've uploaded are permanently recognized as the same song unless you delete them from iCloud, so you'll be able to watch on your device as everything changes. You can then edit anything about the album, and the files will be correct and the album art will be whatever you set it as on your computer.

You are also able to alter any of the metadata for songs added from Apple Music by first enabling the song to play offline in iTunes, then disconnecting from the Internet. While disconnected, you can alter the metadata, and then when you have it the way you want it, reconnect to the Internet and update the iCloud Music Library. The song will be the same as what you originally added, but the metadata will change across all of your devices. The changes will remain as long as you do not remove the songs from your music list. You can remove the download, but the song must remain a part of your library.


Hope this helps everyone having trouble!

Posted on Jul 3, 2015 12:08 AM

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2 replies

Jul 3, 2015 1:10 AM in response to zornie

I think you missed the point of why you're moving the files. Likewise, if you're moving them to another folder on the same hard drive, even if you had 1TB of music, it'd take less than 5 minutes to move them back and forth. The purpose is to clear the library in iTunes; there are a number of other ways to do that, but simply copying the files is the easiest both to work with and reverse if need be.

Step by Step Workaround for Apple Music Issues

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