What exactly means "offline" in Apple Music?

Question

Level 1

4 points

What exactly means "offline" in Apple Music?

Hi. In my humple opinion "offline" means, that downloaded songs with the option "make songs avalable offline" are availbale after a Sign out from Apple Music, I'm right, am I not?. In my case, all songs which are have been marked with "make songs avalable offline" and downloaded to My Music section disappear after a sign out. Should downloaded songs from Apple Music be available for listening after a sign out or not? I appreciate very much if somebody could help me.

Thanks.

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 9.1

Posted on Nov 18, 2015 10:19 AM

Reply

Answer 1

morrispe

Level 4

1,230 points

Nov 18, 2015 6:04 PM in response to tombaja

You are incorrect. The Apple Music streaming service provides the ability to download tracks for local listening. In this context offline means you don't have to stream over cellular or wifi. Offline listening on an iPhone is helpful if you don't want to go over your carriers monthly data cap. Even if you're listening to local downloaded tracks you still need to stay logged into your Apple Music account as all Apple Music tracks are DRM protected and it needs to verify you have a valid subscription.

If you log out of your account registered with Apple Music or you cancel your subscription you no longer have the right to play that music. If what you're attempting was possible then people could sign up for the trial, download a ton of music for free and cancel the service. All streaming music services are based on DRM protection. Without it they'd be out of business pretty fast 😉.

Reply

Answer 2

tombaja Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 18, 2015 6:29 PM in response to morrispe

I really appreciate your answer. The problem is that after signing out and re-logging in, all my offline music has disappeared. Activating iCloud Music Library brings back the playlists but I have to download all offline songs again. Let´s say you are going on vacation to a foreign country and temporary you have to shutdown your phone. Then you sign in to Apple Music and have to download all offline music again with a very expensive data rate. It´s not very practical. The downloaded offline content should´t disappear after logging out from Apple Music.

I´m coming from Spotify. I can download offline content to my phone, logout from Spotify and still listen to the downloaded music. At least once a month I have to re-connect to Spotify or the offline music will be deleted. That means there are ways to accomplish this without going to bankruptcy. :-)

Greetings.

Reply

Answer 3

morrispe

Level 4

1,230 points

Nov 18, 2015 7:27 PM in response to tombaja

Others have reported that if you log off your Apple Music account the locally downloaded music is removed but its not something I've tested. Why are you logging out or would need to log out of your account?

Reply

Answer 4

tombaja Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 18, 2015 7:44 PM in response to morrispe

Let's say your are in a cinema or theatre and you want to shut off your phone. Or your battery dies and the phone shuts down, or one application crashes and you have to reset the phone. In all those case I will have to download again all offline content, at least in my case. Searching for a solution with Google I found many users having the same problem. I wrote an email to Apple support - no answer. I hope you don't have the same problem...

I appreciate your kind atention.

Reply

Answer 5

swandy

Level 4

2,581 points

Nov 18, 2015 8:15 PM in response to tombaja

Turning off your iPhone or having the battery go dead should not remove the downloaded (or make available offline in Apple-speak). What will cause that to happen is if you go into Settings/Music and turn OFF iCloud Music Library (which handles the matching of your own music and keeping track of what music from Apple Music you add to your library either to listen to or download).

Just to test, I just completely powered off my iPhone 6 and turned it back on. And the 200 song playlist that I had made available for offline was still completely there.

I have also done a hard reset of the iPhone (holding the HOME and POWER buttons until the Apple logo shows up) and the music remains.

Now, I am not saying the system is without bugs - there are many threads here and in other forums where people say their downloaded music has disappeared. It never happened on my iPhone 6 but I believe it did happen once (in all the months since the Apple Music trial started here in the US) on my iPad Mini 2.

Reply

Answer 6

tombaja Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 19, 2015 8:56 AM in response to swandy

Swandy, thank you very much for your answer. I have a question. What happens when you turn off in Settings iCloud Music Library and then turn on again the switch. Do you have to download again your music?

I did a factory reset with my Iphone and now the music remains after a power off and power on just like in your case. But a sign out / sign in to Apple Music still requieres new download of all your iCloud Music Library. I am quite sure that the music is still on the phone but because of a bug Apple Music can't "see" it and therefore wants to download it again. Today I got mail from Apple. They told me that they are aware of the problem but there is nothing they can do rin this moment. With 200 songs like in your case it's molesting but not a very big problem, but imagine you had 30-40 GB of music in your phone. So, let's see what if Apple will do something regarding this problem. Meanwhile I will cross my fingers that I won't sign off accidentally from Apple Music.

Reply

Answer 7

swandy

Level 4

2,581 points

Nov 19, 2015 9:06 AM in response to tombaja

You are welcome. Yes - turning off the iCloud Music Library will remove everything and will require ICML to "rebuild" your Music Library and then for you do re-download the tracks that were actually on your iPhone. I was not sure of this - did a test (signing out of my Apple ID in the Music App and then signing back in) and then realized that after doing that you had to go back into Settings/Music to turn back on iCloud Music Library. I don't believe that the music is still on the phone - I know that I had to wait through the downloading of my 200 song playlist again.

Reply

Answer 8

tombaja Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 19, 2015 9:31 AM in response to swandy

Thanks. But what happens when you turn off and on again the iCloud Music Library switch without signing out of Apple Music? Will you still have to re-download all music?

I am looking for a way to mix songs from my local Itunes Library on my Mac with songs from my iCloud Library without activating iCloud Music Library an my Mac. As long the iCloud Music Library on my Iphone is active I cannot sync music with my iTunes library, the iCloud Music Library has to be in OFF. This is very unfortunate but it's a decision of Apple. My idea was to put the iCloud Music Library switch on the phone in OFF, load some music from my local Itunes Library on my Mac, return the iCloud Music Library switch to ON and "merge" the music. But it doesn't make sense if I have to download again all music from the iCloud Music Library.

I appreciate very much your opinion. Thanks again.

Reply

Answer 9

swandy

Level 4

2,581 points

Nov 21, 2015 12:51 PM in response to tombaja

Yes - if you turn OFF iCloud Music Library from your iPhone, it will remove all the synced playlists, all music that you added from Apple Music to My Library and remove any music you "made available offline"/Downloaded. There is no way to sync music from your computer to your iPhone AND use iCloud Music Library at the same time - at least as of now. A lot of people have made comments about wanting this ability to be added in, but as of now - nope.

If you do what you said - turn ICML OFF, sync Music from your Mac and then turn ICML back ON, it will initially remove all the downloaded music when you turn it OFF and then when you turn it back ON, it will come up with a screen asking about merging or replacing the library. Not entirely sure what happens on an iPhone if you pick MERGE because I had initially setup my ICML from an iMac library and did not want duplicates of the synced music everywhere.

Reply

Answer 10

tombaja Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 23, 2015 10:46 AM in response to swandy

Swandy, thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question. After using Apple Music for about one week I am still frustrated or let's say disappointed about all the limitations of Apple Music. You can't synch your local Itunes Library music with iCloud Music Library by a USB Cable or Wifi, the only way is to upload (match) your Itunes Library to iCloud. That means, that if you want to listen you your songs from your iTunes Music Library on your phone, you have to match your whole Itunes library with Apple , upload the songs which can't be matched and then download the songs you want to listen. Wow, I can't believe somebody from Apple has designed this procedure. There many restrictions with Apple Music: You can't sync your local Itunes songs directly while signed in to Icloud Music. You lose all downloaded songs when you sign off from Icloud Music and you have to match your whole Itunes Library and download again your songs in order to listen to them. Apple has had sufficient time to develop their streaming program, they bought Beats Music for 3 Billion dollar and there are programs on the market which can be studied and which really works fine (Spotify). I think , thats why I am disappointed, I simply expected more from Apple. What was their slogan again? "It just works..." In my opinion, Apple Music doesn't work fine.

Reply

Answer 11

Nov 6, 2016 5:01 AM in response to swandy

Thanks for the above as this has helped my understanding.... however, I work away from home where there is no cellular connection and the Wifi network restricts access to iTunes, Apple Music.... anything that requires high bandwidth like streaming. My Apple Music seems to lose a lot of its content. I can still listen to some playlists and Albums. One of the playlists is 6 wks old and it's created by Apple Music which I just downloaded to my phone.

Basically I'm struggling to figure out the reasoning behind some Music is not always available offline so is there a restriction for the amount you can have for offline (still signed in) access or can you only have it for so long or do you have to listen to the album/ playlist once a week?

Thanks

Bazcadger

Reply