What happens to my music if I stop my Apple Music subscription?

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Level 1

26 points

What happens to my music if I stop my Apple Music subscription?

Hello,

I have a huge collection of music on my Mac in iTunes. Over the years I have ripped my extensive CD collection and also recorded most of the exclusive vinyl releases I own. There's also digital downloads from a variety of sources.

This month I decided to try Apple Music and subscribed. On my iPhone I looked up some of my recent favourite albums and downloaded them to my phone for offline play. So far so good.

Now I've also activated iCloud Music Library in iTunes, this was more out of curiousity than a coordinated plan. I didn't fully realise what was going to happen. Now, two days later, my iTunes collection is "matched" against Apples collection, my iPhone's 128 GB storage is full and in my iTunes my own collection of files is mixed with Apple Music downloads. Some albums show cloud icons, some show dotted cloud icons, some have a cloud overlay on the album art and some have nothing. Others have a variety of cloud related errors. O joy, where to begin?

What happens to my own files if/when I leave Apple Music?

What happens to the Apple Music downloads if/when I leave Apple Music?

What happens with the iCloud Music Library matched files if/when I leave Apple Music?

How do I unravel this mess and keep clear what is mine and what is not?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7), mid 2011 / 27" / 16 GB / 256 GB SSD

Posted on Dec 8, 2016 2:45 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Mobile Blues

Level 4

3,666 points

Dec 8, 2016 5:13 PM in response to sjogro

When you cancel your Apple Music subscription the music you downloaded will become greyed out and will not play for 30 days. If you re-sign back up during that 30 day period they will become active again. After 30 days they will disappear. The songs that you purchased will not be greyed out and will remain and can be played

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Answer 2

Sep 30, 2017 12:20 AM in response to Mobile Blues

I am moving from Germany to the U.S.

I need to cancel my Apple Music subscription in order to change the country of the Apple store. I don’t get it but it’s just what it says.

Do you think that the greyed out songs will become active again as soon as I subscribe for the u.s. Apple Music membership?

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Answer 3

Sep 30, 2017 1:04 AM in response to Ericsson007

Hi,

You will effectively have to start over again. Music that you had under Apple Music will need to be added again, assuming that it is available. You will lose acces to your existing iCloud music library. Make sure that you have backed up your own music. Apple Music will need to match or upload your music again.

Jim

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Answer 4

sjogro Author

Level 1

26 points

Dec 8, 2016 5:36 PM in response to Mobile Blues

Will the files from my own collection that are "matched" through iCloud Music Library be deleted once I quit Apple Music? Or will my original files still remain in iTunes Library?

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Answer 5

Dec 9, 2016 7:47 AM in response to sjogro

As a Apple Music subscriber, 'Matched' items are not actually copied to the cloud but instead are 'matched' and made available for download from Apple's servers. So, any music on your iMac that belongs to you in the form of previously loaded CD's or purchased items from any source will remain, nothing will be lost.

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Answer 6

sjogro Author

Level 1

26 points

Dec 9, 2016 8:23 AM in response to Mobile Blues

That's good news, however it has become an entangled mess. A lot of albums are only partially 'matched', making them appear incomplete. Some items appear in iOS devices with artists "Unknown Artists" that are not appearing in iTunes Library and therefor cannot be removed from iCloud Music Library. I have deleted everything in iTunes to clear and start over from a backup but it keeps syncing this soup of files from out of iCloud Music Library and I cannot seem to clean out completely what's living in the cloud right now.

My iTunes library is now completely empty and I've still got iCloud Music Library on. On my iDivices I've also got iCloud Music Library on, but there the library isn't empty, it keeps re-listing a variety of "Unknown Artist" and other incomplete and mismatched files.

How do I stop this and start over with a blank Library? At this point I would just like to start over and start with a smaller collection to keep more control over what happens.

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Answer 7

Dec 9, 2016 8:28 AM in response to sjogro

There is obviously something you missed in canceling your membership. You probably forgot yo turn off iCloud Music Library or something. Follow these instructions to cancel Apple Music Membership on all of your devices. There is no need to start over with a new music library file.

Manage your Apple Music membership on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, PC, or Apple TV - Apple Support

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Answer 8

sjogro Author

Level 1

26 points

Dec 9, 2016 8:31 AM in response to Mobile Blues

Cancelling my Apple Music account is not a priority. I have not cancelled it, I was just wondering if I'd be able to keep the original music in my iTunes Library IF I'd cancel.

I DO want to start over with a new music library because it's a mess of thousands incomplete and wrong labeled artists right now.

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Answer 9

Dec 9, 2016 9:01 AM in response to sjogro

If you want to create a new Music Library, do the following...

1	If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
2	Hold down the Option key while you open iTunes.
3	You'll see a message that says Choose iTunes Library. Depending on what you want to do, choose Create Library or Choose Library.

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Answer 10

sjogro Author

Level 1

26 points

Dec 9, 2016 9:02 AM in response to Mobile Blues

I have done that, but as soon as I activate iCloud Music Library, all the stuff from the previous library is loaded into the new library, time after time!

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Answer 11

sjogro Author

Level 1

26 points

Dec 9, 2016 9:06 AM in response to sjogro

Everytime I delete everything from the library, it warns me that this will delete everything on other devices as well (Great!) so I click yes, it takes a while, it clears out the library, but later it starts to sync again and everything is back, apparently with a few more errors each time, because the list of Unknown Artist and Unknown Album seems to increase.

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