Apple Music - why doesn’t it migrate from iPhone to the rest? (1 Viewer)

[TonyD]

So I opened iTunes on my laptop for the first time in forever to add a few cds to my account.
I was able to get them onto iTunes but took some work to get them over to my iPhone and iPad Music app.

Was all fine for a few minutes or so but then everything disappeared off iTunes and my iPad while all of it was still on iPhone.
Had to deauthorize and reauthorize to get it back but then it was only about 25 “albums” there and on the iPad.

Now I can add songs to iPhone and iPad and they will migrate but nothing that’s already there previously will go from my iPhone to the others.
Meanwhile everything I have added in the last few months is on the iPhone and Atv4K app.

How do I get the things on Atv4K and iPhone over to the iTunes and iPad?


Forgot to add that I have all the sync buttons checked and all the necessary boxes are all ticked

 

[DaveF]

You subscribe to Apple Music and it’s not syncing properly?

Do you have Optimize Storage turned on on the various devices?

 

[TonyD]

Never and I don’t download the songs onto my iPad.

 

[DaveF]

When I synced music manually, I just used the iTunes sync / download feature. Originally by cable. Then over wifi. But never synced to iPad or aTV, until I subscribed to the music service.

 

[TonyD]

This has been syncing for 4+ hours.
Not looking good.

 

[DaveF]

What’s it syncing to? I’m confused by your talk about syncing with iPad and AppleTV and iPhone. I don’t recall there being any syncing to the aTV: it streams from your connected Mac. As for the iPhone, if it’s not syncing over wifi, have you tried connecting with a cable to see if that’s the problem?

 

[TonyD]

I haven’t connected to my laptop with a cord yet. Not sure I have one that can do that.
As for syncing.
I mean whatever I have in the 4 different places (iPhone, iPad, Atv, laptop) are not all the same content.
As I said my iPhone has everything as does the Atv app.
ipad and laptop ITunes does not have the same content I have on my other two devices.
My Music app on the Atv isnt connected to a Mac. I don’t have one.
Whatever I add on my iPhone or iPad shows up on the Atv app And vice versa
As far as I can tell these devices should sync and all tracks should migrate to all units.

Thats what I’m trying to figure out.
Why aren’t the tracks on my iPhone migrating to the iPad and ITunes on my laptop.
Maybe that’s not supposed to happen. I don’t know really.

 

[DaveF]

Was all fine for a few minutes or so but then everything disappeared off iTunes and my iPad while all of it was still on iPhone.

I’m realizing this is the key issue: you had a computer or software crash that seemingly wiped music from your computer? (I don’t know how the iPad factors in here.)

What I’m confused on, because it’s been a few years, is that I thought that there was no AppleID account syncing of music without the subscription service.

But if your PC is set to automatically sync to the iPad over wifi, maybe when your PC iTunes crashed and lost the music, it registered that as a change and synced and removed the music from the iPad. But for some reason it didn’t do that to the iPhone.

?

 

[DaveF]

I would check that the music was actually deleted from your PC. If it’s actually still there, have iTunes / Music re-add it to the library and see if that helps.

 

[TonyD]

What I’m confused on, because it’s been a few years, is that I thought that there was no AppleID account syncing of music without the subscription service.

I do subscribe to Music

 

[DaveF]

I do subscribe to Music

Ah. I understand you as saying you didn’t when I asked initially.

 

[DaveF]

I’m guessing you’ve got Optimize Storage turned on and devices purged songs to free up space.

 

[TonyD]

I’m guessing you’ve got Optimize Storage turned on and devices purged songs to free up space.

I dont and haven’t and now most of the songs I’ve added are gone from my iPhone.

 

[DaveF]

Well, you can always manually download music to your iPhone or whatever.

Otherwise, if you have Sync Library on, Optimize Storage off, and Automatic Downloads on, then I have no idea. You’re at the mercy of Apple’s inexplicable syncing services.

 

[TonyD]

Yes
Yes
No


I have never had auto dl on for anything and it never had this problem. Dont need to download every song to my iPhone or iPad
And I added an album on my iPad and it immediately showed up on my iPhone but maybe over 100 records disappearEd from my iPhone Music library.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Resurrecting this thread as I discovered something about Apple Music iTunes Match that I did not know...

Initially, when iTunes Match was introduced, I understood that the service basically took your Apple Music library that included songs from CDs, and made them available on every Apple device you owned. The caveat was that only songs that Apple actually had in their master database would be matched and made available on the cloud.

Now, either the above is true and at some point, things changed, or perhaps my understanding was completely wrong.

I made a startling discovery this weekend...

I have spent years collecting music, storing it on a hard drive, and then putting it on my iPhone to listen to in the car.

That library of music has a lot of unique stuff on it that includes extended/alternate versions of songs as well as remixes that I downloaded from YouTube. None of the stuff that Apple Music would offer on its own.

All that unique music was uploaded from my iPhone, into the Apple cloud, and is available to listen to on every Apple device I own.

That tells me that Apple isn't just iTunes matching, but taking any songs it can't match and uploading it to its cloud for multi-device access.

That's pretty wild.

 

[TonyD]

That’s great.

I’m considering downloading all my cds into my iTunes but the reason I started this topic was because all my songs that I saved from Apple Music disappeared last time I downloaded music from cds so I had to go back in a start adding songs again.

To be clear these are songs on Apple Music that I add only in Music not songs I’m downloaded or buying. I see a record and I add it to the collection to listen to.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I've kinda given up trying to synch my own ripped music onto iOS/iPadOS devices now because Apple Music and/or iTunes has gradually messed up what are on them for me.

_Man_

 

[Ronald Epstein]

That’s great.

I’m considering downloading all my cds into my iTunes but the reason I started this topic was because all my songs that I saved from Apple Music disappeared last time I downloaded music from cds so I had to go back in a start adding songs again.

To be clear these are songs on Apple Music that I add only in Music not songs I’m downloaded or buying. I see a record and I add it to the collection to listen to.

Tony, been reading your posts. Had nothing to add as I don't know what is going on. Not sure why there is an issue. I can only narrow it down to sync (which can be turned on and off) that is the cause.

I quickly copy my iTunes library to an SSD drive anytime I update it. So, just in case something happens similar to your issue, I have a backup that can be restored.

I've kinda given up trying to synch my own ripped music onto iOS/iPadOS devices now because Apple Music and/or iTunes has gradually messed up what are on them for me.

_Man_

Man, what kind of issues are you having?

I can tell you that there always seem to be issues, for me, when restoring my backup on a new Mac.

It should be as simple as copying the Music folder over to the new machine and then pointing iTunes to the library file.

The problem is, that iTunes creates multiple backup library files so you are never certain which one to point to, which is why I keep track of how many songs I have in my library before and after the update.

My music library has been very stable for the past few years, but then again, I haven't had to transfer the files since 2021.

 

[DaveF]

Resurrecting this thread as I discovered something about Apple Music iTunes Match that I did not know...

Initially, when iTunes Match was introduced, I understood that the service basically took your Apple Music library that included songs from CDs, and made them available on every Apple device you owned. The caveat was that only songs that Apple actually had in their master database would be matched and made available on the cloud.

Now, either the above is true and at some point, things changed, or perhaps my understanding was completely wrong.

I made a startling discovery this weekend...

I have spent years collecting music, storing it on a hard drive, and then putting it on my iPhone to listen to in the car.

That library of music has a lot of unique stuff on it that includes extended/alternate versions of songs as well as remixes that I downloaded from YouTube. None of the stuff that Apple Music would offer on its own.

All that unique music was uploaded from my iPhone, into the Apple cloud, and is available to listen to on every Apple device I own.

That tells me that Apple isn't just iTunes matching, but taking any songs it can't match and uploading it to its cloud for multi-device access.

That's pretty wild.

I thought that was always part of the heart of iTunes Match: Your personal library up to 25,000 (?) songs is available to you.