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Apple Music replacing songs in playlists

I just signed up for Apple Music, which I'm beginning to regret. I have playlists for each of the albums that I have ripped in my Music library on my Mac at home, the vast majority in lossless uncompressed AIFF format, and many in hi-res. I now find that many of the songs in various playlists have been replaced with songs in the Cloud. I do not want this to happen when I'm at home. When I'm home, I want to listen to the songs that I have painstakingly ripped to be identical to the original. How can I stop this from happening, or do I just have to give up on Apple Music? Thanks.

Mac mini, macOS 12.1

Posted on Feb 28, 2023 4:50 AM

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Posted on Feb 28, 2023 9:43 AM

Before starting a subscription to Apple Music it is a good idea to take a complete backup of the library. The original copies of your files that were matched or uploaded from the computer should remain in place unless you actively use the remove download option to free up local storage. When accessing the iCloud Music Library on a different computer or device you will get 256k copies of the matched or uploaded tracks, or potentially the new Apple Music Lossless versions where supported. There is a rare issue when an updated library is unreadable where Music may replace it with an empty library, but will also include your purchase history and any iCloud Music Library in the cloud but presumably you would have noticed that as it would affect the whole library. Restoring the Music Library.musiclibrary database from backup would re-establish the link to the local files. If there is no backup to work with then you should be able to import your local files and Music should resolve the references.


tt2

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7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 28, 2023 9:43 AM in response to greguva

Before starting a subscription to Apple Music it is a good idea to take a complete backup of the library. The original copies of your files that were matched or uploaded from the computer should remain in place unless you actively use the remove download option to free up local storage. When accessing the iCloud Music Library on a different computer or device you will get 256k copies of the matched or uploaded tracks, or potentially the new Apple Music Lossless versions where supported. There is a rare issue when an updated library is unreadable where Music may replace it with an empty library, but will also include your purchase history and any iCloud Music Library in the cloud but presumably you would have noticed that as it would affect the whole library. Restoring the Music Library.musiclibrary database from backup would re-establish the link to the local files. If there is no backup to work with then you should be able to import your local files and Music should resolve the references.


tt2

Mar 4, 2023 6:48 PM in response to greguva

So you mean the tracks have gone cloudy? You still have a local file but Music is linked to a copy in the cloud, streams that, and would let you download it as a potentially duplicate file? See Empty/corrupt iTunes/Music library after upgrade/crash - Apple Community. You may need to restore a backup of the database if that is possible. Alternatively if you import local files they should merge with the cloud content letting you play locally stored tracks from their better quality originals rather than the 256k matched versions from the cloud.


tt2

Feb 28, 2023 1:37 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks. I did have a backup of my library, so that's not a problem. The problem is that Apple Music is replacing tracks in the library that serves as the source for my audio with matched tracks from the Cloud. I don't mind (much) listening to lossy compressed tracks when I'm in my car listening through my iPhone and my car audio system. But when I'm home, listening through a decent receiver and full-sized speakers, I expect to be able to listen to the original files in their lossless state. It seems either presumptuous of Apple to think that I'd always be fine with listening to matched files, or else there's a glitch in the system. At any rate, if I can't fix it, Apple Music is of no use to me.

Apr 4, 2023 5:23 AM in response to greguva

Can't stand that Apple does that. Example - I downloaded Def Leppard's "Hysteria" into my Library from the original CD and put it in a playlist. Apple replaced a number of the tracks (most of the hits) with live versions, which I do not want. Tried to replace the playlist tracks from what is in my library - my downloads - and Apple Music still plays the live version. Even the Apple library "Hysteria" studio album has these live tracks. If I wanted the live tracks, I would have pulled the live tracks. Very frustrating. This is just one example - this happens a lot.

Apple Music replacing songs in playlists

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