Troubleshooting Apple Music: The Ultimate Guide
- jul
- 22
Running into trouble with Apple Music, iCloud Music Library, or iTunes Match? You've come to the right place.
While Apple's music subscription services offer a lot of great features—streaming songs from your library or the Apple Music collection on any device, or rocking out to Beats 1—they have some quirks, too. If you've run into a problem with Apple Music, iTunes Match, or iCloud Music Library, we've probably found a fix for it—and we've assembled all those fixes here in our troubleshooting guide.
Subscriptions and data | iTunes Match and DRM | iCloud Music Library | Find your music
Subscriptions and data
Want to try Apple Music but don't want to be charged on September 30? Here's how to turn off the automatic subscription renewal.
Apple Music offers two different plans for its users—a $9.99 individual plan and a $14.99 family plan that supports up to six Family Sharing accounts (or devices connected concurrently on one account).
If you started on one plan but want to switch mid-subscription, or want to leave a Family sub-account to start off on your own, here's how to go about it. Don't worry: From my testing, you shouldn't lose your Apple Music library, likes, or data when switching between accounts.
Family plans seem to be a big point of confusion surrounding the Apple Music launch. How do you set it up? What log ins do you need? What do families share? After digging through Reddit threads, Twitter, and Apple's support documentation, here's what you need to know.
With access to millions of songs, Beats 1's live streaming radio, and your own tracks uploaded to iCloud Music Library, it's pretty easily to run up a big cellular data bill on your iPhone or iPad while enjoying Apple Music. If you're worried about running out of data this month, here are a few tweaks and fixes you can try.
iTunes Match, matched tracks, and DRM
Yes, Apple Music has a DRM component. Yes, it sucks, but it's similar to every other streaming service. No, it does not overwrite the files on your Mac to make all your music DRM-laden. For those Googling in a panic, here's the deal.
Whether you're having trouble getting your iTunes Library to match tracks with the iTunes catalog, or you just bought Match and aren't sure how to turn it on when you have Apple Music activated, here's a quick fix to get you on the iTunes Match path.
With Apple Music introducing a new form of DRM for its streaming catalog and songs you've re-downloaded from your library, it's easy to get nervous over which songs on your Mac are yours. Here's a quick tip for seeing which is which.
Until iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan arrive in the fall, users are limited to just 25,000 non-purchased-from-iTunes songs in their iCloud Music Library. If you have more local tracks than that, though, don't panic: You can still use iCloud Music Library. Here's how to go about doing it.
If you had an iTunes Match subscription and ran into iCloud Music Library errors where your tracks were showing up as matching to the DRM-encumbered Apple Music catalog, looks like Apple has a fix for you in the form of iTunes 12.2.1.
iCloud Music Library
Apple Music and iTunes Match both offer access to iCloud Music Library, an uploading-and-matching service that lets you access all your Mac's songs from up to 10 of your devices.
If you'd prefer not to use iCloud Music Library as part of your Apple Music subscription, however, here's how to go about it.
Are there songs from your collection that got matched to the wrong Apple Music or iTunes Match track? Wrong album art? iTunes 4010 errors? If you've run into any of these, Apple's cloud copy of your music might need to get dumped and resynchronized.
If you've got tracks that don't seem to want to talk with iCloud, but you don't necessarily want or need to reboot your entire iCloud Music Library, here's how to fix it.
Whether Apple's music services are hanging up on you while trying to sync, or your music isn't showing up on your iPhone or iPad, here are some steps you can take to try and remedy your issue.
If you just updated to iOS 8.4 and Apple Music and are now getting an error stating "Cloud Music Library can't be enabled", you're not alone. Here's how you can get it to work... eventually.
Find music in your collection
Apple Music's "Add to Library" button makes it devilishly easy to collect new music, which is awesome for listening to new tunes. But what about finding those songs? Here's a quick couple of Smart Playlists you can make in iTunes on your Mac that will collect anything you've downloaded from Apple Music or downloaded recently.
If you're using iTunes Match or Apple Music, you get all your Mac's music on all your devices, including secondary Macs. If you're not sure what songs you've downloaded locally versus what songs are being stored in iCloud Music Library, here's a quick way to check.
Whether you're not going to be connected to the internet, worried about cellular data usage, or you just want to see what music you have stored locally on your iPhone or iPad, here's a quick and easy way to view those tracks (as well as how to remove them if you no longer want them stored on your device).
Still running into problems?
If these articles didn't help fix your problem, don't despair—let us know about it in the comments and we'll look into it. If it's something we can't find a solution for, you can also contact Apple Support about your issue, or check out Apple's Apple Music support guide.
