Why Does Itunes Keep Deleting the Cds I Upload to My Library?
A blog post has been making the rounds since Th, proverb that Apple Stole My Music. James Pinkstone, writing on his visitor's web log, tells a tale of losing 122GB of music files because of Apple Music. Plenty of websites are trumpeting this story, saying that Apple tree Music is the big bad wolf. Just I'one thousand afraid that isn't the case.
The author of this blog post begins past citing a bit of a chat he had with 1 Amber, an Apple tech support person:
"The software is functioning every bit intended," said Amber.
"Look," I asked, "so it'due south supposed to delete my personal files from my internal hard drive without asking my permission?"
"Yes," she replied.
Amber is incorrect. Neither Apple Music nor iCloud Music Library deletes music files. This simply doesn't happen.
I'm non battling what happened to Mr. Pinkstone. iTunes is aught if not problematic, as y'all can see regularly in my Ask the iTunes Guy column. But if Apple tree Music—or more correctly, in this instance, iCloud Music Library—were rapturing music files of every user effectually the world, at that place would take already been a -gate controversy (musicgate? filegate?) and a form-action lawsuit. Heck, fifty-fifty Taylor Swift would have been unhappy, and penned an open letter to Apple.
I don't know exactly what happened to this user. I contacted him by email trying to go more than information, and he told me that he no longer uses Apple Music, so he actually can't help elucidate the issue. There are a few hypotheses circulating near what may have happened, and none of them make total sense. Something deleted his music files—including music he equanimous—and it'south hard to figure out what was responsible. But information technology wasn't Apple Music, and Apple tree certainly did non "steal" his music.
Apple'southward music services: The differences
First, some terminology. Apple Music is the company'south streaming service; information technology does nada to any of your files. iCloud Music Library, however, is the characteristic that lets you match your library, store files in the cloud, and save files you like from Apple Music. The goal of this is to allow yous to play whatever music from your iTunes library on any device you own. (This can be disruptive; I wrote nearly how Apple tree Music, iCloud Music Library, and iTunes Lucifer work together.)
Here'due south what happens when you use iCloud Music Library or iTunes Friction match:
- iTunes scans your music library and attempts to lucifer your files with music available on Apple Music and in the iTunes Shop. If you have an iTunes Match subscription, iTunes uses digital fingerprinting to match your files; if not, it only compares metadata (tags such as a rail'southward proper noun, artist, and album).
- If iTunes matches a file, it stores a record of that file in the cloud. When files are encountered that don't match, iTunes uploads them to the cloud.
- If your files are in a format other than AAC, iTunes converts them to 256 kbps AAC files earlier uploading. And so this user, who had a lot of WAV files, would take AAC files in the deject.
What happens next depends on how you use iTunes and your iOS devices.
If you lot retain all the original files on your computer, iCloud Music Library may change tags and artwork. I suffered that in the early on days, just it neither changes nor deletes any files in your iTunes library.
If you delete music on an iOS device, you meet this dialog. Information technology can be confusing.
If you delete the local copies of those files, you tin re-download them from the cloud, and they will exist the 256 kbps AAC versions of your files (if the originals were not in that format), and, if you don't have an iTunes Match subscription, they will take DRM. However, if y'all delete your music on an iOS device, this may remove the files from your iCloud Music Library; the iOS dialog isn't very clear.
If yous cancel your Apple tree Music subscription, any files from that service that you saved will disappear; but your original files will withal remain on your computer.
There have been issues where, post-obit an iTunes upgrade, a library is empty, but the files are still present, and the gear up is relatively simple.
I don't know what happened to Mr. Pinkstone's music files. Somehow they got deleted; whether through user error or by another application. Merely I know that this is not how iCloud Music Library works.
Whatever the cause of this incident, it highlights the demand for backups; fortunately, Mr. Pinkstone had a backup of his music files. I maintain three backups of my media library, because I take a very big library, and I've spent a lot of time tagging my files and adding album artwork. But I have three backups of all my files, so I'm pretty condom. When I do lose files because of some ham-fisted maneuver—and this happens—I tin pull copies from i of my backups.
Source: https://www.macworld.com/article/227951/apple-music-doesnt-delete-your-music-files.html