# Dude! Where are my songs? (Apple Music on MacBook) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** apple, music\ **Created:** [July 4, 2023, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564 "2023-07-04T16:55:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/21 "2023-07-06T17:29:35Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > When searching, once you’ve started entering any text in the search bar, you get the option to save the search and/or click the plus symbol to add limits to the search. “Kind” is one of the options. OK, I did that. I don’t see what it did. > [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > Is it possible that in the time before the switchover from iTunes to Apple Music that you enabled iTunes Match or iTunes in the Cloud, either of which could result in your music being matched, with the local files being deleted and replaced with cloud versions of same? I suppose it is. I don’t know why they would delete my files though. Seems like a bit of ~~a dick move~~ an intrusion to delete things without letting the user know. It’s starting to sound as if I should see if the PowerBook will boot, and see if there’s a way to copy the files from there. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/22 "2023-07-06T17:33:26Z")
I don’t remember what happened when I signed up for Music Match, but I don’t think it deleted any of my local library - it just made everything available in iCloud. Do you have backups? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/23 "2023-07-06T17:35:14Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Do you have backups? I have two external drives. One of them has files from the 17-inch MacBook, and the other has the files from the 15-inch. The 13-inch is on one of them. They’re identical, and I never marked them so I don’t know how to find anything on them. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/24 "2023-07-06T17:42:00Z")
How was the data copied to the external drives? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/25 "2023-07-06T17:47:32Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I don’t remember what happened when I signed up for Music Match, but I don’t think it deleted any of my local library - it just made everything available in iCloud. That’s my recollection of how it worked. I had a huge music library, over 20,000 songs, and I was an early adopter of the Match service. Took the better part of a whole day to match and upload, but once it finished, all of the original files were still on my drive. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/26 "2023-07-06T18:00:29Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > > [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > > > When searching, once you’ve started entering any text in the search bar, you get the option to save the search and/or click the plus symbol to add limits to the search. “Kind” is one of the options. > > OK, I did that. I don’t see what it did. > > > [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > > > Is it possible that in the time before the switchover from iTunes to Apple Music that you enabled iTunes Match or iTunes in the Cloud, either of which could result in your music being matched, with the local files being deleted and replaced with cloud versions of same? > > I suppose it is. I don’t know why they would delete my files though. Seems like a bit of ~~a dick move~~ an intrusion to delete things without letting the user know. > > It’s starting to sound as if I should see if the PowerBook will boot, and see if there’s a way to copy the files from there. 1. So you are saying that you can’t see “Kind is” with a following drop down with the option “Music”? When I do that it shows me every music file on the computer. It’s a good place to start in case the files are there and simply not where you are expecting them to be. [![](https://i.imgur.com/dhQwVZa.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/dhQwVZa.png) 1. It’s not a dick move, and it’s more likely than not that it didn’t happen. But MacOS has had options for a while going back to iTunes in the Cloud to offload unused local files to maintain a useable amount of free drive space. I don’t _think_ you did this, but it is a possibility… > Turn on iCloud Music Library on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch > **WARNING:** After you turn on iCloud Music Library on a device, all the music that’s currently on the device is deleted and replaced with songs from [iCloud](https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/aside/glos22c37a93/12.12/windows/10). Also, you can’t use iTunes to [sync](https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/aside/glosc78cdc5a/12.12/windows/10) music with the device. You can add songs to the device only by [downloading](https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/aside/glos55d15cc0/12.12/windows/10) them from iCloud. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/27 "2023-07-06T20:20:06Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > How was the data copied to the external drives? Time Machine. > [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > So you are saying that you can’t see “Kind is” with a following drop down with the option “Music”? When I do that it shows me every music file on the computer. It’s a good place to start in case the files are there and simply not where you are expecting them to be. I tried searching for iTunes before. I’ve just entered ‘music’ into the search box. I clicked the +. I see ‘Kind’. It shows a list of files, most of which appear to be A) Apple Loop (no idea what that is); and B) Those files appear to be files used by the computer. (Maybe Garage Band? Never used it.). There _are_ a few MP3 files. This is an album I had on my desktop that I didn’t load into Apple Music because I didn’t want to wipe out my iPod, so why bother? I don’t have any music on iCloud. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/28 "2023-07-06T20:28:56Z")
Which computer are you on? Your 15 inch or 13? If you’re on your 13, is this the first time you’ve used it for music? ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/29 "2023-07-06T20:31:21Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > also in Ventura I find the path to be specifically this… > > ` /Users/porkrind/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Apple Music/` > > …for streaming music downloaded for local listening from Apple Music, and… > > `/Users/porkrind/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/` > > …for the stuff I’ve added locally. Have you looked in the directories listed above? Not clear to me from this thread if you have. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/30 "2023-07-06T20:47:49Z")
Currently on the 13-inch. I just tried the 15-inch and found Music Library. It only has 100 tracks. I don’t have Apple Music. In the other one (‘Music’) I click on it and it opens Apple Music. There are only 100 tracks. It also has the one album that was on my desktop. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/31 "2023-07-06T20:52:32Z")
If you used Time Machine, you can actually browse the backed-up directories in the Finder. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/32 "2023-07-06T20:56:24Z")
Exactly. We’ve fallen into the sunk cost trap. At this point we’ve spent more time speculating about the location (or non-location) of these files than a restore would have taken. Fire up Time Machine and retrieve away! It’s unfortunate that something happened to your music archive, and honestly kind of surprising as I’ve been on the earliest betas of every new MacOS since they replaced iTunes five years ago and all my terrible stuff is still right there. But computers sometimes do weird shit and there you go. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2023, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/33 "2023-07-06T21:19:34Z")
I’ll try Time Machine when I have time. > [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > But computers sometimes do weird shit and there you go. Yesterday I tried to use 7-zip on my work computer (Windows). It was gone. Since I don’t have the authority to download apps, IT had to put it back on. Something about ‘Oh, it was probably an old version, so it got deleted.’ ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2023, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/34 "2023-07-07T12:24:22Z")
Rule of thumb for Microsoft. _If it’s useful or essential for Windows or MS Office, then in the next version we either hide it or delete it…_ As opposed to Apple: _We know better. Do it our way, even if it makes no sense._ ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2023, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/35 "2023-07-07T13:20:07Z")
I’ve found the former to be a truism. The latter has always worked better for me – until now. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2023, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564/36 "2023-07-11T01:00:31Z")
OK, this is weird. I looked at my phone, and there was a ‘1’ in a red circle above my Music icon. I never use Music on my phone, because I have an idea it takes up a lot of storage. So I opened it… and it appears that the 100 songs are there. Haven’t had a chance to look at my backup drives yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dude-where-are-my-songs-apple-music-on-macbook/986564.md?page=1)