Tag Archive for ‘iCloud Music Library’

Joe Rosensteel:

Apple has provided no way for users to revert changes that are being made in iOS, and no mechanism to recover deleted data. That really bothers me because if an automated system is going to make changes to optimize my data then it’s never going to be 100 percent accurate. Dropbox is really close to perfect these days for maintaining the integrity of my data, but they still have mechanisms to recover files and revert versions.

I’m more than a little worried about transitioning away from Apple Music once my subscription runs out at the end of September. And its sad that I feel like I should have 2-3 backups in place just to make sure I don’t lose any data.

I hope Apple does what it needs to in order to repair their reputation for me — a year or so of solid software releases would help tremendously.

Joseph Rosensteel:

Apple has provided no way for users to revert changes that are being made in iOS, and no mechanism to recover deleted data. That really bothers me because if an automated system is going to make changes to optimize my data then it’s never going to be 100 percent accurate. Dropbox is really close to perfect these days for maintaining the integrity of my data, but they still have mechanisms to recover files and revert versions.

A Time Machine-like interface which would allow you to recover lost media or revert to previous versions of your library would be nice, but it’s never going to happen. It’s a user interface problem that I don’t expect Apple is too interested in solving. In their mind, they’d rather fix the problems they have and remove any need for a data recovery feature.

Kirk McElhearn, in an update to his recent piece on iCloud Music Library metadata matching:

I’ve been unable to reproduce this issue, and my guess is that there was a glitch with Apple’s servers that has since been corrected. If you only subscribe to Apple Music, or are using it on a free trial, then your songs are matched using metadata only. If you subscribe to both iTunes Match and Apple Music, then iTunes matches your songs using digital fingerprinting.

My guess: Apple’s been rapidly fixing bugs in the backend of Apple Music. I suspect the test that Kirk performed could have been easily reproduced a few days ago, but Apple quickly fixed it once his piece started gaining steam.

Kirk McElhearn:

When you match and download files from iCloud Music Library (without having an iTunes Match subscription), however, you get files with DRM; the same kind of files you get when you download files from Apple Music for offline listening. (These files should have DRM, so you can’t just download and keep all the music you want for $10 a month.) But if you’re using Apple Music, and not iTunes Match, Apple doesn’t make a distinction between which files were originally yours, and which you downloaded for offline listening from Apple Music.

If you plan on making use of iCloud Music Library, be sure to keep copies of your original files. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck paying for Apple Music indefinitely or risk losing your music library all together.