Roger Fingas
A component of Apple Music, iCloud Music Library, was hit with extended downtime on Wednesday, causing numerous problems for people trying to play songs and albums.
Many people using iTunes are running into repeated "Unable to connect to iCloud Music Library" messages during playback, complaints on Twitter suggest. On iOS, the Music app is prompting some listeners to sign up for Apple Music even if they already have a subscription or previously declined.
Perhaps the most serious trouble is that some people are seeing their libraries disappear, although it's not yet clear if anyone has lost music permanently. Indeed Apple's official online system status tracker claims no ongoing issues whatsoever.
iCloud Music Library has often been one of the most problematic aspects of Apple Music. Immediately after the service launched in 2015, people began complaining about iCloud Music Library deleting and renaming content.
Right when I need to drive work from my thoughts by means of loud music: "Unable to connect to iCloud Music Library." Fie! A pox upon Apple!
— Mark Hodder (@MarkHodderBooks) June 1, 2016
@b3ll I've been having problems with iCloud Music Library all day. So I guess I'm not the only one?
— Keeton Feavel (@Auxel_) June 1, 2016
@rectangular Mine gone too and getting the error 'Unable to connect to iCloud Music Library'
— Liam McNally (@MrMcNally) June 1, 2016
When it works, the feature is intended to enable offline caching of music and/or remote streaming of an uploaded iTunes library. Leaving it toggled off creates a comparatively crippled experience.
Apple has not come forth with an official response to the situation, although customers have contacted the company's support staff.
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24 Comments
ICML really has to die, or at least be made an option...for those unaware, you cannot save Apple Music streams for offline listening UNLESS you enable ICML, which means EVERYTHING you own now must be synced up to the cloud and then streamed back to yourself. Painfully idiotic from a cost and availability perspective.
God I hate iCloud Music library. I've ripped several songs/concerts from Mixcloud and I can't get them on my phone. Either it's too long (over 2 hours) or iTunes tells me it's not eligible for ICML (but doesn't explain why). So annoying.
Glad I never enabled ICML. My 19GB music library stays on my iPhone and if I want to listen to something fresh, I fire up Pandora.
Even more something like Mail, Apple uses the cloud as a transit hub - but your mail resides on your local device. With ICML, it doesn't, unless you manually select music to download - which in reality is impossible to manage and requires a level of clairvoyance that even Houdini did not possess (ie, what do you want to listen to during that future moment when ICML access is unavailable...?)
My problem is the music and movies on my iPhone now has to be F*$¥ING wiped so I can reinstall the same library that I have on my MBP. And I'm not, nor ever been, or ever will be a Apple Music subscriber. I've worked too bloody long and hard, and spent a boatload of money for all of my media to be wiped from my computer or phone. Might look into getting a samscum phone and installing Linux on it. Might be safer that way...