Where are my playlists in iTunes

Apple Music is seen as one of the best music apps in the world. However, it is not as perfect as people expect. For example, when you intend to listen to some music on iPhone, you may suddenly find Apple Music playlist disappeared.

To make things worse, no matter how you sign out and sign in Apple music, you cannot restore the playlist even though they are in iTunes on computer. If you have the same trouble, keep reading the passage to find solutions to it.

Why is Apple Music playlist disappeared?

You may wonder why playlist not showing up on iPhone. Here is the answer. It is suggested to figure out the reasons first and choose a specific method to handle it.

☹ Errors in iCloud Music Library. It is most likely that there is something wrong with iCloud Music Library, so that iPhone cannot scan or unload anything to Apple Music.
☹ An expired Apple Music subscription. If your subscription is outdated, all the playlists on Apple Music will be gone.
☹ Changes made by software. Sometimes if your Apple Music playlists disappear from iPhone after iOS 15 update, it might result that your iTunes account has synced across the devices or your Show Apple Music option is off automatically.

5 ways to fix the Apple Music playlist disappeared

So you may wonder how to recover Apple Music playlist. There are 5 ways available for you to fix Apple Music delete your playlist with ease. To quickly get your lost playlist back, you can turn to method 5 to check if your Apple Music playlist is still on your iPhone but invisible.

Method 1. Check the Subscription

The first thing you can do is to check whether the subscription is out of date on your iPhone. Follow the steps below to make it.

Go to Settings > Tap your name > Tap Subscriptions to see if it’s expired. If there isn’t the option, you can also go to iTunes & App Store > your Apple ID > View Apple ID, sign in and scroll down to tap Subscription.

Method 2. Turn on Show Apple Music

As we mentioned before, after updating iOS, "Show Apple Music" option may be turned off automatically. To make Apple Music playlist visible, you can check it and turn it on.

Tutorials are as follows. Go to Settings > Music > Under Music column, you can see Show Apple Music, turn it on if it is off. If it’s already on, you can tap it off and toggle it on again. Now, you can go to Apple Music to check whether your playlists come back.

Method 3. Turn on iCloud Music Library

iCloud Music Library is used to sync and transfer streaming music tracks from Apple Music and iTunes among devices. You can add music to iCloud Music Library from computer with iTunes.

Follow these simple steps to make it. Go to Settings > Music > Under Library column, you’ll see iCloud Music Library option. If it is off, toggle it on. If it’s already on, you need to turn it off and activate it again. Select Merge on the popup which asks you whether to enable iCloud Music Library or not.

Now the deleted Apple Music playlists will be merged or replaced by the music in iCloud. Therefore, you can get your Apple Music playlists back.

Note: ▪ You’d better turn off iCloud Music Library by the steps above to avoid your music being deleted in the future.

▪ After all, iCloud has only 5 GB of storage spaces for free. If the 5GB of free storage spaces run out, you may either pay for extra storage space monthly or encounter troubles like your iPhone backup failed for not enough storage space in iCloud.

Method 4. Update iCloud Music Library with iTunes

Alternatively, you can also update iCloud Music Library with iTunes to get Apple Music playlist back. Follow the steps to make it. Open iTunes on your PC or Mac > Go to File > Library > Click the Update iCloud Music Library to make it. Updating iCloud Music Library will refresh the whole library on your iPhone, it may help you restore the disappeared Apple Music playlist as well.

 Method 5. Filter disappeared playlist from iPhone via AOMEI MBackupper

Chances are that Apple Music playlists still exist on your iPhone but cannot be available currently. To make these playlists visible, you can try the power tool -AOMEI MBackupper to transfer the music from iPhone to computer, so that you can get Apple Music playlists back.

☑ Selective music transfer. AOMEI MBackupper helps scan all music on your iPhone. You're also allowed to transfer both purchased and non-purchased music selectively.
☑ Types of transfer features. It enables you to achieve iPhone to iPhone/iPad transfer, iPhone to computer transfer, and vice versa at a super-fast transfer speed.
☑ Wide compatibility. It can work well on iPhone from iPhone 4 to the latest iPhone 13 series, as well as iPad, iPod.

Download AOMEI MBackupper for free and have a try.

Now, follow the steps below to transfer music from iPhone to computer with AOMEI MBackupper.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to computer with USB > Launch AOMEI MBackupper and choose Transfer to Computer on its homepage.

Step 2. Click the + icon > Check the Music icon to browse music in your iPhone > Locate and choose the disappeared music you want to get it back > Click OK  to confirm.

Step 3. Choose a storage path as you like [You can save these files to a local folder or an external hard drive, etc.] > Click Transfer to complete the task.

When the transfer process is finished, you can browse it on your computer.  If necessary, you're also able to transfer music back to iPhone again.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you can fix Apple Music playlist disappeared with these easy methods. You can try to connect your iPhone to computer, and let AOMEI MBackupper scan and transfer your disappeared music to computer.

To avoid data loss in the future, it is also recommended to backup iPhone to PC with AOMEI MBackupper regularly. For more queries, suggestions, or feedback, please feel free to contact us.

If you have iTunes playlists disappeared, you can refer to these two simple ways to recover them: one is using an old iTunes music library XML file, and the other is using an iTunes backup. Meanwhile, also transfer your iPhone playlists to a PC to avoid playlists disappeared.

Download for PCDownload for Mac

iTunes playlists disappeared may be caused by iTunes upgrades, music library displacement, or careless deletion. If this happens, don't worry, you can easily find and recover the disappeared iTunes playlists with the aid of this tutorial article. Usually, you can recover disappeared iTunes playlists in two ways: one is using the iTunes music library XML file, and the other is directly recovering from the iTunes backup.

2 easy ways to recover iTunes playlists disappeared

Tip 1. Using an old iTunes music library XML file

One simple way to restore missing iTunes playlists is to use the previous iTunes music library to replace the broken one.

Step 1. Quit iTunes completely.

Step 2. Open the iTunes music folder.

For Mac users: /music/

For Windows users: /My documents/ My music/ iTunes/ or Username the My music folder.

Step 3. Find a file named iTunes Music Library.xml and drag it to your desktop or somewhere else that's convenient for you.

Step 4. Drag the iTunes Library file to the desktop, too.  

Step 5. Re-open iTunes.

Step 6. Go to the "File" > "Library" > "Import Playlists".

Step 7. Select the iTunes Music Library.xml that you placed on the desktop before.

Step 8. iTunes will recreate your playlists, and any iOS devices you have synced with iTunes will re-sync their playlists as well.

Tip 2: Using iTunes backup to recover iTunes playlists disappeared

If you have the good habit of regular data backup on your computer, then, you will have little trouble restoring the disappeared iTunes playlists. Please follow the steps below:

Step 1. Run iTunes on your computer.

Step 2. Find and click the "File" option > "Library" > "Import playlists".

Step 3. Navigate to the playlists file on your computer and then move them to your iTunes.

How to transfer iPhone music to computer at no cost

Not only are iTunes playlists so significant that we will try every method to recover them, but also the music on the iPhone is equally important and deserve good protection to avoid the inconvenience caused by data loss. Then, how to easily and quickly transfer iPhone music to your computer? Use the easiest and free iPhone data transfer tool – EaseUS MobiMover - to transfer all the iPhone music to the computer in a few seconds with a single click. Let's get started. [Check the blog on how to transfer photos from iPhone to PC if you need to move photos to the computer.]

Download for PCDownload for Mac

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to the computer and run EaseUS MobiMover. "Allow" it to access your iPhone data and "Trust" this computer. Then, click "Audio" and "Music" to proceed. 

Step 2. Click "Music" to choose desired music files and click "Settings" at the right top corner to navigate a safe location on your PC for saving the files.

Step 3. Click "Transfer to PC" to start the transferring.

With EaseUS MobiMover Free, many other iPhone files can be recovered with the transfer function, like recovering deleted photos, messages, and notes from iPhone with simple steps.