If you’ve lost your Apple Music listening history and want to get it back, there are a few things you can try. Your Apple Music history includes all the songs, albums, playlists, and stations you’ve listened to. Here are some common questions and answers about recovering your Apple Music history:
Why did my Apple Music history disappear?
There are a few reasons your Apple Music listening history may have gone missing:
- You turned off Music History in your Apple Music settings
- You switched Apple devices and didn’t transfer your data
- You deleted the Apple Music app and redownloaded it
- Your iOS or MacOS software wasn’t updated properly
- Your iCloud Music Library is corrupted or damaged
If any of these apply to you, your play history may have been lost in the process. The history is stored locally on your device and in iCloud, so issues with either can cause you to lose data.
How can I recover my Apple Music history?
If your Apple Music history disappeared, don’t panic. Here are some ways you may be able to get it back:
Method 1: Restore from a backup
If you have a recent backup of your device through iTunes or iCloud, you may be able to restore your music history from the backup. Here’s how:
- Open iTunes on your computer and connect your iPhone or iPad.
- Click on your device icon and select “Restore Backup”.
- Choose the most recent backup from the list.
- iTunes will restore your device from the backup, including Apple Music data.
Or if using iCloud:
- Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud.
- Tap “Restore” to restore from your latest iCloud backup.
This should retrieve your listening history as long as the backup is fairly recent.
Method 2: Rebuild your iCloud Music Library
If backups don’t work, rebuilding your iCloud Music Library may help:
- Open Settings and go to Music.
- Turn off “Sync Library”.
- Sign out of Apple Music.
- Sign back into Apple Music.
- Turn “Sync Library” back on.
This will reupload your Music library data from your device to iCloud, potentially restoring corrupted information.
Method 3: Contact Apple Support
If you still can’t get your play history back through backups or rebuilding your library, contact Apple Support. They may be able to restore lost data from their end.
You can contact them by phone, chat, Twitter, or scheduling a callback from Get Support on the Apple Support app. Explain the issue and they’ll investigate further.
How can I prevent Apple Music history from being lost?
To avoid losing your Apple Music statistics again, here are some tips:
- Keep Music History enabled in settings.
- Regularly backup your devices through iTunes or iCloud.
- Avoid deleting the Music app.
- Maintain your iCloud Music Library – turn off Sync Library if you notice issues.
- Update iOS, iPadOS, macOS to the latest versions.
Following these best practices will ensure your Apple Music data syncs properly between devices and remains intact.
What listening data does Apple Music store?
Apple Music keeps track of a lot of your listening activity. This includes:
- Every song, album, playlist, station, music video you’ve played
- Play counts for each item
- Date and time you listened
- Which device it was played on
- Play duration
- Items added to your library
- Search history
So if you lose your Apple Music history, a lot of valuable data about your preferences and habits is at stake.
Does Apple Music keep my history forever?
No, Apple Music does delete old listening history after a while. According to Apple, they store:
- Past 90 days of play history
- Up to 200,000 tracks played
- Up to 100,000 items added to your library
So your lifetime Apple Music history is not maintained indefinitely. History older than 90 days will start being deleted automatically.
This means it’s important to backup or export your Apple Music data if you want long-term access to your full history.
How far back can I recover my Apple Music history?
If using backups or contacting Apple Support, you may be able to go back further than 90 days. But in general, here’s how far back you can get your history:
- Past 90 days – using iCloud Music Library data
- Up to 1 year – using an iTunes or iCloud backup
- 1-2 years – by contacting Apple Support (not guaranteed)
Beyond 2 years, Apple likely won’t have access to your listening data anymore. So the longer ago your history was lost, the less you’ll be able to recover.
Can I export my Apple Music history data?
Unfortunately there is no official way to directly export your full Apple Music history. However, here are some workarounds:
- You can view and screenshot your playback history and stats in the Music app.
- On a Mac, you can find playlist XML files with some history.
- Apps like TuneStats and Recordify claim to capture and export history.
So with some effort, you may be able to extract parts of your listening data. But without an official Apple export feature, options are limited.
Should I switch to Spotify?
This is a common question after losing Apple Music history. Spotify makes it much easier to export your data, including listening history.
However, switching streaming platforms has downsides too. You’d lose access to all your Apple Music playlists, libraries, and recommendations. And you may not like Spotify’s interface or music discovery as much.
So while Spotify does give you more control over your data, it’s a very personal choice whether to switch. Evaluate which service has the features and music library that appeal to you overall.
Key Takeaways
- Restore from an iTunes or iCloud backup to get Apple Music history back.
- Rebuild your iCloud Music Library if backups don’t work.
- Contact Apple Support if you still can’t restore your history.
- Enable backups, avoid deleting Music, and update software to prevent data loss.
- History older than 90 days is deleted automatically.
- You can view history in the Music app, but not directly export it.
Losing your Apple Music data can be frustrating. But in most cases, you should be able to recover at least some of your recent listening history. Maintain regular backups, avoid unlinking your library, and your music stats should be preserved.