A playlist is a curated collection of songs that allows you to save and organize your favorite tracks or albums within a music streaming service like Apple Music (https://www.engadget.com/apple-music-overview-140039317.html). Playlists enable listeners to compile songs based on mood, activity, genre or specific artists, providing a customized listening experience. Recovering a deleted playlist is important because it allows you to restore music selections that may have taken hours to compile and arrange. Playlists often hold significant emotional connections or memories for listeners, so being able to rescue a lost playlist brings back that sentimental value.
Check Recently Deleted Playlist
When you delete a playlist in Apple Music, it doesn’t disappear right away. Apple Music sends deleted playlists to the Recently Deleted section, where they remain for up to 30 days before being permanently erased (Source).
To restore your playlist:
- Open the Playlists tab in Apple Music
- Scroll down and tap “Recently Deleted”
- Find your deleted playlist and tap the “Restore” button next to it
This will move the playlist back to your main music library so you can access it again. However, if you don’t see your playlist in Recently Deleted, it likely has already been permanently removed after 30 days. In that case, you will need to restore it from an iCloud or iTunes backup instead.
Restore from Recently Deleted
If you accidentally deleted a playlist, you may be able to restore it from the Recently Deleted section in Apple Music. Here are the steps to restore a deleted playlist from Recently Deleted:
- Open the Music app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Tap on the Library tab at the bottom.
- Scroll down and tap on Recently Deleted.
- You will see a list of your recently deleted playlists. Find the playlist you want to restore.
- Tap on the playlist to open it.
- Tap on the Restore Playlist button.
The playlist will be restored to your Music library. Keep in mind that deleted playlists only stay in the Recently Deleted section for 30 days before being permanently deleted. So be sure to restore any playlists you want to keep within 30 days of deletion.
For more details, see Apple’s support article on restoring deleted playlists: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211328
Check iCloud Music Library
If you had iCloud Music Library enabled, your playlists may have been stored in iCloud rather than locally on your device. iCloud Music Library syncs your Apple Music across all your devices, keeping everything up to date. Playlists are included as part of this syncing process.
To check if your missing playlist is available via iCloud Music Library:
- Open the Apple Music app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac
- Go to Settings > Music
- Check if “iCloud Music Library” is toggled on
- If so, your playlists may be stored in iCloud and can be restored from there
Try turning iCloud Music Library off and back on again to force a re-sync of your content. Any playlists stored in iCloud should then become available again on your device. This is often the quickest way to restore a playlist you thought was deleted or lost.
Just keep in mind, iCloud Music Library needs to have been enabled before you lost the playlist for this method to work. If you only turned it on after, it won’t have your missing playlist saved.
Restore from iCloud Music Library
One way to recover a deleted playlist in Apple Music is by restoring it from your iCloud Music Library. Here are the steps to restore a playlist using iCloud:
- Open the Music app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
- Tap on the Library tab at the bottom.
- Select “Playlists” from the menu.
- Scroll down and look for a section called “Recently Deleted Playlists.” This section will show any playlists deleted in the past 30 days.
- Find your deleted playlist and tap on it to restore it.
Your recently deleted playlist should now be restored in your library. Keep in mind that playlists remain in the Recently Deleted section for up to 30 days before being permanently deleted. So make sure to restore any playlists you want to keep within that time frame. For help recovering playlists deleted more than 30 days ago, you can contact Apple Support.
Restoring from iCloud is a handy option if you’ve enabled iCloud Music Library syncing across your devices. Any playlists saved in iCloud will be accessible for recovery on any device using the same Apple ID.
Check iTunes Library
Your iTunes playlists are stored locally on your computer in the iTunes library file. This is typically located in your Music folder under iTunes. For Windows 10 and 11, the default location is:
C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl
And for Mac:
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl
So your first step is to open this iTunes Library file on your computer directly. This will contain all your playlists. If your playlist still appears here, you can export or recreate it in the iTunes app. According to Apple’s discussions forum, the iTunes Library file stores all playlist data locally (1).
(1) https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7020749
Restore from iTunes
If you synced your Apple Music playlists with iTunes on your computer, you may be able to restore the deleted playlist from your iTunes library. Here are the steps:
- Open iTunes on your computer and go to the Music section
- Click on Playlists on the left side menu
- See if the deleted playlist still exists in your iTunes library
- If it does, right click on the playlist and select Export
- Save the .xml playlist file to your computer
- Now in the Apple Music app, go to Library > Playlists
- Click the + button in the top left and select Import Playlist
- Select the .xml file you exported from iTunes to import the playlist
This will restore the deleted playlist back into your Apple Music library from the iTunes backup. Just make sure you’ve synced Apple Music with iTunes recently, otherwise the playlist may not exist in the iTunes library. For more details, see Apple’s support article.
Use iPhone/iPad Backup
One way to potentially recover a deleted playlist in Apple Music is to restore it from an iPhone or iPad backup. iOS devices automatically back up data like playlists periodically when connected to Wi-Fi and power. So if you have a recent backup from before the playlist was deleted, you may be able to restore it by restoring your device from that backup.
To restore from a backup on an iOS device:
1. Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups.
2. Tap the name of the device you want to restore the backup from.
3. Tap Restore [device] and confirm. This will erase your device and restore the content from your last backup.
Once the restore is complete, open the Apple Music app and check if the deleted playlist is available again. Playlists are included in iCloud backups as long as you had iCloud Music Library enabled.
However, this method only works if you have an existing backup from before the playlist was deleted. Backups tend to be intermittent rather than continuous, so you may be out of luck if the playlist was deleted after the last backup. Still, checking your backups can potentially recover lost Apple Music playlists.
Use iPhone/iPad Backup
One way to restore a deleted Apple Music playlist is to restore it from an iPhone or iPad backup that contains the playlist. Here are the steps to restore the playlist from a backup:
- Connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer and open iTunes.
- Click on your device icon in iTunes and go to the Summary tab.
- Click “Restore Backup” – this will allow you to select a backup stored on your computer to restore to your device.
- Choose the backup that contains the deleted playlist.
- iTunes will restore your device from the backup – this process may take some time depending on the size of the backup.
- Once the restore is complete, the playlist should reappear in your Apple Music library on your iPhone/iPad.
This method allows you to retrieve an accidentally deleted playlist as long as you have a backup that contains that playlist. Just make sure you choose the correct backup that has the playlist you need before restoring.
Contact Apple Support
If you are unable to recover your deleted playlist through the methods described above, you may be able to get help from Apple Support. Apple has advisors available 24/7 to assist with issues like recovering lost or deleted content.
You can contact Apple Support in a few different ways:
- Call 1-800-275-2273 in the US. International numbers are available on Apple’s support site.
- Start a live chat session at https://support.apple.com/contact
- Schedule a callback from an advisor at https://support.apple.com/contact
When contacting Apple Support, be ready to provide details like your Apple ID, device information, and a description of the issue. The more details you can provide, the better able a support advisor will be to assist you.
While Apple does not guarantee they can recover deleted data, their technical experts may have specialized tools or techniques that can help restore your lost playlist. If the playlist was deleted recently, the chances of recovery are higher. Contact Apple Support as a last resort to see if they can salvage your playlist.