What Causes Playlists to be Deleted
There are a few common causes for playlists being accidentally deleted on Apple Music:
- Accidentally clicking the delete button – It’s easy to accidentally tap the delete icon next to a playlist name and permanently remove it without meaning to. Going too quickly while managing playlists can lead to this unfortunate mistake.
- Syncing issues – Sometimes playlist data can become corrupted or lost during the sync process between devices. So you may delete a playlist on your iPhone expecting it to still be available on your Mac, only to find it gone there as well.
- Corrupt files – In rare cases, the files that store playlist data may become corrupted. This can cause playlists to mysteriously vanish. Resetting and re-syncing devices can sometimes recover lost playlists in this case.
According to discussions on Reddit and Apple forums, accidental deletions tend to be the most common cause of lost playlists. While syncing problems and file corruption issues are rarer, they do occasionally happen as well. So it’s important to be vigilant about backups to guard against all these playlist-destroying possibilities.
Sources:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253790874
https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/m6cdtc/my_favorites_playlist_of_13_years_got_deleted/
Can You Recover a Deleted Playlist?
Whether or not you can recover a deleted Apple Music playlist depends on a few factors:
If you have iCloud Music Library enabled, your playlists are stored in iCloud and can be restored if accidentally deleted. Go to Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Manage Storage > Music and choose to Download All to re-download any missing playlists.
You may also be able to recover deleted playlists by restoring your iPhone from a backup that contained the playlist. This will restore your entire phone, so make sure the backup is fairly recent. Connect to iTunes or Finder and restore from a backup to bring back lost playlists.
As a last resort, you can try contacting Apple Support to see if they can help recover a deleted playlist, but they may not be able to restore playlists that were permanently deleted.
Enabling iCloud Music Library
One of the best ways to protect against accidentally losing your Apple Music playlists is to enable iCloud Music Library. According to Apple’s support page, iCloud Music Library keeps your Apple Music content synced across your devices so you can access your music from any device where you are signed into your Apple ID (source).
With iCloud Music Library enabled, your playlists and music are stored in the cloud rather than just locally on your device. This means that if you accidentally delete a playlist on one device, you can recover it by accessing iCloud Music Library from another device or by re-downloading that playlist. Enabling iCloud Music Library provides an extra layer of protection against accidentally losing playlists you’ve created.
The key benefit of using iCloud Music Library for Apple Music subscribers is that it allows you to download any of your playlists again even if they are deleted locally. As long as iCloud Music Library is enabled, you can restore your music library and playlists from the cloud. Just be sure to have iCloud Music Library turned on for all of your devices where you use Apple Music.
Recovering from a Backup
One of the best ways to recover a deleted Apple Music playlist is from a recent backup of your iPhone. To enable this, it’s important to regularly sync your iPhone with iTunes on your computer. iTunes will backup your device, including app data like your Apple Music playlists. Here’s how to restore from a backup:
First, connect your iPhone to your computer and open iTunes. Under the summary page for your device, click “Restore Backup.” Then select a recent backup file to restore from. The backup will sync to your iPhone, recovering the state of your device from when that backup was created, including your Apple Music playlists.
You can also restore from an iCloud backup. To enable this, you need to have iCloud backups enabled in your iPhone’s Settings. Then you can restore from the iCloud backup from the device’s Settings app. Go to General > Reset and tap “Erase All Content and Settings.” On the next page tap “Restore from iCloud Backup” and select the desired backup. This will again sync your device back to the state when that iCloud backup was created.
By regularly syncing your iPhone to iTunes and enabling iCloud backups, you ensure you’ll always have a way to recover deleted Apple Music playlists. Just restore from the most recent backup and your playlists will reappear.
For more details on restoring from backup, see this Apple support article: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253598648
Contacting Apple Support
If you recently deleted your playlist, contacting Apple Support may allow you to recover it. Apple has tools to restore recently deleted data like playlists. When you contact them, explain the situation and see if they can locate a backup of your playlist from their servers.
However, there is no guarantee Apple will be able to recover your deleted playlist. If it has been more than a few days, the deleted data may be permanently gone from their systems. But it’s still worth contacting them to check, as long as the deletion was recent. Their tech support may have the capability to find and restore your lost playlist if you act fast.
To contact Apple Support, you can call them at 1-800-275-2273 or start a live chat on their support site. Be ready to provide details like when you deleted the playlist and what songs/albums it contained.
Using Playlist Recovery Software
One option to restore deleted Apple Music playlists is to use third-party playlist recovery software. Some applications like Fyourmusic claim to be able to recover deleted playlists within 3 days of deletion. They work by scanning your Apple Music library data and reconstructing playlists based on metadata. However, the success of playlist recovery apps depends heavily on how soon you attempt recovery after accidental deletion. The longer you wait, the less metadata there may be available to rebuild your playlist accurately.
Overall, third-party playlist recovery tools may provide an option for quick restoration, but results are not guaranteed. They work best if used immediately after a playlist is deleted, before too much new data overrides your library metadata. The longer you wait to try these apps, the lower your chance of full playlist recovery.
Recreating Playlists Manually
If you don’t have a backup or your deleted playlist cannot be recovered, you’ll have to manually recreate it from scratch. This can be time consuming but it’s doable. One helpful tool is using your Apple Music search history to help remember songs that were in the deleted playlist.
To view your Apple Music search history on iPhone or iPad, open the Apple Music app and tap on the Search tab. Scroll down and tap on the Search History section. Here you’ll see your recent searches which can jog your memory of songs that were in the lost playlist.
On Mac, you can view your search history by clicking on the Search icon in the top right corner of the Apple Music app. Click on the Search History dropdown menu to see your past searches.
Rebuilding a playlist completely from memory will take patience. But using search history as a reference can make the process easier. While manual playlist recreation is tedious, with some time you should be able to get your playlist back to its original form.
Enabling Recently Deleted Playlist
Apple Music has a feature called Recently Deleted Playlist that allows you to recover deleted playlists for up to 30 days after deletion. This gives you a window to restore playlists you may have accidentally removed.
To enable Recently Deleted Playlist on iPhone or iPad:
- Open the Settings app
- Tap on your Apple ID banner at the top
- Select iCloud
- Scroll down and turn on Recently Deleted Playlist
Once enabled, any playlists you delete will be moved to the Recently Deleted section in the Apple Music app. You can access this section by tapping on Playlists > Recently Deleted. Playlists will remain here for 30 days before being permanently erased.
Using Recently Deleted Playlist is a handy way to recover playlists you may have mistakenly removed. Just be sure to enable the feature in Settings before deleting anything important.[1]
Creating Backups
One of the best ways to avoid permanently losing your Apple Music playlists is to regularly create backups. By backing up your playlists often, you minimize the risk of data loss if you accidentally delete a playlist.
Apple provides multiple ways to backup your Apple Music library and playlists. You can use iCloud Music Library to store a copy of your Apple Music content in iCloud that syncs across devices. Enabling iCloud Music Library ensures your playlists are safely stored and accessible even if lost locally. You can also create manual backups by exporting playlists or your entire library using iTunes on a computer. Some third party apps like TunesFlow even allow exporting Apple Music playlists to CSV files.
No matter how you choose to backup your Apple Music playlists, it’s critical to do so regularly, such as weekly or monthly. You should also store backups in multiple locations, like external drives, cloud storage, or another computer. That way if one backup fails or becomes corrupted, you have alternate versions to restore from. Taking just a few minutes to backup your playlists can save you the hassle of having to recreate them manually if accidentally deleted.
Sources:
[1] https://support.apple.com/guide/music/save-a-copy-of-your-playlists-mus27cd5060f/mac
[2] https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251572720
Being More Careful
One of the best ways to avoid accidentally deleting your Apple Music playlists is to be more careful when managing your library. Here are some tips:
Confirm before deleting playlists: Apple Music does not have a confirmation prompt before deleting playlists. To avoid accidental deletes, manually confirm you want to delete a playlist before clicking the delete button.
Turn off sync if errors occur: If you notice missing songs or playlists when Apple Music syncs across devices, turn off syncing. This prevents further sync issues until the problem is resolved. Contact Apple support if needed.