iTunes 12.3 Nightmare: Apple replacing all my HQ tracks with 256kbps!

[iansen]

Apologies if this topic already has a thread.

 

I haven't purchase any music from the Apple store for some time now. I have always had my default settings in iTunes as not connected to the store, and have always ensured iTunes Match and other such equivalents are switched off.

 

This evening I went online to the Apple store to purchase an album (that I could not find elsewhere).

 

Before I knew it: it appears that Apple has started to read my library and replaced my versions (ie higher than 256kpbs, either burnt from compact disc or purchased from other sites) with its on 256kpbs versions.

 

I had to force quite iTunes, go off-line, restart ITunes, and attempt to switch off all communication between my version of iTunes and Apple online, and then re-establish an internet connection.

 

A few searches online reveals that not only have my tracks been replaced with Apple's own 256kpbs versions, but apparently are now all with added DRM!

 

Still not entirely sure which tracks have been replaced and which haven't...

 

Anyone else had this experience?

And does anyone know exactly how to ensure this doesn't happen again!?

[ajoe]

I assume you have a backup?

 

Restore your iTunes Library.

 

I learned my lesson and no longer let my music get anywhere near iTunes or iCloud.

[mwheelerk]

The only thing I've ever done at the iTunes Store is rentals of HD Movies. The only music that has ever been downloaded is in an earlier version of iTunes was the latest U2 album which did seem like it took me forever to get rid of.

 

Ive looked at Preferences for the iTunes Store and see nothing that would cause such behavior. I know under Parent Controls (though I don't have any children living with me any longer) I make sure everything is unchecked for Automatic Downloads except in my case I choose to have Apps checked.

 

Im not sure this is pertinent or would help you to identify the files you are looking for but in iTunes under My Music and Songs go to the toolbar just above where your music lists begins. Right click and select iCloud Downloads. This is where I was able to see the U2 stuff and maybe this will at least show you the files effected.

 

The only case I am familiar with this happening is with iTunes Match.

 

Other than that I would restore your library from your latest backup prior to the iTunes purchase.

[wgscott]

I haven't purchase any music from the Apple store for some time now. I have always had my default settings in iTunes as not connected to the store, and have always ensured iTunes Match and other such equivalents are switched off.

 

So you don't subscribe to iTunes match, but it is doing this anyway, even though if you were a subscriber, it would not substitute its own versions for what you have on your hard drive?

 

A few searches online reveals that not only have my tracks been replaced with Apple's own 256kpbs versions, but apparently are now all with added DRM!

 

Apple hasn't sold music with DRM added since about 2008.

 

I apologize for being skeptical, but all of this sounds rather unlikely.

[iansen]

wgscott: I am not posting this on computeraudiophile.com in an attempt to convince you of the likelihood or not of the events that I described.

 

I have been an Apple-user since 1994, the events as described in my primary post did happen, and happened only a few hours ago. I am posting to seek assistance.

 

Further online searches have led me to Senior Macworld Contrbutor Kirk McELhearn who has this to say:

 

“The whole iTunes Match and Apple Music thing is confusing. Apple says they are “independent but complementary,” and, on first glance, they look quite similar. But when you look closely, they are very different.

 

Both match your iTunes library and store your purchases. Both allow you to access these files, and listen to them, on multiple devices. But with iTunes Match, when you download a matched or uploaded file, you get either the iTunes Store matched copy, or the copy that iTunes uploaded of your original file.

 

When you match and download files from iCloud Music Library (without having an iTunes Match subscription), however, you get files with DRM; the same kind of files you get when you download files from Apple Music for offline listening. (These files should have DRM, so you can’t just download and keep all the music you want for $10 a month.) But if you’re using Apple Music, and not iTunes Match, Apple doesn’t make a distinction between which files were originally yours, and which you downloaded for offline listening from Apple Music.

 

This means that if you’ve matched your library with Apple Music and iCloud Music Library, you need to keep backups of your original files. If not, you’ll end up with files that you can’t play without an Apple Music subscription.”

 

The Real Difference Between iTunes Match and iCloud Music Library: DRM | Kirkville

 

Further searches reveal, for example, Cult of Mac stating:

 

"The new service almost identical to iTunes Match has a DRM problem. Turned on, iCloud Music Library is taking the music you rightfully own and place in your iTunes library and automatically adding DRM protection to it. In essence, it’s placing a lock on music that’s already yours."

 

iCloud Music Library is putting DRM locks on music you own

 

It is of course possible that both these sources are wrong. But it would seem, to me at least, that Apple does have DRM, and this evening my version of iTunes began replacing tracks (that I have, for example, burnt from CD) with Apple's own low res versions.

[mwheelerk]

"You may not have all of the above. If you don’t have an iTunes Match subscription, and haven’t signed up for an Apple Music free trial, then your iCloud Music Library will only contain purchased tracks, if any.

The iCloud Music Library, therefore, contains multitudes. To make sure you see these cloud-stored tracks in iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences, click General, and check iCloud Music Library. On iOS, open Settings, and then choose Music > iCloud Music Library."

It would appear for this to occur you would either have to have a subscription or initiated a free trial

[rn701]

This is pretty outrageous. I'd uninstall iTunes and use something else, if that's even possible. Hope you have a backup. I'd be royally p***ed off.

[mwheelerk]

To the best of my knowledge and understanding this would take a proactive action to occur at all. This didn't just happen. Something was done.

[mwheelerk]

Apologies if this topic already has a thread.

 

I haven't purchase any music from the Apple store for some time now. I have always had my default settings in iTunes as not connected to the store, and have always ensured iTunes Match and other such equivalents are switched off.

 

This evening I went online to the Apple store to purchase an album (that I could not find elsewhere).

 

Before I knew it: it appears that Apple has started to read my library and replaced my versions (ie higher than 256kpbs, either burnt from compact disc or purchased from other sites) with its on 256kpbs versions.

 

I had to force quite iTunes, go off-line, restart ITunes, and attempt to switch off all communication between my version of iTunes and Apple online, and then re-establish an internet connection.

 

A few searches online reveals that not only have my tracks been replaced with Apple's own 256kpbs versions, but apparently are now all with added DRM!

 

Still not entirely sure which tracks have been replaced and which haven't...

 

Anyone else had this experience?

And does anyone know exactly how to ensure this doesn't happen again!?

Did you at any time accept a free trial or subscribe to Apple Music service?

[mwheelerk]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204962

 

read the third paragraph under Apple Music

 

again from the article link you posted you have to have one or both services

 

this reference states it does not change the files in your library on your Mac/PC

[iansen]

HI Mwheelerk: Thanks for all the helpful advice.

 

Some Preliminary Information

 

I’ve been a MacUser since the early/mid 90s so thought I knew my way around osX.

 

To the best of my knowledge I have not activated/ subscribed to either iTunesMatch or Apple Music. I even make sure that I have not connected/activated Apple Music Connect (or any of its previous incarnations) so the iTunes store doesn’t even recommend things to me.

 

When I switch on Apple Store (from “Parental” in iTunes Preferences”) and then go to either iTunes Match or Music it shows that I am not a member of either.

 

I only use one Macbook Pro for my music. I haven’t connected to the Apple Store via iTunes on that laptop for some time now (over a year).

 

I am connected to the App Store via an iPhone: but only for apps. My iPhone has no music on it.

 

Trigger Event

 

My recent behaviour (that appeared to activate the track replacement) was to sign into the store to buy an album. As the album was being downloaded I noticed a whole load of other tracks downloading.

 

Apple Replacing Tracks

 

Thanks for the link to Apple. Extremely helpful. And yet…

 

However I can say this with certainty about at least 2 tracks:

 

1. I had a track previously purchased from iTunes. I had changed it’s genre from “Pop” to “House”. Apple downloaded onto my computer the same track again onto my computer, but this time with it’s original “Pop” designation.

 

So, after the trigger event, I now have two copies of the track: one in the Pop genre and another in the House genre.

 

2a. Many years ago I purchased an album off iTunes by a Nu Wave band. The album was called “Quiet Life” by a band called “Japan”. The album contained a track called “The Other Side of Life”. The whole album (and that particular track) was therefore sitting in my library as “Purchased AAC audio file(s)” at 256kpbs.

 

2b. I had burnt a compilation from CD by the same band into my iTunes library. The compilation, which was called “Exorcising Ghosts”, had the same track “The Other Side of Life” on it. All the tracks of this compilation album were therefore in my iTunes library as “Apple Lossless audio files” with variable bit rates of 800+ kpbs.

 

However, the other night Apple did download a version of “The Other Side of Life” into my library. The track that was downloaded was not affiliated to the original iTunes store “Quiet Life” album, but rather to my “Exorcising Ghosts” compilation album.

 

I am therefore now in the position of having the “Exorcising Ghosts” album on my computer - with 10 of its tracks as Apple Lossless and the remaining 1 track as a Purchased AAC audio file.

[iansen]

I am experiencing some iTunes anomalies. Please see the the two screenshots below.

 

When I attempt to “Show iCloud Purchases” from the “View” drop down menu, the option doesn’t exist – whether I have enabled or disabled the Store option from the Parental Control Preferences.

 

And yet, when I open the Parental control panel and go to the View drop down menu, then the “Show iCloud Purchases” option is visible! However, because the Parental control panel is active I can’t click on the “Show iCloud Purchases” option (because that particular drop down menu in the background and therefore is not active). When I close the Parental Control Panel and return to the “View” menu… the “Show iCloud Purchases” option has gone!

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

It’s possible that there’s some sort of incompatibility between osX 10.10.5 and iTunes 12.3.1.23.

I am still on Yosemite. Maybe I need to upgrade to El Capitan.

 

Or, perhaps, when downloading and installing newer versions of the os or iTunes (either on my laptop or on my phone) then somehow the default settings for either iTunes match/ Music/ Connect are re-set to “on”…

[wgscott]

Sorry for my skepticism. It is a quite unusual problem.

 

Can you look in the directory where the original lossless rip was located and see if iTunes actually deleted that file from your hard drive? I'm hoping it "only" replaced it in the database "library", which is bad enough. But if it really has actually deleted any file off your hard drive, this is a horrific bug, or deeply nasty bit of programming.

 

I have some Apple purchases that have been replaced with ripped CDs. In the following example, "The Closing of the Winterland" is one such instance. Here I have all Apple store functions turned off, including the iTunes store in parental controls, (as you can see from the top of the screenshot). Nevertheless, the ONLY ways I can get rid of this purchase being displayed is (1) to go into the iTunes store and hide the purchases, or (2) activate the iTunes store, sign out of it, and then deactivate it under Parental Controls. I also noticed when I reactivated it to sign out, it turned on Apple music or whatever, even though I don't subscribe. I also think Apple periodically prompts you to log into the store. This is extremely heavy-handed.

 

 

Since I have different metadata from Apple's default, they show up as separate albums (which also appear to have slightly different cover art). However, if the metadata were the same, it would appear as only one album. If I were to hit the download button (or have automatic download of purchases enabled), it would download the file to the same directory. I am unwilling to do the experiment, but it is possible it would overwrite the file. I am hoping it would rename the original file, but I don't want to find out. In any case, I agree, this is pathological behavior.

 

Again, I apologize for my previous skepticism. I still find it hard to believe Apple can be so stupid and heavy-handed.

 

 

By the way, I write-protect all of my files on my hard drive, and periodically check them against my backup using rsync before doing a (manual) backup. If the files are really being over-written, and you do automatic, non-incremental backups, your backup would be contaminated too.

[wgscott]

Also, I just disassociated that computer with "iTunes in the cloud". Hopefully doing this will prevent unwanted downloads.

 

[goldsdad]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]22341[/ATTACH]

 

 

That's the View menu of Finder in that screenshot, so no wonder you don't have iTunes options in it.

 

Activate iTunes.

Enable access to the store in parental controls.

Sign into your iTunes account.

Select "My Music" in the bar along top of main window, or select "Music" at top of playlists sidebar.

Now the iTunes View menu will contain Show/Hide iCloud Music Purchases.

[wgscott]

That's the View menu of Finder in that screenshot, so no wonder you don't have iTunes options in it.

 

Activate iTunes.

Enable access to the store in parental controls.

Sign into your iTunes account.

Select "My Music" in the bar along top of main window, or select "Music" at top of playlists sidebar.

Now the iTunes View menu will contain Show/Hide iCloud Music Purchases.

 

Much better than my "fix"!

 

[iansen]

That's the View menu of Finder in that screenshot, so no wonder you don't have iTunes options in it.

 

Yes Goldsdad: you're quite right. Thanks for pointing out the most basic of errors on my part.

 

Sorry for my skepticism. It is a quite unusual problem.

 

No problem Wgscott. My terse response was unwarranted; I can only put it down to a side-effect of the meltdown I am experiencing over this fiasco.

 

____________

 

It would seem that I am not alone in this. Check out the post by Veteran Apple blogger Jim Dalyrmple:

 

Apple Music is a nightmare and I’m done with it

 

Business Insider provides a good summary of the problems being encountered:

 

uk.businessinsider.com/jim-dalrymple-apple-music-is-a-nightmare-2015-7

 

Dalrymple experienced:

 

Not all songs from an album get automatically added to a user's music library.

 

Apple Music sometimes thinks songs are already added when they aren't.

 

Not recognising when a user already owns an album.

 

Not adding albums properly, or adding them using songs from other albums — "I added ZZ Top's 'The Very Baddest' album. Instead of downloading all of the songs from that album, it downloaded them from multiple albums. So now I have several ZZ Top albums, each with a few songs on them."

 

Selecting irrelevant music interests for users.

 

Most worrying, after Dalrymple turned off Apple Music, "it took large chunks of my purchased music with it." He said 4,700 songs disappeared from his library, including much "added from CDs years ago that I no longer have access to."

 

Me experience of Apple substituting an (apple lossless) track from an album that I didn't purchase from them... with their (256kpbs) idea of what that track was seems to tally with Dalyrmple's...

 

____________

 

I do have a back up of my hard disc of music. Trouble is: if I don't know how this actually happened to me the first time, I don't know how to avoid it the second time...

[mwheelerk]

Yes Goldsdad: you're quite right. Thanks for pointing out the most basic of errors on my part.

 

 

 

No problem Wgscott. My terse response was unwarranted; I can only put it down to a side-effect of the meltdown I am experiencing over this fiasco.

 

____________

 

It would seem that I am not alone in this. Check out the post by Veteran Apple blogger Jim Dalyrmple:

 

Apple Music is a nightmare and I’m done with it

 

Business Insider provides a good summary of the problems being encountered:

 

uk.businessinsider.com/jim-dalrymple-apple-music-is-a-nightmare-2015-7

 

Dalrymple experienced:

 

 

 

Me experience of Apple substituting an (apple lossless) track from an album that I didn't purchase from them... with their (256kpbs) idea of what that track was seems to tally with Dalyrmple's...

 

____________

 

I do have a back up of my hard disc of music. Trouble is: if I don't know how this actually happened to me the first time, I don't know how to avoid it the second time...

 

Those posts are about Apple Music not iTunes. iTunes, iTunes Match and Apple Music are independent apps and services. iTunes Match and Apple Music are subscription services. Are you certain you are only using iTunes and not Apple Music with iTunes? I'm not trying to be difficult but trying to really understand the circumstance.

[mwheelerk]

I believe during one of the more recent iTunes upgrades, when Apple Music was first introduced (12.0), a free trial of Apple Music was offered. Is their any chance you may have accepted that offer. If so it's very possible that an active subscription may exist with automatic billing to your iTunes Store account method of payment on record. If so your more recent purchases from the iTunes Store may have triggered the issue. Check your iTunes Store account and subscription payments (this is how I pay for Netflix and Showtime). If Apple Music is there cancel the subscription. Then we can try to figure out how to clean up the messed up files (and identify them).

[wgscott]

Can you look in the directory where the original lossless rip was located and see if iTunes actually deleted that file from your hard drive?

 

Sometimes a file will be moved out of the way by renaming it, rather than deleting it.

[iansen]

Can you look in the directory where the original lossless rip was located and see if iTunes actually deleted that file from your hard drive?

 

Sometimes a file will be moved out of the way by renaming it, rather than deleting it.

 

My music is stored on a hard drive. That hard drive is connected to an Apple Extreme Base Station, and communicates with my laptop wirelessly. My music folder has 5000+ albums and is about 1.1TB in size.

 

I have opened the folder of the album and can see only 11 tracks. As you can see the track "The Other Side of Life" has been modified recently.

 

 

So, 2 questions from me:

 

Q1. If the track has been moved or renamed: do you have an idea where it might have been moved to? or what name it might have been given?

 

(I tried a search of "other side" just in case it was somewhere on the hard disc, as i recall that sometimes iTunes just adds a 1 at the end of the title if you accidentally burn the same track twice...but I couldn't find a second version. And I do remember that external hard discs don't send itunes deleted tracks to the trash but rather to somewhere else...)

__________________

 

If I have a track on my desktop and try "get info" I cannot seem to distinguish a purchased between an "Apple Lossless audio file" and a "Purchased AAC audio file". I can get this information when I import the track into iTunes and then get it's information.

 

Q2: Is there a way to examine the properties of a track when it is on the desktop? to be able to see if it's purchased or lossless?

 

(By the way: In an attempt to clear mu iTunes database: I deleted the album from my hard disc, re-imported it, and examined it's properties. 10 tracks remain lossless and 1 is still purchased aac.)

[iansen]

mwheelerk wrote:

 

I believe during one of the more recent iTunes upgrades, when Apple Music was first introduced (12.0), a free trial of Apple Music was offered. Is their any chance you may have accepted that offer. If so it's very possible that an active subscription may exist with automatic billing to your iTunes Store account method of payment on record. If so your more recent purchases from the iTunes Store may have triggered the issue. Check your iTunes Store account and subscription payments (this is how I pay for Netflix and Showtime). If Apple Music is there cancel the subscription. Then we can try to figure out how to clean up the messed up files (and identify them).

 

Thanks mwheelerk for your help.

 

My conclusion from my online searches is the same as yours. It would seem that somehow either Apple Music or iTunes Match was activated at some point in the immediate or distant past.

 

Current Position

 

I have checked my account via iTunes on my laptop and have found:

 

1. I do not currently have an iTunes Match account

 

2. I do not currently have an Apple Music account (and it is offering me a 3 month free trial)

 

3. I do not currently have any subscriptions (save a monthly payment to my godson for UK£5)

 

 

 

I have checked on my iPhone via the “Music” App and found:

 

4. I am not logged in at all

 

I have checked on my iPhone via “Settings” and then via “Music” and found:

 

5. “Show Apple Music” is off and I have yet to “Join Apple Music”

 

6. “iTunes Match” appears to be off (as it is offering me to “Subscribe to iTunes Match)

 

 

But I did get this strange warning last night, which suggests there has been some trigger event that means I do have an icloud Music Library.

 

 

Preliminary Conclusions

 

I think it may be one of the following:

 

(A) A software upgrade to my iPhone activated either Apple Music or iTunes Match

 

(B) A software upgrade to my Macbook Pro activated either Apple Music or iTunes Match

 

© As you have suggested: carelessness on my part sometime ago may have activated a free iTunes Match session, which has lingering effects on my account, and ambushed me as it got reactivated when I signed into my iTunes account after quite a long period of time

 

(D) A bug in the software (possibly an incompatibility between iTunes 12.3.1.23 and osX 10.10.5) causing an activation of either Apple Music or iTunes Match

 

I really hope it wasn’t (D)

 

Your suggestion that it was © is supported by Apple here:

 

http://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204964

 

Step 1, 2 and 3 of the Apple Guidelines seem all well and good (i.e. turning off icloud Music Library on all devices, updating all software, and resetting icloud Music Library on all devices).

 

I am however extremely wary and nervous of attempting a restore of my complete library (per step 4 and 5).

 

Really, all I want to do is just switch off and get rid of this icloud Music Library nonsense once and forever...

 

I wonder:

Given that I use iTunes ONLY to play music into my hifi system via a laptop, and have no desire to play music on my phone... Have I done enough by just switching everything off? Should I risk the Reset as suggested by Apple?

 

(I don't like the look of the Restore process as suggested by Apple...And I don't want to turn icloud Music Library back on...)

[Allan F]

I learned my lesson and no longer let my music get anywhere near iTunes or iCloud.

I was too paranoid to ever let my music get anywhere near either so iTunes has no place on my PC. But that doesn't help the OP, who hopefully will be able to recover his files in the desired format.

[wgscott]

My music is stored on a hard drive. That hard drive is connected to an Apple Extreme Base Station, and communicates with my laptop wirelessly. My music folder has 5000+ albums and is about 1.1TB in size.

 

I have opened the folder of the album and can see only 11 tracks. As you can see the track "The Other Side of Life" has been modified recently.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]22350[/ATTACH]

 

So, 2 questions from me:

 

Q1. If the track has been moved or renamed: do you have an idea where it might have been moved to? or what name it might have been given?

 

Sometimes it will call the old (or the new one, I forget) the same thing_1.m4a or something like that, but it would be in the same directory. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to have happened.

 

(I tried a search of "other side" just in case it was somewhere on the hard disc, as i recall that sometimes iTunes just adds a 1 at the end of the title if you accidentally burn the same track twice...but I couldn't find a second version. And I do remember that external hard discs don't send itunes deleted tracks to the trash but rather to somewhere else...)

 

I think we are thinking of the same thing.

 

__________________

 

If I have a track on my desktop and try "get info" I cannot seem to distinguish a purchased between an "Apple Lossless audio file" and a "Purchased AAC audio file". I can get this information when I import the track into iTunes and then get it's information.

 

Q2: Is there a way to examine the properties of a track when it is on the desktop? to be able to see if it's purchased or lossless?

 

(By the way: In an attempt to clear mu iTunes database: I deleted the album from my hard disc, re-imported it, and examined it's properties. 10 tracks remain lossless and 1 is still purchased aac.)

 

The command

 

afinfo filename.m4a

 

(or whatever extension) gives some of that kind of information. The file size is also a clear tipoff.

 

Again, I apologize for this.

 

I also verified that Apple still will download a DRM protected file if that is what you originally purchased, even if they no longer sell them that way. (I had a Cheech and Chong album I didn't think was worth paying to upgrade.)

 

So I owe you yet another apology.

 

What you describe is deeply disturbing, to say the least.

 

 

I also got that "strange warning" and put in my password, and I am all but certain that is when the non-downloaded stuff in the cloud started showing up in my iTunes library. (I am also reasonably sure I had previously turned it off the way Goldsdad reminded me of). If you had it set to automatic download, or if you inadvertantly played those tracks, either because you saw those first, or because it got loaded into a playlist the way the buggy play next feature works, I could easily see the rest of this happening.

[kumakuma]

I was too paranoid to ever let my music get anywhere near either so iTunes has no place on my PC. But that doesn't help the OP, who hopefully will be able to recover his files in the desired format.

 

I'm with Allan on this. I stopped using iTunes a number of years ago except for transferring audio books to my iPhone for the morning dog walks.