Apple Music Duplicate Playlist and not playing songs?

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Apple Music Duplicate Playlist and not playing songs?

Update from iTunes years ago to Apple Music where I had a combination of Imported CDs and Purchased Music.

This problem has been persistent throughout the years of updates to various levels. I believe it is a problem with my Library and the Apple Music Options. I saw an article about 2 years ago with a bunch of recommendations of how to alter your Apple Music Options to resolve. I haven't been able to find that article again.

I have the bandwidth to resolve the problem now so I am trying to research solutions.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Aug 19, 2025 11:42 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

Aug 19, 2025 01:23 PM in response to tessitd

See Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for some general post iTunes-Music transition advice.

See Duplicate songs in iTunes - Apple Community for some thoughts on duplicate songs. Deleting an unwanted duplicate playlist should not be difficult. Right-click the playlist name for options.

As for songs that won't play is there any associated error message? Do you have a subscription to either of the iTunes Match or Apple Music services?

tt2

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Answer 2

tessitd Author

Level 1

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Aug 19, 2025 02:07 PM in response to turingtest2

I have Apple Music, don't remember if I ever had iTunes Match. Would that make a difference as to the approach to solve this problem.

Some background, from my MacOS I disabled Sync Library and the duplicate songs were not longer present. But the playlists were still duplicated. I deleted about 20 duplicate playlists manually, there is a lot of them. I then enabled Sync Library and after about 1 minute or so all the duplicate songs and playlist reappeared.

This to me indicates that my local library and my iCloud Sync'ed Libraries are copies of each other but appear on the MacOS to be independent?

TomT...

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

Aug 20, 2025 02:14 AM in response to tessitd

The duplicated playlists are connected to your cloud library. Deletions you make in your library while Sync Library is turned off are likely to be undone when you turn it back on again. You should resolve any duplicate issues while connected to your cloud library. Ideally you would also backup your entire library first just in case you get over zealous while trying to clean duplicates. If you have cloudy duplicates of tracks that also exist on your computer you should try signing out of your Apple ID, then sign in again as this may help eliminate those. Otherwise use the Songs view and enable the cloud status column. You will typically want to remove only those tracks that have a cloud status of duplicate.

tt2

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