ALL Apple Music folders/playlists randomly expanding/collapsing

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Level 1

12 points

ALL Apple Music folders/playlists randomly expanding/collapsing

Outside of reverting the OS, does anyone know how to resolve an issue where ALL Apple Music playlists randomly collapse and expand themselves? This has been going on since updating to Tahoe OS and it's making library management a nightmare (not just for myself i see). I'm currently in the process of creating a new tagging system for a huge library with 100's of nested smartlists... this issue with the folders just put a lid on my ability to effectively get anything done. The collapse/expand happens every time i add/edit/delete playlists, and sometimes when i don't touch anything. Help!

Posted on Oct 27, 2025 11:52 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

277,943 points

Oct 27, 2025 6:29 PM in response to Azakcraed

Not something I've ever noticed, but I just found that alt/option clicking a playlist folder disclosure triangle will make it expand all subfolders contained within. Could it be something as simple as a stuck option key?

Have you looked at the Column Browser option within the Songs view? It can allow for easy drilling down to artists and albums without the need for so many playlists.

tt2

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Answer 2

Azakcraed Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 28, 2025 9:54 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the reply. I'm using Music to organize DJ library with thousands of songs... it's sole purpose is smart playlist creation/membership population based on various criteria. It may seem complicated and/or too many playlists, but it's essential for what i do and the size of the library i'm workin with. The framework was developed for realtime music selection while live performing on devices that do not have the same filtering capabilites found in Apple Music... so the Column Browser having filters isn't useful in this case.

I just made a QT screengrab.... what do you think of this? Driving me insane.... https://imgur.com/ZvLwCpq

Regarding alt/option clicking... that unfortunately only affects the child folders of that particular folder. I have 15 top level playlist folders... which doesn't sound like a lot, but clicking to collapse 15 folders each time I touch any playlist is what I'm going on about here.

The stuck key is a good thought: I'm using a 6 month old mbp... the playlist folders do their expand/collapse thing when i touch them (ie. add/edit/delete/duplicate a playlist), and then even sometimes when i don't touch anything the list refreshes on it's own (which has been an issue with previous OSs as well), and there are other folks I'm seeing online with the same issue. Likely not my hardware. Here's a few other accounts claiming similar...

Playlist folders all expand if doing anyt… - Apple Community

https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleMusic/comments/1nri65c/new_playlist_bug_all_playlist_folders_expand/

All Playlist folders open when editing or… - Apple Community

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Answer 3

Azakcraed Author

Level 1

12 points

Oct 30, 2025 11:23 AM in response to Azakcraed

@turingtest2 i should note that the myriad of playlists you see in the video were in use, without issue, before upgrading to Tahoe. It might be easy to finger my rats nest of playlists bunging things up... but it was working fine before Tahoe, which suggests AM can handle my use case.

Also, i don't use streaming at all... all song files are local on my machine.

Also, the music library is unmanaged (by AM).

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Answer 4

Azakcraed Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 4, 2025 7:34 AM in response to turingtest2

Howdy @turingtest2... don't mean to be a pest when i know this is volunteer community, just wondering if you had a chance to peek that vid? You seem to be the one and only apple music expert on these boards for what feels like decades. I don't know what else to do short of trashing everything related to Music.app and starting over from scratch... which i'm hesitant to do since it's a ton of work ahead, and that action is based on an assumption (ie. something in my Library is not compatible with this latest OS update). I'm kinda waiting to hear back what you think might be the next best move before throwing in the towel. Cheers man

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

277,943 points

Nov 6, 2025 1:59 PM in response to Azakcraed

Hi,

Sorry for the delay. Too much work, and too much play. I guess I don't really understand the workflow or quite where things have changed for you, and even if I did I have no ability to influence Apple to make things better again. What I will tell you is that I rarely use the duplicate playlist feature. I think at one point it wasn't reliable, with the cloned list not updating correctly sometimes.

I know you don't use Apple Music because if you did you would discover that it doesn't accept playlists that refer to other playlists.

My main playlist tip is to use the grouping field for keyword tags (I use / as a separator) and then a smart playlist with Grouping contains <Keyword> will match with all the tracks I want it to. The keywords survive if files are removed from iTunes/Music and added back, or copied from one library to another. I've no idea if such a scheme would work for your needs.

The only other idea I have, and I don't even know if this is possible, might be a script that can reclose all of the opened disclosure triangles. Would such a thing be useful? If so I could look into it.

tt2

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