How do I fix incomplete Apple Music playlists on my Mac from my iPhone?

Question

How do I fix incomplete Apple Music playlists on my Mac from my iPhone?

Up until a week ago Ive had no issues with songs from either device populating into the other when adding it to my playlists.

Now most the playlists on my Mac are incomplete/missing songs. it gets weirder.

For example "Party Playlist" on iPhone has 100 songs. On the Mac it only shows 17.

I sent the same playlist from my phone to the Mac on AIRDROP

Playlist shows with all 100 songs downloaded on my computer and all.

from the shared list to my Mac - I create duplicate "Party Playlist 2" ....open it and ...17 songs again.

playlists created on both devices show on the other. the MAC is the problem.

I just want it to populate my library like it did until last week.

ALSO - in the iTunes/Apple Music function in serato "Party Playlist" shows all the songs.

All the songs are saved through Apple Music. nothing owned

to my knowledge no major updates.

Sequoia 15.5

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Phone to Mac Playlist incomplete.

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Jul 30, 2025 10:46 PM

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Answer 1

TheLittles

Level 10

201,479 points

Jul 30, 2025 11:13 PM in response to BigCatKirkwood

"Phone to Mac Playlist incompleete. [...]to my knowledge no major updates. Sequoia 15.5"

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Syncing Music Playlists:

A. Boot in Safe Mode: [Hold Down: shift key, upon boot], In Safe Mode, Login Items do not run at login, certain preferences are set aside, and damaged system files are then reset. So, once booted in to Safe Mode, wait 30 seconds, and then boot up normally, attempting another update install.

B. Perform New iCloud Sessions:

Sign out of iCloud on all of your devices, and then sign back in. Perhaps it all needs to resync?

C. Update the macOS:

macOS 15.6 was just released. So, backup, and then install the update, seeing if all is fixed.

Back Up your Mac First: Be certain you Create a Time Machine Backup of your Mac, so that way you can have something to restore your Mac from, should anything go wrong with the reconfiguration. Then, perform the update.
Install the Update: Update macOS on Mac - Apple Support

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

277,729 points

Jul 31, 2025 08:34 AM in response to BigCatKirkwood

Try holding down option as you launch Music to explicitly select your library in case it is inexplicably linked to a cached version of the database that doesn't get updated correctly.

Try holding down option+cmd as you launch Music to open it in its safe mode. They may help fix internal errors in the library.

Booting in Safe Mode won't help here. And Music doesn't make any use of iCloud.

tt2

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