What's the best way to add your own files to a playlist on your MacBook and have them show up in the same playlist on your iPhone? Is there a way to do this?
Thanks in advance.
MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 15.5
In the Songs view of the library enable the cloud status column. As long as your songs are marked as purchased, matched, or uploaded then you should be able to add them to a playlist and have it remain eligible for the cloud. If you attempt to add songs that have some other status such as error, duplicate, ineligible, removed, etc. then that normally causes a warning, and if you continue to add the item then the list will be removed from the cloud. If you don't get the warning you may want to check your settings and click the Reset Warnings button.
tt2
Waiting means that the item has yet to be matched or uploaded to the cloud. You can try right-clicking and see if Add to Library is available from the context menu. If so click it to see if that helps move things along. Try also File > Library > Update Cloud Library which should update all waiting tracks.
Duplicate indicates there is another track in your library with the same properties, normally title, track #, artist, album and album artist. You should be able to locate the other version of the track and add that to the playlist instead. See also Duplicate songs in iTunes - Apple Community. My script cannot access this cloud status property, but if you eliminate all same album duplicates from your library then you should be able to select any remaining tracks that are marked as duplicate, right-click, and add to library, to get them to be reevaluated.
A removed track is one that was in your cloud library, but has been removed from using the library on another computer or device. When such tracks are stored locally on your computer they are not deleted immediately but instead marked as removed in case you change your mind. You can right-click, and add to library, to add them back to the cloud. Once they are marked as matched, uploaded, or purchased, you should be able to add them to your cloud playlists.
tt2
Thanks for the help, I appreciate it! Some of them (mainly the ones I'm having issues with) are showing as "waiting", "duplicate", and removed; would you by any chance be able to tell me what that means?
Thanks again for the help, I really appreciate it!
Do you know why Apple makes it so you can't have more than one version of the same song? (I know you don't make the rules. If you don't know or don't feel like explaining, nw.)
In principle you can have different versions of the same song. What Apple appears to be trying to eliminate is duplicates caused by accidentally importing the same files more than once. Different versions would normally have different track numbers, or titles, or albums, so that you can tell one version from another. For example I have five different copies of Help! by The Beatles on various albums, four are essentially the same while one is a live version. Apple Music has no issue with this.
tt2
Playlists being removed from iCloud when you add your own songs - how to fix?
