Unable to add new music from Apple Music to my library without Sync Library

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Level 1

9 points

Unable to add new music from Apple Music to my library without Sync Library

I have just bought a new MacBook within the last year after spilling water on my old one. I created a new set of downloaded music to the Apple Music Library from my Logic Pro personal song recordings,

I also synced my Logic Pro Recordings to my phone, and my phone was still connected to my old MacBook's Apple Music Library, so it got rid of all my old music on my phone. Which is what I wanted to do, I didn't want my old, dated music from my past MacBook on my phone anymore, so I wiped my phone clean of that, and started over with my new MacBook Library.

When I try and add, let's say, an new album that recently released that I like from Apple Music onto my phone I get the error message saying "Turn on Sync Library to Add Music", but I don't want to Sync my Library from my old MacBook on my phone, as I don't want my old songs on there. - How do I work around this?

I've done this in the past, I think, and it has deleted massive amounts of music off of my phone, which I don't want happening. I want to keep the new music that I have added to my phone from syncing it to my new MacBook, without having the loss of the new music I just synced, but still want to listen to it, and add new music from the Apple Music Store with my iCloud Account that I pay for Apple Music for.

This just started happening recently, after syncing my new MacBook's library to my phone, and not wanting my old music on there. After changing my password to my Apple iCloud Account.

Thanks.

iPhone 15, iOS 18

Posted on Aug 8, 2025 08:15 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

Aug 9, 2025 08:27 AM in response to vansanity_

If you have a subscription to the Apple Music service the way that Apple intends that you do things is that you have one master library on your main computer into which you add local content which goes to your Cloud Music Library. That library can then be accessed from any other computer library or device where you enable Sync Library. Subsequent changes made to metadata, playlists, additions or removals from the library etc. should then mirror through the cloud to each library or device. While you can generally sync over USB from a library on a computer to connected iPhone you cannot do this is Sync Library is enabled on the phone, and will instead be prompted to enable Sync Library on the computer. This may prompt you to merge whatever is currently in the computer's library with whatever is already in your Cloud Music Library, presumably the same content currently displayed on the iPhone.

Can you confirm that Sync Library is current enabled on the iPhone, and not in the computer? If so enabling it on the computer should not delete any content from your device, nor add content that used to be in your old library that you have since deleted.

tt2

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Answer 2

Aug 9, 2025 11:00 AM in response to vansanity_

If you have an Apple Music subscription, and have Sync Library turned off everywhere (on purpose), you can do manual synchronization of music from your own CDs. That's what I'm doing with my Mac and my iPhone.

However, Apple Music will then prevent you from having offline listening copies of subscription songs. I find this annoying, but have put up with it so far.

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