Hi all,
I've dropped this issue several times on the Apple Discussions forums - but receive nothing but canned responses (probably AI, for all we know) which are either 1) completely irrelevant to the issue, or 2) do nothing to fix this issue.
It seems that those on this forum are a bit more knowledgeable when it comes to weird iOS issues, so let me pick your brains with this one... this issue has gone on for well over a year now, first with a brand new iPad Mini 6 (bought last summer), and now with a brand new iPhone 14 Pro Max (bought last week).
To start, my media purchase library (music, movies/TV, audiobooks) is huge, going back to the iTunes Store inception (ca. 2003/2004). Ventura's TV app shows that all video purchases in the cloud exceeds 2 TB if every file were to be downloaded, to put things in perspective.
Ever since I had signed out of Media Services on my mini 5, no matter which device I use that is associated with my Apple ID, none of my media libraries will mount. Normally, when these apps make the link to your purchases, the relevant app will have a cloud icon (in some location) next to each purchased item indicating that it's being recognized as purchased and allowing you to redownload through the respective app, i.e. Music, TV, Books, etc.
They do appear as purchased in the iTunes Store (under "Purchased"); however, the dependent apps are failing to make the proper connection as indicating as being purchased.
Here are some screenshots that I attached to my initial Apple Discussions ticket, taken from the new iPad Mini 6 at the time - first showing recent purchases from the iTunes Store, the second showing what is in the library (in this case, I downloaded Benson from my list of Purchases):
![92c137be-5b74-414c-982c-d3904c8ed3ae.png]( "92c137be-5b74-414c-982c-d3904c8ed3ae.png")
![407b6991-5536-4ad1-9c12-9cad81d669fa.png]( "407b6991-5536-4ad1-9c12-9cad81d669fa.png")
As you can see, none of the other purchases appear in the library; it only recognizes what was downloaded locally via the iTunes Store Purchased page.
Purchased audiobooks do not appear in the Books library (unless manually downloaded in this fashion), nor does the 300 GB of purchased music in the Music app. (note that I am not an Apple Music subscriber, these all stem from iTunes Store purchases)
Also interesting to note that when hiding a purchase and unhiding, the iOS/iPadOS devices will not recognize the change. Only the corresponding apps in Ventura will refresh the libraries accordingly.
I just activated a brand new iPhone 14 Pro Max last week, and am now faced with the infamous "Syncing Your Library" status bar in Music, which has yet to show the slightest sign of movement. The only music appearing (purchased or not) are those tracks manually transferred over from Ventura's Music app.
Interesting to note that last December 2022 (probably just before Christmas), there was one night when I made some purchases (from my XS Max) when that device failed to make that "purchased link" in the respective apps, although existing purchases still retained their cloud icons. (note that this device never had me signing out of Media Services). There may have been an iOS update just prior to this which may have affected something, because this issue reared its ugly head around then.
Here is my original Apple Discussions post, for anyone looking for context:
Missing/unmounted media libraries within Apple Media Services dependent apps (Music/TV/Books)
I spoke with an Apple Support specialist at the time, several instances in fact. Useless, they were completely unaware of this issue. Supposedly escalated up to Engineering but haven't heard anything in a year now. (I'm certain that the ticket was closed)
All of this started occurring midway through iOS 15's history (15.5, perhaps?) and continued through iOS 16.
So for those of you reading this who also have obnoxiously large media libraries who may have gone through this, what did you do to force the device to actually make contact with Apple's cloud servers to make the correct connections to your purchases?
Because after a year of going through this, my only thought is that there is some sort of timeout occurring when attempting to connect to a cloud library exceeding some fixed storage amount. But the Support rep (at the time) insisted that they never heard of this. (tried to get me to upgrade to iCloud Plus..... said no....)
Any advice/insight?
Thanks!
I've dropped this issue several times on the Apple Discussions forums - but receive nothing but canned responses (probably AI, for all we know) which are either 1) completely irrelevant to the issue, or 2) do nothing to fix this issue.
It seems that those on this forum are a bit more knowledgeable when it comes to weird iOS issues, so let me pick your brains with this one... this issue has gone on for well over a year now, first with a brand new iPad Mini 6 (bought last summer), and now with a brand new iPhone 14 Pro Max (bought last week).
To start, my media purchase library (music, movies/TV, audiobooks) is huge, going back to the iTunes Store inception (ca. 2003/2004). Ventura's TV app shows that all video purchases in the cloud exceeds 2 TB if every file were to be downloaded, to put things in perspective.
Ever since I had signed out of Media Services on my mini 5, no matter which device I use that is associated with my Apple ID, none of my media libraries will mount. Normally, when these apps make the link to your purchases, the relevant app will have a cloud icon (in some location) next to each purchased item indicating that it's being recognized as purchased and allowing you to redownload through the respective app, i.e. Music, TV, Books, etc.
They do appear as purchased in the iTunes Store (under "Purchased"); however, the dependent apps are failing to make the proper connection as indicating as being purchased.
Here are some screenshots that I attached to my initial Apple Discussions ticket, taken from the new iPad Mini 6 at the time - first showing recent purchases from the iTunes Store, the second showing what is in the library (in this case, I downloaded Benson from my list of Purchases):
As you can see, none of the other purchases appear in the library; it only recognizes what was downloaded locally via the iTunes Store Purchased page.
Purchased audiobooks do not appear in the Books library (unless manually downloaded in this fashion), nor does the 300 GB of purchased music in the Music app. (note that I am not an Apple Music subscriber, these all stem from iTunes Store purchases)
Also interesting to note that when hiding a purchase and unhiding, the iOS/iPadOS devices will not recognize the change. Only the corresponding apps in Ventura will refresh the libraries accordingly.
I just activated a brand new iPhone 14 Pro Max last week, and am now faced with the infamous "Syncing Your Library" status bar in Music, which has yet to show the slightest sign of movement. The only music appearing (purchased or not) are those tracks manually transferred over from Ventura's Music app.
Interesting to note that last December 2022 (probably just before Christmas), there was one night when I made some purchases (from my XS Max) when that device failed to make that "purchased link" in the respective apps, although existing purchases still retained their cloud icons. (note that this device never had me signing out of Media Services). There may have been an iOS update just prior to this which may have affected something, because this issue reared its ugly head around then.
Here is my original Apple Discussions post, for anyone looking for context:
Missing/unmounted media libraries within Apple Media Services dependent apps (Music/TV/Books)
I spoke with an Apple Support specialist at the time, several instances in fact. Useless, they were completely unaware of this issue. Supposedly escalated up to Engineering but haven't heard anything in a year now. (I'm certain that the ticket was closed)
All of this started occurring midway through iOS 15's history (15.5, perhaps?) and continued through iOS 16.
So for those of you reading this who also have obnoxiously large media libraries who may have gone through this, what did you do to force the device to actually make contact with Apple's cloud servers to make the correct connections to your purchases?
Because after a year of going through this, my only thought is that there is some sort of timeout occurring when attempting to connect to a cloud library exceeding some fixed storage amount. But the Support rep (at the time) insisted that they never heard of this. (tried to get me to upgrade to iCloud Plus..... said no....)
Any advice/insight?
Thanks!