How do I restore my music library from iCloud to my Mac without losing any songs?

OldFart911 wrote:

My library was originally on my PC. When I got an iPhone 16, I connected it to the PC and it uploaded my music. Then I connected my iPhone to my MacBook Pro and all the music was available on my Mac as well.

Then something else was going on, as there is no direct transfer of music from an iPhone to a computer. The transfer is only from a computer to the iPhone. If you subscribed t oApple Music or iTunes Match and turned on sync Library as mentioned it would have synced the music from the PC over to the Mac.

I wanted to rip and upload some CD's from my +1,000 collection. I had some issues but managed to get them onto my Mac. The problems started when I wanted to get them onto my iPhone. Online information said I had to use Apple Music to get files from my Mac to the iPhone.

No. To sync from a Mac to the iPhone you can use Finder, not the Music app.

click here ➜ Use the Finder to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with your Mac - Apple Support

That's when I started to notice that some songs and some complete albums were grayed out. Now there's grayed out music on my Mac and iPhone... All I can assume is that they are synced via the cloud because if I try to un sync or turn off music from the cloud it tells me everything will be deleted.

Grayed out songs usually means it was synced from the cloud but is not currently available for some reason. If you turned on Sync Library and the service matched your tracks to ones n the Apple Music Catalog, then it may just make available songs from the catalog to other devices instead of your original file. If this happened then if the version on the Apple Music catalog changed, was removed or got modified in some way the linked version would no longer be available. Matched tracks are dependent on their existence and availability on the service.

Is there a way to eliminate Apple Music, get all MY music back and transfer between my Mac and iPhone without Apple controlling everything? I don't like the idea of Apple blackmailing me into paying to move my music around. I don't download or purchase from any outside sources.

Yes, you control how your music is managed not Apple. but again, if you turned on the Sync Library option it would then refer to the Apple music subscription service for matched tacks. If you don't want this, then turn off that option and cancel the subscription to Apple Music.

Anything that came from the subscription and cloud library would be lost, but you should still have a backup fo your library on the PC right? In which case you need to transfer that library over to the Mac so you can sync the music to the iPhone directly through Finder.

click here ➜ Move your iTunes library to another computer - Apple Support

I own all the music, all ripped from CD's I've purchased. I've paid the royalties to use my music on my devices. I don't like the way Apple tries to control something I own.

They don't. You control it, but if you use certain features like the subscription and iCloud Music library then you need to understand how they work. And what happens when you choose to manage your music that way. This is entirely your choice.

How did it get on the cloud exactly?

Were you subscribing to the Apple Music subscription service or iTunes Match? If no, then your music on not on iCloud.

If yes, then it merely matches or uploads music to iCloud, but does not, or at least should not remove anything locally stored.

Did you somehow delete your music from your computer?

If you explain what exactly happened, someone may be able to advise.

click here ➜ Writing an effective Apple Support Communities Question - Apple Community

Manual synchronization of music from your own CDs is one-way: from a master library on a computer to an iPhone. It does not involve iCloud - and if you do have an Apple Music subscription, you must keep “Sync Library” turned off everywhere in order to do manual synchronization.

(That will prevent you from making offline listening copies of subscription songs. But then there should not be a question of purchased songs possibly being replaced by subscription ones.)

Re: “Online information said I had to use Apple Music to get files from my Mac to the iPhone.”

Note that Apple Music is both the name of an application, and the name of a subscription service that gives you ad-free access to a huge catalog. You access the subscription service through the application, but the application can also work with purchased music whether you have a subscription or not. I don’t know if your Internet source made that clear.

If you are synchronizing music manually, you use the Music application to import music from CDs, and to organize your library. But you use the Finder (which knows about the Music library) to load the music onto the iPhone.