all playlists and library disappeared, no help from helpdesk

[really?]

I've been an Apple Music subscriber from day one. A few weeks ago, I got a message that there was a payment problem. My credit card limit had been reached. In order to pay as soon as possible, I tried to use my girlfriend's card. This required changing country however - my card is Belgian, hers is Dutch. After paying, I found out all my playlists (hundreds) and library (tens of thousands of songs) had disappeared. I got in touch with the Dutch-language helpdesk, where they told me this was due to changing country. So I changed back, and paid, and found out everything was still gone. I've been in touch with them many times since and the only thing they can tell me (with +48 hour intervals) is that I need to start all over again. However, I am quite sure all my playlists still exist, and since all my library music is in a playlist, I should be able to reconstruct it from there. I know this because some of the playlists I've shared on Facebook, like this one (https://itunes.apple.com/be/playlist/le-guess-who-2015/idpl.8cba2058e62943958203c387aa1e3ff5?l=nl) are still accessible. Only I can't seem to search for or find all of my playlists by myself, and the helpdesk has been entirely useless so far. Could you please, please help me get back that account, or at least access all the playlists? They are in the database and have my name connected to them, and I've spent an awful lot of time creating them. Many thanks in advance!

[kirkmc]

I strongly doubt you can get them back. I'm a bit surprised that they'd be deleted so soon, but it seems that they were. I'd have expected Apple to keep the playlists for at least a month, and send you emails to try to get you to resubscribe.

[really?]

Hi Kirk. They have not been deleted, in fact, they are still there, just disconnected from my ID, probably because I've changed stores when changing countries. So the question, I guess, is: is there a way to search for playlists by user, so I can add them to my ID again, as I have done with the ones I had previously linked to on Facebook? In the program, this is not possible, but there must be a way, right? Thanks!

[kirkmc]

No, unlike Spotify, Apple Music doesn't let you follow users or search for their playlists (yet). I think they should; it's a great way to see what your friends are listening to.

 

So you changed countries, and then changed back, and you're using the same Apple ID? In that case, the change probably broke the connection.

 

Do you have backups of your iTunes library files? If so, you might be able to recover the playlists from the iTunes Library.xml file.

[really?]

Unfortunately, the latest of the automatically generated back-ups dates from early July and is thus rather useless. Would nobody, with all the Apple scripts being written and all the expert knowledge on how all of this seems to work behind the screens, be able to find those playlists?

[kirkmc]

Only if they were in a file on your computer. There's no way to get inside Apple's servers. Fortunately. And I doubt that Apple cares enough to help you.

 

You could try tweeting to https://twitter.com/applemusichelp. Maybe point them to this thread so they can see what happened (because in 140 characters, it's hard to explain).

[really?]

I have the same doubt, the Dutch-language helpdesk has been very unhelpful so far. I fail to understand this though: this is any user's worst nightmare, right? Why would you spend hours and hours and hours building all these playlists if they can become inaccessible in just a second, upon which Apple Music will simply refuse to help you get them back? (On Spotify, you can even restore playlists you have deleted on purpose.) As for AppleMusicHelp, I did tweet to hem, in fact I was talking to them all through the European night (which is when they work) and they didn't get much further then the basic questions, subsequently directing me back to the helpdesk where they'd told me they couldn't help me in the first place and then, when I made it clear that was nonsensical, telling me they'd look into it again tomorrow. So indeed: of course it can be done, but it seems they're unwilling to do so, thus far.

[kirkmc]

I feel your pain. It's too bad you didn't have backups of the XML file, as that would at least have the track names in it. But this is pretty much par for the course with Apple; there are lots of things they'll help you with, but when you get into anything to do with the cloud, they suddenly can't do much. If I had any ideas I'd share them, but this is out of the realm of what users can access.