You try to play your favorite music on your iPhone or iPad only to discover that it’s gone. It was there the last time you checked! Yes, your music can go missing in action. The sync setting for that album may have been turned off, or you could have deleted the music by accident.
There’s even a chance syncing your music with iCloud removed the music from your mobile device. You may also find your music needs to be reorganized. So how do you get your missing music back? There are a few different ways to restore what you have lost.
Re-Sync Your Music
If you can’t find your music, your first stop should be the Music app—the free app, not the Apple Music service. If you’re on a Windows PC or still running a macOS version older than Catalina, you would use iTunes. Check the music library on your computer to see if the album is still there. If you find the album, play each song to make sure everything works.
If they are on your computer but not your iPhone or iPad, then it may not be getting synced. Connect your device to the computer. In macOS Catalina or higher, open Finder and click the entry for your mobile device. Click the icon for your iPhone or iPad, then select the Music category.
You may just find that the checkbox for syncing that album has been turned off. Check the box for that album and sync your music. After the sync, open the Music app on your device and look for the album. Play the songs to make sure the whole album is now syncing.
Re-Add Your Music
Couldn’t find the album in iTunes or the Music app? The album may still be on your computer but just hidden or otherwise not showing up in your library. Open File Explorer or Finder and browse to your music library, then see if you can locate the missing songs.
If you do, return to your computer’s music app. For those with the Music App, open File > Import. For those using iTunes, go to File > Add Folder to Library. Browse to the folder for the album and click Select Folder or Open. You should see the message that iTunes or the Music app is adding the files. The missing album should then reappear in your music library. You can then sync the songs with your iPhone or iPad.
Re-Download Your Music
Still coming up empty? The album may have been deleted from your computer. If you ripped the album from a CD, you will need to rip it again or purchase the album. If you bought the album from iTunes, you should be able to download it again. To do this, click the Store link in iTunes or the iTunes Store entry in the Mac Music app.
On the right side under Music Quick Links, click Purchased. If the album you seek doesn’t appear in the Not in My Library tab under Purchased, click the All tab to see every music purchase. By default, iTunes shows you any albums you’ve purchased but that aren’t in your library.
If you see the album you want to restore, click the download icon in the upper-right corner of the album art. Return to your music library and check that the music was restored correctly. You can then sync the album with your iPhone or iPad.
If you still can’t find the music, return to the main Store screen and click Account on the right side of the screen under Music Quick Links. Sign into your iTunes account and click Account again. Click Manage next to Hidden Purchases under the Downloads and Purchases section.
Select the album you want to recover and click the Unhide button under the album art. Return to the Purchased section and you should now see the album appear in the Not in My Library section. Click the download button to restore it and then sync it with your iPhone or iPad.
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Restore Your Music to the Device
If you purchased your missing album on your iPhone or iPad and never synced it on your computer, you can restore it from your mobile device. Open the iTunes Store app on your device.
From the iPhone version, go to More > Purchased > Music. On the iPad version, tap the Purchased icon at the bottom and select Music. You should be able to find your missing music from here. Tap the download icon next to an album or song to restore it to your device.
After the album has downloaded, tap the Play button for the first song. The album should open in the Music app to play the song you selected. Now open the entire album in Music and play the first few seconds of each song to make sure the entire album is intact.
You can also perform the same feats of magic with missing movies, TV shows, ebooks, and audiobooks. If your favorite film, show, or book has disappeared from your iPhone or iPad, look in iTunes and then in your iTunes library for it.
If you turn up empty, segue to the Purchased section in iTunes to see if you can find and download the missing content. On your iPhone or iPad, you can look for movies and TV shows via the iTunes app and for ebooks and audiobooks via the iBooks app.
