As an Apple Music user, I’ve been incredibly frustrated when my playlists don’t update as expected. After countless attempts to fix the issue, I finally found the answer and I’m here to share it with you. In this blog post, I will explain the potential causes of the problem, as well as provide detailed instructions on how to fix it. By the end of this post, you should be able to update your Apple Music playlists without any issues.
Apple Music Playlist typically updates on your iPhone when changes have been made on your Mac. The update process takes about 24 hours. If the Apple Music Playlist doesn’t update automatically, the issue can be resolved by updating the iCloud Music Library using iTunes.
If you’d like to know the various reasons why your Apple Music Playlist won’t update and how to fix it, stay i-tuned!
Why Won’t My Apple Music Playlist Update? 7 Causes and Fixes
Here, we’ll explore each cause and how to fix it to enjoy your music. Let’s jump right into it!
- The Live Update Is Disabled
If your live update isn’t enabled, your Apple Music Playlist won’t update on any of your Apple devices. Luckily, this problem has an easy fix to it.
Simply follow these steps on your PC or Mac to solve this problem:
- Right-click your playlist on iTunes
- Select Edit Rules
- Enable Live Updating
In case the Edit Rules option is missing, move on to the next section.
- You Don’t Have Smart Playlists
If you haven’t created a Smart Playlist, you won’t be able to see the Edit Rules option. Aside from that, creating Smart Playlists will allow you to organize songs based on your preferred criteria.
Every time you add a song to your Music Library, the Smart Playlist will automatically update as long as the song meets your specified criteria.
In other words, you can create a Smart Playlist including your highly rated pop songs released in 2022. Once you add music from a CD that meets these preferences, it’ll be automatically added to your Smart Playlist.
You can easily create and edit Smart Playlists on your PC or Mac.
- Sync-Library-with-Apple-Music Is Turned Off
If you have the latest iOS and macOS, your Sync Library will be on by default. If you don’t have the latest OS versions, or you’ve accidentally turned the Sync Library off, follow these steps on your iPhone or iPad to turn it on:
- Go to Settings
- Select Music
- Turn on Sync Library
Additionally, try toggling it off and then on if it was already on. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to turn on Sync Library unless you’ve subscribed to Apple Music or iTunes Match.
If you have too many songs, it may take a considerable time to sync your music across your devices.
- Sync Library Isn’t Enabled on Both Devices
Turning on Sync Library only on your iPhone would be useless unless you turn Sync Library on your PC or Mac, too.
To make sure the songs you remove or add on your Mac will be synced on your iPhone, follow these steps using Finder on Mac. Or, use iTunes if you have a regular PC:
- Select Sync Library check box
- Go to File
- Select Library
- Update iCloud Library
If you have two or three iTunes libraries, you must sync your iPhone with them one by one. Unfortunately, if you’ve subscribed to Apple Music, you won’t be able to sync your Apple Music saved songs.
- Some of Your Music is Ineligible
Your music playlist won’t fully update if some of the songs aren’t eligible to sync with your iCloud Music Library. This applies to tracks which:
- You didn’t buy from the iTunes Store
- You got through a different Apple ID
- Are too large
You can fix this issue by trying to update your list with other types of songs. If it persists with all songs, that means it’s not an ineligibility problem.
- Your PC and iPhone Aren’t on the Same Network
In order to update your Apple Music Playlist, you must connect your PC and iPhone or iPad to the same Wi-Fi network.
But before you do that for the first time, connect your iPhone to your PC using a USB cable to turn Wi-Fi syncing on. By doing this, you can establish a connection every time you connect both of your devices—phone and computer—to the same network.
Read more: How to add my own music files to Apple Music?
- You Haven’t Set up a Wireless Connection
If so, follow these steps on your PC using iTunes to sync your Apple Music Playlist wirelessly:
- Open the Help menu
- Go to Check for Updates
- Connect your phone to the PC using a cable
- Select your phone from the Devices list
- Open the Summary section
- Check Sync with this iPhone
- Click Apply
- Allow your iPhone to fully synchronize before you disconnect it
Now, a wireless connection will be established whenever you connect both of your devices to the same network.
Wrap Up: Why Won’t My Apple Music Playlist Update?
Read more: Apple Music cutting out
This problem could happen for a number of reasons, some of which are:
- The live update is disabled
- You don’t have smart playlists
- Sync library with apple music is turned off
- Some of your music is ineligible
- Your PC and iPhone aren’t on the same network
Should the problem persist, with all your playlists caught up on updates, we recommend getting direct help from Apple Support.
