IOS – How to get the entire iTunes Match-based music library to appear on the iPhone

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I have about 12,500 tracks uploaded to iTunes Match. From my desktop and laptop, everything works great. I can see the cloud-based tracks and play them. I can download them to my machines.

When I turn on iTunes Match and select "Show All Music" on my iPhone the Music app shows me nothing at all. Specifically, it shows me this:

An empty Music app

I've tried leaving it plugged in, with the Music app open, over night to see if the progress bar fills in a bit and it never does. Not even a little bit.

If I turn off the "Show All Music" option, the Music app shows the tracks I had sync'ed to the device before I signed up for iTunes Match and put all my tracks in the cloud.

How can I get my entire iTunes Match-based music library to appear on my iPhone?

Best Answer

There could be a corruption in your music library that is preventing the 'sync' to finish.

  1. On your iPhone, turn iTunes Match off, then open Settings > General > Usage > (wait for usage to populate) > Music > tap Edit and then the red remove icon.
  2. Restart your phone
  3. When your phone is back on, open Music to ensure its empty. If its not, complete the above again.
  4. Turn iTunes Match back on and leave the Music app open. It should take no longer than 15 minutes for it to display something other than the cloud logo.

If the issue is still persists, try deleting your Music library using iExplorer

Note: Before using iExplorer, ensure you have a backup of your information

  1. Download, open iExplorer, and plug in your iPhone
  2. Select Media on the left, and then right click iTunes_Control and delete that folder iExplorer screenshot
  3. Restart your iPhone and turn iTunes Match back on and leave the Music app open. It should take no longer than 15 minutes for it to display something other than the cloud logo.

If the issue still persists I would recommend you do a complete restore through iTunes

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