Are you an Apple Music user who meticulously curates playlists for every mood and occasion? Imagine the frustration when you add songs to your carefully crafted playlists, only to find your entire music library cluttered with those same songs, even when you specifically turned off the “Add Playlist Songs” setting. You’re not alone. Many Apple Music users are currently experiencing this incredibly annoying bug, and it’s disrupting the way they manage their music and enjoy their personalized playlists of songs.
The Annoying Issue: Songs Added to Playlists Automatically Adding to Library
Across online forums, including Apple’s own support communities, users are reporting a consistent problem: when adding songs to their playlists, Apple Music is automatically adding these songs to their main music library. This occurs even when the setting designed to prevent this – aptly named “Add Playlist Songs” – is disabled in the Music settings.
One user, justotallyfav, sums up the core issue succinctly: “it’s literally so annoying and it’s driving me insane. my library is full of multiple albums and songs. when i delete the stuff from my library, if i add another song to an album it comes back, otherwise, it deletes the whole song or album from my playlist”. This highlights a critical point: deleting songs from the library as a workaround can also remove them from the playlists, defeating the purpose of separating library and playlist management.
User Experiences: Frustration and Workarounds
The shared experience is overwhelmingly negative. Users describe the bug as “extremely frustrating,” “so annoying,” and even “driving me insane.” The core of the frustration lies in the unexpected and unwanted library bloat. Users want to keep their libraries clean and organized, with playlists serving as curated collections separate from their general music library.
Several users have attempted troubleshooting steps, including restarting their phones, reinstalling Apple Music, and updating to the latest iOS version. Unfortunately, these common fixes have proven ineffective. As enara257 noted, “I tried restarting my phone and deleting Apple Music and reinstalling, but that doesn’t work either so don’t stress yourself to do so.”
In the absence of an official fix, users have started sharing temporary workarounds. kay-p described a desperate measure: “I open my settings and leave it open on the music settings to make sure it stays off and then I will add songs to playlist so they won’t be added to my library. But when I close the settings app, it turns right back on.” This highlights the persistence of the bug, with the setting seemingly re-enabling itself without user intervention.
nasaintj01 offered a slightly more refined workaround for iPhone 11 users: keeping the Settings app open in the background after disabling “Add Playlist Songs” while adding songs to a playlist. Hannahbrownme suggested adding songs directly through the playlist “edit” function, which some users found temporarily helpful in preventing unwanted library additions.
Is There a Fix on the Horizon?
While some users, like alykozak and Raytoph, reported that the issue seemed to have spontaneously resolved for them, it’s unclear if this is a widespread fix or temporary reprieve. Raytoph’s experience suggests potential inconsistencies: “as soon as I saw this is tried it again, and it didn’t work. Then I deleted that song, tried again with multiple from multiple different albums to one playlist and all good. So maybe there’s a fix or the bug flew away?”
The uncertainty surrounding the fix leaves users in a state of limbo. The bug is clearly impacting user experience, with tor007 even contemplating switching to Spotify due to the unresolved issue. theoapo points out a broader usability concern, stating the bug “Makes Music unusable since we can not add anything in our playlists…”
Conclusion: Hoping for a Quick Resolution for Playlist Lovers
The Apple Music “Add Playlist Songs” bug is a significant pain point for users who rely on playlists to organize their music without cluttering their libraries. While temporary workarounds exist, they are inconvenient and unreliable. The frustration expressed in online forums underscores the need for Apple to acknowledge and swiftly resolve this issue. For now, users are left hoping for a permanent fix in an upcoming update, so they can once again enjoy curating their perfect playlists of songs without the unwanted library additions.
