Apple users are complaining that a bug in the iTunes software is causing their entire music libraries to get erased–but while the company has said it is going to be releasing an update to the app in order to try and combat the problem, it doesn’t appear as though Apple has any idea what’s really causing the issue.
According to reports, the problem of iTunes spontaneously deleting music files has actually been ongoing for customers for about a year–right around the time Apple Music was officially launched–but the complaints made their way back into the news cycle when a blog post by user James Pinkstone detailed his loss of over 120 GB of music files from his laptop–as well as his conversation with an AppleCare representative who wasn’t exactly helpful. Within hours of the post going viral, Pinkstone wrote a follow-up saying he was contacted by another Apple rep who assured him that “deletion of original files isn’t supposed to happen.” A statement newly released by Apple seems to back up that assertion:
In an extremely small number of cases users have reported that music files saved on their computer were removed without their permission. We’re taking these reports seriously as we know how important music is to our customers and our teams are focused on identifying the cause. We have not been able to reproduce this issue, however, we’re releasing an update to iTunes early next week which includes additional safeguards. If a user experiences this issue they should contact AppleCare.
I do know a small handful of friends who this has happened to, so I’m not sure how accurate Apple’s claim of “an extremely small number of cases” is. So far nothing really seems to be the fault of the users, so until Apple figures out what’s going on here this whole situation should serve as a reminder to back up everything–even when you think you necessarily may not need to.
(via The Verge, image via Shutterstock)
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