Apple Music library
disappeared? First, take a breath.

Before you do anything

Don't sign out of Apple Music yet. Don't reinstall the app. Don't delete anything. The most common reason your library looks empty is that your phone is showing an old picture of it. Give the steps below a couple of minutes first. Aggressive moves can sometimes make a fixable situation worse.

Six things to check, in the order they usually fix it.

1. Are you signed in to the right Apple Account?

   Open Settings → [your name] on iPhone, or System Settings → [your name] on Mac. Check that the Apple Account matches the one your library lives on. Easy to miss: a recent iOS setup, a child or family-member account, a work device with a different ID.

   This is the single most common reason a library looks empty. Worth thirty seconds before going any further.

2. Is Sync Library on?

   Settings → Music → Sync Library. If it's off, turn it on. If it's on, switch it off, count to thirty, then switch it back on. That pulls a fresh copy of your library from Apple, and clears up a surprising share of "where did everything go" moments, especially after iOS updates.

3. Is your Apple Music subscription actually active?

   Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions. Make sure Apple Music shows up as active. Things that quietly cancel a subscription: an expired card, a billing-address mismatch, an App Store region change, a manual cancel you forgot about, or a family-plan organizer who dropped you off.

   If your subscription is inactive, your library is on borrowed time. Apple will eventually clear it. Resubscribe right away and toggle Sync Library. If Apple hasn't deleted the data yet, it'll come back. (More on the cancellation timeline in what happens to your library when you cancel.)

4. Did your family plan change?

   If you're on someone else's family plan and the organizer removed you, downgraded the plan, or switched it to individual, your access to your own library can pause. Get added back to a family plan, or start your own subscription. Your library usually shows up again once you're back on an active plan.

   Reverse case: if you were the organizer and switched from family to individual, the family members lose access. Each Apple Account has its own private library inside the family plan; switching plans can shift the relationship. (Switching Apple Accounts entirely? See how to take your library to a new Apple Account.)

5. Sign out, then sign back in

   Settings → [your name] → Media & Purchases → Sign Out, then sign back in. This clears anything that was on your phone that might be confusing it about your library. Restart your iPhone afterward. Sometimes the leftover stuff only fully clears after a reboot.

   This is heavier than toggling Sync Library, so save it until the gentler steps haven't worked.

6. Open music.apple.com on a computer

   Sign in at music.apple.com on a Mac, PC, or any browser that isn't your iPhone. Use the same Apple Account you expect owns the library.

   If your library shows up there, the trouble is just on your phone. One of the earlier steps will sort it. If it's empty there too, your library may genuinely be gone on Apple's side. Read on.

If those didn't work, three more things to try.

These are less likely to help, but worth the time before assuming the worst.

1. Wait a few hours

   After a major iOS update or a region change, it can be a few hours before your library catches up. If you've already toggled Sync Library, give it some breathing room before assuming everything's gone.

2. Check a second device that hasn't synced yet

   If you have a second iPhone, an iPad, or a Mac that hasn't been opened in a while, open Apple Music on that device. There's a chance your library is still intact in its older state.

   If you find it there, turn off Wi-Fi and cellular on that device first. Once it reconnects, it may sync the empty library and lose the data too. Take screenshots or quickly write the playlists down before you reconnect. On a Mac, you can export your library from File → Library → Export Library. No promises, this won't always work, but it's saved a few people.

3. Restore from a Hezel backup, if you have one

   If you ever made a backup with Hezel, even months ago, open the app and tap it. Hezel works out what's missing within a few seconds. You can re-add every song, playlist, and music video to your library from the Restore tab. Most things come back exactly as you left them.

The worst case and what's left to try.

It happens. You take a break and your library gets cleared faster than you expected. If your library is empty on music.apple.com, none of the steps above brought it back, and you don't have a Hezel backup, the path forward is rebuilding by hand. A few things to know first.

Apple Support can't restore your library. The data is gone from their side, and not in a form they can pull back. Many people have asked; the answer is consistent.

iCloud backups of your iPhone won't help either. Those keep your settings, photos, and messages — not what's inside Apple Music.

The honest answer is that you'll have to rebuild from memory, search history, and any partial captures you have: screenshots, shared playlist links, anything. It's slow. It's painful. And it's a one-time cost, assuming you set up a backup so this doesn't happen again.

Five seconds now. Hours of rebuilding skipped.

It's always good to have a local backup that survives whatever life throws at you.

Hezel is free. Download it from the App Store and tap Back Up Now. Every song, playlist, and music video is captured locally on your iPhone. The whole thing takes seconds.

If something goes sideways later, open Hezel, find your most recent backup, and restore things as they were.

Things you might be wondering.

Whatever happened today — make sure it can't happen tomorrow.

If the steps above worked and your library is back, lock it in with a backup before life gets in the way. If they didn't, a backup is the only path that makes the next one fixable.