Does Apple keep my old Apple Music Replay playlists?

Yes — Apple keeps each year's finalized Replay accessible. What Apple doesn't keep is the history of how the current year's Replay changed throughout that year. The playlist updates weekly as your listening shifts, and the current version is the only one Apple shows.

Can I download Apple Music Replay songs to keep them forever?

Apple Music tracks are copy-protected and can't be downloaded as plain audio files. Tools that promise to convert them are stripping the copy-protection. That's against Apple's terms of service and against the law in many countries. They also miss the point: the value of Replay isn't the songs themselves (those are in Apple's catalog). It's the list, the order, and the moment in time it represents.

Will my Replay backup work if I cancel Apple Music?

The list is preserved on your device. You can browse it indefinitely. To play the songs, you need an active Apple Music subscription, since the audio streams from Apple's catalog.

Apple Music guide

Save your Apple Music Replay for every month.

Your Replay playlist updates weekly: songs shift, the order reshuffles, your top track changes. Hezel snapshots Replay at every backup, so you have a time-lapse of your year in music.

Apple keeps each year. Not each month.

Replay updates weekly as you listen. Apple shows you only the latest version. There's no way to rewind to a previous month.

The version you saw is no longer there

Open Replay in March, see your top song. Open it again in July. The playlist has changed. The March version isn't viewable anywhere in Apple Music.

No version history

There's no monthly archive, no "Replay through March 2026," no comparison view. The current Replay is what you see.

No native export

Replay only lives inside the Music app: no CSV, no archive, no built-in export on iOS.

Once a year ends, that Replay is finalized and stops changing. Until then, every version you see is temporary.

Snapshot the list. Stream the songs.

Add the current year's Replay to your library

Open the Music app on your iPhone. Go to the Home tab and scroll down to Replay: Your Top Music. (Or visit replay.music.apple.com in a browser.) Open the current year's Replay playlist and tap +Add.

The Replay playlist isn't in your library by default. It lives in a separate Replay area. Adding it puts it where Hezel can see it. (Apple's walkthrough is here.)
Open Hezel and tap Back Up Now

Hezel snapshots your entire library. The Replay playlist is captured along with everything else: songs, order, exactly as it stands.
Back up again next month — and the month after that

Each new backup captures Replay's latest version. Over the year, you build up a month-by-month record of how it evolved.

Hezel Ultra automates this. More in the next section.
Browse any past version of your Replay, anytime

Open Hezel, tap any backup, find the Replay playlist inside. You'll see exactly what was there on that date: the order, the top track. Scroll through May's version. Compare to August's. See your Top Song of February that didn't survive into June. Tap any song to stream it.

The case for Ultra here.

Replay's value is in seeing how your music habits changed through the year. There is no easy way to track this, except with Hezel Ultra:

Automatic backups every few days

Hezel snapshots in the background, on its own. Replay's monthly changes are captured without you having to remember.

Bookmark backups so they never get deleted

Open Hezel once a month, tap a recent snapshot, and bookmark it ("Replay Mar 2026" or whatever). Bookmarked backups stay put even when storage gets full.

Effort: roughly zero

Bookmarking takes ten seconds a month. After twelve months, you have a year-long time-lapse Apple Music doesn't provide.

Things you might be wondering.

Why does my Apple Music Replay playlist look different than it did last month?

Replay reflects your top songs, artists, and albums of the current year. As you keep listening, those rankings shift, and songs that dominated in February may slide out of the top tier by July. The playlist updates weekly to reflect the new ranking.

What does Hezel actually preserve about my Replay?

The playlist as a list: every song, the order, song titles, artists, album names, exactly as Replay stood on the day you backed up. The songs themselves stream from your current Apple Music subscription when you play them.

Do I need Hezel Ultra to keep my Replay history?

Practically, no. Ultra adds automatic backups every few days, plus the ability to bookmark specific snapshots so they never get deleted even when Hezel runs out of space for new backups. Free is fine for one-off snapshots.

How often should I back up my Apple Music Replay?

Once a month is the natural rhythm. Replay shifts enough between months that the snapshots feel meaningfully different. Ultra's automatic backups (every few days) cover this for you. On the free tier, set a calendar reminder for the first of each month.

Whatever Replay looks like today, it'll look different next month.

What you'd see opening Apple Music right now is the only version Apple shows. A two-minute backup with Hezel freezes this version before the next one overwrites it.

Hezel for Apple Music

Free to download. Free to back up. iPhone only.

Download on the App Store

Last verified against iOS and macOS 26.4 in April 2026.