Apple has confirmed that it’s looking into reports of a compatibility bug in Apple Music that’s deleting local files without user permission, the company has also promised that an update will be released in the coming week which is going to bring “safeguards” to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
This matter came to light when James Pinkstone, a freelance composer, claimed that iTunes had deleted more than 120GB of music, which included his original compositions, from his computer. He spoke with Apple support representatives and came to the conclusion that the problem arose from the way Apple Music and iTunes handle files.
Pinkstone believes that Apple Music scanned his iTunes library and matched those tracks with streaming copies or originals that had already been uploaded, and then deleted the local files without permission.
In a statement provided to The Loop, Apple said that in an “extremely small number of cases” users have reported that music files stored locally have been 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.”
Apple says that while it hasn’t been able to reproduce the issue, it’s going to release an update to iTunes early next week that brings additional safeguards to ensure that users don’t face this problem again.
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