I would like to transfer my “My Collection” playlists from macOS to my iOS device, primarily an iPad iOS 26.
My music files are stored in iCloud Drive and are accessible on both macOS and iOS with essentially the same folder structure I think. I tried copying the Mac library file to iOS, this was successful and I can see my playlists and all the song titles in there but whenever I attempted to load a track, I received an “unavailable” error.
Do I need to download all the songs locally to iOS first, or is there an easier method to make my playlists available? I have already created many playlists that I actively use, so I would like to avoid rebuilding them if possible.
Thank you in advance for your help.
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App: djay 5.4.4 (64636)
Device: iPhone18,2
iOS: 26.0.1 (23A355)
MIDI Devices: Network Session 1 (0x0) [unused]
Product: pro_mac.yearly-Paid-Active
User ID: $RCAnonymousID:028bf603174b4d29a19b67df90bcf548
So if I copy this library file, I can see all the playlists and filenames, they just can’t load…
I’d basically just need to relink them.
Is there a function to reconnect or relink the lost files like on the mac?
When I download new music and place it into different folders, do I need to add them manually to “My Collection,” or should I add them to the “Files” section so that they appear in the “Music” folder within “My Collection”?
I avoid using different folders for my music files with djay pro because the files app can only read one folder at a time which can be quite laborious.
I put all my files into a singular folder and import them to my collection as one.
If you have many 1000s of files forget it as even the latest most powerful ipads struggle to process them.
I’ve noticed something strange when adding my library from macOS to iOS, everything appeared greyed out. But after adding those songs into “Files” under “Linked Files,” everything showed up twice. The previously greyed-out tracks are now usable, but the new ones are duplicated on top.
This only bothers me because I’ve created a lot of playlists for weddings, radio shows, and club events. Recreating them all would take a lot of time. But maybe you have a better idea — perhaps exporting and importing the playlists?
Or Is there a way to delete these duplicates or at least select them all easily to remove them?
I’m switching from MacBook to iPad that’s way I have so much questions
that might be due to your library also being in the cloud so djay is reading both libraries.
I can’t tell you why as I’m not that iCloud savvy but I remember having a similar experience when I had files stored in iCloud.
I just keep and transfer files by usb stick to keep things simple
Got you. But it’s fine on Mac everything works fine there (sync is active). I don’t think it’s related to iCloud, because when I first used djay Pro on iOS and logged in with the cloud service, none of my playlists appeared. Only after copying the library file did everything show up, but all the tracks were greyed out. Then, after adding the songs, they appeared duplicated. I think the cloud service only syncs cue points and loops and bpm and key
iCloud sync and iCloud storage are not the same.
Sync is what keeps your hot cues etc in harmony between devices. iCloud storage where you keep your files is just cloud storage like Google drive, Dropbox etc.
I know — I think it’s because iCloud Drive uses a different file path on macOS than on iOS. Maybe there’s a solution for that.
I just need to get rid of those duplicates. I can easily recognize and select them since they’re the “new” ones at the top, but it would be much easier if I could select multiple files like on a Mac using Shift + mouse click. Unfortunately, iOS only supports selecting them one by one.
Wish I could help you more but sadly as there is no official method for transferring to ios you kind of have to find your own way.
As you may have guessed I find using the cloud a bit too blackhole ish and mysterious with apple sometimes taking over and putting things where you don’t want.
I’ve been using djay on ios successfully for over two years now and I recommend simply transferring files and the media library from your mac to your ipad/iphone manually via usb or harddrive and leaving all cloud business to the hot cues, loops only. It works without issues (most of the time)
I use lexicon to tag and label my music. The free version is ok but sync options are limited.
All other library management like cues and playlists I do within “my collection” on my Mac.
I then transfer the djay media library database and files to my iPad.
