How To Sync Your Apple Music Library Across Devices

Despite its popularity, the Spotify versus Apple Music debate is largely one-sided thanks to the latter supporting Hi-Res and lossless audio. If you own a pair of AirPods and hop back and forth between different Apple devices, subscribing to Apple Music is almost a no-brainer — you get support for spatial audio and Dolby Atmos, after all. Beyond the usual set of options, there are also a few hidden Apple Music features that can help elevate your audio listening experience. 

This includes tweaking the EQ for a custom sound signature or searching for songs using just their lyrics. Apple Music also makes it easy to bring over your saved playlists, albums, and artists across devices. This is done through a feature called Sync Library found within Apple Music settings on all devices that support the music streaming platform. 

Once enabled, you don't have to rebuild your music library on every phone and computer you use and can instead simply sync these settings. This feature is available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even computers running Windows. Read on to find out how you can toggle Sync Library across all Apple Music supported devices you own.

If you own an iPhone or iPad, the Apple Music app comes preinstalled — but you can grab it from the App Store if you've deleted it previously. Launch the app and navigate to the Library tab. Apple Music will prompt you to enable Sync Library if you have it currently disabled. If you don't see this option, follow these steps to turn the feature on manually:

1. On your iPhone or iPad, launch the Settings app.
2. Navigate to Apps > Music. Alternatively, you can use the search box up top to find this app quicker.
3. Under the Library section, tap the Sync Library toggle switch to turn it on.
4. You can enable the Add Playlist Songs and Add Favorite Songs to automatically display new additions to your Library, too. 
5. Head back to the Apple Music app, and wait for it to finish syncing your music. 

Depending on how massive your library is, this might take a couple of moments. You can now start creating playlists and favoriting songs on your iPhone and iPad, and these will be synced across other devices.

Apple Music is also one of the best apps for playing hi-res audio on Android. While there doesn't seem to be an explicit toggle to turn Sync Library on or off, any changes you make to your music library on Apple Music for Android will automatically be synced across all other devices.

There are a handful of ways to use Apple's Continuity feature on Mac and iPhone — but the ability to stream the same library of music is a simple yet powerful experience that most would appreciate a lot more. If you own a device that runs macOS like an iMac or a MacBook, follow these steps to turn on Sync Library on Apple Music:

1. On your Mac, launch the Apple Music app. Make sure you are logged into the same Apple ID that you wish to sync your music library to and from.
2. With the Apple Music app in focus, click on Music in the menu bar up top and navigate to Settings.
3. Under the General tab, click to enable the Sync Library feature. The toggle will display the associated Apple ID next to it. 
4. Click OK and wait a few seconds for your music library to populate.

Any changes you now make to your Apple Music playlists on your Mac will reflect on other synced devices as well. 

Apple Music is available as an app you can download on your Windows desktop computer or laptop. Once signed in using your Apple ID with a valid subscription, you will be able to stream high-quality music. You can sync all your favorite songs and other playlists to your PC in a similar fashion by following these steps:

1. Launch the Apple Music app on your Windows PC, and ensure you're logged into the correct Apple ID.
2. Click on your profile picture in the bottom-left corner of the screen and select the settings cog icon in the pop-up menu that appears.
3. Navigate to Settings > General.
4. From the options available, click the Sync Library toggle switch to turn it on.
5. Head back to your music library, and you should now see your playlists being added.

In case you're still using the iTunes app on your Windows computer, you can turn on the iCloud Music Library option by navigating to Edit > Preferences > General. This will sync any music you own and is a viable option if your PC doesn't support Apple Music, or if you simply haven't migrated yet.