Following multiple reports from disgruntled users that a glitch in iTunes is causing the software to inadvertently delete music from their personal library, an Apple spokesperson has acknowledged the issue in a statement issued to The Loop yesterday.
The company is unsure as to what might be causing this issue and has not been able to reproduce it, but it’ll still deliver an update for iTunes early next week “which includes additional safeguards”.
“In an extremely small number of cases users have reported that music files saved on their computer were removed without their permission,” Apple said.
“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. We have not been able to reproduce this issue, however, we’re releasing an update to iTunes early next week which includes additional safeguards. If a user experiences this issue they should contact AppleCare.”
The way I read Apple’s statement, they don’t know what’s causing this glitch because they haven’t been able to reproduce it, but they’ll update iTunes to make the confusing wording of the dialog for deleting music less intimidating.
It’s unclear if the problem, which seems to affect a very small number of people, stems from Apple’s FairPlay digital-rights management and the iTunes prompt confusing users to inadvertently delete their previously matched songs.
As seen above, choosing to delete a matched song from a personal library defaults the iTunes dialog to highlight the nuclear Delete Song option, which doesn’t just remove a downloaded copy of the song from the computer but also from iTunes in the Cloud so that it’s no longer available for re-downloading.
Source: The Loop