Brace yourselves - Apple Music may be showing you other people's playlists

(Image credit: nikkimeel Via Shutterstock)

Some Apple Music users are posting on Reddit about playlists from other users randomly appearing in their own music library in the app, causing some rather serious privacy concerns.

Discovering new music and curating super niche playlists is one of the joys of modern music streaming services. There’s nothing better than finding a very specific playlist with a slightly off-putting title and diving into the carefully curated mood created by the crater of the playlist.

However, MacRumors was approached by Reddit user @adh1003 who had compiled complaints from users about the strange guest appearance of playlists they don’t recognize.

Unknown playlist, im 100% i have NEVER made this, its an empty playlist, anyone else also getting unknown playlists? This is my 1st time i got it. from r/AppleMusic

Apparently, in some cases, these unknown playlists have merged with users' original playlists causing a vibe entanglement, or users' playlists are just missing altogether. Some users are obviously concerned their accounts have been hacked, though there is a suspicion that the issue may come from an unknown issue with Apple’s iCloud server.

How to get rid of the mystery Apple Music playlists

If you’re experiencing this playlist mashup trying to un-sync and then re-syncing your iCloud for the Music app may be helpful. Some users in the thread say going to their Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Show All has helped, but not all.

The music app seems to remain untouched on macOS, so the problem seems relegated to the iPhone app.

As someone who makes a playlist for every mood and possible daydream scenario, losing your curated playlists is a huge blow. Not only that, but having random strangers have access to your deeply personal playlists is very anxiety-inducing (though you should probably be aware that artists on most streaming platforms can already see the names of playlists you add their tracks to). It also begs the question: could this bug suggest a bigger privacy issue? We’ll have to wait and see.

We’ve contacted Apple for comment, and will update this story when we hear back.

Muskaan is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing writer. She has always been a passionate writer and has had her creative work published in several literary journals and magazines. Her debut into the writing world was a poem published in The Times of Zambia, on the subject of sunflowers and the insignificance of human existence in comparison. Growing up in Zambia, Muskaan was fascinated with technology, especially computers, and she's joined TechRadar to write about the latest GPUs, laptops and recently anything AI related. If you've got questions, moral concerns or just an interest in anything ChatGPT or general AI, you're in the right place. Muskaan also somehow managed to install a game on her work MacBook's Touch Bar, without the IT department finding out (yet).