Music on macOS duplicates tracks when dragging to playlists

N copies of each of N tracks looks like the drop being processed once per dragged item, so until Apple fixes it the Add to Playlist menu or copy and paste are the safe routes, as you found. If you'd rather keep dragging, Katalog (musickatalog.com) runs alongside the Music app on the same library, and dropping tracks onto one of your Music playlists there adds each track to it once.

"Music on macOS duplicates tracks when dragging to playlists: Hi. This problem is new to Music on macOS 27.0.1. Dragging tracks from a playlist (or from Library > Songs) into another playlist results in each track being added multiple times. [...]Right-click > Add to Playlist works fine. Copy the tracks, then paste into the playlist works fine. It's only drag and drop."

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Drag & Drop Creating Duplicates in Plalists After an Update:

See this User Tip: Duplicate Songs in iTunes - Apple Community

Scroll to: Removing duplicates

Inform Apple of This:

Do your Part. Give Apple feedback on this. Apple won't get back to you directly, but the more feedback they receive on this, the more they will know what issues are occurring, and what bug fixes to include in updates to come. Apple will know nothing of your issue, if you don'r report it to Apple.

How to Give Feedback:

1. Go Here: Feedback - Apple Music - Apple
2. Select: "Bug Report" for "Feedback Type"
3. Select: "Playlists" for "What Apple Music feature is your feedback about?"
4. Select: "Mac" for "What device(s) do you use with Apple Music? (check all that apply)"
5. Comment: that this all started after installing this update. Include the URL of this thread.
6. Proceed from there as necessary

No problem. If you try it, grab Katalog (musickatalog.com) and open it: your Music playlists show up in its sidebar, so you can drag tracks straight onto them. The first 30 days are the full version.

"That’s a good policy, yes. I did post to them right after I posted here. While you’re here, would you mind giving it a test on your system? Are you on 27.0.1? Thanks."

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Drag & Drop Duplicating Files:

No. No I an NOT having this issue. Yes. I do have the same macOS. You might want to try turning off copy and just make it skip. See if that gets you anywhere.

1. Hold Down: the Option key
2. Drag & Drop: the items

Oh, I see. Yes, I always Skip if this dialog appears. But the dialog doesn’t appear when the problem happens. Music just adds N instances of each track, where N is the number of tracks. So if you drag 9 tracks you get 81 in the play list. When you tested did you drag multiple tracks out of a playlist (in View as Songs) into another playlist? The problem only occurs with drag and drop and only if dragging from Songs view.

I’m not sure what you mean by make it Skip. You are talking about music playlists correct? Please try dragging 2 or more tracks direct from Library > Songs into an empty playlist. Then check the playlist to see how many songs were added.

"I’m not sure what you mean by make it Skip. You are talking about music playlists correct? Please try dragging 2 or more tracks direct from Library > Songs into an empty playlist. Then check the playlist to see how many songs were added."

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Selecting "Add", it duplicates without the corresponding numbers you are seeing in the names you've provided.

Selecting "Skip", it does not duplicate.

That’s a good policy, yes. I did post to them right after I posted here. While you’re here, would you mind giving it a test on your system? Are you on 27.0.1? Thanks.

Thanks sooper and I appreciate the tip about Katalog