Love or Favorite in Apple Music: what changed and what it means for old guides
If you found an old guide that tells you to click the heart to Love a song, you are not missing a feature. The name and the icon changed. The idea did not
What changed
With iOS and iPadOS 17.1 and macOS Sonoma 14.1, Apple moved from Love to Favorite and from a heart to a star. MacStories reported that your existing loved songs were carried over to favorites automatically. BGR noted the same change in the macOS beta: you no longer love songs, you favorite them
What is new
Favorites now cover more than songs: you can favorite albums, artists and playlists too. Songs you favorite are gathered in a Favorite Songs playlist (with British spelling in some regions, Favourite Songs)
What to read as what
- "Love" in a guide, a forum answer or a script comment means Favorite
- "Loved songs" means the songs in Favorite Songs
- The heart means the star
For scripts
The Music scripting dictionary uses the property favorited on a track. Older iTunes scripts used loved. If a script from before 2023 stopped working, this is the first thing to check. See how to favorite a song with AppleScript
Ratings are separate
Star ratings from 1 to 5 are a different feature from the favorite star. Mixing them up is the most common confusion in old threads about this
Likeit is built on the favorite flag: one click on the menu bar star