My mac is too old to support my new iphone xr and ipad. I hardly use my Mac so i dont want to buy a new one. what is best to do when i want to keep my music on

Your Mac can also run Sierra. It would make much more sense to upgrade to that rather than El Capitan:

https://support.apple.com/kb/SP742?locale=en_US

Follow the instructions in the document below to upgrade to Sierra. It contains a link to the Sierra download.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202

If you don’t have a complete backup of your system drive, you must address that before you do anything else. If something goes wrong during the upgrade, you need to have an easy way to restore your system. This involves using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to clone your system to an external drive. That will give you a bootable copy of your system that can be restored to the internal drive in the event of a problem.

If this sounds like too much trouble, compare it to the aggravation of re-ripping and organizing all your CDs. If you’ve put a significant number of hours into building your iTunes library, you should have good backups. If you use Time Machine, you should have a second backup of your system in the form of a clone.

You need to update your Mac to El Capitan: How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan - Apple Support

Then upgrade your iTunes to 12.8.x.x: If your iOS 12 device isn't recognized by iTunes, you might need to upgrade macOS or iTunes - Apple Support

Best,

GB

If your Mac is not ancient it is possible you could run a fairly new iTunes version and then subscribe to either Match or Apple Music (which includes Match). That way pretty much all music you have from any source gets put into iCloud and can be downloaded to your new devices over the Internet from your iCloud Music Library (another term for Apple's music in the Cloud).

For backing up make sure you turn on iCloud backup in Settings.

By the way, Apple is really encouraging people to subscribe to Apple Music instead of Match but Match is still available if you hunt for it.

Subscribe to iTunes Match - https://support.apple.com/HT204146

What is not part of this is videos. That's a whole 'nother post if you need it.

iTunes for Mac: Use your iCloud Music Library to access all your music anytime, anywhere - https://support.apple.com/PH19612

- "If you’re an Apple Music member, or if you subscribe to iTunes Match, your music is stored in your iCloud Music Library, so you can access it at any time, wherever you’re connected to the Internet."

Join Apple Music on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC - https://support.apple.com/ht204930

Are you specifically asking about updating the Mac so that you can support your XR and your iPad (your original question)? If so, you can upgrade to High Sierra. This discussion got a bit sidetracked with discussions about iTunes Match and audio quality.

If you are still just trying to find an answer to your original question, then this support article tells you how to determine if you can update. Certainly the age of your Mac doesn't prohibit this, but you have to make sure you meet the other criteria outlined in the article: How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra - Apple Support

You don't need iTunes Match or Apple Music either. You can sync your personal CD music directly from the iTunes Library on your Mac: Sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iTunes on your computer using USB - Apple Support

You would need to update your iTunes as well as the macOS. If you open the App Store on your Mac, and click on the Updates tab, you should see the latest iTunes update with an option to intall it.

And your Mac is not "too old" by a long shot. It can run macOS High Sierra which is the most current macOS after Mojave.

If that is what you are looking to do, then be sure to back up your Mac to Time Machine (via an external hard drive) before you do the update, so if you run into any issues, you will have all of your data backed up: Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

Post back if you have any questions.

Best,

GB

You don't need a Mac at all. Your new iPhone and iPad both have the iTunes Store. All the music you ever purchased is already there. You might just have to download it again. To learn how to do that please click the link I sent: Redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books from the App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple Books.

I think that’s what I have been saying. If you examine what I actually wrote, you will see that I mentioned compression BECAUSE the OP’s music consisted mostly of ripped CD tracks. Hence, there is a possibility in this case that Match is exactly the wrong solution for his or her problem, which can be solved more simply by installing an OS upgrade.

Assuming that many people will settle for mediocre audio is probably a correct assumption, but that isn’t really the specific point here, which is that you probably will not want to use Match if you want your CD tracks to remain ALAC or AIFF, if that is how you imported them.

Aside from that, there is a definite risk of Match “matching” your tracks incorrectly. Unless you never look at other, reputable sources of information about Apple software and hardware, you will have heard about these problems.

If we knew what exact Mac & what OS version, it's possible somebody could make a recommendation. :)

Nothing will happen to your iTunes Music. Whatever is yours will remain yours, and you don't have to buy a new Mac to keep it.

Read Redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books from the App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple Books.

Yeah, Match would appear to be for a certain type of user. I assume that people who have large CD collections or who buy high resolution tracks are not of much interest to Apple. And those people would not be pleased to have their music compressed for the sake of being available offsite to all devices. It’s unfortunate that iTunes is not as functional as it was a few versions ago, in terms of the ease of working with files and playlist folders.

OP should be able to get things working with Sierra and the appropriate version of iTunes.

I avoid listening in situations that would require me to pump up the volume: airplanes, the subway, etc.

No, there is nothing else you need except an internet connection and the Mac App Store. What happens when you try to update using the link in the support article I provided above? What leads you to believe that Yosemite is the latest it will install?

Best,

GB

That solution assumes a lot about daibroome’s music collection. Lots of users have put time and effort into ripping their CDs, for example. Music purchased through iTunes accounts for at most 5% of my large, carefully organized music library.

That’s a pretty condescending response. I would agree that a lot of people are not fussy about audio quality, or listen to source material that is not good to begin with. But some of us do actually care, and there is nothing about wanting a decent listening experience that merits such scorn.

You can get a lot of ALAC files onto your device, if you have a 64GB or larger model. I have many hundreds of AppleLossless files on my phone (256GB) and iPad (128GB). I am not a rabid audiophile nor do I have $5000 worth of equipment. I have good but not ridiculously expensive over-the-ear headphones. I don’t listen in extremely noisy environments.

Whether you notice a difference between compressed or higher-resolution audio depends a lot on what you listen to. For classical music, compression is a bad thing.

You are making the old, old mistake of knee jerk defensiveness. I understand that I am not the target demographic for Apple’s music and media services, and that is what I said. I don’t know what has given you the idea that I think Apple is just being mean, or that everything ripped into iTunes is compressed (unless you set your import preferences that way). I specifically questioned whether someone would want to use Match if they knew that it meant compressing everything.

There really is widespread dissatisfaction with the iTunes and Music applications among many of us who have been using Apple products for a long time (32 years, in my case).

The iOS Music app that was OK in iOS 10 is now simply dreadful. Fortunately, there are alternatives: you can use Cesium or Tactus if you want a decent interface for the music on your mobile devices.

iTunes has followed a similar downward trajectory. Compare iTunes 12 with iTunes 10: compare the drag-and-drop ease of getting music onto your iDevice in iTunes 10 and being able to organize it ON the device from within iTunes, with the miserable experience of doing this in iTunes 12. So much functionality and ease of use has been lost. The process in iTunes 12 is a trip down memory lane to the late 80s, and the Font/DA Mover in System 6. That’s not progress.

There are remedies for some of iTunes’ shortcomings: I have found a couple of Doug’s Scripts invaluable: https://dougscripts.com/itunes/index.php

I have iTunes 7.5 (yes, seven point five) running on my computer as we write. My choice.

Again, Match is only compressing things in iCloud, not on your computer. You put a AIFF of a CD in iTunes it stays an AIFF on the computer. Match is an extension service, not something substituting for iTunes. You decide you want the convenience of Match then you accept it will be compressed. Most people probably couldn't care less and very likely couldn't tell the difference even if they understood what "compression" meant. They are getting a good rendition for most purposes and most headphones and earbuds, and for that matter ears, aren't going to resolve those extra frequencies anyway. The information is easily available if anybody bothers reading the documentation, but no company is going to put up a notice at signup time saying, "DID YOU KNOW WE ARE CHEATING YOU WITH APPLE MUSIC AT 256K AAC??!!"