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Add tracks from Mac to iPhone before turning on iCloud Music Library

I have several albums that were released from a radio station with acoustic versions of artist’s songs. I don’t want those matched to the original version in Apple Music but I want them on my iPhone (7). I have not downloaded any music from Apple Music yet but would like to so I understand that I need to turn iCML on in my phone’s settings, but then I can’t transfer the tracks manually from my Mac’s iTunes library.


I don’t want to trannsfer ALL the tracks from my library (which has over 10,000 ripped from my CDs), just a few of those rare tracks not in Apple Music. If I turn off iCML on my phone and then also in the General Preferences in iTunes, manually transfer those tracks, and then turn iCML on in my phone’s settings, will Apple try to match those tracks to Apple Music or can I then go ahead and start downloading tracks from Apple Music onto my phone with no worry of losing those rare tracks (which are still backed up on the Mac)? Do I have to turn iCML on iTunes if I don’t need to download tracks from Apple Music or have the tracks I download from Apple Music on my phone synced to my Mac?


I hope that all makes sense.


Thanks in advance for any advice.

iPhone 7

Posted on Dec 26, 2019 4:27 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 26, 2019 5:22 PM

Backup your library before you enable iCloud Music Library. See Identify cloud status icons in your music library on your Mac or PC - Apple Support. In principle your acoustic versions shouldn't match with the content in the Apple Music catalog, so iTunes should upload those tracks. You would then have access to the uploaded versions to stream or download to your iPhone.


tt2

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3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 26, 2019 5:22 PM in response to 8Lincoln30

Backup your library before you enable iCloud Music Library. See Identify cloud status icons in your music library on your Mac or PC - Apple Support. In principle your acoustic versions shouldn't match with the content in the Apple Music catalog, so iTunes should upload those tracks. You would then have access to the uploaded versions to stream or download to your iPhone.


tt2

Dec 26, 2019 5:31 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the quick reply! The library is already backed up in numerous places. Just so I understand correctly the workflow: I turn on iCloud Music Library on both my phone and in the Preferences in iTunes on the Mac, uncheck everything In iTunes except the songs I want to put on my phone, have iCML analyze my library and then I’ll be able to download those tracks?

Add tracks from Mac to iPhone before turning on iCloud Music Library

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