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iCloud Library & iTunes Match Active, Deleting physical songs?

Hi Community,

just a quick question I have Apple Music & iTunes Match subscription but I have around 900gb of music sitting on my hard drive now is it ok to delete the physical files off my computer as to me in theory they are in the cloud the songs shouldn't leave the library unless I delete them in the music app itself


any help or clarification would help alot just don't wanna delete all the folders and then the are gone from my library forever thats a lot of years of ripping and downloading haha


Thanks

Barry

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 25, 2020 8:45 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 26, 2020 4:36 AM

Hey Jim,

Thanks for the response mate so the goal I’m going for is if I had downloaded a song years ago and it’s on Apple Music, I’ll replace the one I have with Apple Music version and if the songs are not on the store like old game soundtracks I used match to upload it to the cloud so I can listen on all my devices, I already have my whole library on an external drive


so If say I deleted my whole library folders From my external drive would they in theory Still stay in the cloud with match or would I be greeted with the “this item could not be located would you like to search” dialog box the main reason for me asking this is I feel that I have a whole library of music sitting on my drive doing nothing at all as everything is being streamed and downloaded from the cloud if you get what I am saying haha 😆


once again I really appreciate your response 😁

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4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 26, 2020 4:36 AM in response to Jimzgoldfinch

Hey Jim,

Thanks for the response mate so the goal I’m going for is if I had downloaded a song years ago and it’s on Apple Music, I’ll replace the one I have with Apple Music version and if the songs are not on the store like old game soundtracks I used match to upload it to the cloud so I can listen on all my devices, I already have my whole library on an external drive


so If say I deleted my whole library folders From my external drive would they in theory Still stay in the cloud with match or would I be greeted with the “this item could not be located would you like to search” dialog box the main reason for me asking this is I feel that I have a whole library of music sitting on my drive doing nothing at all as everything is being streamed and downloaded from the cloud if you get what I am saying haha 😆


once again I really appreciate your response 😁

Jun 26, 2020 3:55 AM in response to Bazzakuda

Hi,

Itunes match and Apple Music are not backup services. You will only have access to the music In iCloud as along as you have an active subscription .


If you wish to free up space, I suggest that you backup your music Folder and music to an external drive . Once you have done this you can select remove download and stream the music from the cloud.


Jim

iCloud Library & iTunes Match Active, Deleting physical songs?

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