Using iTunes Match in Music on Big Sur

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Level 2

234 points

Using iTunes Match in Music on Big Sur

I recently subscribed to iTunes Match and the synchronisation process has been painful. I've got about 6,000 songs in my iTunes library and the process always seems to fail at around the 3,500 mark.

Ideally, I'd like to manually synchronise those tracks it missed, but the only options seem to be either:

"Update Cloud Library" from the file menu.
Switch off synchronisation and then switch it back on again in preferences.

It seems that each time the sync process kicks off, it starts right at the beginning again and does it for every song, despite some already being in the Cloud Library. Ideally, I'd just like to pick the ones it missed and force a sync of just those, saving time - but there doesn't appear to be an option to do that?

(I think this option might've been previously available in iTunes?)

I also tried to create a smart playlist of the ones it had missed, using the "Cloud Status" property. I wanted to show all those that were waiting, but the status doesn't appear to be there?

I'm not entirely sure why there seem to be so few options for managing your cloud library? Does anyone have suggestions? I've tried resyncing a few times and it seems to fail at about the same point (after about 3,500 tracks).

Thanks.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Apr 1, 2021 5:16 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Mark Turner Author

Level 2

234 points

Apr 6, 2021 3:46 AM in response to Mark Turner

I rectified the problem in the end, although this could be perceived as the "nuclear option". You'll need to have a reasonable amount of free space before you embark on this.

My music library was originally an iTunes library that has been migrated to the newer Music, so obviously some of the folder structure has changed. I backed up the old library and then deleted it so that Music had to create a new one. I then reimported the music from the old library. Luckily, I didn't lose my old playlists and play counts, although I did have to tidy a few things up afterwards.

I'd noticed that a few old podcasts were somehow left behind in the old library too, probably back from the days when iTunes used to managed the podcast downloads. Once tidied up, I then forced Music to resync with the Cloud Library, which it did. After sorting out some duplicate/invalid file issues and redownloading my purchases, everything now appears to have synchronised correctly.

M.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,319 points

Apr 2, 2021 10:48 AM in response to Mark Turner

All the content that you want to add is your current library right? Just to confirm you're not trying to merge or upload from different libraries or a device at the same time? Assuming that is the case you could option start Music to create a new empty Music library, enable sync library in that library so you can see which is currently registered in the cloud. Select and delete all of then entries there, allowing time for all that information to sync to the cloud, then close Music and switch back to the original library. All you content should now show as removed or excluded for some reason. You could then select a small section of the library, say 100 tracks, right click, and use Add to Library to have it added to the cloud library. Only when that group has matched or uploaded would you proceed with the next batch.

tt2

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

278,319 points

Apr 2, 2021 4:51 AM in response to Mark Turner

See Identify cloud status icons in your music library on your Mac or PC - Apple Support. It may be possible to select songs that are marked as waiting and use Add to Cloud Library to nudge them. File > Library > Update Cloud Library should also do this. Turning off sync library and then turning it on again will reset the process so should be avoided.

As you've seen you cannot select waiting as a smart list criteria, so instead you need something like match all: not matched, not purchased, not uploaded, etc. to find the content that you need to fix.

tt2

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Answer 4

Mark Turner Author

Level 2

234 points

Apr 2, 2021 9:32 AM in response to turingtest2

There's something very wrong with it all, looking at your suggestions.

To take an example album. I have Depeche Mode's "Violator". Two tracks have been uploaded and they're playable. The other seven have been matched, but are "waiting".

There is no option to "Add To Cloud Library" when I bring up the menu on songs that are waiting. The only option seems to be "File > Library > Update Cloud Library", but that seems to go through the entire upload again with the full library? (It appears indistinguishable from resetting the entire process).

When I tried to create a smart playlist using the suggested criteria, only twelve tracks were shown. Some of those were in error, but the error is a rather unhelpful, "The item was not added to your cloud music library because an error occurred".

I've also tried at home and have also used my partner's dual fibre internet connection, just in case it was something router/internet related, but the issues seem to be the same each time. The synchronisation/upload process seems to get to about 4,000 tracks in and stop, with no error being reported at the time.

Thanks for the suggestions, anyway.

M.

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Using iTunes Match in Music on Big Sur

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