How can I find out which songs are from my CDs in iTunes?

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Level 1

6 points

How can I find out which songs are from my CDs in iTunes?

Many moons ago when iTunes did one thing and did it extremely well, I ripped all of my purchased CD's (of which there were many) into my iTunes library. From there I could load them up onto my iPod or iPhone as I chose and off I went on my merry musical way.

Then one day when the internet became more of a thing and connections a **** of a lot better, Apple offered me the ability to stream millions of songs and albums for a modest amount of money every month. Sounded good so I signed up! Then Apple said that I could upload my entire library as well so that I could experience both features at the same time on any device that I owned. Given that I have numerous gadgets this was appealing.

So my apolgies for the long pre-amble, now for the question, is there a way to show in iTunes what were the original CDA files that were in my library and what is part of Apple's catalogue?

The idea of 'factory resetting' everything and loading up all of those original files does not fill me with joy.

Many thanks in advance, David.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro (M3, 2023)

Posted on Nov 22, 2024 9:09 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 17, 2024 5:00 AM in response to Hudolmunn

Just to start with - can I be clear what you mean by 'Apple's catalogue'? What you stream, for example, is not downloaded permanently to your devices, whereas your iTunes Music library on your Mac will only contain music you actually own.

My first suggestion therefore, is to launch iTunes while disconnected from the net - only your own tracks will show up then, as contained in your iTunes Music Folder.
Or do you mean, being able to see your own music while still online? That's a harder proposition, but I do have one suggestion: try as in 1., disconnecting from the net and launching iTunes. Only your music should show up, so use one of the iTunes column headers - e.g. Comments or Groupings or Description for example - to populate all the music you see with CDA or whatever you want. Then you will see which tracks have that in when online and you could create a smart playlist with only tracks which have that description, so you can see them all whenever you want.

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