iTunes Match with more than 25,000 songs

Indeed. I'm giving up, basically. I paid for it, I had to do the workaround and now I would have to do everything again after installing iTunes 11. Not worth it. I will subscribe to service again if/when Apple removes this limit.

My subscription is up this month...I have over 75,000 songs. I am not renewing (and I may try the amazon one).

After many difficult days of dealing with mysterious problems paring back my library, I've finally hit on a winning combination. I had tried many workarounds posted here and elsewhere and though I got my library down to about 23000 I still couldn't get Match to work; that's what I meant by mysterious. I tried simply changing the Media Type, and though the track would show as Ineligible it did not affect the 25000+ count (presumably because the file was still in the cloud even though the local file was ineligible?). So then I went the route of exporting thousands of songs I could live without, and deleting them from the main library. Match STILL showed I was exceeding the limit (with 23K songs!). Finally I realized that I had other computers that could both see my local files and were using Match. So, though I was culling my library on my main machine, the others were keeping the songs live on Match.

My ultimate fix was to turn off Match on all my devices, and then I deleted all the iTunes libraries on my secondary machines since they should be using the music in the cloud (or via home sharing). I disconnect my external drive where my music is stored, and then start Match again on one of the secondary machines with a new, blank library. iTunes will show the "cloud download" icon for all the matched and uploaded songs. I then selected and deleted songs that I do not want in the cloud (low rated songs, high skip counts, certain artists and genres, etc). When you delete them you will be asked if you want to "hide" them in Match; you do. Now, when you open your main library, those deleted songs will show as "Removed" in the iCloud Status column.

As an aside, if I want to add new music to my local library but not to the cloud, I turn off Match before I add the music, and then turn the Media Type to Voice Memo, and then turn Match back on. Those songs will show as Ineligible. I know some folks use Podcast or Audiobook instead, but using Voice Memo allows the songs to appear with the rest of your Music instead of a different window.

Also, to keep vigilant, I created a Smart Playlist that shows all tracks that are Music and are either Matched or Uploaded. This allows me to see just how close I am to that 25000 mark. This list, obviously, excludes Purchased, Inelligible, Duplicate and Error tracks and also all those "Voice Memos" that you did not want in the cloud.

Why Apple can't give us a simple "Include" flag and allow us to easily choose which songs are Match'd, I'll never know. Anyway, I hope this is helpful to some other struggling souls!

Hi,

I manage my library similar to the way you do it.

I used a second library on same computer to achieve the "removed" status. I regularly swap between libraries to manage this.

One aspect of this, is that match ignores the removed track and if you need to readd a track, match automatically recognises the track as previously been upload. However, if you are trying to get it to match this time, it won't as the original upload is "hidden". If you think a track should match, you need to create a new version in a different format e.g mp3 or AAC or vice versa.

However it would be more simpler if Apple upped their limit bearing mind that deleted tracks are being "hidden".

Jim

I support your idea of the include flag.

I really wonder why Apple doesn't give us something like the sync mechanism they use for syncing iPods if they really need that 25k limit? Basically that match thing is not so different from syncing songs from your computer to iPod or iPhone, so why not use the same modules.

After also having dealt with various errors while matching and almost making a mess out of my library by trying to work arround this limit with various suggestions I won't subscribe for a second year unless the limit falls or the functionality gets much more comfortable (i. e. Apple like!).

jf

I have a 30k track library and it has taken me a long time to organize all my files. Rather than change the file types of all my tracks to audiobook so I can use iCloud, I tried out Amazon Cloud. It is convenient for what I want it for (24/7 access to my entire music library on my iPhone). The drawbacks are threefold: (1) it took about 4 weeks for my entire library to upload to amazon; (2) Multi-Disc albums don't play in order (i.e., in a 3 Disc set, all track 1's will play, then all track 2's, etc.); and, (3) since I use iTunes to organize my library, I would still prefer to be using iCloud. Just biding my time and using my 4 year old 160GB iPod until iTunes lifts its arbitrary 25k track limit.

Like most of the people here I have a library larger than the limit, 32000 from my CDs and 1500 from iTunes Store. I have to deal with two libraries, but it is really hard and like a lot of people here I really wish that Apple will enlarge the limit or I'll have to go to the Amazon Cloud !!!

If my informal poll - undoubtedly skewed by self-selection - is any indication, there are a LOT of us frustrated by the 25k track limit with iTunes Match. And now that iTunes Radio is out, it's a much bigger frustration, since we can't purchase access to iTunes Radio just because we have "very large" (but completely legitimate) collections.

Apple is penalizing the very people it stands to make the most money from - serious music collectors. Incredibly frustrating.

Like all of you, I'd happily pay double or triple what Apple is asking for Match access to my 60k track collection (all legit!). But can't.

Just so there's a record, please enter the size of your collection (both in number of tracks and in file size) here:

http://birdhouse.org/blog/2011/03/31/how-big-is-your-mp3-collection/

Come on, Apple! If you don't want to expand the limit at least give us an "exclude" toggle to have Match ignore songs we don't want to sync.

Yes Apple, please wake up!

I don't need 25k tracks in the cloud, but you don't give a chance to choose the tracks I'd like to be in the cloud. I do not want to live with uncomfy workarounds that make a mess of my music library.

I'm dropping match in a couple of weeks at renewal time as I added the Amazon service and find it better, especially since iTunes no longer has DRM on songs. I have about 30k songs and particualry hate the simple fact that since I'm maxed out, my most recent addditions are the ones that don't get added to the cloud account. It the oldest were purged, I could choose what to upload or even if I could pay a small premium to up my song count, I'd be fine with it.

Ironically, everytime I've looked at alternatives to my iPhone and iPad, a huge limiting factor was what to do with my big music library. I'll have some pain with iTunes content that is DRM protected, but I'll burn it to CD and reimport the stuff thats really important to me so I can move it to my Amazon service. Then, I'll have more flexibility when its time to upgrade my devices. Just a bad marketing move for Apple over a very small issue for them from a technical standpoint.

Yes, I think I'm going to be dropping iTunes Match as well. I maxed it out at the 25000 song limit last year, and have since added substantially more songs not purchased from iTunes to my library. After upgrading to IOS7, I now apparently have to choose whether I want to see only those 25000 songs stored in the cloud OR my more recently added MP3s. It is impossible to see both with Match turned on. In other words, it appears that the only way to put the songs that I want on my iPhone (i.e., including some songs I added to my library after maxing out iTunes Match), is to switch off iTunes Match altogether.

If Apple is forcing me to switch off iTunes Match in order to copy my newer songs to my iPhone anyway, then why the heck should I keep paying $25 a year?

Yea, I was forced to also drop iTunes Match. I want to listen to *new* music that I add into iTunes.. not the old stuff that was there before I hit 25k! I guess it would be better if it was like photo stream where it woulkd keep the last 25k songs added and kick the oldest songs out. Then it would remain usable for me.

This, coupled with some very poor design decisions on the iPhone implementation of Match, has forced me to ditch Match and switch over to Rdio. Rdio's iOS apps are brilliant and work seamlessly with their web and mac desktop based apps. It's so much easier to use on my work laptop and iPhone compared to the iTunes Match setup. I couldn't be happier w/ Rdio.

I never signed up for iTunes match because I have more than 25,000 files (about 38,000 or so). A couple of months ago I signed up for Amazon's Cloud player and it works well. A few things that are kind of goofy but I can live with it. It works well overall. The only problem I had with it was on the original setup it tooks days to totally upload my library. But now that it's there, I think it's great. Amazon's cloud player is definitely a good option if you have more than 25,000 files, at least until Apple gets up off their butt and gets in step with the real world.

I cancelled my iTunes Match subscription last year because it was simply too annoying to maintain multiple libraries.

This situation is tremendously annoying, since now I can't take advantage of iTunes radio either.

Apple needs to add iTunes Match ignore flags.

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