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iTunes Match - download all songs?

This might be a stupid question - but I was hoping for some help. Yesterday, I enabled iTunes Match and it was able to match a large portion of my library. that worked well. However, I was on a train home from work last night and put my headphones on my iPhone so I could listen to some music. Uh oh! Somehow during the iTunes Match process, it physically removed all of my songs from my iPhone and replaced them with a reference to each song in iCloud (where I can conveniently tap the button to download should I want to listen). So now I have my entire library intact on my phone, but the songs aren't actually there. This is an issue because I am frequently on trains/subways with no connection.


Is this expected behavior (to remove the physical songs)? Is there a setting to tell it to leave the physical songs on certain devices? Is there an easy way to "download all" songs to get them back?


Thanks in advance...

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Nov 17, 2011 12:09 PM

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Posted on Nov 17, 2011 1:08 PM

Using a cloud-based service might not be the best situation for you, if you're frequently without a connection (and thus no access to the cloud). You may be happier sticking to the traditional music sync.


But that aside, iTunes Match will download automatically as you play music (when you do have a connection) so those songs will then be available when you don't have a connection. You can also tap the cloud icons (the ones with download arrows) to get specific songs, and if you go into the album listing and view the album tracks, you'll find a button to download the entire album (after the last track).


But no, you can't download everything at once - or more precisely, the way to do that is by turning iTunes Match off and using the traditional sync - that's always been the "download all" method, and nothing about that has changed.

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Nov 17, 2011 1:08 PM in response to cjm56

Using a cloud-based service might not be the best situation for you, if you're frequently without a connection (and thus no access to the cloud). You may be happier sticking to the traditional music sync.


But that aside, iTunes Match will download automatically as you play music (when you do have a connection) so those songs will then be available when you don't have a connection. You can also tap the cloud icons (the ones with download arrows) to get specific songs, and if you go into the album listing and view the album tracks, you'll find a button to download the entire album (after the last track).


But no, you can't download everything at once - or more precisely, the way to do that is by turning iTunes Match off and using the traditional sync - that's always been the "download all" method, and nothing about that has changed.

Nov 17, 2011 1:14 PM in response to Joseph Delaney

Thanks for the response. Not exactly what I was hoping to hear, but very helpful.


For what it is worth, I think this is very limiting. I should be able to choose (per device) how this works. Meaning, I'd like all my music on my iPhone (for reasons I previously stated) but would be fine with "just in time downloading" on nearly every other device (iPad, AppleTV, etc). Those devices are usually at home on my wifi, so no real issue with the process. I find it very limiting that this is an all or nothing solution.


My crude workaround was to create a playlist on my iPhone with all my music, and then go to the bottom of it and choose "download all". Seems pretty silly to have to do that.


Curious if others have thoughts on this....

Nov 17, 2011 1:32 PM in response to cjm56

cjm56 wrote:


I should be able to choose (per device) how this works. Meaning, I'd like all my music on my iPhone (for reasons I previously stated) but would be fine with "just in time downloading" on nearly every other device (iPad, AppleTV, etc).


But that's is exactly how it works.


Just turn off iTunes Match on the iPhone, and leave it turned on for all your other devices.

Nov 26, 2011 9:03 AM in response to cjm56

I had the same problem. tried downloading all songs on the device but I have over 10,000 songs and it was taking forver plus made my iphone 4S very slow to respond. Here's my solution:


1.) Disable iTunes match on your iPhone or apple device..

2.) Remove all music from device. Mine was so slow I had to:

a.) Backup to iCloud

b.) Settings => General => Reset => Erase All Content and Settings

c.) Restore with the latest iCloud backup.

3.) Do not enable iTunes match on device. Sync all music to device from iTunes library that has Match enabled.

4.) Enable iTunes match.


This worked for me so far. All the music is downloaded in a fraction of the time, I guess if the music on your phone is the same as what's in Match, it doesn't delete it.


Let us know if it works for you.

Dec 26, 2011 3:21 PM in response to cjm56

My issue is that with itunes match turned on i cant also transfer the files of the music to my iphone memory. i would like to have my essential music available with or without internet (also since att limits my usage on data) and the have access to the rest of my library via cloud when i want something not physically on my device. the all itunes match or all physical storage model seems a forced and unnecessary choice. i would like to be able to active itunes match and still sync my chosen playlists as i used to.

Dec 27, 2011 8:20 AM in response to enthusiadam

You can transfer the files the old way - just turn iTunes Match off temporarily (go to Settings --> Music on your iPhone), transfer your music like you used to, then turn iTunes match back on.


The trick is to ignore the message that warns you that your "music library" will be deleted. It's a little misleading - it's not the music that will be deleted, only the list of song names (because iTunes match has to show you the full list). If you want to see just the songs that are actually on your iPhone (not on the cloud) after you turn Match back on, go to Settings --> Music and turn off the "show all songs" setting.

Dec 28, 2011 8:30 AM in response to cjm56

I have another question that's sorta related to this. When I download a song from match to my phone, it takes up physical memory from the phone. So, if I want to remove a song(s) I've downloaded to my phone (to add other songs) do I have to turn off itunes match on my phone, sync my device to my computer, and remove the songs that way... or is there an easy button that just removes the song from my phone without going through the trouble of doing all those steps?? Thanks.

Jan 8, 2012 5:58 PM in response to Joseph Delaney

Are you sure about this? I did exactly this. Synced via iTunes with iTunes Match off. Once tracks were on my phone I enabled iTunes Match. Initially all my music remained on my device. However now (without chaging any other settings), I have no music locally stored on my iPhone, just downloadable iCloud tracks. Is there any way to make the music synced via iTunes stay on your phone once you enable iCloud?


Cheers,


Greg

iTunes Match - download all songs?

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