Why is itunes match an all or nothing feature?! Can I have more control over the songs I want on the harddrive of my iphone?

ah but the ability to host cloud-storage them is good - I just wish you could swap between device hard-storage and cloud storage without syncing with iTunes

I take your point and have the same complaint. While iTunes match does not necessarily "wipe" the music files from the iPhone or iPad, it DOES prevent you from ever synching or updating your playlists directly ever again (without turnign off and on and off and on). If I update or create a playlist I should be able force sync a selection. We are easily as often without a wifi network when we want our music as when we are, if not more so.

There should be the option to have playlists sync and copy over for local play, and still allow for access to iTunes Match music when connected to a network.

As it is now, only the music synced immediately prior to turning on iTunes Match remains on the device. We should not have to sit and download individual songs on a playlist for an hour before rushing to the subway, or the gym, or the workspace where there is no service. Or pay exhorbitant data rates for the car commute. Or be SOL in airplane mode.

Yes I agree, the lack of playlist support is surprising

The playlists which were already synced apparently remain on the iDevice's local memory with iTunes Match turned on. But once turned on, you can no longer pick and choose which playlists sync locally— nor, by appearances, are the synced locally playlists updated upon subsequent syncing.

I really wish there were a local playlist management functionality with iTunes Match.

"There should be the option to have playlists sync and copy over for local play, and still allow for access to iTunes Match music when connected to a network."

THANK YOU!!!

I've been struggling with this for days and getting nowhere with 1.) this board, 2.) AppleCare, and 3.) a Genius at an Apple Store. Seemingly no one has heard of it and has a coherent response.

As you download audio from Match, your audio bar grows on iPhone. The only way to make it shrink is to eliminate all of it -- by turning iTunes Match off (and then back on) in iPhone. That's...

... about as elegant as a bull in an IKEA.

You can delete individual songs/albums by swiping and pressing delete

I don't use playlists much but i did have a play with them with itunes match. It seemed to me like they didnt really work at all. If I get in the car and select a playlist for the first time it would be grabbing each song at a time from the cloud over cellular, and new playlists don't appear to be synced over. Here's how i think this should work (and maybe why it doesn't), would the below solve issues relating to playlists?

Scenario

I create a new playlist in itunes and add a few albums/songs. When on my idevice the playlist appears with a cloud against it. Touching the cloud downloads all the songs in the playlist.

I go back to itunes and add a few songs/remove a few albums. Not instantly necessarily, but over time the relevant songs are removed from my device and the new ones added.

I can swipe on the playlist to delete it, which deletes all associated songs from the device and the playlist goes back to being available form icloud

The difficulties with the above seem to be the complexity of removing/adding songs from the device to stay in sync with the playlist and also the question of what to do with songs that appear in more than one playlist (I would assume to keep them if it is a song that is in another playlist set as download)

If you have the cloud you can listen to whatever you want. When you listen to the song it will download automatically. You can stop that by pushing the cirlce after listening to it. Once you have downloaded all the songs you want go into settings-music and flip the switch for Show All Songs this will turn off the cloud and only show the songs you have downloaded from the cloud. Enjoy!

PROBLEM: When I turned on iTunes Match on my iDevice, all my current music was deleted!

SOLUTION: Load the iDevice with music while iTunes Match is OFF. Disconect the iDevice from the computer AND ensure you have wi fi sych disabled, (see below). Then turn on iTunes Match. Your current songs will remain on the device, and songs that are only in the cloud will appear with a cloud icon next to them (assuming you have toogled on 'show songs not on this device').

EXPLANATION: If you turn on iTunes Match while your iDevice is connected to the computer to which you sync (sorry grammer people), then the existing music is removed, and all that remains is a list of your songs in the cloud, with download icons, etc.

WARNING: The same behaviour will occur (the erasing of the songs on your iDevice), if you have wi fi sync enabled and you are on the same wi fi network as to computer to which you sync when you enable iTunes Match on your iDevice.

That isn't a solution. That is the problem.

The problem is defined by the topic: why is iTunes an all or nothing feature. I explained how it need not be. Have I missed something?

Thanks. This is a succinct explanation of a good work around, but it's still a hassle.

I still long for a combination "always sync these playlists to the device and make everything else available via the cloud" option.

Yep, that would be awesome.

that's exactly what I want, and it blows my mind that it's not an option.

I also want an (EASY) way to know WHICH music is already on my phone, and which is in the cloud.

If I say show all, sure, it shows it all, but it doesn't distinguish (at an artist/album/playlist level) if it's already been downloaded, or is still in the cloud. yes I can look for the cloud icon next to each individual song, but that's a big pain.

Or, I turn 'show all' OFF, and then ONLY see what's on the phone - but then i can't see what I have in the cloud to choose from.

Also, people are talking about dragging playlists on/off the phone?! How do I do that??

Thats ok if you only have 3 albums that will take a while to download......but do you have any idea how cumbersome it is to do this through 40GB of songs??? Do you have any idea how long that would take to download through wifi?? I mean the most basic of basic......having things stored in your device.....the reason why I buy a 64GB ipad vs. another one. Now I have to spend at least.....upon my calculations.....a week of tedious work that got done before through itunes in 10 minutes???? Yeah youre right this system has no flaws whatsoever. Never thought Id say this......but I want my money back.