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Will iTunes Match replace/delete my Apple lossless files on Mac?

I like the idea of iTunes Match, but I have a bunch of files (not all) ripped into Apple Lossless that I play from my AppleTV to my stereo. I don't want these to be replaced (at least on my Mac) by lower quality (256kbps) files. on my iOS devices i want the AAC files but not on my Mac.


I have no idea how this works.. how does the scan and swap actually work? does it just scan and make reference to the files to iCloud but doesn't actually touch you local files unless you do a download to your Mac from iCloud?


  1. is there a way to sheild Apple Lossless files from being replaced by the 256kbps files?
  2. will my files only be replaced if I actually download them to my Mac from the cloud or do all the files?

2.0GHz MacMini Core2Duo 4GB/120GB, Mac OS X (10.6.4), Dual 2GHz G5 (10.5.8), 40GB AppleTV, AEGigE, 64GB iPad

Posted on Dec 16, 2011 9:46 AM

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Posted on Dec 16, 2011 9:52 AM

Nothing on your hard drive will be changed. iTunes Match simply maintains a cloud storage of your data. If you have a track that Apple has in it's music inventory, then Match will not upload your disk file. This saves space in cloud storage. However, you may need to see if what is streamed back to you is the same thing you have. Match may treat your data as different and upload your file to the cloud.

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Dec 16, 2011 9:52 AM in response to tmartine

Nothing on your hard drive will be changed. iTunes Match simply maintains a cloud storage of your data. If you have a track that Apple has in it's music inventory, then Match will not upload your disk file. This saves space in cloud storage. However, you may need to see if what is streamed back to you is the same thing you have. Match may treat your data as different and upload your file to the cloud.

Dec 16, 2011 10:47 AM in response to Kappy

So just a related question.. just trying to figure out how this all will work...


so once everything is matched adn in iCloud.. on iOS devices, AppleTV, Mac do you then go to an iCloud Library.. similar to "Shared Library" e.g. from an iPad to look at files on Mac? i.e. the local and iCloud files aren't intermingled (shown together)? if so, are ratings, playlists etc mirrored as well?

Dec 16, 2011 11:07 AM in response to tmartine

You actually can have the option to only use the iTunes Match cloud library or you can continue to use your local library. It depends upon what you choose to do in iTunes. If you choose to sync exclusively to the cloud, then your local library is no longer used. All your devices will "share" the cloud library. But you can choose to continue using your local library thus using the cloud library simply as a backup. This is what I do because my library doesn't change very much. I use Match as backup. All my devices sync the local library.

Will iTunes Match replace/delete my Apple lossless files on Mac?

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