"not eligible" versus "ineligible"

Question

Level 1

4 points

"not eligible" versus "ineligible"

I created a smart playlist in iTunes 10.5.2 to detect my songs that are "not eligible" for iTunes Match.

I've done this by creating a smart playlist, selecting the criteria for iCloud Status as "ineligible". I also have live updating checked.

This smart playlist now displays an ALAC song that is below the 96 kbps bit rate. It is mainly a silent song and is tagged as "not eligble" (the cloud icon that is marked out) in the view of my library.

Now concerning my question, I have a few albums with ALAC songs that are sampled at 96 kHz or 192 kHz at 24 bit word length. I understand that these are incompatible with iTunes Match because of the sample rate and bit depth. As a result these albums are tagged as "not eligble" in the view of my library. Okay, cool.

However, these hi-res audio files do not appear in my smart playlist.

Is there a difference between "not eligible" and "ineligible"? Why are they not displayed in the smart playlist?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 22, 2011 8:13 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Dec 31, 2011 7:57 AM in response to zacharyn

I'll try to provide some background that may prove useful to you. First, when it comes to any of your ALAC files, when you submit them to iTunes Match, they are encoded on-the-fly to AAC 256. It is this temp AAC file that gets uploaded.

Songs encoded in ALAC, WAV, or AIFF will be transcoded to a separate temporary AAC 256 kbps file locally, prior to uploading to iCloud. The original files will remain untouched.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4914

Very short length songs or songs that really are only silence seem to get deemed ineligible.

For songs that show up as ineligible (those that really are music files) the general fix is to make an AAC copy within iTunes. iTunes Match won't do the heavy lifting for you if the song is below the bitrate threshold. If it is in a format like FLAC that iTunes just doesn't support, you'll need to re-encode outside of iTunes.

If a song/album purchased in the iTunes store is no longer for sale, it won't necessarily be marked as ineligible. It should simply default to an upload.

If you haven't found the view options for iCloud status, they can be very helpful if enabled, as can making smart playlists that show you only ineligible songs, for instance.

Reply

Answer 2

zacharyn Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 31, 2011 7:21 AM in response to Adam Christian Smith

I think that might mean that the song is no longer available through the iTunes Music Store.

Although, I have a similar problem with an EP I bought on iTunes a while back, maybe a few years ago. David Bowie's Serious Moonlight (Live) EP. The four tracks are protected AAC. After running iTunes Match, only one track is eligible. When I go to upgrade this track to a new 256kbps version, the download starts. Once the download is finished, the file momentarily displays as 256kbps, and then reverts back to the 128kbps version.

Bizarre, but I think it has something to do with the EP no longer being available in the iTunes Music Store.

Reply

Answer 3

zacharyn Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 29, 2011 7:21 PM in response to zacharyn

anyone?

Reply

Answer 4

Dec 29, 2011 11:52 PM in response to zacharyn

I do not have an answer but have questions as to when simple 128kpbs AAC or mp3 files that are obviously iTunes won't match and allow downloading of the 256kbps "Matched" status.

Reply

Answer 5

zacharyn Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 31, 2011 10:40 AM in response to JiminMissouri

yeah that's the thing. the smart playlist i made does not display all the ineligible songs in my library.

Reply