Turn off iTunes Match Permanently, and....

@TaraLeeSav if the menu says "turn on" then that means iTunes Match is not enabled. The cloud you see next to Music is most likely because you have the option to "show iTunes purchases" enabled in iTunes preferences. This is a service called iTunes in the Cloud which allows re-downloading of purchased items directly in the iTunes Browser. It is not iTunes Match.

In iTunes goto File > Add to Library

From here you can access the iTune files you have stored on hard drives.

Just hit the button. easy as.

May be Apple can be more forthcoming in dealing with us who only want iCloud/iMatch 'on the side'.

Instead we are served with the whole enchilada. Uncool and unlike Apple of the SJ era.

You don't have to exit iCloud/iMatch. They still have their place.

I have iPhone and iPad2 but don't bother with iCloud/iMatch with these. Instead I load them from my MacMini as I would my iPods.

I am a bit miffed that I have to go through this step. I am also miffed that I have to do this unaided.

How do you it "back n" after turning off?

When I turn it on I get screen to Add this Computer. I think that will try to go thru the whole process again. And surely it knows this computer is already assigned. And yes, I am signed in.

So bad. Apple just seems to be getting worse and worse for the user and just wants my money now.

I had all the Apple match stuff turned off on my 2 Macs and iPhone because I saw they were going to charge me for something I didn't need.

Somewhere down the line match was turned on on my little mac (which other people use) and the renew date came up today and I get an email for £21 to use this really rubbish service. Then I red this article and realise you've made it very easy to turn on and very hard to completely turn off, hiding the settings accross the devices.. Shame on you once again Apple.

I see what you're doing with the icloud too to make money. Connect your devices, music and contacts under a 5 gb plan (free) 5 gb is nothing when timesing that by the many years you own these device and build up data. Oh what's that? if I go over you start charging me? I never had a problem before you had this system. Clever, asking for money for nothing.

What you need to do to get rid of the cloud showing up in iTunes is to go to preferences (Apple= (cmd + ,) Windows= (ctrl + ,)), clicking "store" and then unchecking the box for "show iTunes in the cloud purchases." Boom. Issue resolved.

What you need to do to get rid of the cloud showing up in iTunes is to go to preferences (Apple= (cmd + ,) Windows= (ctrl + ,)), clicking "store" and then unchecking the box for "show iTunes in the cloud purchases." Boom. Issue resolved.

Apparently this has been an issue for quite awhile and I've read through the thread and tried every suggestion but I can't get rid of match on my iPad. Its turned off on my Macbook (the store menu give me the option to "Turn On Match"), "Show iTunes in the Cloud" isn't checked, and my iPad doesn't give me the option to turn on/off match - it give the option to "Subscribe to iTunes Match" - then won't let me do anything but subscribe...even though I already have Match...so I've turned off Match, turned on and then off, reset my iPad, etc. and so far nothing works.

This is really frustrating!!!! Anyone have any other ideas that I can try, short of switching back to Windows now that SJ is gone....

OK, Apple Support was the place to go. For anyone still having this problem after the other solutions in the thread have been tried - the tech asked me to go to settings/iTunes & App Store, then sign out and back in. I did and now I am able to turn on/off Match there or under Settings/Music.

I hated it too but I left it turned on until it expired. Now I when I try to sync over USB it says that the device has music match enabled. The computer it is attached to has had it turned off but I can't do anything to the iPhone because the only option in the settings>iTunes&App Store is to renew iTunes Match which I would rather take a punch to the face. What a cumbersome pain in the butt. Has anyone figured out how to turn this off without renewing?

iTunes Match always seemed to be in a permanently ongoing sync state with Apple's servers so I had to kill the upload process (just hit the "x" next to the process listed in the top-middle frame in iTunes). That enabled the menu options to turn off match.

I have enjoyed using Match but certain aspects always drove me crazy. I hated how it would spend days syncing my library even though I haven't changed a thing or addded a new song in quite some time. I found that, although more expensive, Spotify Premium has turned out to be my go-to for music on my devices.

Since discontinuing my iTunes match and using a more superior product, I couldn't be happier. I can now look at these silly forums for iTunes match and just smile. Many days of **** were endured to get to this point of peaceful music enjoyment. Unbelievable the quality of Apple products these days. I think we might be witnessing the fall of greatness. Now I can focus on other things in life, while my music hums along in the background as it should be. 🙂

I wouldn't turn off ITunes Match... EVER. Discontinuing Match sounds like great money saving idea until you start reading the many posts of people who did so and regretted It. Yeah, lost libraries of music that folks have put endless time and money into only to watch it all disappear by applying the wrong technique to correct the problem. Some say that if any music is left the music is in a jumble, not in any specific playlist. My situation was that individual playlists were disappearing everyday (pre-iTunes Match). Nobody at Apple could figure it out, hence the switch to Match. Besides the ability to wirelessly sync from my Mac on all Apple devices, a central source makes sense unless you are set for life with your existing library, or never plan to buy another iDevice. Match is $25 a year which also includes the commercial-free iTunes Radio. That works out to around $2.10 a month for my music library of 4000 songs. One less fountain drink per month should pay for it.

I am having a similar problem. I had Match for a year and didn't renew it. Today I got a new 6 Plus. Match is off on my MacBook Air and on the phone but when I highlight music in the phone column in iTunes it says that Match is on and won't let me manually sync the songs that I want on my phone. Thanks in advance for your help.

I wasted hours today trying to figure this out. So annoying. Makes me want to go back to using a PC and buying CDs from Amazon.

Here's what worked for me: I signed out of the iTunes store on both my iPhone 5 and my Mac. This allowed me to sinc my music like before. I'm afraid what might happen when I log back on to the iTunes store.

Despite stopping my iTunes match subscription I had "iTunes match is turned on" displayed in the "music" tab of the iPhone summary in iTunes and it stopped my music from syncing to my iphone6. I signed out of the iTunes store on both my Macbook and iPhone and it solved my problem. I signed back into the iTunes store and my music is syncing across as I type this message.