Before iTunes match, iTunes stored my music locally on my HD or external drive. Now that I subscribed to iTunes Match, do I need to store these files on my computer?
99% of my music came from CD's purchased over the years.
Thanks,
~Paul
iTunes Match
FAQ: Why iTunes Match can NOT be used as a backup!
It is not necessary to keep the files on the internal HDD, but you need to have a backup of all yoru personal data and have a backup scheme for new music that is purchsed and downloaded.
Maybe I didn't explain myself very well. Before iTunes Match, I would RIP my CDs and import them into iTunes. iTunes would then play my stored music from my local HD.
Now that my music is in the 'cloud', I could free up some disk space by deleting those local music files. That shouldn't affect the way iTunes now plays my music, cause it's getting the music from the cloud, right?
My backups are my original CDs that I puchased. Sure you could argue that CDs won't last forever, but neither will I.
Why can't I use iTunes match as a backup? Will Apple lose my files or the data that tells iTunes it keeps as a record of ownership? Not that I don't trust Apple with my data, I don't trust anyone with my data.
If I had purchased music from iTunes, it's normal for me to want to save it somewhere.
I'm going to assume I can delete my local music files and iTunes will play my music as it should. The other question is, how should I delete those files? Should I locate them using Finder and delete, or should they be deleted using iTunes?
I hope that clears things up.
~paul
papamiller wrote:
Now that my music is in the 'cloud', I could free up some disk space by deleting those local music files. That shouldn't affect the way iTunes now plays my music, cause it's getting the music from the cloud, right?
Yes, the music is "in the cloud" but it is also still right there on the internal HDD of the computer. The default location of the library did not change. Unless you delete the tracks from the iTunes library iTunes will continue to play the local copy of the music. It will NOT automagically play from the cloud.
papamiller wrote:
Why can't I use iTunes match as a backup? Will Apple lose my files or the data that tells iTunes it keeps as a record of ownership? Not that I don't trust Apple with my data, I don't trust anyone with my data.
Read the link to the User Tip I gave you. Quite simply, iTunes Match is not intended to be a backup nor does Apple market it as such, or make any claims that the service is a backup. If you chose to use it as your sole music backup you will lose music at some point.
papamiller wrote:
I'm going to assume I can delete my local music files and iTunes will play my music as it should. The other question is, how should I delete those files? Should I locate them using Finder and delete, or should they be deleted using iTunes?
If you are going to do this delete the tracks through iTunes. Always, always, always administer the tracks using iTunes. Be sure and do not delete the tracks from the cloud when you do it. And, as I mentioned above, you should also have an ongoing backup scheme in place for when you purchase and download new music or rip it from CD. However it is entirely up to you if you wish to fly without a net and rely solely on iTM to be a backup for your music.
Can I remove songs from my computer?
