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iTunes Match crippled in iOS 6

iTunes Match functionality seems to be crippled in iOS 6:


  • You cannot swipe delete an individual song from your iPhone
  • You cannot swipe delete an entire album from your iPhone
  • You cannot download an individual track from an album, only the entire album
  • When 'Show all music' is selected, you cannot tell which songs / albums are stored on your phone as it shows them all with no indication of whether they're stored locally or in the cloud.


The impacts of all of this are:


  • Once you have downloaded music to your iPhone, you can no longer delete it. Which means that eventually your iPhone will be full.
  • You cannot decide to download just the tracks you want to listen to from an album any more. It's the whole thing or nothing.


These are serious changes to the way iTunes Match works on iOS devices and there has been nothing from Apple explaining the changes, users have been left to figure it out themselves. I'm not sure I want to pay for this service any more. Anyone else feel the same?

iPhone 4S, iOS 6

Posted on Sep 20, 2012 2:03 PM

Reply
185 replies

Oct 7, 2012 6:12 AM in response to steve.lawrence

Hi all


You may rememberl that I was expecting a call from Apple to speak to a Senior Engineer from iCloud? No such luck I'm afraid. I received a phonecall from Apple over an hour later than THEY scheduled only to be put on hold twice and then cut off. I never received another callback.


Since then I have received an email from my original enquiry through Express Lane asking if everything is now sorted. Obviousy not, so I am emailing her back this evening with the feedback.


On a slightly seperate note, I have noticed that 108 of my music videos are not available from iCloud. All these music videos were bought through iTunes. Whilst I realise there are licencing issues with music and music videos, that is a substantial part of my collection that I cannot access on a mobile device wirelessly.


I will be raising both these ongoing issues and will let you know the outcome.


Thanks

Jules

Oct 7, 2012 11:39 AM in response to samletuk

Hello All.


I've been playing with iTunes Match quite a lot now. While I see the issues regarding deleting/dowloading individual songs as a potential problem for some, this new version is exactly what I've been wanting.


It allows me to pre-load my iphone with the music I want on it all the time. It then allows me by switching iTunes Match on to download albums/artists on the move if I wish by switching the settings to 'show all music'.. then when the iCloud songs become visible I just stream what I want then switch the settings back to NOT 'show all music'... Now I just have the music I originally put on the phone and the new artists visible (not the whole iCloud, although you can if you wish)


These 'new' songs are stored in a cache on the phone so can be used until (we are assuming) the cache fills and starts deleting the older cached songs.


I really like the fact that these songs I've streamed on the move can be deleted from their cache by toggling iTunes Match on and off and boom.. back to only the music I specifically wanted on the phone.


I never used ios5 Match because it didn't have this feature, the individual deleting of songs I added on the fly drove me mad.


It's obviously horses for courses but for me its a big improvement


...Naaay


(Ed. I posted this under the wrong discussion, but it's still a bit relevant..oops)

Oct 7, 2012 11:55 AM in response to gmansc1

Hi there


No it doesn't. The music I synced in tunes direct to my phone stays on there all the time, unless I specifically uncheck it in iTunes on my mac.


Turning ITM on and off does not affect this at all.


Try by loading some music on your phone from your computer and toggle ITM on/off, it still stays there..


The only music which gets removed by toggling it on and off is the cached music you download when you stream.


So I suppose I'm saying Put the music you always want on there direct from your mac/PC, it will stay there.


Cheers


Ed. The same applies for music you actually download by pressing the Cloud icon, rather than streaming by just pressing the song. Downloaded music also stays there.

Oct 7, 2012 12:46 PM in response to Spreadly

While I'm thrilled for you that iTunes Match works exactly as you'd like, it's worth pointing out that if Apple were to fix the issues identified in this thread (i.e. allow users to download individual tracks and delete music), your experience would be in no way affected (you could just not use those options), but then we'd be happy as well as you. It needn't be one way or the other, but a combination of both would actually work. Do you see that?

Spreadly wrote:


Hello All.


I've been playing with iTunes Match quite a lot now. While I see the issues regarding deleting/dowloading individual songs as a potential problem for some, this new version is exactly what I've been wanting.


It allows me to pre-load my iphone with the music I want on it all the time. It then allows me by switching iTunes Match on to download albums/artists on the move if I wish by switching the settings to 'show all music'.. then when the iCloud songs become visible I just stream what I want then switch the settings back to NOT 'show all music'... Now I just have the music I originally put on the phone and the new artists visible (not the whole iCloud, although you can if you wish)


These 'new' songs are stored in a cache on the phone so can be used until (we are assuming) the cache fills and starts deleting the older cached songs.


I really like the fact that these songs I've streamed on the move can be deleted from their cache by toggling iTunes Match on and off and boom.. back to only the music I specifically wanted on the phone.


I never used ios5 Match because it didn't have this feature, the individual deleting of songs I added on the fly drove me mad.


It's obviously horses for courses but for me its a big improvement


...Naaay


(Ed. I posted this under the wrong discussion, but it's still a bit relevant..oops)

Oct 7, 2012 12:57 PM in response to steve.lawrence

I suspect you aren't thrilled for me


However yes I do see that.


I imagine that some off the old features will return however I think this direction may have been a result of the syncing issues of ios5 which made it very hard to keep track of content on your iPhone.


iTunes regularly didn't recognise content that had been 'downloaded' via ios5 Match and left it on the phone, hence I personally gave up on it, not alone.


How everyone uses there library is different and i'm genuinely sorry its not working for you, with any luck they'll bring back the aspects you like also, I don't see why they couldn't


Ta

Oct 7, 2012 4:22 PM in response to Spreadly

@spreadly -- I'd love for ITM to work as you are finding. If you don't mind, let's get out the details of how you load your basic library and then turn on ITM for additional downloads. I've tried this and couldn't get it to work. And an Apple rep (supposedly and engineer) told me that what I'm finding is the intended mode of operation. Here's what I tried -- kindly let us know if you did it differently:


1) system on iphone is iOS6 and mountain lion on the mac

2) ITM turned on at the mac, off at the phone (if ITM is on at the phone, it will not allow copying from mac to phone)

3) copy music from mac to phone

4) turn on ITM on the phone -- when I do this I get a warning that ITM will replace/delete all the music currently in my library. this does happen leaving my phone library devoid of music but able to download from ITM.


are you doing things differently?

Oct 8, 2012 4:01 AM in response to gmansc1

Hi.


Yes all of that is correct, however when you turn ITM on on your phone, it is only saying the 'music library' will be replaced, NOT the actual music. So it then gives you the library of your iCloud music, although this music is not actually on your device, the music you put on from your mac however is still on the device.


Test this by choosing an album which you placed from your mac, it will not have a cloud icon above it, whereas all the other albums will have (as they are not yet on your device)


If you then turn ITM off, the 'music library' reverts to music that is actually on your phone, the stuff you loaded from your mac, or downloaded from iCloud.


If you then re-toggle ITM, the music library will be replaced by your iCloud library, again.


Music library does not equal music on device.


I hope that's clear?

Oct 11, 2012 10:21 PM in response to steve.lawrence

Just wanted to add my 2 cents that I agree with others. They' e seriously taken a giant leap backwards with iTunes Match. Apparently the scenario where you are waiting for your flight trying to load up a few songs before going onto plane didn't occur to them. These changes make no sense I see no upside to forcing an entire album to download or the loss of clearly being able to see what is and is not on your device. Not being able to delete is also seriously crippling. While traveling almost impossible now to manage storage between vacation photos and traveling music/video etc.


iTunes Match 1.0 felt beta-ish but with this "update" I feel backwards progress is being made. So sad. I will not be renewing my subscription. What's the point?

Oct 12, 2012 9:07 AM in response to steve.lawrence

(note I found this thread while doing some due diligence before signing up to Match)


Thank you all for discussing this issue from about as many angles as seems possible. We just bought a pair of iPhone 4s phones (still on iOS5) and we also have a New iPad. iTunes Match was one of the selling points for getting iPhones, but now I'm feeling a bit jipped. The scenario of being able to download TO the phone on-the-fly and then playing songs while offline (wireless or wi-fi) was a big selling point. I teach yoga and often want access to different playlist but I have too many songs to carry around on a 16g drive. I also can't afford unlimited data streaming and don't always have access to wi-fi. Downloading a playlist as needed was going to make my life much easier.


Unfortunately, I already updated our iPad to iOS6. Does this problem with iTunes Match affect TV shows purchased through Apple TV/iTunes as well? We bought the iPad b/c we fly long distances as a family (12+ hours) and wanted to load up the iPad with my 3yo's favorite shows. Does Match even have anything to do with the TV shows, and are they crippled when you go to airplane mode as well?


Bummer! It looks like Match is off the table.

iTunes Match crippled in iOS 6

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