iTunes Match songs & playlists will not play through my car kit

Question

iTunes Match songs & playlists will not play through my car kit

Music and playlists synced through iTunes Match will not pllay through my car kit. I have no problem listening to them through headphones, or plugging in an external speaker, but when I attempt to play them through my car's audio system it fails. Audio books work fine - they are not synced through iTunes Match. Playlists that were created in iTunes and checked to sync through iTunes work. But playlists that are not synced manually, but sync through iTunes Match don't work, even if I have downloaded them to the iPhone ahead of time.

What happens is that I will begin to play a song with the iPhone unplugged, when I plug the iPhone into the car, the song does not play. When I unplug the phone the interface has reverted back to the start screen showing the list of my songs starting with "A."

Music synced through iTunes Match has never worked with my car kit. Any idea what is going on?

Posted on Dec 1, 2012 10:03 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 1, 2012 10:31 AM in response to Kevin McCormick

Kevin McCormick wrote:

Music synced through iTunes Match has never worked with my car kit. Any idea what is going on?

It's a problem with the car audio system. It apparently doesn't support iTunes match. You'll need to contact the manufacturer for a possible fix.

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Answer 2

Dec 1, 2012 1:26 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

I have a problem with answers to questions that immediately point to the other party involved without an explanation of why. Besides, there is no option of going back to the manufacturer of the car kit. My choice is only to end my subscription to iTunes Match.

What is different from a song or playlist downloaded through iTunes Match from the same file downloaded from iTunes? Once the music files are downloaded to the iPhone, they reside on the device. So why wouldn't they behave in the same way? They are just digital files that exist on the device.

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Answer 3

Dec 1, 2012 7:32 PM in response to Kevin McCormick

Reading your original post, I got the impression you are trying to play streaming music, in iPhone, through the car audio system. And it didn't work. Are you saying you actually downloaded the music to the iPhone? If so, then yes, I see no reason why it shouldn't play through the car audio system. But if you are not successful streaming the music then that is definitely because the car audio system doesn't support it,

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Answer 4

Dec 2, 2012 12:06 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

My understanding of the way iTunes Match works is that the songs are not streamed, they are downloaded and then played. This is why the more music you play through iTunes Match, the larger the space that is used for your music. I eventually have to turn iTunes Match off and then on again to clear space on the phone.

If I want to play a playlist I will click the "download all" button at the bottom. Then all of the songs have been downloaded onto the phone. But my car will not play the songs.

Does anyone know why and if there is a fix?

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Answer 5

Dec 2, 2012 3:09 AM in response to Kevin McCormick

In iOS 5 the default behavior was to download all music that was played. However Apple changed the behavior in iOS 6 so the default behavior is for all music to "stream" but also still be cached in non-volitile memory. In iOS 5 the tracks were downloaded to permanent memory, so this is probably how why it worked in the past.

However, songs that are downloaded to the iPhone should play over the car audio system, I would think. Have you tried turning on Airplane Mode and trying to play the songs in the car?

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Answer 6

Dec 3, 2012 9:12 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

I have never been able to play music from iTunes Match - not in iOS 5 or iOS6, not on my iPhone 4 or my new iPhone 5. I tried your idea of turning on Airplane Mode, it made sense, but didn't work.

I just doesn't make any sense that music downloaded through iTunes Match on my Iphone will not play through the car kit - but music downloaded from iTunes will. What could be the difference between these two types of files?

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Answer 7

Pj91

Level 1

0 points

Dec 3, 2012 3:22 PM in response to Kevin McCormick

I am not sure entirelly Kevin, but what I am possibly thinking due to the article iTunes Store: Troubleshooting iTunes Match (TS4054) that it could be possibly due to the way that Apple converts the files.

Directly from the article :

Songs encoded as MP3 or AAC that have been matched to the iTunes Store will be made available for download as 256 kbps as AAC from iCloud.
Songs encoded as MP3 or AAC that cannot be matched to the iTunes Store will be uploaded as is. These songs will be made available for download in the same format it was uploaded in.
Songs encoded as MP3 or AAC that do not meet certain quality criteria will not be matched or uploaded to iCloud.
Songs encoded as ALAC, WAV, or AIFF, will be transcoded in iTunes to 256 kbps AAC when uploaded to iCloud.
Song files over 200 MB will not be uploaded to iCloud.
Matched songs in your local library will not automatically be transcoded to 256 kbps AAC. To obtain a higher quality transcoding, download the matched songs from iCloud.

Check the car stereo website to see if they support playing AAC content as well as the other formats your files are in.

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Answer 8

Dec 3, 2012 5:41 PM in response to Pj91

Michael,

All of my music is encoded in AAC, except for some files of local talks given by speakers who were not converted, and remain MP3s. So there would be no difference in file format between files from iTunes Match and files from iTunes directly. But thanks for the reference to the article.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

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Answer 9

Dec 3, 2012 7:53 PM in response to Kevin McCormick

Kevin McCormick wrote:

I just doesn't make any sense that music downloaded through iTunes Match on my Iphone will not play through the car kit - but music downloaded from iTunes will. What could be the difference between these two types of files?

Let me make sure I understand what you're saying here. You are saying that when you actually download music onto your iPhone via iTunes Match (NOT play it from the cloud) it does not play through the car audio system. But music that you sync to your iPhone from iTunes does play through the car audio system. Am I understanding that correctly? If so, you are correct, that doesn't make any sense.

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Answer 10

Dec 3, 2012 10:22 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

That's correct - that's exactly what I'm saying. It doesn't make any sense at all. And since my car is the place that I listen to music the most, I'm about to cancel iTunes Match. Fortunately my audiobooks (which, of course, are not synced with iTunes Match) work. I listen to books mostly while I'm driving.

Michael, I really appreciate all of your help. You've spent a lot of time trying to help me.

Is there anyone else reading these posts that has some idea why this doesn't work?

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