How to delete and start again?

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Level 1

21 points

How to delete and start again?

I've finished ripping my collection of 480+ CDs but I really think a big mistake I made was signing-up to Match before I'd finished. I've got various minor problems (such as mismatched art which won't synchronize) and some bigger problems (such as songs which just won't match nor upload) and I think the best thing is just clear everything from the iCloud and start again.

So...how do you do this?

My saviour might be my old Windows XP laptop. It's running iTunes 11 but, unlike my Mac, it only sees my iCloud, ie there are no songs/albums on the PC, it streams everything. If I delete all the albums using that PC, will it essentially clear everything from my iCloud so I can start with Match afresh?

There needs to be a way to wipe the slate clean, surely?

Posted on Mar 4, 2013 5:18 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Michael Allbritton

Level 6

16,951 points

Mar 4, 2013 7:17 AM in response to Cruurakd778

As we have recently discovered there is no way to "wipe the slate clean" in the cloud. It is only possible to hide matched and uploaded tracks. Nothing is deleted from the cloud. Plus, in my opinion, trying to do something like that with the number of tracks you have is really more work than it needs to be.

The first trouble shooting step will be to turn off iTM on in iTunes, restart your computer, then re-enable it again. Let the scan happen and see if that clears up some (or even all) of the problems. If not, post back and we can go into more depth with trouble shooting.

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Answer 2

Cruurakd778 Author

Level 1

21 points

Mar 4, 2013 1:30 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

Not sure Michael I think I might have cracked it, unless someone's got as far as I have and it turns out to be a red herring

I did as I said in the last paragraph, ie I turned off iTunes Match on my Mac and my iPhone, logged into the PC which only streams via Match and deleted all the items (which of course said 'hide', not 'delete'). Back on my Mac, I logged out/in to iTunes, then turned on iTunes Match. Looking at the 'Songs' view, the iCloud Status said 'Removed' on everything, which looked good to me!

I went to 'Albums' view, hit Cmd + A, right-clicked a random album and selected "Add to iCloud". It now really does seem to be starting all over again with the scan/match/upload, so far having taken about 20 mins on Step 1 and it's about a third across, which is what I would expect if it was doing a proper full scan and not an incremental update. Going back to 'Songs' view now shows the iCould status on all items as 'Waiting'.

I will keep this thread posted with the outcome.

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Answer 3

Cruurakd778 Author

Level 1

21 points

Mar 4, 2013 3:06 PM in response to Cruurakd778

An hour and a half in (or thereabouts) and it's halfway through Step 1. Definitely doing a full rescan by the looks of it! Proportionally, this is the same amount of time it took first time round.

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