How to get 1000+ songs from iCloud to Mac HD

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Level 1

4 points

How to get 1000+ songs from iCloud to Mac HD

I have access to my iTunes Library via iCloud. I set up approximately 20 Playlists and burned to CD. Before burning I had to click on the cloud icon to download. I thought that was saving the playlist to my hard drive but apparently not.

The problem showed up when I burned CD's that were perfect with artists, tract, song, etc. showing on the CD. When I tried to upload the CD into my Comand System in the auto it only shows Tract 1, 2, etc. No artists etc that are on the CD. Gracenote is grayed out so I can't get titles from their site.

Apparently I have not saved the iCloud tunes to my hard drive on the Mac or PC. I created a folder called Music and tried importing the entire file but nothing shows up in the Music folder. The error message says the album was not purchased from iTunes, that I must save it on my Mac. That's the step I apparently cannot complete. The albums were all purchased from iTunes.

Thanks in advance for any simple advice. I'm too old to comprehend complicated steps 🙂

Macbook Pro 13" 3.0 GHz, iMac OS X (10.6.4) iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G 64GB, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Feb 18, 2015 10:16 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 18, 2015 10:23 AM in response to Never To Old

You'll want to multiple-select the tracks first, then download. This is easiest to do in Songs view (ie, list all the songs in one big list). Select all by clicking cmd-A (they should all turn blue). Right-click, or ctrl-click, on the blue selection and click Download. You should see the download icons in the iCloud column disappear one by one as they download. It will probably take a little time to get all 1000 downloaded.

Matt

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Answer 2

Feb 18, 2015 10:35 AM in response to Never To Old

I don't know what you mean by "Comand [command?] System".

If you burn a CD on one computer the information is not transferred to another computer. Neither the Cloud nor the CD itself (based on a 30+ year old convention) contain track information.

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Answer 3

Never To Old Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 18, 2015 11:28 AM in response to Matt Clifton

I have done that and the icon disappears but I cannot find the songs on my Mac HD. I guess I was expecting them to be in a folder.

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Answer 4

Never To Old Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 18, 2015 11:31 AM in response to Limnos

Comand is the trade name of the navigation/entertainment system in my car. Your second paragraph answers my question. I thought they by downloading from the Cloud to my HD I would get all the information.

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Answer 5

Feb 18, 2015 12:22 PM in response to Never To Old

Downloading the files from the Cloud should have the information. With the exception of WAV format files and audio CDs the information is stored as data inside the audio file alongside the audio data.

I believe you have to have the files downloaded to your computer in order to burn them so they are indeed present there. When you burn them to an audio format CD, however, they lose the labeling. Dragging these tracks from iTunes to a flash drive or hard drive open in Finder will copy the audio files to the drive from which they can be copied to the car's drive or whatever. Make sure your car supports .m4a audio files (this used to be more of a problem than now).

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Answer 6

Never To Old Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 18, 2015 2:56 PM in response to Limnos

I think the problem may be within my Comand system in the car. I just tried to burn a data CD rather then an audio CD. I was able to play the data CD in the car and it shows tract, artists, etc. All the pertinent information I was lacking on the audio CD. The downside is my Comand system would not let me record the data CD, only the audio CD. I don't want to carry around 30 CD's lol to see the data.

I guess I will go back to Bluetooth and run my GalaxyS5 battery down 😟. I will try your suggestion first, however, to drag those tracks to an external drive.

How come I cannot find my music files on my Mac anywhere but on iTunes? I thought I would have a folder where all of the songs are stored. This makes me think they are not actually on the HD.

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Answer 7

Feb 18, 2015 8:02 PM in response to Never To Old

Go to iTunes > preferences > Advanced. It will show you where the media folder is located where iTunes stores your media. Typically media are stored in a folder called Media in your iTunes folder, though some people change this configuration if they use an external hard drive. I do not know if it is even possible for a computer to actually stream media from the Cloud. That is something that can only be done with video on i-devices.

Yes, as I said, audio CDs do not store track information. Data CDs can if the track has it embedded -- they are basically just another storage drive format.

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