Q: iTunes match is automatically downloading songs to phone

For what it's worth this problem didn't happen to me for some time, then when it began it lasted about a week, and then it stopped happening. I've since uploaded/matched hundreds more albums without any automatic downloading on my devices. I'm not sure what changed, I didn't aggressively fight it since I was always on wi-fi and could just delete the downloads in process, but I've been thankful not to have the problem recur. So it's a horrible bug and is obviously costly to some people's data plans but it seems there's an arbitrary way to shut it down. It might be helpful to some of you here to hear that the problem can resolve itself, at least it did for this user.

I do wonder if this is some attempt on Apple's part to mirror libraries, for example, if you have files/downloads present in your Match library then it is downloading those tracks on the devices. For the most part I delete the original files from my library right after I match them, maybe I'm doing it quickly enough that they are not being mirrored anymore. Just a guess...?

RTW

I have had this problem for the last week. I had over 12,000 songs in queue to download. These songs would download over LTE even if I toggled off Download Over LTE in Settings (which drained my allotted data for the month). I tried resetting the phone and resetting all settings. Nothing would remove the download queue until I did this:

1. I removed all but one album from iTunes on my computer

2. I updated iTunes Match on Computer (and made sure Match was turned on)

3. I updated iTunes Match on iPhone/iPad (and made sure Match was turned on)

4. In music app I went to current download list at top of screen, scrolled down to bottom of the list and hit "clear all downloads." I did step #4 multiple times until all downloads were gone.

I have not loaded my music back into iTunes or iTunes Match (yet). This is not a fix but a work-around until a software fix can be implemented. I hope this helps.

I spent an hour on the phone with support, and then senior support staff today.

Senior support actually attempted to sell this to me as a mirroring feature of iCloud Music Library, not a bug.

Music.app is currently attempting to download 5,615 songs to my 64GB iPhone 5S and generally crashes when I try to stop all downloads. I asked how is there not a toggle for this? It's slowing my 5S to a crawl, and I am repeatedly running out of storage. Unbelievably, she suggested I turn off iCloud Music Library all together. I said the whole point of signing up for  Music was the ability to access my lifetime purchased library on my portable devices from anywhere (and being able to stream what I don't own) -- not having some aribtrarily-chosen sliver of my 1TB library on a 64GB device! (Is anyone else having incomplete phantom downloads still show up when you choose "Only Downloaded Music"?)

At the very least there should be two Cellular Data enabler toggles -- one for  Music streaming, and another for iML/iTunes Match downloads. It's ridiculous that I can't listen to streaming  Music without my phone filling up with unsolicited music on my data plan dime.

I suppose at this point I am just hoping and praying the iDevice downloads will stop once my primary iTunes library Mac stops uploading match files.

Grr.

I too called, low-level support staff also told me it was "supposed" to do this. Although he admitted that he has never used itunes match!! Apple support has gone down the toilet....

So how does she think iMatch users are supposed to use the service on our mobile devices if we have to turn of iCloud Music? This is insane that they wouldn't easily recognize the problem we are complaining about. They should have fixed this immediately after the problem started. We are paying for a service we cannot use.

So, is he saying that Apple Music is supposed to automatically download your entire music library to your mobile devices? Would that not create the same **** problem for Apple Music users as it would iTunes Match users. If you have more music in your library than your device can handle, and you can't stop it from downloading automatically to your device, how are you supposed to use either one of these services on your mobile device?

My thought exactly!

I called primarily to complain about the surprise 4GB of data I had to pay for, but also to report this as a bug based on multiple threads here on SC.

Instead I found myself utterly incredulous that they weren't treating this as a problem at all. How do they imagine regular people use this product? I'm practically stunned at their response and the non-response that I might deserve a credit for my AT&T $30 overage.

Sidebar: I actually called AT&T and they were cool with crediting me for the unexpected data. It couldn't have hurt that both my family phones are paid for and out of contract but still I was pleasantly surprised, **** impressed with their recent customer service flair. Comcast could learn something from them.

There is absolutely no doubt that this is a serious bug, as Kirk McElhearn, who has literally written the book on iTunes, has confirmed, and I'm pretty sure that the Apple engineers know about it, whatever the support staff say. Let's hope that iOS 9.2.1, which has just had another beta release, will fix it. In the meantime, I think it would be helpful if people could confirm that some of the temporary fixes that have been suggested work. My own theory is that the only thing necessary is to repeatedly cancel downloads in the Music app until the songs you have just uploaded through iTunes are all cleared off the list.

i.e., click on the "Downloading ... songs" bar in the Music app, scroll to the bottom of the listed songs and keep clicking "Cancel Downloads" until no songs reappear on the list.

If I'm right, you will have to do this each time you upload new songs to iTunes Match or Apple Music that are not matched. I don't believe that it should be necessary to remove any songs from your collection as some have suggested.

when i saw the issue earlier I removed all the songs and just turned off cellular data until i got home..  Turned on my wifi on my tablet at home and right away it started downloading everything all over again.. I have no offline playlists for this tablet.. Added a couple new songs to the library.. within seconds they appeared on both my phone and tablet without being a part of any playlist.  not to mentions this is causing excessing battery drain,

Canceling the dowbloods over and over again did the trick for me, now I can use iTunes match as I did before, it does not down load all of the songs again. I think Apple has to refund every single iTunes match user the full amount. I burned around 3 GB of data. By the way, does apple earn money from Verizon or at and t because of that?

Since I posted yesterday, and wrote an article about this problem on my website (iCloud Music Library Automatically Downloading New Music to iOS Devices), here's what I'm seeing. After I delete the music from the Settings app, it doesn't re-download. When I add more new music, it downloads, but older music does not. This is still not what should be happening, but this is different from some people who see the same music re-download.

I think the reason why some people saw the same song reappear is because it hadn't been cleared from their download list yet. I saw the same thing. You have to keep on canceling downloads until the list never refills. After that, those songs won't reappear, but newly uploaded ones will.

That does work to cancel all of the downloads, although I always have some that refuse to cancel. Also, if you turn of iCloud Music and then back on again (something I have to do frequently due to constant sync errors with iMatch) all of my tracks will start to download again.

any official news in this case?

Apple Developers keep sending me form letters regarding the official BUG REPORT I submitted. They asked for some logs from my phone which I sent them, then they sent same email back a few days later asking for SAME log which I submitted again, then yesterday they sent SAME EXACT EMAIL requesting the same exact log again. I have been using Macs since I beta tested the very first 128k Mac (c.1984-5) - and in that many years I never thought I would be saying this about our beloved Apple - but I am starting to have some SERIOUS CONCERNS about overall quality control with regards to products and employee relations at Apple. Breaks my heart to say that too.

FWIW - another straw on the camels back in the big picture - the display on my iMac 27" (mid-2011) just died two weeks ago (Dec. 2015). Basically lifespan of 4 years. Sad indeed. I still have a Mac G4 400Hz Tower and a Powerbook 1400 that are purring along close to 20 years after they were made.... where did it go wrong here.....