Anyone using iTunes Match on 10.5.8?

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Level 1

24 points

Anyone using iTunes Match on 10.5.8?

Hi,

I am looking for folks who are Apple Music & iTunes Match subscribers who use Match on older Macs, specifically machines running 10.5.8 - I really need some advice, or better yet reassurance, about what I'm trying to do.

My main machine is a 2011 iMac running Yosemite & and iTunes 12.4.1.6. I am an Apple Music subscriber as well as an iTunes Match subscriber and I am VERY picky about my library... I have invested so much time into my music over the last decade (ratings, custom artwork, lyrics, metadata, etc.) - I would be absolutely devastated if my library got screwed up somehow.

Now, I have this old PPC PowerBook G4 laying around that cannot be updated any further than 10.5.8 and thus has iTunes 10.6.3 installed (the most "current" version for this system, afaik). That laptop hasn't been used much in the last couple of years but it's still going strong and so I decided to reactivate it. Today I realized that iTunes Match is actually supported in iTunes 10.6.3, so I created a new empty library and turned Match on, just to see if it would work. And to my big surprise it DID work: all my music is there, all the artwork, everything looks great. Only the Apple Music tracks are greyed out of course - they have a status of "waiting" (iTunes 10.6.3 obviously doesn't know what to make of these tracks, but it still "sees" them).

So my question is: will I screw things up if I use iTunes Match (& Apple Music, sort of) on this old machine? Might iTunes on the PowerBook end up being completely confused because it obviously cannot recognize the Apple Music tracks? I would really appreciate it if someone using a similar setup I described could share their experience with me 🙂

Thanks & cheers

Posted on Jun 29, 2016 3:38 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 30, 2016 1:09 PM in response to sweet-jane

Hi,

Apple music is incompatible with OS and iTunes on your old machine. As you have found out already, you can use iTunes Match on your old computer. Your old computer is recognising the music that has been matched or uploaded. You should be able to stream or download that music but not what you have added from Apple Music.

I use the latest OS and iTunes but I don't think that your use of the old computer will confuse your existing set up. As a safeguard, you should maintain a separate back up of iTunes library.

Jim

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Answer 2

sweet-jane Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 30, 2016 1:10 PM in response to Jimzgoldfinch

Thanks for your input Jim! Now I'm cautiously optimistic about going forward with this setup 😉 everything seems to work well so far and I don't mind the greyed out Apple Music tracks as 95% of my music is matched/uploaded/purchased anyway.

I have a solid backup strategy, but I'm very cautious about introducing problems into the cloud library - in my experience iTunes Match is VERY stubborn and hard to deal with once things are screwed up...

Anyway, I'll report back if I encounter any issues along the way 🙂

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