Do songs downloaded from Icloud get saved at a higher bit rate/more gb used

Seems that link doesn't exist anymore. 😟 And possibly the current iTunes doesn't allow this anymore. But I have iTunes Match and iTunes in the iCloud, but I cannot seem to get a higher bit rate downloaded. I can "remove download" for a 128kbps rip, then download it, but it comes back as 128kbps, not 256. Anything I'm doing wrong? Thanks.

Really old purchases from the iTunes Store would have been in 128kbps AAC format but now they are all in 256kbps AAC format. Therefore when you re-downloaded them it is possible it replaced older 128kbps versions with newer 256kbps versions which would take twice as much space roughly.

Similarly if you subscribe to the iTunes Match service and had some lower quality e.g. 128kbps MP3 or AAC tracks acquired from other sources e.g. CDs these also would be replaced by 256kbps AAC tracks and again might take more space.

Here is an archived version of the earlier link. If your tracks were uploaded rather than matched then when you downloaded them you'd have got your original versions again. It is only matched tracks that can be upgraded to 256k.

tt2

Thanks for the way-back link. Some more interesting info on this. So far I've been discussing the home iMac, the machine that originally sourced the iCloud library. Consider a Jethro Tull CD of mine, ripped at 128kbps, that I want to replace with 256 but w/o re-ripping. I've been unable to do that. Everything I do that lets me re-download gives me back a 128 bit song file. According to Apple, this is a matched file, not an uploaded file.

Now, go to my work computer, logged into the same Apple ID. I can see my cloud library, all the songs, all the playlists, etc. Everything has a cloud icon next to it. So I download one of those Tull songs and voila, I get a 256 bit file.

This all seems very strange to me. There also seems to be no way to remove the song file from my iMac library w/o also removing the song from iCloud.

I have way too much stuff at 128 bit to re-rip all that stuff if I can just download the 256 file with relative ease. Most of my listening any more is Spotify, so physically re-ripping is also not worth the effort.

Thanks for any insight.

You should be able to select one or more tracks, right-click, then remove download. After the download is removed the cloud download symbol will show, allowing the upgraded matched copy to be downloaded. Personally I'd make sure I had originals of everything backed up elsewhere first just in case of any clean/explicit/live/studio mix ups.

tt2

I agree, that should work. But doesn't for me. If I remove the download and then click the cloud icon I get a 128 bit file back again. Unless iTunes is giving me incorrect information about the file, that is what is happening. I've even gone as far as to make sure the file is actually gone before I download from the cloud. Very frustrating.

Now, this works on my work MacBook Pro, which only gets song files from the cloud. There I'm getting 256 bit files. Worst case I download everything I want onto the MacBook, create a tar file, copy it to the iMac, and then untar it on top of my music library. And yes, I have the Music library backed up on Time Machine and CrashPlan both.

Thanks.

Depends on how you were saving them in iCloud.

If you were using Apple Music or iTunes Match, then yes all Matched songs are upgraded to 256kbps which means their file size will be a bit bigger for the higher audio quality they deliver.

iCloud Music Library: Understanding differences between Apple Music and iTunes Match - Apple Support

Only if the original source files were something more compact than 256k AAC, e.g. 128k mp3. Why did you need to recover the library and was it recovered to the same computer? iTunes may not show any duplicates, but have you inspected the contents of a typical album folder? You may have the originals and their replacements.

tt2

Ah, you can ask iTunes to convert higher bitrate songs to a lower bitrate as they are added to your device.

tt2

Yes. In the Summary Tab when the iPod is connected, there is an option labeled "Convert Higher bit rate Songs To"

And a drop down. You can select 128kbps there to reduce the file size of the song's when you sync them to the iPod, though you will be losing audio quality in the process.

The automatic downsample feature build into iTunes should give you the best of both worlds, high quality copies on your computer, smaller copies on the device so they don't take up too much room, and it should all work automatically.

Now that you've deduped your library that is probably the best way to proceed. Had we been talking earlier then the steps in Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash might have restored your library without any need for deduping and downloading. There might still be content in your media folder such as Podcasts or Audiobooks that are excluded from iTunes Match that may need adding back into the library.

From the sounds of things it is too late to go back as you will have deleted the older lower bit rate versions from the media folder. For the future I would recommend you maintain your own local backup in addition to iTunes Match as it doesn't cover everything, and may occasionally return the wrong clean/explicit or live/studio version of a track.

tt2

On the iMac option-start iTunes and create a new empty library, enable iCloud Music Library, download items of interest. What format do you get them in?

tt2