Why has the "Download All" button in iTunes gone missing?

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Level 1

9 points

Why has the "Download All" button in iTunes gone missing?

I recently bought a new iMac, and since my old iTunes is a bit of a mess, I figured that I'd use the "Download All" button to load the new machine with all of my past purchases. To be clear, the "Download All" button still appears (bottom right) when I access the iTunes Store via my old computer. But with the new computer, where the button used to be there its merely a checkbox for the option "Download HD When Available". Although that's a nice feature (particularly for some old Music Video purchases, that were pretty low-res), it is less-than-useful that rather than supplementing a "Download All" button, it seems to have replaced that button. iTunes best customers—those who have purchased many songs, videos, etc.--will sadly suffer the most, having to repeatedly click, selecting each item one at a time for downloading. Hundreds of clicks. For some people, perhaps even thousands of clicks.

Apple needs to bring back the "Download All" button, pronto. It's not very encouraging for folks to update their hardware and/or OS, when a loss of functionality is the result.

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017), macOS High Sierra (10.13.4)

Posted on Jul 28, 2018 11:43 PM

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Answer 1

JonRHanna Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 29, 2018 6:33 PM in response to Raicya

Thanks. I do understand that is where the button is supposed to be, and it clearly appears there for some folks on some OS and machines. It still shows up on my old OS/machine. But it has gone missing on the fancy-pants new machine. Attached screenshot shows the "Download HD When Available" checkbox that is now where it used to be.

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Answer 2

Raicya

Level 10

209,025 points

Jul 30, 2018 11:53 AM in response to JonRHanna

JonRHanna wrote:

I do understand that is where the button is supposed to be, and it clearly appears there for some folks on some OS and machines. It still shows up on my old OS/machine.

On my Windows computer the steps to Download All is different, have tested this morning.

Launch iTunes on the computer.

In iTunes library - Album >> right-click an album, and then click Download in the dropdown menu.

Wait patiently until the cloud icon disappear.

You must perform manually each album.

When you log in iTunes on the iPhone with the same Apple ID and same password, it will be synchronized.

JonRHanna wrote:

Attached screenshot shows the "Download HD When Available" checkbox that is now where it used to be.

Yes, the "Download HD When Available" checkbox that is now where it used to be.

That is how it look like on a Windows computer before Download All.

On the Mac it look like that too, after Download All.

But I do not understand ‘something' 😕

(Windows computer) The songs before and after the download are show twice in the list of the album and also played twice.

The difference is that the cloud icon has disappeared.

On the Mac, the songs are show once & played once.

I have turn off the Windows computer, will check tomorrow how the list is. Maybe the songs will also show once in the list.

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Answer 3

ed2345

Level 9

62,852 points

Jul 29, 2018 7:22 AM in response to JonRHanna

Jon - At one time in iTunes, the "Download All" button would not appear if the number of downloadable items was more than 2000. (I suppose that was to prevent people from unintentionally launching a huge download activity.) Not sure if that is what you are seeing.

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