Hello! As a keen buyer of, and listener to, lots of music, I recently decided to subscribe to iTunes Match, to have an even bigger selection of music to listen to on my 32-gig iPhone 4S than I can actually fit in the phone's memory without leaving room for other content. I got iTunes Match working on my PC, but enabling it on the iPhone was a different matter: I was told to go into Settings, then Music, but all I could find there was "Subscribe to iTunes Match", and no way that I could find of turning it on, so the music on my iPhone is still currently what was in my iTunes library before I subscribed to iTunes Match, and I'm not sure how to change that. I've listened to the AppleVis podcast about iTunes Match, which was very informative, but it doesn't answer the two questions I have about this service so far. Firstly, what should I do to enable iTunes Match on my iPhone? Secondly, when I buy music from iTunes in future, does it make any difference whether I buy it on the phone or the computer now that I have iTunes Match?
Sorry this opening forum post is so long, but I felt I had to explain things, and I may be back with other questions about iTunes Match, hence the general-lookingsubject of this forum thread.
Comments
iTunes Match questions
Hello,
Did your computer finish uploading everything to iTunes match? If you go into the contextual menu on your computer, under the store tab, does it say turn off iTunes match, update iTunes match, etc.? On your phone, check to see that your Apple ID that you used for iTunes match on your computer matches the one that is under iTunes and app stores in settings. Let me know if any of that helps :)
Answers to the above questions
In answer to the above questions, the items in the Store menu in iTunes on my PC are exactly as you described. When I add tracks to my library and get iTunes to match them, I always wait until it tells me that my library has been uploaded before quitting iTunes: also, I have set iTunes to display the iCloud status of each track in my iTunes library, so when I scroll through my songs list in iTunes, I see straight away whether a song has been matched or uploaded. As for my Apple ID, I only have one of those, so it's definitely the same on both my computer and my iPhone.
Interestingly, in the middle of writing this post, I just went into iTunes and App Store in Settings on my iPhone, to make sure my Apple ID was correct there, and, instead of seeing "Subscribe to iTunes Match", I saw a button saying "iTunes Match, off". I've now toggled that switch to "On", and hit the "Enable" button which came up at this point, so that should have solved the first problem mentioned in the post twhich started this thread. However, I would still like an answer to my second question, please: now that I have iTunes Match, should I make iTunes purchases on the iPhone or the computer, or doesn't it really matter which I use for those?
awesome!
Ok, awesome! :) Sorry, I forgot about the other question. The beauty of iTunes match is that whether you purchase a song from iTunes on your computer or your phone, or if you upload a track on your computer to iTunes match by putting it in iTunes (such as a CD, or other source of music) once it uploads to match, it is automatically synced across your phone, your computer, and any other mobile device or computer that you link to your apple ID. You do not need to sync your phone anymore with your computer, at least for music purposes anyway. Playlists will also sync across devices. :)
Also, you'll notice that all of your music on your phone now will have a little "download" button next to the track, or you can download all songs or all playlists if you really want to. But ideally, you can listen to any song or playlist you want without downloading it (just streaming over data or wifi) and if you're traveling on a plane or somewhere where you don't have internet connectivity, download the playlist or whatever you want to listen to for that trip. :) If you have any other questions or need help with anything, feel free to post here or e-mail me.
Rocco
Thanks for the clarification
Thanks for the clarification about iTunes purchases and about no longer having to sync music with my computer now that iTunes Match is enabled on both that and my iPhone. Incidentally, the music that was already on my iPhone before I subscribed to iTunes Match is still stored on the phone, I only have the Download button next to songs that I have added since I got iTunes Match, but it's great to know that I can download any of those extra songs if I expect to want to hear them somewhere where I don't have an Internet connection to stream them.
About syncing
I have another question concerning what happens if I sync my iPhone with my computer now that I have iTunes Match. I haven't actually done this since I got iTunes Match working, as I had this niggling worry that all the music I've added to iTunes Match during the last week or so will download itself onto the iPhone. So can someone please clarify what happens when I sync my iPhone with the PC? Will it just back up the apps and other stuff on the phone as it used to, and leave the music alone? That's what I hope! Sorry if this question sounds a bit dumb, but I don't want to accidentally end up with a phone so full of music I can't fit anything else on it.
Duplication dilemma
Hello again! I never got an answer to my syncing question in the previous post, but I know the answer after syncing my iPhone 4S with my PC lots of times in the last few months, that this sync only includes backups and app updates and that iTunes Match does the music syncing. However, this syncing through iTunes Match has led to a new issue for me, a lot of duplicate songs on my iPhone: songs that were on my iPhone before I subscribed to iTunes Match often appear twice in the list of songs in my iPhone's music app, once with the title on its own and again with a Download button next to the title, but these songs are not duplicated in iTunes on my computer. If I was to play through all the songs in my Music app, or even a small number of them, without putting them on shuffle, the duplicated songs will play twice. Admittedly I won't hear songs on the phone twice straight after each other if I put all my music on shuffle, as there is so much of it that randomising its order will separate duplicate songs most of the time, but I have a dilemma as to what to do about the duplicate songs on my iPhone. I expect someone will suggest manually deleting songs which were already on the iPhone in the past but have now reappeared a second time with a Download button due to me using iTunes Match, but, having been away somewhere without Internet recently and setting my phone to only play music downloaded to it during that absence from a place where I could use wi-fi, I know there are at least 2000 songs already downloaded to the phone, many of those transferred to it before I joined iTunes Match, and, for all I know, most of them may be duplicated in the Music app, although I haven't checked this for obvious reasons. So should I go through a long and tedious process of manually deleting one of each of the many songs which appear twice in the songs list in my iPhone's Music app, or is there a quicker way to deal with this huge number of duplicates? Thanks in advance for any answers to this latest question, assuming I get an answer this time!
Downloading all songs to the iphone when using iTunes match
Good morning. To the poster that talked about downloading music to the phone how can I download my entire library? I am using iTunes match and would like to be abel to download all not just one or specific songs. I do have enough memory in the phone to support this. Thanks.
delete the duplicate songs manually
To delete the duplicate songs just swipe to the songs you want to delete and then swipe down to delete and double tap it.
Answers to questions
Hello,
I am sorry we did not answer your original question, if you have any other ones please let me know and I will be more than happy to help you. Feel free to email me anytime at rocco@musicbyrocco.com
As for the duplicates, but should not have happened because iTunes match should have replaced your entire library that existed on the phone before you subscribed to it. I would try this. As long as you know that everything is uploaded to iTunes match, go into settings, then music, and turn off iTunes match on your phone. When you turn it back on, it should ask if you want to replace the music library already existing on your phone. The answer is yes, so click enable. From there you should be good, you just need to re-download any songs you would like off-line from iTunes match with the download button. This also applies to the other person who asked about downloading all or some of their library. You can download all the songs, and album, or playlist at a time by even clicking sounds individually with their download buttons, or clicking download all at the top. I hope this helps :-) again, any other questions please feel free to comment here or email me.
Re-enabling iTunes Match worked
Thanks very much for the answers various people have given to my duplicates issue as explained in my previous post. It's certainly strange that the duplicates happened, I don't know why, nor do I know whether a temporary malfunction of iTunes Match caused songs to be re-uploaded that were already on my iPhone, but now I'm glad to know what to do if that happens another time. I could have manually deleted the duplicated songs as one of you suggested, but turning off iTunes Match and re-enabling it was much quicker, and what's more, it looks like it's got rid of the duplicates, so thanks for reminding me of that option. I'll do the same thing again, re-enable iTunes Match on my phone I mean, if I get duplicate songs on my iPhone again in future, like I had recently.
where's the download all button?
Good afternoon. To the poster who suggested the download all button please pardon my ignorants but, where is it? I thought I had seen it once and now don't see it at all. I did turn on iTunes match and when I have it show all music I do see some songs with download buttons but no download all. I know I have seen this button before. Where is it? Thanks so much.
ITunes match podcast
Clare and all:
You mentioned that you found a podcast about ITunes Match. I have searched the site, but I can't seem to find it. Is it on this site? If so, where? I have just subscribed to ITunes Match, but I have no idea what I'm doing with it: how to enable it, exactly what it will do (though I know it can accomplish what I want) etc. Thanks for any help you can offer.