You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

📰 Newsroom Update

Billie Eilish is Apple Music’s Artist of the Year for 2024. Learn more >

Apple iTunes Match doesn't match

I have iTunes Match, I have a lot of music on my computer, I used to make playlists and sync by cable physically to my iphone, all was good


Now I have iTunes Match which I thought would be the same thing without a cable


I thought that if I added a song to a playlist on my computer I would happily see that playlist with those songs everywhere


I buy iTunes Match, sync all my devices, done.


So then I try to add a song to a playlist on the Macbook and I get this message: Cloud Music Playlists can only contain music from your Cloud Music Library and will only be available on this computer.


If I continue, my playlist will be removed from my cloud music library and will only be available on this computer.


Kinda defeats the whole purpose of wanting my library and playlists available on all my devices right?


Can I, do I quit iTunes Match, and go back to using a cable to sync my Apple Music app on my M2 Macbook with my IOS 18 iPhone? I just want my music on my iPhone and my computer.


Or how can I make playlists on my computer and have them on my iphone and ipad using iTunes Match, why did I get iTunes Match?


Does it mean that if I try to add a song that Apple didn't upload because it only uploads songs it owns rights to and so if the song you want to add isn't up in their library, then if you try to add it to the playlist it ends up giving me that warning and pulling all the other songs down from the cloud so that they're no longer available on other devices?


So iTunes Match is not really having your tunes in the cloud available everywhere, its just having their songs that you own on your computer available everywhere and if you want a playlist that mixes songs they don't want from your computer in their cloud then they take away the right to have those other songs available on other devices, that just seems wrong.


I'm also paying for iCloud Storage, why can't the two meet and carry all my tunes and have them available on all my devices?



MacBook Air, macOS 15.0

Posted on Oct 16, 2024 3:38 AM

Reply
9 replies

Oct 16, 2024 4:53 AM in response to KeithCxx

Hi,

When you add music to your Music app, the track is usually matched or uploaded. iTunes Match uses iCloud Music library and this means that you don’t need to sync by cable as the music should be on your other devices.


On you computer, you should check the iCloud status of the new tracks. If it is not matched or uploaded it will not appear in your iCloud Music library.


ITunes Match does not use your iCloud storage. The iCloud music library is separate feature.


Jim

Oct 17, 2024 3:45 AM in response to KeithCxx

Try holding down option+cmd as you launch Music which opens it in its safe mode, which might potentially help. Failing that you could create a new empty library that will show your current cloud library and see if adding things to that gets them matched or uploaded. Then switch back to the primary library to check that the new additions can now be added to cloud playlists correctly.


tt2

Oct 16, 2024 5:12 AM in response to Jimzgoldfinch

So I get that some songs in my local library won't match with the few songs Apple has in its library, so when that's the case and I try to create a playlist on my local computer I get a warning that all the songs in the playlist will no longer be available in the cloud for my other devices. This I assume is because it doesn't want to cause confusion not have songs not in their library missing in the playlist on the other devices.

So am I right in thinking this?

Is there still a way to sync my iPhone and my computer's music and playlists using a cable and I stop subscribing to iTunes Match?

Oct 16, 2024 9:29 AM in response to Jimzgoldfinch

Hi Jim, thanks

They're all either matched, uploaded or waiting, its the waiting ones that when trying to add to a playlist gives me this message:

Cloud Music Library Playlists can only contain songs from your cloud music library.

If you continue, Playlist --- will be removed from your Cloud Music Library and will only be available on this computer.

I get that, so my question is how do I share playlists on my Mac and iPhone that have all the songs I want in them? Loose the iTunes Match and will the old cable sync still work, or has that gone away too.

It seems I can add matched, uploaded and there's been plenty of time for most the "waiting" songs to have been uploaded by now.

Right?

Why do I have so many waiting, I've belonged to iTunes Match for 6 months, and while yes I do have a library from 20 years or so and I get that they may not all match but what is the uploaded status mean, that they weren't able to match but were uploaded anyway so I can share them on my devices right?

Thanks...

Oct 16, 2024 8:50 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi tt2,


I've tried that, nothing much happening, I mean I don't see anything moving or any status changing, I did just wipe out a few hundred that were waiting and now have around 100 still waiting of which I only want a dozen or so uploaded, the rest can hang locally if that were an option, an option to designate not to upload, that would be helpful in case they're hanging the system uploads.


So every couple hours I hit the upload library menu button just for the sake of it.

Apple iTunes Match doesn't match

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.