Enabling ICML on iPhone only?

[RickyW64]

Hello

Currently I'm using Apple a music without iCloud music library being enabled. Ive put a lot of work over the last 15 years on my main music library and don't want to risk messing things up and I have a lot of lossless files.

Using Apple Music this way means when I am mobile I can only listen to music that I don't own myself by streaming over cellular or wifi if available.

This is a problem as I am often driving in areas where I don't get a signal and not having the offline option is a deal breaker for me. Also, I'm not prepared to unleash ICML on my main library having already suffered problems when ITunes Match was launched.

I want to be able to download music on my iPhone 6 for offline use without the risk of screwing up my main music library.

Does anyone know, if I enable iCloud music library on my iPhone only, would this open up downloading for offline use on the IPhone without the risk of anything being downloaded or synced to my main library?

 

[tomekosiowy]

Don't do it. It is worse than most viruses on pc-windows eco-system.

 

[RickyW64]

Don't do it. It is worse than most viruses on pc-windows eco-system.

That's what I'm concerned about, I was an early adopter of ITunes Match and it replaced versions of songs with other versions of the same song, which were not the correct version for that particular album etc. I don't want to go there again which is why I'm not prepared to let ICML loose on my Mac.

Would just enabling ICML on an iOS device ONLY, not on the main iTunes library enable offline listening on that device?

Has anyone tried this?

 

[Julien]

That's what I'm concerned about, I was an early adopter of ITunes Match and it replaced versions of songs with other versions of the same song, which were not the correct version for that particular album etc. I don't want to go there again which is why I'm not prepared to let ICML loose on my Mac.

Would just enabling ICML on an iOS device ONLY, not on the main iTunes library enable offline listening on that device?

Has anyone tried this?

Sounds plausible. However you could enable on your Mac too if all you music is stored locally and you don't delete any. If your music is in Match/iCloud and you stream or download as needed you could have problems. If stored locally the only changes it could make are things like Last Played and Ratings (it loves to delete your ratings).

Also just be sure and have a backup (you should have backups of everything) and then it is only time worst case.

 

[RickyW64]

Thanks for the reply.

It looks like no one has tried to just enable ICML on an iOS device only, I think I might wait until someone else has a go at it and just use Apple Music without ICML enabled and put up with not being able to download music for offline use for now.

If Apple don't enable offline use without ICML I think this puts them behind other providers such as Deezer & Spotify who both enable you to stream and download for offline use WITHOUT having any integration/messing up of your main library if you don't want it.

 

[manu chao]

Thanks for the reply.

It looks like no one has tried to just enable ICML on an iOS device only, I think I might wait until someone else has a go at it and just use Apple Music without ICML enabled and put up with not being able to download music for offline use for now.

If you enable iCML only on the phone and not in iTunes, nothing will happen to your iTunes library. I've done this a couple of times now. The only problem is that you cannot use iTunes anymore to directly add music to your phone, to get new songs on the phone, you have to add them on the phone (except for iTunes Store purchases, those can be made in iTunes and should show up on the phone).

 

[RickyW64]

If you enable iCML only on the phone and not in iTunes, nothing will happen to your iTunes library. I've done this a couple of times now. The only problem is that you cannot use iTunes anymore to directly add music to your phone, to get new songs on the phone, you have to add them on the phone (except for iTunes Store purchases, those can be made in iTunes and should show up on the phone).

Thanks for the info. It still sounds potentially problematic. I think I'll continue with Apple Music for the duration of the trial period, with iCloud music library disabled.

If they don't give people who don't want to integrate their library the option of not doing so, other providers will be the better option. Most of those people will be those with huge libraries who have put a lot of work into organising them, or audiophiles with high quality files, or a combination of both.

 

[manu chao]

If they don't give people who don't want to integrate their library the option of not doing so, other providers will be the better option.

What is the advantage of having two separate libraries?

 

[RickyW64]

What is the advantage of having two separate libraries?

As things stand currently, preservation of your valuable data? I spent a long time updating artwork and ripping CDs to lossless. I had the iTunes Match problems a few years ago. I don't trust Apple not to mess with my data again. I have multiple backups, the problem is you don't discover some of the problems until way down the line. Is it really too much to ask for Apple to be able to devise an app that doesn't mess with your data if you don't want it to?

For info, I have used Spotify since it started and then recently had a 6 month trial of Deezer. Both co-exist happily on my Mac and iPhone with iTunes, in some respects it's easier to understand the distinction between what you own and what you are renting.

 

[manu chao]

As things stand currently, preservation of your valuable data? I spent a long time updating artwork and ripping CDs to lossless. I had the iTunes Match problems a few years ago. I don't trust Apple not to mess with my data again. I have multiple backups, the problem is you don't discover some of the problems until way down the line. Is it really too much to ask for Apple to be able to devise an app that doesn't mess with your data if you don't want it to?

No, but I have the expectation that Apple will sooner or later get things under control. I get it that they have an interest in matching as many songs as possible in ones library because that means they don't have to upload and store it on their servers. But even with that in mind, they still could store custom artwork (which will normally be much smaller in size than the actual song) and custom tags, in essence creating a third category where they only upload only your custom metadata. Because if they don't, people will simply stay away or try to trick the system into treating a given song as something to be uploaded.

So, two separate libraries make sense while Apple Music is still in beta, as I might call it. But not conceptually.

For info, I have used Spotify since it started and then recently had a 6 month trial of Deezer. Both co-exist happily on my Mac and iPhone with iTunes, in some respects it's easier to understand the distinction between what you own and what you are renting.

Yes, but I so far have bought every song I added to my Spotify 'library' on iTunes so I can play it in playlists using my previous iTunes content. And I had started to look at solutions to import my iTunes library, including playlists, into Spotify. Precisely because I wanted to have access to all 'my' music in one app and one library.