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All Devices How to add entire music library to iPhone for offline listening?

Juicy Box

Juicy Box

macrumors 604
Original poster
Sep 23, 2014
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I had this problem almost a decade ago with iTunes, and it appears that there is still no built-in fix.

I got an iPhone replacement under AC+ at the end of last summer, and never added my stored music back to my iPhone SE.

I never remember when I have WiFi access, only when I actually need offline music, so it has taken me many months to actually re-download all my music.


As for the problem, is there still no intuitive way to download entire music library for offline listening?

Maybe like eight years ago, I ran into this issue before and the only solution that I was able to come up with was to create a playlist in iTunes that included all my songs.

One would think with many iOS versions since then, there would now be a simple, intuitive way to download all the music from the cloud.

I looked around iOS 13 version of music and didn't see anything, but realizing that lately it seems like Apple sometimes has roundabout ways of doing simple tasks, maybe there is a way to download the entire library, without doing a workaround.

Anyone have anything?
 
I've been doing what you said with playlists. My full library won't fit on my phone.
 
You can create a smart playlist from your Mac that includes all your songs and download it on your iPhone.
 
Personally I don't consider this broken. It simply does not do what you want. Spotify doesn't provide an option to download one's entire library either. This is simply not the model for these services. There are third party apps that will let you copy over your entire library into them. Perhaps those would be a better option for you?
 
badatusernames said:
You can create a smart playlist from your Mac that includes all your songs and download it on your iPhone.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I figured this one out a long time ago:
vertical smile said:
I was able to come up with was to create a playlist in iTunes that included all my songs.
Click to expand...
I was just curious if there was some other way, a more intuitive way, than just a work-around.


Paco II said:
Personally I don't consider this broken.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I did not necessarily consider it broken either, just inconvenient an unintuitive. A "download all" feature seems like a natural thing to have.

I am not the only one, as there are many, many other people asking the same question for almost a decade now.

Although, in my search, I had not seen anything from iOS 13, so I was hoping that there may have been a way.

I am just surprised that it has not made it into iOS so far, especially with device storage options being quite large now.

BTW, a "download all" feature is in the MacOS versions, and has been for a long time. It is just missing from iOS.


Paco II said:
There are third party apps that will let you copy over your entire library into them.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I have a few third-party apps that do this, as it does seem like a natural feature to have when to comes to libraries of media.

I would have gone totally third-party with my music, but two major reasons I have not yet. One being that Apple's Music is totally free with a crazy high storage limit, and the other is that CarPlay, in my experience, tends to be really buggy when it comes to third-party apps.

The Music app seems the most stable and still the best option for now.

Paco II said:
Spotify doesn't provide an option to download one's entire library either.
Click to expand...

I hold Apple to a higher standard, I guess.
 
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Paco II said:
It's your 'free' reference I don't understand. Apple Music is not free.
Click to expand...
Oh, sorry, I though that it was mentioned in the first post explaining the situation, I have been a iTunes Match subscriber since it first launched.
 
OK got it. Well, you're paying for that feature in your subscription so it's not really free. 😊

vertical smile said:
Oh, sorry, I though that it was mentioned in the first post explaining the situation, I have been a iTunes Match subscriber since it first launched.
Click to expand...
 
Paco II said:
OK got it. Well, you're paying for that feature in your subscription so it's not really free. 😊
Click to expand...
Meaning above than what I already have.

Not having to pay for additional services or storage, like some third-party apps.

The 100,000 song storage is standard, works well with CarPlay. There are a few other benefits as well, like being able to import a new CD on my headless Mac, it gets added to my library, spits out the CD, and I have access to it on all my devices without doing anything except put a disc in the disc drive.
 
I have the feeling that Apple, and others - it's not just Apple even though the reasons for it isn't always the same, doesn't want you to do such a thing. It's my belief that the primary reason for it is that as a device manufacturer, Apple doesn't want you to equate your library size with your device storage size. they don't want you thinking directly about one or the other and even less how they relate.

That is, they want you to be completely comfortable with everything being in the cloud even if it exceeds the capacity of your device. As your iOS device renewal period drops so does Apple's sales opportunities drops with it. So if your life in is the cloud then they get to make money from you 24/7. While Apple Music does not affect iCloud and vice versa it's a package deal in behaviour modification in order to get you used to "in the cloud".

That's all well and good but it doesn't help me when I'm stuck on a long haul flight with no access to the cloud. I do it enough such that having my library with me, without hassle, is important. I have plenty of mobile data for the cloud to work… but that hardly helps when my physical altitude is above the clouds. Nor do I want to care to burn any more of my precious battery runtime in needing internet access when on the go even though I have mains power when on long haul.

What I have done is to create a smart playlist based on what isn't downloaded. While the first time it'll be a download all, but going forward its a download what's new. It works well for me. I agree with you that there should be an in-built way to do such a thing. I'm well past spending time worrying about what could or should be though.

I don't know about others but I buy my device storage capacities based around my iTunes music library download size more than anything else. I can always juggle things like app and photos needs however the music library is a growing, but predominantly static, storage requirement.

My Apple Music library is currently at 85GB so my base device storage size needs to be at least 128GB whether it be iOS or Android. While that works 256GB is the better size. For the time being Apple has priced themselves out of my wanting to prioritise iOS, vs Android, just in this alone even though I subscribe to Apple Music.
 
I still don’t understand how they don’t have a way to DL all music.

Seems like an oversight seeing as how they promote their upgrade program & Apple Music. Wether you upgrade every year or every few years, you eventually need a way to get your music to your new device easily.
 
does apple pay recording artists a fee if the song is downloaded, in addition to a fee for each play/streaming of the song?
 
I'm also struggling to find a way to download my music to my iPhone since subscribing to Apple Music. I've spent more than a few hours researching this online, starting with Apple's own help pages, and nothing really works. I'd cancel Apple Music, but it makes my HomePods way more useful. I've found some work-arounds, like using third-party music apps for things that aren't "matchable" in Apple Music, like CDs I've ripped of recordings that aren't in Apple Music, or live shows I've purchased and downloaded directly from a band's website. I've just sort of accepted that I have to live with this inconvenience now, when it used to be super easy to store as much of my iTunes library as my phone's free storage would allow. :-<
 
roncron said:
I've found some work-arounds, like using third-party music apps for things that aren't "matchable" in Apple Music, like CDs I've ripped of recordings that aren't in Apple Music, or live shows I've purchased and downloaded directly from a band's website.
Click to expand...

I can't tell you the number times people on here have told me "just use ____ streaming service". People like us have a large music collection of things that AREN'T on streaming.
 
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