question before trying out itunes match

[psywzrd]

I'm thinking about trying out itunes match so that I can listen to my itunes library at work; however, before I subscribe I'm assuming that I should copy my itunes library to an external drive just in case iTM screws up my library somehow.

I have an external HD that I use for Time Machine backups connected to my MB, so I was thinking about just copying my itunes library to that. Is it as easy as just copying the Music folder located under my username? That's where my library is located.

If I copy my library to the external drive and iTM somehow screws up my library (changes album artwork that I have, replaces explicit versions of songs with clean versions, etc.), can I just copy over the Music folder from the external drive and replace the one on my computer?

 

[impaler]

I'm thinking about trying out itunes match so that I can listen to my itunes library at work; however, before I subscribe I'm assuming that I should copy my itunes library to an external drive just in case iTM screws up my library somehow.

I would.

 

[psywzrd]

If iTM ends up screwing up my music library somehow, can I just copy over the backed up version or is there more to it than that?

 

[kslingo]

You should always have a backup of your iTunes library just in case if a iTunes update decides to go haywire and corrupt your library... Just back it up to save yourself headache after headache...

 

[psywzrd]

You should always have a backup of your iTunes library just in case if a iTunes update decides to go haywire and corrupt your library... Just back it up to save yourself headache after headache...

I actually have redundant backups. I use Time Machine so obviously my library is backed up there. I use CrashPlan so there's another backup there and now I backed my library up manually by putting another copy on my external HDD.

Now I just need to know what to do if iTM screws up my library. I'm assuming I can just copy over a known "good" copy of my library, but I'll wait for someone to answer my question before I do anything with iTM.

 

[Rigby]

Not sure what your question is. Of course you can backup your iTunes folder and restore it later. Just make sure that your backup includes both the library files (in the main iTunes folder) and the actual media files (normally located in a subfolder underneath the main folder).

Having a backup is of course always a good idea. But if you already have a time machine backup, I wouldn't bother making another one just for this. Turning on Match will not touch your original files or your metadata.

 

[psywzrd]

I thought I read that people were complaining that using iTM screwed up some of their album artwork and that some of their songs with explicit lyrics were replaced with clean versions.

Unless the issue is that when you're listening to your library on a device other than the original device where your library resides, iTM match will stream a clean version of an explicit and/or display album artwork that may differ from the album artwork embedded in your mp3 files.

If that's the case and I can safely turn on iTM without it making any changes whatsoever to my library, I'll definitely give it a shot.

 

[Rigby]

I thought I read that people were complaining that using iTM screwed up some of their album artwork and that some of their songs with explicit lyrics were replaced with clean versions. Unless the issue is that when you're listening to your library on a device other than the original device where your library resides, iTM match will stream a clean version of an explicit

Yes, that is the issue. In rare cases a song may be matched with a different version (like a non-explicit one). In those cases you'll hear the wrong version when you stream from the cloud on another device, or when you delete the original file yourself and re-download the matched version. But the latter will not happen on its own just by turning on iTunes Match. I've been using it for several years now and it has never touched any of my original files.

and/or display album artwork that may differ from the album artwork embedded in your mp3 files.

I have never seen it display wrong artwork or embed artwork in the original files. I have seen it fail to propagate artwork into the cloud though (i.e. sometimes songs will appear without artwork on other devices).

 

[psywzrd]

Thank you all for the answers. I signed up for iTM last night. All seems to have gone smoothly except for the fact that iTM doesn't seem to like smart playlists for some reason (says that they're not eligible). I then tried to create normal playlists with the same songs in it and it's telling me that they're not eligible because "icloud playlists can only contain music". These playlists do contain only music so I'm not quite sure what issue could be.

Any ideas?

 

[Rigby]

I then tried to create normal playlists with the same songs in it and it's telling me that they're not eligible because "icloud playlists can only contain music". These playlists do contain only music so I'm not quite sure what issue could be.

Enable the "iCloud Download" column in the playlist (in list format) and check if there are any ineligible items (crossed-out cloud icon), for example digital booklets (which are PDF files).

 

[psywzrd]

Enable the "iCloud Download" column in the playlist (in list format) and check if there are any ineligible items (crossed-out cloud icon), for example digital booklets (which are PDF files).

I know I'm bumping an old thread here, but I still need help with this. Some of the playlists do contain songs with the cloud icon crossed out, but they are only music files (no pdf files or anything like that). Many of the playlists do not contain any songs with the cloud icon crossed out. This is puzzling to me and Apple support was useless.

 

[Rigby]

I know I'm bumping an old thread here, but I still need help with this. Some of the playlists do contain songs with the cloud icon crossed out, but they are only music files (no pdf files or anything like that). Many of the playlists do not contain any songs with the cloud icon crossed out.

Songs that have a bitrate lower than 96kbps or are more than 200MB in size are ineligible for iTunes Match. I don't have an explanation for the second issue.

 

[psywzrd]

Songs that have a bitrate lower than 96kbps or are more than 200MB in size are ineligible for iTunes Match. I don't have an explanation for the second issue.

Neither of those conditions apply in my case.