iTunes: How to sync large offline library with iCloud Music Library enabled?

[Nikos]

I'm confused as to how we're supposed to sync our music now. I have about 7,000 offline songs in my library that I sync from my Mac to my iOS devices via USB.

Now that iTunes Cloud Library is enabled, I can't do this. I was reading about putting every song into a playlist and syncing it that way, but that doesn't seem right.

Last night, I enabled iCloud Music Library on both my Mac and iPhone. I then went to each artist on my iPhone and tapped "Make Available Offline.' As you can imagine, it was quite annoying given the size of my library.

Surely this can't be the new way to sync music. Do I have to add music to iTunes, then make it available offline via my iPhone every time? I guess after this initial load, it won't be so bad but I am getting "unable to download" errors that I am retrying and hoping will work.

Also, where is this iTunes Cloud Library being saved? Am I saving iTunes versions offline, or my original 320kbps MP3s? I have a ton of music that isn't available on iTunes, so what's going to happen with those? Will play counts continue to update when I sync?

I'm thinking about disabling iCloud Music Library altogether, but I'm enjoying being able to save some music from Apple Music offline.

Sorry for the long post, but I'm sort of going crazy here. Any and all help would be much appreciated.

 

[flur]

You've figured out the system - you are supposed to upload everything to the cloud and then re-download on your phone.

The versions you are downloading to your phone are the iTunes (technically the Apple Music) versions (WITH DRM if you're not a Match subscriber). For stuff not available in Apple Music, your actual files should be uploaded to the cloud and then downloaded to your phone. Be aware that Apple often mismatches live recordings with studio, explicit with clean, singles to albums, etc., so you may not always get the version you want if the song shows as "Apple Music" or "Matched" rather than "Uploaded". Also, many of us have had iCloud Music Library mess with metadata, artwork, or remove music files from our hard drives, so make sure you have a solid backup of your iTunes library AND your music files.

I've considered syncing everything I want on my phone to my phone and then turning on iCloud Music Library only on my phone. That way I avoid the whole "sync my entire" library scenario but still get to save stuff from Apple Music. This leaves me without a way to sync anything new from my computer though. The only time I'd need to do this is if I got something not available in either iTunes or AM, so there's only a slim chance I'd need to do it, but the risk is there.

 

[Nikos]

You've figured out the system - you are supposed to upload everything to the cloud and then re-download on your phone.

The versions you are downloading to your phone are the iTunes (technically the Apple Music) versions (WITH DRM if you're not a Match subscriber). For stuff not available in Apple Music, your actual files should be uploaded to the cloud and then downloaded to your phone. Be aware that Apple often mismatches live recordings with studio, explicit with clean, singles to albums, etc., so you may not always get the version you want if the song shows as "Apple Music" or "Matched" rather than "Uploaded". Also, many of us have had iCloud Music Library mess with metadata, artwork, or remove music files from our hard drives, so make sure you have a solid backup of your iTunes library AND your music files.

I've considered syncing everything I want on my phone to my phone and then turning on iCloud Music Library only on my phone. That way I avoid the whole "sync my entire" library scenario but still get to save stuff from Apple Music. This leaves me without a way to sync anything new from my computer though. The only time I'd need to do this is if I got something not available in either iTunes or AM, so there's only a slim chance I'd need to do it, but the risk is there.

Thanks for the reply! I've gone back to the old system. Unfortunately, I won't be able to save Apple Music for offline play, which I was really enjoying, but it's best for me.

I also considered enabling iCloud Music Library only on my phone, but syncing from my Mac is too important to me. Hopefully Apple will change something to give us the best of both worlds.

EDIT: Even though I've disabled iCloud Music Library, thousands of songs are still being downloaded to my iPhone. Doesn't look like there's any way to stop this, and it's going extremely slow. Looks like I'm going to have to restore the iPhone.

 

[KSean]

My method to sync an entire library is to create a smart playlist in iTunes with the criteria of "Media Kind" = "Music". The smart playlist syncs over to the iPhone, and then you can make this playlist available offline, which downloads all the songs.

What I've found though is that my iPhone will seemingly randomly decide to delete some or all of the offline tracks... so be warned

 

[yg17]

What I've found though is that my iPhone will seemingly randomly decide to delete some or all of the offline tracks... so be warned

That has me worried, you're not the first person I've seen say that. Normally not an issue, but I have a 17 hour flight coming up in a couple months. The last thing I want is for my iPhone to decide to delete everything right before I board.

 

[flur]

What I've found though is that my iPhone will seemingly randomly decide to delete some or all of the offline tracks... so be warned

Even scarier, I've had iTunes delete from my hard drive on my Mac - AM and iCML are doing all kinds of scary things they shouldn't.