iTunes Match & External Hard Drive as Music Storage Question

[tz5099]

Here's the deal:

I have all of my music on my external hard drive. This is my entire iTunes library that I plug into my MacBook Pro to then listen to music via my computer. Question is: I've uploaded what music I can to iTunes Match. It's working perfectly on my iPhone 4 but when I go to download music on iTunes through the iCloud without my external hooked up, music files are not found. I thought it might be a bug and have not uploaded correctly as I got iTunes Match the day it came out. Therefore, I'm starting over from scratch in hopes that I won't have to rely on my external drive to listen to music on iTunes. (I'm just a little impatient for this to finish to see if it works this time, which is why I'm posting this.)

Am I totally way off here? Is this not the way iTunes Match is supposed to work or do I need to have the actual music on a drive somewhere for iCloud to pick it off when needed????

I have no idea what's going on and I feel like I'm lost in the iClouds. Can someone explain this all to me a little more? I'm open to links that break it all down for the not so Apple detail oriented folks.

Also will there be a day when I can actually look at my iTunes library through iCloud.com?

One last thing: Dups w/iTunes Match, is this a major problem for folks?

 

[zhenya]

The computer that you initiate the Match from will not have access to your library through the cloud (why would it need it? Ostensibly the music is local to that computer right?) A work-around I've suggested here before to people in your situation is to open iTunes with a second profile. Leave that profile empty but attach it to your Match account. That will allow you to stream the music to that computer when the drive is not available, and you can still attach to the main profile when necessary.

 

[ericsflowers]

Can you expound on this? I have a mac and would like to create the second iTunes profile like you describe, but I am unfamiliar with how to do that.

Thanks

 

[zhenya]

Open iTunes while holding down the shift key (Windows) or Option key (Mac). This will give you the opportunity to create a new profile. Leave this library empty, but sign into iTunes Match. You'll now see your entire library 'in the cloud', and be able to stream it from Apple's servers. If you want to switch back, merely open iTunes the same way and choose your original library.

 

[daveathall]

The computer that you initiate the Match from will not have access to your library through the cloud (why would it need it? Ostensibly the music is local to that computer right?) A work-around I've suggested here before to people in your situation is to open iTunes with a second profile. Leave that profile empty but attach it to your Match account. That will allow you to stream the music to that computer when the drive is not available, and you can still attach to the main profile when necessary.

Brilliant! Works a treat, thank you very much.

 

[jayrobinson]

I have the same deal as OP: All my iTunes music is on an external hard drive that I usually leave at home. I uploaded all tracks with iTunes Match, and now if I open iTunes without the drive attached I see errors on all tracks.

Is creating two separate iTunes Libraries (@zhenya refers to them as 'profiles') the best, or only, way to solve this problem?

Does anyone else know of any alternatives?

 

[jayrobinson]

Okay, I've been using this method for a while. It's not ideal, but it works.

 

[hafr]

The computer that you initiate the Match from will not have access to your library through the cloud (why would it need it? Ostensibly the music is local to that computer right?)

I keep my iTunes library on a NAS and I travel with my main computer. It's absolutely ridiculous that I would need to create an additional user in iTunes that I switch to when I'm not at home to be able to access my music in the cloud, when the only thing this service, that one have to pay for, is supposed to give you access to your music in the cloud.

 

[rctneil]

I've just received my new MacBook Pro. I've always had an iMac before and keep all my music on an external drive. I am now in the same predicament. I expected that if iTunes could not locate the music from the external drive then it would fallback to iCloud but it doesn't.

Super annoying.