iTunes Match, Macbook Air, Ext HD...help?

[JasonBourne1]

Ok, so I have a Macbook Air, iPad and iPhone.
I normally use an external HD for my photo and music library due to lack of space on the Air.

I signed up to iTunes Match, thinking that I would be able to listen to music without carrying my external HD with me every time as my music collection would be in the cloud.
iTunes Match matched half the tracks and uploaded the rest.

Now when I play them on the Air, half of the tracks play, while the others says 'File could not be located' which it normally says when my HD is not plugged in.
What's going on? Isn't is supposed to play regardless or am I in the wrong?

Any help?

 

[Bear]

It sounds like it thinks the music in question is already downloaded. Of course it won't play because the disk it is on isn't connected.

iTunes Match is designed so there's a source machine (usually a home system) and then a bunch of devices which can fetch music from iTunes Match and then play it.

As a reminder iTunes Match is not a backup service and you should keep your original music library intact on the "home" system.

 

[JasonBourne1]

But that's the thing. The matched music doesn't have a cloud icon next to it, even though the iCloud status does say the track is matched. Why do some tracks play without the HD plugged in and some don't?

 

[JasonBourne1]

Work around:

Create a new profile or library and login to iCloud. That does the trick.

 

[EmpyreanUK]

If there is no cloud icon then it means that iTunes considers the file as downloaded and residing locally, and that it is therefore not necessary to download the track and that it should instead be played from the local source (on your external hard drive). Only by deleting the local copy of the file (from within iTunes) will iTunes 'fall back' to the cloud-sourced copy of the track.