Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

rmimac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 15, 2011
7
3
Is it possible to use iCloud to transfer songs from one laptop to another? I have all my music on one laptop, and I'm wondering if it's possible to get them all to another laptop using the same Apple ID and iTunes match. I thought this was possible...
 

Spiffyis5150

macrumors regular
Sep 5, 2007
112
23
Tulsa, OK
Yea, you could it that way assuming you're using the same Apple ID for both. With that said, why wouldn't you just use Home Sharing and sync the two that way? Then you could transfer the files locally and not have to redownload everything from iTunes Match.
 

rmimac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 15, 2011
7
3
mainly because a lot of my songs are really old from when i ripped cds during apple's rip mix burn campaign...i could get better quality songs this way :)

i can't seem to get this to work. on my home computer I have itunes match enabled. had it match all my music then upload the remainder over night. this morning i set up my iphone and it syncs everything to my iphone perfectly.

however, things aren't working on my other laptop. i authorize it with the same apple ID, then I turn on iTunes match...then I click add this computer but then it asks me to match this computer instead of pulling my music from the cloud from my other computer. if i click match this computer, it will unmatch all my other music, right? am i missing something?
 

Spiffyis5150

macrumors regular
Sep 5, 2007
112
23
Tulsa, OK
Yea, that makes sense, but if I was you(and it is actually because my setup is very similar with an iMac and a Macbook Pro), I'd delete all your old songs on your home computer and then redownload the 256Kbps versions and then use Home Sharing to get them over to your other computer.

With that said, adding your second computer does not unmatch songs. Adding your 2nd computer is like adding the library from it to the library on your home computer, that is, your iTunes Match library is a combination of both computers. On my Macbook Pro, when I turned on iTunes Match, it scanned the library, but didn't really do anything else because the songs on my Macbook Pro are exactly the same ones as on my iMac which had been previously scanned and identified when I turned on iTunes Match on my iMac. That is because I have only copied stuff from my iMac using Home Sharing. Now, if I had ripped a CD to my Macbook Pro only then iTunes Match would have scanned it, determined if it could match it and added it to the cloud as a match or uploaded it to the cloud for the rest of my devices to be able to pull it down.

The key is to remember that the library in the cloud is the sum of all your computers that have music and for which you've turned on iTunes Match.
 

rmimac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 15, 2011
7
3
I see.

If i download all my lower quality songs over again at 256kb/s...and then next year I don't renew my iTunes match membership, would those songs disappear?
 

Mal

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2002
6,253
30
Orlando
I see.

If i download all my lower quality songs over again at 256kb/s...and then next year I don't renew my iTunes match membership, would those songs disappear?

No. Those songs are downloaded permanently to your drive. They will only disappear if you delete them yourself.

BTW, that's been asked over and over again, so you could've found it easily via a search.

jW
 

tharris0101

macrumors member
Apr 15, 2010
97
0
Match works AWESOME with multiple computers. I have a work, a home laptop and my girlfriend who lives with me also has a laptop. We now have one library. No more "hey, can you put the new St Vincent on my laptop tonight?" Now, as sooon as I get something its available on all of my computers as well as my iphone, ipad and AppleTV.

Match isn't perfect yet, but it is already a hugely useful thing for me
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.