New to iCloud - how long to upload my library?

[Phil77354]

I'm new to iCloud, having decided to try an Apple Music subscription when I received my HomePod speakers.

As a result my iTunes library, which is quite large, is now being uploaded to the cloud.

There are a couple of things I'm unclear about:

- uploading my library to the iCloud music library will take a fairly long time, I'm sure. In the meantime if I try to quit iTunes, I get the message: "Your music is being uploaded to your iCloud Music Library. If you quit now, your upload will be cancelled. Are you sure you want to quit?

What this seems to mean is that I need to keep my computer on and iTunes open for as long as it takes, potentially days if not weeks. I did quit iTunes once during this process, thinking that surely it would be able to resume when I reopened iTunes, but I'm not sure that is what happened. I would appreciate it if someone knowledgeable could clarify this.

- once I have my own music library uploaded to the cloud, then from a practical standpoint it is all available to me whether I'm at home or elsewhere, and using any of my devices - iPhone, iPad, etc. So what is the real difference between this, and iTunes Match? It seems to me that either one will accomplish the same thing, which is to make your own personal music library available to you via the cloud.

- I'm also hoping that going through this process of uploading my library to the cloud will not result in any changes being made to how my music has been painstakingly labeled and organized within my iTunes library. After taking so much time to edit the labels in various fields so that my music is consistently labeled and can be easily sorted and searched, not to mention making sure that the album artwork is correct for each of my albums, I sure do not want to lose any of that information. I am trusting (fingers crossed) that regardless of whatever is uploaded to the cloud, my iTunes library will remain unchanged and as I have set it up.

- as a further question, is there any way to see what is going on when the upload is underway? I can tell it is progressing either by keeping Activity Monitor open, showing the data sent activity, and to some extent I can see if the number of tracks with cloud symbols next to them is increasing. But it is not the same as when ripping a CD to iTunes, where it displays the status of the process as the CD is copied. The information is surely available but perhaps not via one of the normal iTunes menu options?

 

[TallGuyGT]

In iTunes, go to Music, select "Library" and then in the sidebar select "Songs". Right-click in the column headings, and add "iCloud Status". This column will tell you which songs have been matched in Apple's library, which have been uploaded, and which are still pending.

So to answer your questions:

- You can interrupt the process and resume later. By checking iCloud status next to each song, it will tell you what music has already been matched or uploaded, and what will resume uploading the next time you start iTunes.

- The difference between Apple Music and iTunes Match is that with Apple Music, you have access to Apple's music catalog for as long as you subscribe. After the subscription ends, you can no longer play the music you don't own. iTunes Match is if you only want your owned music in the cloud, and not access to Apple's streaming Service.

- iTunes should not change your meta-data, and I have never had a problem with this. I've seen some people complain of getting "explicit" songs matched with the "clean" versions, there are many threads on this.

- You can see the activity by looking at the iCloud status of each song. Once a song has been matched or uploaded, you have access to that song on all devices.

 

[Phil77354]

In iTunes, go to Music, select "Library" and then in the sidebar select "Songs". Right-click in the column headings, and add "iCloud Status". This column will tell you which songs have been matched in Apple's library, which have been uploaded, and which are still pending.

So to answer your questions:

- You can interrupt the process and resume later. By checking iCloud status next to each song, it will tell you what music has already been matched or uploaded, and what will resume uploading the next time you start iTunes.

- The difference between Apple Music and iTunes Match is that with Apple Music, you have access to Apple's music catalog for as long as you subscribe. After the subscription ends, you can no longer play the music you don't own. iTunes Match is if you only want your owned music in the cloud, and not access to Apple's streaming Service.

- iTunes should not change your meta-data, and I have never had a problem with this. I've seen some people complain of getting "explicit" songs matched with the "clean" versions, there are many threads on this.

- You can see the activity by looking at the iCloud status of each song. Once a song has been matched or uploaded, you have access to that song on all devices.

Thanks. It sounds like the uploading process is therefore essentially the same, whether iCloud or for iTunes Match. A few years ago I tried iTunes Match, I think it might have been when it was first introduced. It took a very long time to upload my music library and I did not find it useful at the time, so I didn't continue the subscription.

 

[TallGuyGT]

Yes, the match / upload process seems the same to me. I’ve purchased most of my music from iTunes, so I’ve never had an issue with what little music I have that wasn’t available on iTunes.

I like Apple Music as I’m listening to a lot of music I wouldn’t have purchased. And since they sell a year for a hundred dollars, seems like a good deal to me.