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How do I download all my music at once?

vortech

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First off, hello everyone. Great forum! My question is this.....I would like to download all my music from cloud to my iPad. However I don't want to have to press the cloud icon beside every single song! Is there a way I can download all my music with the click of one button? Thanks
 

twerppoet

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Not that I know of, but it should be possible to improve on one song at a time.

But, hold in mind I'm using iTunes Match (a payed for service). It works a lot like iTunes in iCloud (standard), but I can no longer check to see if there is a difference between them in my description.


First, go to Settings > Music, and make sure you have Show All Music turned on. This will insure that all your purchased tracks will show in the Music app. Tracks that are not on the iPad will have the cloud symbol next too them.

Once you do that, and the iPad has time to update, go to the Playlist, Album, and Artist tabs (whichever is most convenient) and tap on one of the items. Besides the cloud symbols next to each track there should be one in the header, usually next to the shuffle icon. Tap that to download any tracks in the list that are not already on the iPad.

While not perfect, it should be better than having to tap each individual track.

It will also work with the Compilation and Composer tab/views, but those are less likely to be useful. The Genre tab/view requires you to drill down to the album before you get the option, so no point in using that.


All this assumes you are not using iTunes on a computer. Downloading and syncing from the computer would be both easier and faster. Whether it would be worth setting up and using the computer for this (probably) one time task is another question entirely.
 

AQ_OC

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The thing about putting all your music on your iPad is that, if you think down the road a bit, this approach isn't going to work for long unless you stop buying any new music. I now have over 80GB of mp3s. No way I'm putting all that on any device that doesn't have at least a 1TB of space. And with iTunes Match being 25$/ year, it makes a lot more sense to just buy that and most of the music in your library will be in the cloud (only the parts of your library that is available from the iTunes Store will be "matched") and available via wifi.
 

twerppoet

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My music library is only about 20 GB. That's still too much to load my 32 GB iPad down with, but I've never felt the need to have more than a couple of decent playlists (just in case) on my iPad. It is not my primary music listening device. I ended up getting iTunes Match to get rid of the commercials in iTunes Radio.

At first the commercials were not a big deal. They were not louder than the music, and often seemed to be relevant. Then, none night I was using iTunes Radio to listen to some relaxing ambient tracks before going to sleep. While the commercial would have been no big deal normally, the sudden contrast with quiet rain and flute music had me levitating at least a foot out of bed {warning; statement may contain some exaggeration}

Anyway, what I really started out to say, is that if the OP has no computer or doesn't want to use one (and that's the impression I'm getting), they won't be able to take advantage of the Match part of iTunes Match. The imported (non-iTunes) tracks have to be on a computer in iTunes to be matched, and if not matchable to be uploaded to iCloud.

On the other hand, if the OP has no non-iTunes content then the virtues of iTune Match is, as you say, about having a large library that wont fit on the iPad available at all times. As long as your library is small enough to fit on the iPad, or you are willing to download and delete stuff manually, then iTunes in iCloud (all purchased tracks visible and downloadable) should be enough. You might as well wait until your library is big enough to bother paying for iTunes Match, unless the approximately $25 a year is worth some slightly better integration (quicker to play not downloaded tracks).

In sum, iTunes Match's main advantages are space savings on the iPad and integrating your non-iTunes tracks using cloud services. If neither of these apply, then save your money. It's not like a person can't change their minds and buy iTunes Match when it does start making sense.


Or like me, you can pay for it to remove some slight irritations, like commercials in iTunes Radio, if that applies. ;)
 

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