[How-to] Download all your iTunes Match songs at once on iTunes

[BreakingKayfabe]

I know some people would like to download all their own music back onto their Mac or PC on iTunes now that Apple Music is changing up some of people's matched songs. I wanted to re-download all my stuff to save on an external drive and I was able to do it without having to manually download each and every song.

- Go to "My Music" in iTunes
- List all your songs by going to the top right of the iTunes screen. You'll see the option to sort the music by albums, songs, etc.
- Highlight one song. Doesn't matter which one
- While the song is highlighted go to "Edit" at the menu at the top and select "Select All"
- Now that all your songs are highlighted do a right click on the list and select "Make Available Offline" and your songs will now start downloading all at once

Hope this helps those who didn't think this was possible.

 

[kch50428]

Nice... This should calm some folks' ire.

 

[Ringfinger]

Shouldn't you already have the music on your computer since you theoretically uploaded it to iTunes Music? What am I missing here?

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

Shouldn't you already have the music on your computer since you theoretically uploaded it to iTunes Music? What am I missing here?

In my case I deleted the music after I uploaded it to iCloud since it took up about 20GB of storage space on my Mac.

I should have saved the music on an external drive from the get-go, but better late than never.

 

[Ringfinger]

So you are worried that your "matched" music will somehow get DRM'd? I have had match for years and every time I add something, once it is matched I delete my original and download the matched version. I see what you are trying to do, it's all about the worry of DRM? Just making sure I am not missing something.

 

[kch50428]

No, Apple is not adding DRM to songs on your Mac you already own | iMore

 

[Ringfinger]

Yup I know that but maybe the OP does not?

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

So you are worried that your "matched" music will somehow get DRM'd? I have had match for years and every time I add something, once it is matched I delete my original and download the matched version. I see what you are trying to do, it's all about the worry of DRM? Just making sure I am not missing something.

I'm more just trying to backup my actual owned music from match at once before I start adding more and more music from Apple Music that mixes into "My Music" and would actually be DRM'd if I decided to backup "My Music."

In other words, I don't want to one day have to determine what is DRM'd in my music and what is not in case I decide to drop my Apple Music subscription.

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

Yeah, I'm aware that my matched songs don't get DRM added to them.

 

[Ringfinger]

Gotcha.

 

[maximusaurelius]

People get so stressed out about inconsequential details. It doesn't matter why they wanted to download their music files. This post was about how to do it, which I found helpful!

 

[Butch Freeman Greenawalt]

Hey Brother,

Control +A also works and I'm appreciative of the info and wondered if I might ask a couple of dumb questions maybe you can help?
Here's my thing I'm out of room already have 25,642 or so which means no more uploads for me. I have lost about 90 gig of music because after uploading it to a safe place I deleted it to regain my disk space. <insert bad words> I have collections which contain about 8000 duplicates that are not likely really all duplicates. But they get counted anyway and subtracted from my 25000 count I'm guessing? (got any idea how many Rolling Stones or Aerosmith or Deep Purple albums have the same songs on it?).

Right now I'm looking at on the bottom of the page 25682 items 83.2 days 178.01 GB
On the left I see what I imagine are download icons Circle of dots but they are not on every song.
These are the 682 that weren't uploaded I'm guessing?

Where does it download them all to? it doesn't say?
Once they are all downloaded will my cloud/match account be empty so I can re-upload what I want again?
25000 songs with even a good internet will take a bit longer than a sandwich I'm thinking
When you go into album view and it shows a duplicate is there any way to get rid of the annoying duplicate cloud with the line through it?

If I say keep it, it isn't a duplicate!!! Why doesn't that stupid duplicate cloud with the line thingy go the hell away? I also did try to find a method to correct all duplicates at once. Like creating an all songs folder and the smart list folder folder trick which was worthless and didn't work. If you have a method for this do you have a way that works to isolate all duplicates into one confined space where someone can effectively view and manage what are or are not duplicates? That would be a HUGE help!!!

Last question is there a progress method to see whats downloaded left to do? Do these circles go away when their downloaded?

 

[ideabuilder]

Thank you so much!!! Even the APPLE SENIOR ADVISOR! Had no clue how to do this and told me "It was not possible" Just out of curiosity - Why would not apple have a "Download All " on the bottom and why don't their Senior Advisors know about this? I find that strange.

 

[davec47]

Absolute genius. Thankyou. Impossible for me to have done this on my own. I am sitting watching hundreds of songs download one after another. Thanks again. Genius.

 

[casey2_10003]

Do you know how to download all of the songs using iTunes on the phone?

 

[TomAtAlki]

If I select all and then say "Make available offline" how do I direct the download to an external disk? I don't have room on my internal disk for any more music so want to switch all of my music to an external disk. I travel a lot in areas without internet and want to be able to pick up my external disk and take all my music....kinda like the old iPod :=)

Thanks

 

[Tom Crawford1]

Shouldn't you already have the music on your computer since you theoretically uploaded it to iTunes Music? What am I missing here?

A scenario where this is sometimes necessary is if you have to do a clean install. My Time Machine hard drive became corrupt, so all of my matched songs were gone. I have 16 years of songs, so this solution offered here was a major time-saver.