iTunes Match on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Summary

Learn about using iTunes Match on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Products Affected

iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iTunes Store

To use iTunes Match on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch you must first subscribe to iTunes Match using a computer, and have iOS 5.0.1 or later installed on your device. When you use iTunes Match on an iOS device or computer, that device or computer will be associated with Apple ID you use for iTunes Match. Learn more about subscribing to iTunes Match.

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Add an iOS device to iTunes Match

Note: Some features are not available in all countries.

  1. On your iOS device, go to Settings > Music. 

  2. Note: iTunes Match requires iOS 5.0.1 or later; you can find the latest iOS software here.

  3. Tap the iTunes Match switch to set it to ON.

  4. turn iTunes Match on

  5. To access your music in iCloud, open the Music Player app on your device. It may take a few minutes for your iTunes Match library to appear on your device depending on your Internet connection, and how large your iTunes Match library is. You may see an iCloud icon with a progress bar while your device syncs with iTunes Match.



  6. A download button will appear to the right of any content that you have in iCloud that doesn't already exist on your device.

Important:

  • When enabling iTunes Match on your iOS device, the music library on your iOS device will be deleted and then replaced with your music in iCloud.
  • Syncing music with iTunes will be disabled while iTunes Match is enabled on your iOS device. 
  • By default, when adding an iOS device to iTunes Match, downloading over a cellular network is not enabled1. To enable downloading over cellular for iTunes Match, choose Settings > iTunes & App Stores > Use Cellular Data > On.

Using iTunes Match

Downloading or streaming from iTunes Match

Once your iTunes Match library has finished syncing to your device, you can browse by Genius Mixes, Playlists, Artists, Songs, Albums, Compilations, Composers, and Genres. When you find a Genius Mix, playlist, album, or artist you like, simply tap on the Genius Mix or song title to begin streaming that song or playlist. If you begin streaming a song from a playlist, iTunes Match will continue playing through the rest of your playlist after the initial song has finished. If you'd like to download the song or playlist to your device, simply tap the download button to the right of the song or at the bottom of the playlist.  

Deleting songs downloaded to your device

You can delete songs that you downloaded to your device if you find that your device is running low on local storage space.

  1. Open the Music app on your device.
  2. Tap Songs from the bottom navigation bar.
  3. Scroll or search for the songs you would like to delete from your device.
  4. Swipe left or right on the songs, and then tap Delete. 

Note: You must be in Songs view to delete songs from your device.  

Editing Playlists

  1. Navigate to your playlists by tapping on Playlists from the bottom navigation bar.
  2. Select a playlist you would like to edit and scroll to the top of the playlist.
    • Tap Edit to delete or add individual songs for a playlist, or you can rearrange the sort order of songs contained in that playlist.
    • Tap Clear to delete all songs from a selected playlist. 
    • Tap Delete to delete the entire playlist from your iTunes Match library.

Deleting or clearing songs from a playlist does not remove the songs from your device if they've been downloaded. You must manually delete the songs from your device using the steps outlined above. 

Note: When you make changes to a playlist from your device, those changes will apply to your other iTunes Match enabled devices. Editing Smart Playlists cannot be done from an iOS device. To edit a Smart Playlist you must use a computer that is enabled for your iTunes Match library.  

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