Force iTunes Match to Upload/Match Duplicates?

Is there a way to get iTunes Match to match/upload a track listed with the icloud status duplicate? Say you have an album of an artist and then a greatest hits from them too and you would not like a track to be missing when trying to play that album on another computer or device. Sometimes this doesn't happen and it uploads/matches anyways. It's nice that it find duplicates and but it would be nice to say, "hey, I want it to be there." I've tried to add it again and that rarely works.

Hi Bob,
I have posted a workaround for forcing uploads, and I did address the "Duplicate" message in my post. Please take a look at it and let me know if it answers your questions or gives you a starting point. I've been testing different things with Match and it sure has its quirks. In my experience, I would need to make a change to the metadata (often just changing the album to something slightly different) to get around the endless "Waiting" stage.
Here's my workaround to allow a 'forced upload': https://discussions.apple.com/message/20401295#20401295
Hope it helps!
Nick

Similar Messages

How can I force iTunes to skip uploading some files to iCloud?

I have a *lot* of college level courses from The Great Courses in iTunes. I have no need of having them in iCloud. How do I force iTunes to NOT upload these files? I only need my music in iCloud and not these lectures. Besides, The Great Courses has an iOS app that already lets me stream these if I choose. So there is no need for them to be uploaded into iCloud.
Linda

Thank you. Actually they are uploading. I had purchased the CD's. Each lecture is divided into 6 files on the CD's. I used "Join Together" and Quicktime and joined all of the tracks together for 1 file per lecture. Those don't exist, as I have them, in iCloud. So, iTunes is in fact uploading all of these files.
The link you provided was for hiding purchases. These were not purchased through Apple.
So, the question remains. Is there a way to prevent iTunes from uploading certain files into iCloud?
Thanks,
Linda

How can I force iTunes Match to upload a "Duplicate" to the iCloud?

I have one album where the first track was uploaded, and the other eleven tracks are all tagged as "Duplicates." These tracks were not uploaded to the iCloud. How can I force iTunes Match to upload these eleven tracks erroneously tagged as Duplicates?

I'm adding my 2¢ because I just "discovered" iTunes Match yesterday and decided to subscribe thinking there was no downside (doh!).
Well, firstly, there's the enormous downside of Apple's structure not being able to keep up with (what they should have known would be) enormous interest... my iTunes has been matching for >20-hours and has yet to reach half-way up my library. BTW: I thought I read the iTunes Match info fairly thoroughly prior to subscribing and did not see anything about it being for songs vrs full library.
And secondly, and even more important to me, is that Apple's method of determining duplicate songs is not robust enough, especially for classical music and audio books (e.g., LoTR). I have >12000 "songs" in my library, and Match has determined a boatload are duplicates. They are not of course and even if Apple's duplicate-determining algorithm just looked at disc & track numbers it would "know" that. Anyway, there's a fairly good chance I will not have one complete album upload/match out of >500 albums. That's nae Scottish, in anybody's book.
Gotta say, using Garage Band to individually alter >2000 "songs" on the off-chance that may assist Apple's duplicate algorithm to be correct is not gonna happen. If, after the matching/uploading is complete, I still have >even 100-not-duplicate-songs listed as duplicates, I'm getting my $29.95 subscription back.
... and C: does anybody know why Apple's Lion spell check doesn't work on Apple's discussion forums???

WORKAROUND - Found a Way to Force iTunes Match to UPLOAD

I wanted to let everyone know that after months of living with incorrect matches (mainly The Beatles in Mono), I've finally found a semi-easy workaround to force uploads. I haven't found this anywhere else, but if someone else has documented it, I apologize. I posted this onto one of the many threads regarding the issue quite some time ago (~ 6 months), but I wanted to make sure it was seen by as many as possible. (Sorry for the long post—skip anything you're not interested in! )
MY THEORY
The basis of this was noticing that there seemed to be discrete steps to the matching process (when adding via already-ripped FILES and not CD at least):
You add the files to iTunes
You can force a scan by right-clicking and selecting "Add to iCloud"
iTunes scans the new files
iTunes reports that it is sending the file data to Apple
iTunes waits for a "Matched" or "No Match" response from Apple
If the response is "No Match," then iTunes triggers the upload
After observing this for some time, I concluded that if (edited) files could be imported that would give a definite "No Match" result, there may be time in-between steps 4 and 6 to replace the files with the real ones (which had been triggering a false match in the past). To my delight, this worked. Here's what I did:
STEP-BY-STEP:
Deleted existing files from iTunes/iCloud, but kept the files on the computer. I then moved these to a different folder.
Took existing files and converted them with dBpoweramp. This will cost money but is well worth it if you are looking for a way to force an upload to iTunes Match. I converted them using the same AAC settings (this doesn't matter), but added the "reverse" DSP, which reverses the audio. This has been enough to foil iTunes into not matching the track, while ensuring that each file will contain unique audio data. This will be quick and painless, at least for the first time. I did it this way because it will retain all of the tags AND length of the file. iCloud will get the file length from this step, and will not change it afterward...so you probably want to use files of the same length as the real ones.
Now I have a copy of the files with audio gibberish but still having correct metadata, etc. I then put these files in my "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder.
Right-clicked on these files and selected "Add to iCloud." If you use "Sort Album" like I do, you can change it before this step and it will upload into iCloud with the correct sort information. If done afterward, it doesn't usually sort correctly on my iPhone.
After iTunes displayed the message "Sending information to Apple" (don't remember the exact message), I pasted the original (correct) files and replaced my audio gibberish files. It is important to note that the filenames must be the same, e.g. "01 Come Together.m4a" if a single-disc, or "1-01 Back in the USSR.m4a" if multidisc. iTunes will also truncate the file name at 36 characters (I believe) so this will all need to be done beforehand. I use various MP3tag actions that I'd be happy to share if anyone wants them. If you are starting with a file that has already existed in your iTunes library, this will already be done (provided iTunes is managing the library).
When Apple returns a "No Match" signal back to iTunes, it then begins to upload the files which I have just pasted.
This has worked for me 100% if doing the upload one time. In some rare cases, I may decide to EQ a file and then re-upload, or otherwise edit the file. Or perhaps I have more than one version (original/remastered, or original mix/remix) that I want to coexist in my library. In those cases, I have again utilized the dBpoweramp "VST Plug-in" DSP, where I use something like Freq Show to garble the audio. It is necessary for the garbled audio to be unique each time for this to work.
A FEW THINGS I HAVE LEARNED
If you delete a file and wish to re-upload it, you can use the same files from step 2 (provided you still have them) and iTunes will recognize them as the files previously uploaded. I am not sure how long this works, but your uploaded music remains in iCloud, though invisible, for some time — even if you selected "Delete from iCloud."
iTunes/iCloud evidently does use metadata (at least Album) to help determine if you've already uploaded a song within the same album. I ran into this when trying to test an EQ/level change I had made, and even though the audio content was completely different, iTunes would not upload or would flag as duplicate. If I altered the Album field in any way it would proceed. Other tags can be kept the same.
If you do have mono content, it is trivial to use the dBpoweramp "Channel Mapper" DSP to remove one channel during the conversion from lossless to AAC. The nice thing is, I encode with Nero AAC quality 0.65 (~250 kbps VBR) and this will reduce the file size significantly. There is no real advantage to keeping both channels, since you're doing a lossy conversion anyway. Sometimes the encoders (even very good ones) don't see the file as being mono, due to different artifacts and noise in the left and right channels. Or perhaps the mono tape was transfered with a stereo tape deck, etc. Try it yourself and see if it makes a difference. Also, iTunes will report the file as "mono" when you do "Get Info." I keep the FLAC disc image/tracks in stereo so it will exactly match the CD, but only encode one channel to lossy. If you know the source is mono for sure then there is no possible advantage to keeping both channels of a lossy conversion. (If you're not sure if the source is mono, use your favorite DAW, e.g. Audacity, to invert the phase of one channel before combining left and right. Once you do that, if all that is left is very low-level noise or other artifacts, then you know it is safe to encode as mono.)
IF YOU CARE ABOUT MASTERING
It is also worth noting that if you care about what mastering you have in your iTunes library, there is no other way I know of to guarantee you have the correct version in your iCloud library except to upload it. I found this out the hard way: I had a retail CD version of Paul McCartney's "RAM" album that was recently remastered. I put the CD in, added to my library, and iTunes Match quickly returned with "Matched" for all tracks. Some time later I was listening with headphones and noticed that some tracks had hardly any hiss at all, whereas others had a good amount of it. Since "RAM" is a rather hissy album, I investigated it against the CD and finally found that many of the tracks were being matched to other versions of the song (either from the earlier CD version or compilations with different mastering). So most of the tracks were hit with heavy noise reduction for the iCloud version. I had to follow this upload procedure to be sure that I got the right version. Purchasing the item(s) from the iTunes store would work also, but I had already paid $100 for the deluxe box set. This same problem occured with the Bob Dylan mono box. I was surprised to find that iTunes actually matched my mono versions to mono versions, and continued listening until one day the stereo version played on a certain track instead of the mono. So, even if the iTunes store has the mix/mastering that you are wanting to add to iCloud, the only sure way is to upload it (or purchase it from iTunes in the first place.) If given the choice going forward I would choose the latter, since I am not hung up on physical media and cannot tell a 256K iTunes store encode apart from a FLAC file in a double blind test (almost nobody can).
This has been bothering me for months. I'm really happy to be able to play my correct files on all my devices! For those of us who have unique versions or masterings of albums we prefer, this should be a workaround until Apple decides to give us a "force upload" option. I have tested this on Windows 7 primarily. Should work on any OS.
Hope everyone finds this useful!
Nick

I wanted to first thank you for this, as this is the only workaround literature that seems to be floating around out there. With that said, I know it is a big ask, but is there any way that you could create a video showing step by step how to do what you do? I have several tracks that are stuck in waiting mode, and if left in itunes, will never upload or match...they only cause the upload process to hang up and restart. I've tried leaving it for days...I've tried converting the files, signing in and out of itunes (and itunes match), updating itunes match, and I tried your technique...unfortunately to no avail. Perhaps I didn't do your technique correctly. I used audacity to reverse the audio.
ANY help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!
Thanks

Will iTunes Match re-upload songs replaced in Library at higher bitrate?

In my iTunes Library (18,000+ tracks, mainly ripped from my own CDs), I have tracks ripped at different bitrates, from 128, 160, 256, 320 kbps, as well as Apple Lossless. Given how cheap storage has become since I first ripped many of my CDs, I am going through my CD collection one last time and re-ripping everything into Apple Lossless (ALAC) format. I am starting with the tracks that are in the Library now at 128 & 160 kbps. Many of these songs have been matched by iTunes Match, so they are available to me from iTunes at 256 kbps, but I will still create ALAC versions.
My question is about the tracks that iTunes Match has uploaded to Apple. When I replace the tracks in my Library recorded at low bitrates with the ALAC version, I would like for iTunes Match to notice and re-upload the new file. I understand that iTunes Match will convert ALAC files and upload them at a max of 256 kbps, but right now it seems that iTunes Match does not recognize changes in the underlying file on my computer. For example, if a track was originally uploaded as 128 kbps and then I replace it in my Library with an ALAC version, the 128 kbps version stays on Apple's servers instead of being replaced by a 256 kbps version. I have tested this by downloading tracks from the cloud on other machines connected to my account and they come down at 128 kbps, even though an ALAC file is in the "master" Library.
So my question: is there a way to get iTunes to replace uploaded files on Apple's servers with the highest bitrate version possible if you change the local file after it has been uploaded?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Drew

Hippogreen,
I chose not to follow your Item 4, ie, I am ripping new ALAC tracks directly over the lower bitrate tracks in my existing Library. I just did not want all the extra labor involved in recreating playlists when I reimport, and I did not want to lose the metadata of playcounts, date original imported to library, etc.
If you do as I am doing and want the new ALAC track to directly replace the existing ones in your Library, your Item 1 is relevant:
1) If I have heavily corrected the metadata of a track and it is substantially different from the info provided by iTunes (when I re-rip the CD into ALAC format), how will iTunes know that it is a duplicate? I assume I will have to manually de-duplicate in such a situation. I am thinking of uploaded rather than matched tracks.
Like you, I had heavily corrected and personalized metadata, including my preferred capitalizations (often very different from Gracenote and the automated data from iTunes!), track performers, etc. I wanted to preserve all of that, but if your tracks' metadata differs from that which is automatically supplied when you insert a CD, then iTunes will not offer to replace the existing tracks. The solution for me was an AppleScript I found at the fantastic website Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes (dougscripts.com). Get the script "Copy Track Info to CD Tracks v1.3". The URL is:
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=trackinfotocdtracks
This script copies all of your personailzed metadata to the CD tracks so that your own metadata is preserved while iTunes recognizes that the CD is already in your library and replaces the tracks. You can read the complete instructions at dougscripts.com and in the included documentation. It has been a lifesaver, and is truly the only way I have been able to move forward quickly re-ripping my CDs into ALAC.
Note also that when iTunes "replaces" the existing tracks with the new ALAC versions, it does not actually delete the original files. They remain in the same folder where originally stored, but they just become unlinked from the iTunes Library entries. The new files are linked to the iTunes entries, but you are not in danger of losing your original files. You have to go in and delete them manually if you want, or keep them.

Instrumental versions falsely matched with non-instrumental versions. Force iTunes not to match?

I have an album from coldplay with instrumentals that I imported into iTunes.
iTunes matched some songs and others were uploaded.
But when I listen to the album on my phone, the matched songs are actually the non-instrumental ones.
Is there a way to force iTunes to upload a Song and not match it?

Thanks. Though this is as unsatisfying as the way to get music videos from my mac to my iphone.
- deactivate Match
- sync video
- reactivate match.
for every single video...
Found an answer descring how you can trick itunes into uploading the file that was actually not the one it tried to match.

HT4913 itunes crashes while uploading to itunes match

itunes crashes while uploading track info to itunes match (windows 8)

Apparently, this is a duplicate of
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3206849?tstart=0
However, no on in that thread has a solution.

Why won't iTunes let me download or play my matched and uploaded music?

According to iTunes, I have 5,009 songs now available in iCloud. Most of these were either matched or uploaded. They are not stored locally on my PC, as I use an external hard drive for that, and it's not hooked up right now. I want to listen to some of my music on the PC.
When I open iTunes, the iCloud status reflects that songs are matched or uploaded, but there is no download icon next to them -- the only songs with that icon are ones that I originally purchased from iTunes. And there are also many songs that were purchased from iTunes that also don't have a download icon next to them. Everything has an exclamation point next to it, reflecting that my external hard drive isn't connected. And if I double-click any of the songs that don't have a download icon (most of them), I get the standard message that iTunes can't locate the song.
I've tried turning Match off and on multiple times, and also updating Match. Tried exiting iTunes and reopening. Nothing helps. In fact, every time I turn Match back on, it asks me if I want to add this computer to iCloud -- as if I haven't added it 10 times already.
Match has been working fine on my iPod.
Here's what I'm seeing, just to illustrate -- you can see that there is a download icon next to the songs in one album, which was purchased, but nothing netx to the otehrs, which are all matched or uploaded:
I'm going nuts. Can anyone help me figure out what's going on or what I'm doing wrong?

I agree with Michael. What's happening is because you broke the link to your external drive. As far as Match is concerned, you still have all of those songs available to you locally.
If you've never created a new library in iTunes, it's easy and painless. Switching back to your main library after you hook back up your external drive is easy too. On a Mac you just hold down the option key when launching iTunes to get the prompt to either create a new library or to link to one you already have - simple as that.
For what it's worth, I set up a second library after enabling iTunes Match. All I put in it is new music I want added to the cloud. It saves me a lot of time and if I really want a copy of the songs locally in my main library, they still show up via Match as downloads, so I can grab them anytime.

How can it that half of my songs are matched in iTunes Match where the other songs from the same CD (ripped by Itunes) are not matched but uploaded?

I started with ITunes Match a few days ago (I have the latest versions of all OS's etc)
- The whole process took more then two days to complete for the first time.
- Half of my songs are matched in iTunes Match where the other songs most of the time from the same CD (most ripped by ITunes) are not matched but uploaded(?)
- Complete CD's are not recognized, they are however available in the ITunes store (songs in my library not available in ITunes are an exception).
- The match part overall is less then 50%, which is a complete disappointment.....
- When I activate ITunes Match on my IPod, IPhone and IPad the art-work does not load or only partly.
- Loading songs on iOS is extremely slow... and that is definitely not due to my internal network.
- ICloud (ITunes Match) on the apple TV stops working after every 15 seconds because it losses connection to the ITunes server....
I am a real Apple fan for the last decade but what a disappointment is this......before I started with ITunes Match everything worked seamlessly.

The number of Songs that 'matched' is simply a function of the current iTunes Match service process. It is not unusual to have multiple Songs in an otherwise perfectly matched album be uploaded - often it is very possible to find the album in the iTunes Store.
The Artwork does tend to reappear for many over a few days / weeks - however, if your library backup has all Artwork present it would be wise to save the Album Art separately and reapply to Albums not showing art work in the library grid view.
Many of the other performance issues you mention are not typical - though during the past working week or so the Apple Infrastructure has been very heavily loaded with multiples countries having service go-live symultaneously.

HT4915 If an unmatched(unavailable on iTunes)album is uploaded to iCloud and then later becomes available in the iTunes store, how do I get iTunes to try to match the song again?

I have checked the box to delete it from iCloud. However, when I put the songs back into iTunes and run a match, it appears Itunes has "remembered" that I uploaded them previously and doesn't look if there is a match in the store. It is really frustrating because I know the files are there on iTunes, and I want to upgrade them with the 256 ACC iTunes match version. Any help?

If you downloaded it on your computer's iTunes then it should be in the Books part of your library, if you downloaded it on an iOS device then it should be in the Music app on it. If it's not there, and you don't have a copy of it on your backup of your library, then you will need to try contacting iTunes Support and see if they will grant you a re-download (audiobooks are currently a one-time only download from the store, which I believe is a requirement from audible.com who supply them) : http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact/ - click on Contact iTunes Store Support on the right-hand side of the page, then Purchases, Billing & Redemption

HT5085 iTunes Match not upload songs.

iTunes Match not upload songs.
Done "Step 1: Gathering information about your iTunes library" and freeze.
Please advise how to solve this problem.

you are not alone
iTunes Match doesn't upload my songs?
Match process stalling out at end

ITunes 11.1.2 not showing Uploaded Matched

It seems Apple took away the column in Songs view that says Waiting/Uploaded/Matched.
Is this so? Talking lates Mavericks iTunes.

I just noticed this as well.
I killed last.fm scrobbler and restarted iTunes and the option for the column iCloud Status had reappeared under iCloud Download. Not positive if related to last.fm but I was worried apple removed the column.
I wish I knew exactly how it came back.
edit::
Try logging out of match, restart iTunes, log into Match, restart iTunes

I recently subscribed to iTunes Match. iTunes is trying to match and upload songs not purchased from the iTunes store; however, it keeps shutting down before it finishes. Has this happened to anyone else?

I recently subscribed to iTunes Match. iTunes is trying to match and upload songs not purchased from the iTunes store; however, it keeps shutting down before it finishes.

Turn off iTunes Match while holding down the Option key (Shift for Windows) then quit iTunes. Open it after a few seconds, and turn iTM back on.

ITunes Match Content Upload Limit

Hi;
Is there a limitation for content uploading to iTunes Match service?Can i upload any music any time to match and make it available for all my deivces?

For Itunes match you are limited to 25K tracks that have not been purchased in itunes store. Itunes store purchases are not counted towards this limit.
When you sign up for match, your library is scanned and tracks are matched or uploaded. The only tracks uploaded are those ones that Itunes can't match.
You cannot pick or choose the the tracks that you wish to be uploaded.
Matched, Uploaded & purchased will be available on your IOS devices.
Jim

On my mac Itunes Match quits uploading?

Are there steps to correct this? It says the same songs are being uploaded for days now. I have restarted it (itunes) I have restarted Match. I just want it to complete. Its a paid service. Has anyone done anything else to get it to work?

They would only be reflected automatically if you have subscribed to iTunes Match. Otherwise, you would have to sync with iTunes for the changes to be transfered to your devices.

Force iTunes Match to Upload/Match Duplicates?

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