I notice that Apple Music will “match” stream content I own as files … I guess by virtue of the fact that I archived a lot of content in my iCloud folder, from a previous computer back up.
I also notice that I cannot navigate to these files, that I know are are there in iCloud, using a Finder > find-search.
Is this possibly due to a permission configuration … i.e. having been uploaded from, technically, an older user account albeit mine?
Do you see them in the Apple Music app?
If you can see them in the Apple Music app, follow the instructions here to download songs to your Mac:
Yes, I can see them in the music app, for instance playlists still exist originally having been configured when I had the files on a different computer. Apple Music plays these files via Match Streaming by virtue of the fact, I assume, because the tracks exist in my iCloud archive.
See below for follow up on another facet of my question.
I am ok with streaming via the Match protocol … my curiosity is piqued, however, in that even though I can navigate to the file location I cannot “find” the files in my iCloud by searching for the name of the actual file … might this be a Spotlight/Privacy/Permissions glitch because the folders containing all these files were uploaded from my older user account i.e. my previous computer?
in the meantime I will see if correcting permission on the folder corrects access to the files
p.s. Update. Permissions reconfiguration/update for the folder does not correct the issue. I can literally be in the folder with some tracks, copy and paste the name of a file and search the folder, for that file … yielding an empty result .
Understanding this is far from my intuitive skills LOL
It’s not a glitch; the files aren’t in your personal iCloud storage; they are linked to Apple’s database of tracks. That’s not at all a technical description, but that’s the way it works.
I encourage you to download all your music and stash it somewhere, even if you continue to rely on streaming.
I think maybe the issue is that Spotlight does not index iCloud archives, or it takes a long time to index iCloud perhaps doing so iteratively at each boot up? …
The files are physically(?) archived i.e. uploaded, in my iCould (account) Storage
They are, essentially, a cloud back up.
In general, Apple Music does not store separate copies of songs that it has “matched” in your iCloud. If you had a song that matches a song that exists in the Apple Store, Apple will stream that song from the Apple Store version. In other words, if a million people have matched a particular song, Apple doesn’t keep a million copies of that song on its servers. Apple only keeps track of each person who has matched.
The exception to this is if you have matching enabled, but you have a song that does not exist in Apple’s library. In that case, it will upload a copy of that particular song to your personal iCloud library. IIRC, the Apple Music app is the only way to access that music, unless you keep a copy in your Mac’s local library.
Another way of putting it: if you have a thousand songs, and 995 also exist in the Apple Store, Apple will only store the 5 songs you have that aren’t in the Apple Store in your iCloud storage.
I agree with @LisaS. If you have enough local storage, it is a good idea to use Apple Music to download a copy of your songs someplace safe.
Not to belabor my confusion … just to clarify, I think/hope:
It seems that Apple Music will Match/Stream any music tracks I have stored in my iCloud storage. I suppose because it offers the same in their store.
Other than enabling Sync Library for Music (across my devices) I have not otherwise enabled Match … to add to the confusion the files/Music referred to are not actually content purchased via Apple Music but files acquired elsewhere or ripped from CDs …
It’s fine that Music will play my music, or match-stream where ever it is LOL
The bigger question now is not so much about Music services, but the discovery of why I can be looking directly at a file stored in my iCloud storage but when I conduct a search for that very same file … the resulting file search is … Nada
perhaps I should have separated this into two different questions
I think I’ll clarify this answer by saying that tracks are not stored in iCloud Drive, so you won’t be able to see them by exploring or searching for files on a Mac using Finder or in the Files app on iOS / iPadOS.
What you see is a symlink, a symbolic link that points to the track in Apple’s collection of licensed tracks. There’s no UI on iCloud for checking that it’s a symlink, but that’s what it is. You can download it viaApple Music, but you can’t actually view the actual matched file in your iCloud drive. There’s just a pointer to Apple’s copy of that track.
You can have something like 100,000 tracks that are matched, and they don’t '“count” as part of your iCloud storage, because the file doesn’t actully exist in your storage. It’s in Apple’s licensed music library/database, and your account has a symlink pointing to that matched file in Apple’s library.
Do you mean that you can open the iCloud Drive folder on your Mac and see songs there?
I guess I sort of blew it trying to clarify LOL Let me reorganize the details
Here is the back story.
Thus my original query related, to two separate issues
Query One: How did Apple Music know to play the tracks via Match, if I didn’t enable Match. I assume the answer is that Music, by virtue of having Apple One engaged, could read that that song was in my cloud storage… even though Please Note: I didn’t actually purchase them from the iTunes Store
Query Two: Why does the file Not show up in a search/find query Please note: I can navigate to an actual file in my iCloud, highlight it i.e. Copy the name, then do a search query while the folder is open … and the query results in a blank result
I am starting to feel this all now comes under the rubric #BurnAfterReading LOL
Thanks for everyone’s patience
yes, see my review, above
I think the app’s use of “Match” is misleading. I suspect it is using that term for any track it is streaming from iCloud, whether it was put there via iTunes Match, an iTunes purchase, an Apple Music subscription or you manually moving a file to iCloud file storage.
I don’t know, because I don’t use cloud storage, but it would appear that your computer’s Spotlight database isn’t indexing your iCloud storage, or at least not the folder where that track is located.
Whether this is normal behavior, a bug or a configuration problem is a question someone else will have to answer. But you might want to double-check your Spotlight settings to make sure you aren’t omitting that location. Go to System Settings → Spotlight. Make sure the “Music” category is selected for search results. Then click “Search Privacy” and make sure you’re not omitting the location where those files are stored.
If you are subscribed to Apple Music, it does there same thing as iTunes Match. If you subscribe to Apple Music, subscribing to iTunes Match is just wasting $25/year.
As I said before, your iCloud Music Library is not stored in iCloud Drive. It is stored in iCloud, but iCloud Drive is just a part of iCloud - not everything in iCloud is exposed to iCloud Drive . iCloud Photo Library is similar - it takes up iCloud storage allocations, but it is not exposed to iCloud Drive. iCloud Keychain is the same; iCal syncing is the same - it syncs via iCloud but those files are not exposed to iCloud Drive.
I can confirm that Spotlight Privacy is not omitting any locations.
My gut tells me perhaps due to another issue that confuses me a bit: iCloud interface/function seems notoriously slow even with my pretty darn fast internet speed … I assume that Spotlight is super slow in indexing … unless this is related to a permissions glitch … I did originally upload all this data from a different system so technically a different user account. I did try to correct permissions with no beneficial results.
The weird thing to me is that I can actually navigate to a folder in my cloud storage perform a search for a file I am looking at … and Finder/Spotlight what ever protocol still can’t “find” it.
You’d think Spotlight might take the hint after having actually navigated to the file itself.
I have a feeling this is a mystery without a solution at this point. I have always found Permissions, and Spotlight buggy propositions
Thanks for everyone’s patience