How to Split Apple Music Tracks and Your Music in iTunes

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-15 16:39

Once Apple Music launches, it is extremely difficult to know which songs are in your personal library and which are in the Apple Music catalog or iCloud library. But there is one trick to fix this.

Fortunately, iTunes knows how to distinguish where tracks are stored, which means that we can create smart playlists based on this parameter and achieve exactly what we need. This is how it works.

Tracks from Apple Music

To separate music from the Apple Music catalog, you need to create a Smart Playlist (Cmd+ Opt+ N) with the following parameters:

• Media type • matches • music;
• ICloud Status • Same as • Apple Music.

This playlist will help you remove all tracks from Apple Music. We press Cmd+ A, then - Opt+ Shift+ Delete and confirm the deletion.

Do not forget to check the box "Live update" so that the playlist is updated every time you open it.

If you want to find Apple Music tracks that are stored locally, then you need to add one more condition to our previous playlist:

The location is • the same as • on this computer.

This playlist will help you remove specific tracks from your Mac while leaving them in your library.

Tracks from iCloud

For those with an iCloud or iTunes Match library, there is another smart playlist that will show you which of the songs stored on your Mac are also uploaded to the cloud.

So, we create a smart playlist (Cmd+ Opt+ N) with the condition:

The location is • the same as • on this computer.

Further, holding Option, click on +to add a nested condition group. We drive the following parameters into it one by one:

• ICloud Status • Same as • Mapped;
• ICloud Status • Same as • Purchased;
• ICloud Status • Same as • Uploaded.

Be sure to check that the "Any" option is selected for the "iCloud Status" condition group.

With this playlist, you can easily delete certain or all local tracks that are also uploaded to the cloud, which will be useful when you want to free up disk space.