Anytune automatically connects to your Apple Music Library. Your Music library is managed by the Apple Music app. Anytune displays all songs in your music library even if they are not downloaded (but they do need to be downloaded and not be DRM protected to play Anytune). Anytune cannot add, remove or edit the contents of your Music library. Use Apple's Music app for managing your library.
Allow access
Anytune requires permission to access your Music Library.
You must provide permission (allow access) to Anytune to access your Music Library or a folder containing audio files to import. You will be asked to allow access once, the first time to try to access your library or a new folder. You can give permission for the entire drive or top level folder so you will not be asked again.
To provide Anytune access to your Music Library:
- Open Apple Settings app
- Select Privacy & Security and Media & Apple Music
- Find Anytune in the list and Enable the toggle
If Anytune is not in the list:
- Select the + button and choose Anytune in the Applications folder.
- Enable the toggle for Anytune.
Auto-Sync
By default Anytune will Auto-Sync with the iTunes / Music app library when launching or switching to Anytune. Syncing provides Anytune with the latest contents of your music library.
- Click the Refresh button below the song list or Select Anytune Menu > Sync with iTunes to initiate a sync.
You will see: "iTunes Sync Complete" in the bottom/left message bar.
Delay / Disable Auto-Sync
You can disable or delay Auto-Sync. Use this when you are moving in and out of Anytune frequently and have a large music library.
Right-click on the Refresh Restore button to see additional options to display or delay auto-sync.
Disable Auto-Sync Disable for 15 Minutes |
You can also disable Auto-Sync permanently in Anytune Preferences > Advanced:
- Uncheck "Automatically sync with iTunes / Music app when you switch to Anytune."
Currently, the Music Library does not provide change notifications to apps. We have made several enhancement requests to Apple and hopefully this will result in improvements delivered in a future update.
Switch to another iTunes library
- Quit both the Music app and Anytune applications.
- Hold down the Option key, then open the Music app.
- In the window that appears, click Choose Library.
- Select a library, then click Choose.
- Ensure you see all of the songs that you expect to see.
(download them if they have not been downloaded) - Launch Anytune.
Download songs
If you are using the Sync Library (iCloud Music Library) the songs may not actually be downloaded to the computer. Check Apple's Music app > Preferences.
You may need to download your songs.
In Apple's Music app.
- Click the little cloud icon beside your song to download the song, and then the songs will be playable in Anytune.
- Enable Automatic Downloads too.
What happened to iTunes?
The Music app in Catalina changes the way Anytune receives information about your iTunes Library.
With macOS Catalina and beyond, your iTunes media library is now available in the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, Apple Books app, and Apple Podcasts app. And Finder is where you can manage and sync content on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. See What happened to iTunes?
Apple's Music app changed how music apps interact with your media library. Anytune must now ask the Music app what is in your library to display it to you. Anytune can do this automatically whenever you switch to Anytune, or manually with a refresh button.
Comments
3 comments
This article is not bad, but what I am missing is more explanation of what is going on if I activate setting "Automatically sync with iTunes when you switch to Anytune". What is happening if this checkbox is unchecked, what if it is checked? I do not use Apple match and all my music files, a huge collection, comes from my CD collection and own recordings that have nothing to do with Apple music. I have in my music studio a single server in which I can maintain my music collection based on iTunes. But Anytune works only on a laptop Mac, where I have only excerpts of my music collection in iTunes. I therefore need to know what Anytune is really doing with the audio files depending on the aforementioned checkbox setting.
Finally, my anytune has also a button 'Export Library Data'. I have from this article no clue what that button is about. Which library? The Anytune library or the iTunes library? What is exported to where, from iTunes to Anytune or in the other direction?
Anytune must now ask the Music app what is in your library to display it to you. Anytune can do this automatically whenever you switch to Anytune, or manually with a refresh button. With "Automatically sync with iTunes when you switch to Anytune" enabled Anytune asks the Music app what is in your music library whenever Anytune it comes to the foreground. If you have a large library this may take some time. If you have a very large library, (more than 10k songs) you can disable this setting and click the refresh button whenever you add a new song to your library you want Anytune to see.
Anytune can play music directly from your library or the files location, or Anytune can create a copy of imported songs inits own container. See "Importing to Anytune Mac" in Adding music.
The 'Export Library Data' button dumps the data we receive from the Music app to files so we can ensure Anytune is displaying the data correctly. It is for debugging and you do not need to use it.
I updated the article.
Many thanks for this excellent explanation and support. Exactly what I needed to understand what Anytune is doing precisely.
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