Yet another iTunes question.

October 19, 2015 4:41 PM

If I use Apple AirPort to stream iTunes to my television with iTunes TV, does it use up data on my home network plan?

I have an old MacBook, and my home internet usage has been higher than it seems like it should be lately. If I'm streaming music from iTunes to my television using iTunes TV and AirPort, does it eat into my home internet data plan?

posted by The Card Cheat to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

If the music is physically on your MacBook, then all the streaming should be taking place within your home network and, while there may be a blip here or there where iTunes is making sure your account is still active, that would be pretty well unnoticeable. However, if you've got stuff in your library from Apple Music or iTunes Match (note: I am not talking about things you've purchased from the iTunes store, unless they aren't on your computer for whatever reason), then it does have to run out to the internet to download it before it can play it. So, it really depends on where your music actually is.

In iTunes, you can usually tell whether or not a file is streaming or not by looking for the little cloud icon (literally a cloud with a down arrow on it). If you've got stuff in there that has that, you can usually either click it or right-click and choose Make Available Offline to have it download that particular song/album/etc. to your computer. (I believe this happens automatically too but unless you explicitly hit that it will clear them out every so often.) Once it's actually on your computer, there's no need to hit the Internet for it, other than making sure your subscriptions/etc. are still active (which, again, is an incredibly trivial amount of data to move back and forth).
posted by mrg at 5:08 PM on October 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: These are all MP3s, not stuff on Apple Music or iTunes Match.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:16 PM on October 19, 2015

Check the setting (on the Apple TV) Settings > AirPlay > "Play from iTunes in the Cloud," but if they are all MP3s on your machine, it's not getting them from the internet without iTunes Match.
posted by zachlipton at 5:19 PM on October 19, 2015

That sounds like shouldn't use your ISP, but you can make absolutely sure by unplugging the cable or phone line from your cablemodem or dsl router and verifying you can still listen to your music. Play a few tracks you haven't listened to for a while, to make sure it's not just using some cache or buffer.
posted by aubilenon at 5:22 PM on October 19, 2015 [1 favorite]