Privacy and safety

What stays on your Mac, exactly what ClassicTunes sends over the internet and when, and the safeguards that protect your iPod and your library.

ClassicTunes keeps your music, your library and your iPod's contents on your Mac. It has no account to sign up for, no analytics and no tracking. It only goes online to look things up for you, to download podcasts, to send plays to ListenBrainz if you turn that on, and to check for updates.

#What stays on your Mac

• Your library: songs, videos, audiobooks, podcasts, playlists, play counts, ratings, listening history and settings. The library is a folder on your Mac (at first in your Library's Application Support folder; see Settings › General › Library).
• Your iPod's contents: ClassicTunes reads and writes the iPod directly over USB. Nothing on it is uploaded anywhere.
• Snapshots of your iPod: saved in a folder on your Mac or a drive you choose (Settings › Backups).
• Your Music app library: when you use File › Import from Music App…, ClassicTunes reads the Music app's library on your Mac and copies the songs you choose. macOS asks your permission first.
• Your Photos library: photos you choose to sync are read from the Photos app on your Mac, with your permission, and converted on your Mac. They're never uploaded. For a photo that's only in iCloud, a screen-sized copy is downloaded (through Photos, from Apple), unless you choose to leave those photos out.
• Your listening history stays in your library unless you turn on ListenBrainz scrobbling.

#What goes over the internet

When ClassicTunes looks up album details and covers, it identifies itself as ClassicTunes (with its version and website), as MusicBrainz asks apps to. Nothing about you, your Mac or the rest of your library is sent.

#Turning lookups off

• Settings › General › Adding songs › Fill in missing details from Apple and MusicBrainz: turn it off to stop looking up details when you add music.
• Settings › General › Adding songs › Albums added without a cover: choose Don't look online (or Ask each time, the default).
• Settings › General › Podcasts › Check for new episodes: choose Manually to check only when you ask.
• Settings › General › Updates: turn off Check for updates automatically.
• Settings › Scrobbling: ListenBrainz is off until you turn it on and sign in.

Looking up a CD and checking it against AccurateRip happen only when you insert a CD, and the Tools menu's lookups only when you choose them.

#Your ListenBrainz token

Your ListenBrainz user token is kept in your Mac's keychain, and is only sent to ListenBrainz. Sign Out in Settings › Scrobbling removes it. See Scrobbling.

#Permissions macOS may ask for

You can change any of these in System Settings › Privacy & Security (or Notifications).

#Safety features

ClassicTunes is careful with your iPod and your library. These are the safeguards built in.

#See a sync before it happens

iPod › Preview Sync… (⌥⌘S) works out exactly what a sync will add, convert, remove and change, and how much space will be left, without changing anything on the iPod. See Preview Sync.

#Snapshots of the whole iPod

Before an iPod's first sync with ClassicTunes, and before a sync that would remove a lot (at least 100 songs, or a quarter of the iPod's songs), ClassicTunes offers to take a snapshot: a copy of everything on the iPod, so you can put it back exactly as it was. Restoring a snapshot first takes a snapshot of how the iPod is now, so a restore can be undone too. Snapshots are never taken without asking. See Snapshots.

#Backups before big changes to your library

ClassicTunes backs up your library's information (song details, play counts, ratings, artwork and more) automatically before changes that touch many songs at once: Re-read Info for All Music, looking up and replacing info (Look Up and Replace Info… or Look Up Online…), merging duplicates, merging albums or moving songs to a new album, combining an audiobook, converting songs with Find Songs iPods Can't Play…, and restoring from a backup. The last 10 automatic backups are kept. See Metadata backups.

#Careful syncing

• A sync writes the iPod's new music database in one go, and only then deletes songs that were removed, so a sync that's cut short leaves the iPod working.
• If the iPod is disconnected during a sync, connect it again and sync: anything that didn't finish is done then.
• While ClassicTunes is syncing, it stops Finder and other apps from ejecting the iPod.
• Apple's click wheel games on the iPod are never touched by a sync, and restoring a snapshot never removes them or winds back their saves.
• Songs that are already on the iPod but not in your library are kept unless you turn on Remove items that aren't in this library.
• Scripts and Shortcuts can only sync an iPod that's already been synced with the open library from inside ClassicTunes.
• An update never restarts ClassicTunes while it's syncing, taking a snapshot, restoring or importing. See Updates.

#Careful with what it didn't make

ClassicTunes treats an iPod's files, snapshot folders, podcast feeds and downloads as untrusted:

• Restoring a snapshot and removing stray files only work on a disk that identifies itself as an Apple iPod. Removing stray files refuses if the iPod's database is missing or if more than a quarter of the files would go.
• Song paths read from an iPod must stay inside the iPod's music folders, and ClassicTunes never follows links when it deletes.
• Podcast feeds can only point to web addresses, never to files on your Mac, and downloads have size limits.

#Nothing deleted for good without asking

• Removing songs from the library asks first, and Move to Trash puts their files in the Trash, where you can get them back. Remove from Library Only keeps the files.
• Converting songs with Find Songs iPods Can't Play… moves the originals to the Trash.
• Moving the library copies everything and checks the copy before the old folder goes to the Trash.
• Forgetting an iPod changes nothing on the iPod.

#From AppleScript and Shortcuts

You can turn ListenBrainz scrobbling and automatic update checks on or off from a script:

tell application "ClassicTunes"
    set scrobbling to false
    set automatically checks for updates to false
end tell

In Shortcuts, use Turn ListenBrainz Scrobbling On or Off, and Preview iPod Sync or Back Up iPod before a sync. See AppleScript and Shortcuts.