Lost iTunes Plus Upgrades?

Hi there...

Same thing is happening on my system. I have a few machines authorized on my account, and ALL of them exhibit the same problem. When I try to 'Check for downloads' on any of them, iTunes will download the first track, then complely lock up.

Regrettably, iTunes seems to think I have downloaded the songs, as with each retry, it thinks it has downloaded a song, even though it has not.

I did the 'report a problem' thing, and got a pretty vague and useless response. Did anyone speak to apple support about this one yet?

I'm having the exact same problem as well. Never had this problem before when i've upgraded songs to Itunes plus.

Thought I'd share my Plus-upgrading experience for your amusement...based upon my experience over the last few months, Apple has some serious issues with iTunes Plus upgrades and is unwilling to do much about it.

I initially upgraded my library on day-one when iTunes plus first went online. It actually worked just fine and all my elligible tracks we're downloaded and replaced as expected. However, after additional tracks that I owned were updated to Plus, I went back to upgrade my library again only to find one of my already-upgraded albums was back on the list. So if I want to update any further tracks in my library that show up on Plus, I would have to pay an additional $3 for an album I already upgraded. So I contacted Apple support thinking surely this would be an easy fix. And initally their communication with me made it seem like a quick fix was on the way.

Boy was I wrong, and my experience with Apple support ended so negatively that I decided to try Amazon the other day (which I was very happy with by the way). Bottom line, I've been exchanging e-mails with Apple support since back in July when the issue first cropped up. For the first week or two the e-mails came fairly regularly updating me on progress, assuring me that the problem would be fixed soon. After about a month, I had forgotten about the issue primarily because I stopped getting e-mails from Apple Support. But after about another month, I received an e-mail telling me "sorry for the delay, we are still working your issue." Then last month Apple Support requested a confirmation of my billing address and that agree to reset my password so they could access my account and fix the issue. I thought this was a little strange that they would need me to reset the password, but I went ahead and agreed to it. I didn't hear anything back for a couple of weeks, then I got an e-mail requesting once again that I approve a password reset and confirm my billing address. At this point I became annyoed, partially because this had dragged out so long and partially because they were requesting info I had already sent three weeks ago.

Long story short (probalby already too long, sorry), I finally received an e-mail last week from Heather at Apple Support basically stating they had pretty much given up on fixing the problem, and only a "small handful of customers" had been experiencing it anyway. Also that "Apple does not encourage users to buy standard tracks with the intent to upgrade to Plus", whatever that means. I took that as an insult, implying that I was buying standard tracks and deciding to upgrade later rather than simply buying Plus tracks in the first place. Not to mention the attitude that a problem on their end isn't important if "only a small number of customers" are experiencing it.

Bottom line, I was quite offended and have decided to check Amazon first before I buy a track from iTunes again. I still to this day cannot understand why the issue is so difficult fix. So I say to you folks who are having trouble with Plus upgrades...good luck!!!

And by the way, if you haven't already, give Amazon MP3 downloads a shot...I bought Kenna's latest album yesterday, 256kbps, no-DRM. Sounded fantastic. Automatically imported into iTunes, album art and all. Couldn't have been easier.

Add me to the list. Same exact problem. Try to upgrade. First download completes, spinning beach ball, have to restart iTunes. Clearly there is something wrong there. I just sent an email to support laying it all out.

This is happening to me too on 9 tracks. iTunes takes 100% of one of my CPU cores as soon as it gets to "processing" on one file. I've tried letting it go for several minutes but it never finishes. I had my computer on for several days so I tried rebooting but it changed nothing. Same behavior with thinking that it downloaded the tracks that it hung on. Harold

I'll add my voice to the mix. I'm having the same issue. Here's the kicker - doublecheck to see if you're in the same boat:

1) If I check the folder where the new files SHOULD be, it's there (.m4a) along with the file it should be replacing (.m4p). It seems to hang at the part of the process where's it supposed to move or discard the old .m4p file. Must be something going on with iTunes.

just got this from Apple in my inbox...

Apple wrote:
Dear Henry,

I understand you are having much difficulty downloading the iTunes plus version of some of your purchases. I know that this must be very frustrating for you. I will try and help you with this
issue.

I have contacted my technical support team and they have asked for you to submit your billing address, permission to reset password and an alternate email address to test your account.

Your reply will be forwarded to my associate. Please have patience as this issue is resolving.

we'll see where this leads...

add me to the list. itunes freezes while each newly downloaded song "processes." once i force quit and relaunch, it acts as if the song was successfully downloaded but it isn't in the library, the song that was supposed to be replaced is still there.

The solution for me was as follows: I have a second Mac with access to the same iTunes account, and that laptop does not have the original 128bit selections in its library. When I found that I could successfully download the remaining 256bit files to the laptop, I contacted Apple, and they allowed me to re-download all 137 upgrades. I then copied these over to my main system, and I'm 'whole' again. Apple definitely has a problem with their Plus upgrade process.

So maybe i can just remove the non-plus songs, and check for purchases.

i'll try it tonight when i get off of work.

Add my name to the list....

I'm having the exact same problem. I upgraded songs a couple of months ago without a hitch. Now they download, start to process, and hang. Force quit, restart iTunes, check purchases, download begins on the the next ones until one processes, and hang. Force quit until all have downloaded. Songs in the library reflect the old protected files.

Today more show up to be upgraded, so like the lemming that I am, I press the shiny silver buy button (faithfully believing the problem's been fixed) and guess what, SOS..... :(((((

Does anyone working for Apple read these boards? This seems to be happening to a number of people....

Add me to the list. I attempted to upgrade my library with iTunes Plus and now it hangs trying to do the download. I've something like 30 songs to download and I don't know if I've gotten any of them actually downloaded. I don't see anything in the trash for the old songs so I doubt it.

OK so the MORONS that are answering email issues came up with a BRILLIANT solution:

"Dear Bradley,

Unfortunately, the error you describe may be caused by the presence of web acceleration or firewall software. While the iTunes Store is unable to provide technical support, I can recommend that you either test your connection to the iTunes Store without the presence of this software or configure your system to allow access to the iTunes Store's address.

For assistance in configuring your firewall or accelerator software, you may need to contact its manufacturer or your Internet Service Provider. When contacting support representatives, it may be useful to have the following information: "

<<blaah blaah blaah>>

Wrong. It's directly correlated to iTunes plus. I paused all my plus downloads (downloads that will be replacing existing music in my library) and downloaded a couple TV shows and some other music I purchased, and IT DID NOT CRASH.

Man they need to stop offshoring support centers that read off of scripts and ACTUALLY SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

I tried the empty library download that worked.
Its when its trying to replace the existing tracks that it locks up.

I still lost a bunch of tracks in the itunes lockups, but i put in a request to let me download them again.

Same problem here--trying to upgrade over 80 songs...iTunes keeps crashing, but reducing the number of downloads it "thinks" it still has left to download. I can see the partially downloaded files in the Music/itunes/itunes music/downloads folder, but the files themse;ves have not been replaced in iTunes. Sent an e-mail to Apple Support...we'll see what shakes out...Hopefully NOT a generic reply like some have received, stating it's due to "internet accelleration". This is a serious issue and Apple needs to resolve it quickly...