Itunes 'processing file' for hours

I started downloading the "Metallica Collection" and found that the "processing file" was taking an unusually long time to finish.

I agree with previous posts that "pausing all" then uncheck "allow simultaneous downloads" and then resume one then "resume all" helps. Doing one download and process at a time makes it all run smother. I have no clue on exactly what happens during processing file but whatever it is it needs fixing.

My final tip is to minimize itunes during the download and processing because it quickens the processing time.

It happens because either time goes by sooner when your not watching it or minimizing actual has a positive effect on the efficiency of the processing file protocols. It is like the physics law I read about once where the act of observing an event has a affect on the event. The last part is my personal thoughts. So try it and let us know.

For what it is worth:
Had 3 songs stuck on "processing"
Paused all downloads
Unclicked simultaneous downloads
Both "Pause All" and "Resume All" buttons are now grey.
Pressed iTunes Download button (don't know when that showed up)
Quit out of iTunes.
All 3 "processing" downloads went to "Done" before iTunes quit!

Hi, I just wanted to add that akeleven's post worked for me too. I was downloading a tv series and got stuck in 'processing file'. I paused all. Unchecked allow multiple downloads. Quit iTunes. Restarted itunes. All the stuck downloads started from scratch (4 of the 6 programmes) and were completed as would be expected.

Just want to add another "Worked for me" to the method recommended by akeleven/Mannanin34. I had 20 iTunes Plus music video downloads that would crash iTunes 9.0.2 (and my 10.6.2 Snow Leopard iMac) every time I tried to resume downloading them. Pausing all downloads, disabling "Allow Simultaneous Downloads", restarting iTunes, and resuming the downloads worked!

I opened a case with Apple Support none-the-less, so hopefully they'll publish an actual workaround KB article.

This is what fixed it for me. A couple of programs lost their permission/internet access (but system wasn't asking me either--just blocking behind the scenes).
Went into my McAfee Security Center.
In protection status...
In Internet and Network...
Configure...
Firewall protection...
Advanced...
Program Permissions..
my Bonjour Service and Safari were both blocked (which are used by itunes). So i clicked on each and clicked on allow access
This seemed to do the trick.

So you may have a different firewall, but poke around whatever system you are using and maybe these or some other Apple applications are being blocked w/o you even being aware.

I've been working on this for months! A movie i rented three months ago is currently downloading. We'll see if i've gone past the expiration date.

Good luck.

Go to folder "downloads" in iTunes music folder which is the temporary downloads folder for Tunes itself.
If there is any item within (as a leftover from a former download), delete it.
Delay gone.

Deleting files in download directory seems to have no effect on the cpu usage or length of time "processing" the file.
Should I try deleting the directory? Will iTunes recreate the directory?

Message was edited by: dboy69

Hi guys,

Same problem here. I am amazed this problem is from 2008 and there is no answer from Apple.

Message was edited by: sderrico

I also have this problem. At first I thought it was something about Windows 7, but I can see from this string that that is not the problem. I am so frustrated that I am ready to look for a new way to purchase music.

Is there a way to stop simultaneous downloads on the iPhone itself? (I.e. I'm downloading through the iPhone's iTunes rather than iTunes on my computer.)

Any clues?

Thanks

Hey everyone, I was having the same problem. I talked to someone at Apple about it today and he told me to do this http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2292 . It worked for me.

Unbelievable that this problem has been around so long and still all Apple can say is shutdown all services and retry until you find a process that causes the problem. That's very bad.

I haven been able to download anything since a week ago. Same symptom everytime, when processing file iTunes stays there for hours on a single song. Disabled firewall and antivirus, almost clean Windows XP installation.

Not a single song from Store has been downloaded.

Apple, help!

I tried to delete the files like the previous post suggested, which separated my downloads into Mp4's with no names. I even double checked that none of my programs were impeding windows, which they aren't. Why doesn't Apple realize that if this many people are having an issue over this length of time, it's clearly a fault with Itunes?

Workaround for future downloads: Uncheck "Allow Simultaneous Downloads"
To recover downloaded but not completely processed songs: Unknown

I have an older computer with Windows XP Media Center and a Pentium 4 (3.4GHz w/ Hyperthreading enabled). I'm currently using Itunes 9.1.1.12 and I'm also having this issue. When my songs were processing, not only did they take a long time to process, but I also noticed that my CPU fan started elevating in volume greatly. I went into taskmgr and sure enough the cpu was at 100%. Maybe the newer versions of iTunes have a higher processing threshold or have a more sophisticated way of processing these songs that don't support single-core processors anymore.

First, I had to kill the "itunes.exe" process in taskmgr, then i tried to play the song from "C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Music\Itunes\Itunes Music\Downloads\", but in the middle of the song, it started playing random sounds. I looked at the "info.plist" file in the same directory as the song in notepad and it looks like it contains the information in xml for decoding/decrypting and/or validating the song once it reaches the "downloads\songname" directory. Looking at the xml file, if part of the "processing" process is decrypting/decoding the song and validating via hash, then I'm sure Apple has set a high standard on their encryption via their consumer product security policy or something similar to that and probably won't be able to "roll back" this 'processing' part of itunes as it will probably open up a security hole.

Anyway, unchecking the "Allow Simultaneous Downloads" allowed my poor old processor to 'process' one song at a time, processing it in under 30sec and only getting up to 60% cpu usage from itunes.exe during that process.

I don't know how to recover songs that were downloaded and not processed though, but I'm sure you can contact Apple and reference this post (not that I represent Apple, but it'll give a decent technical explanation) when you're trying to get back what you paid for.

I don't have 7 or vista, I run XP. Everything worked fine until one month ago. Do I understand this correctly, I need to disable all my other software to download itunes?
Does that make sense?
actually that is not true, I can't write CDs, apparently it is a known conflict... for years, itunes audio books skip chapters when they play (books I copy from my CDs don't so it is an itunes thing)...
reason I don't own an apple anything, why pay the big bucks for the same run around.
Come on itunes, I have gift certificates I'd like to use if I can just download my selections....