Itunes 'processing file' for hours

I went through the same thing on several songs from an album, but Apple eventually got it resolved. Apparently it's something on their end since I didn't change anything on my side and eventually they produced versions of the songs that downloaded and processed ok.

I had the same problem when downloading "Alive 2007" from iTunes Plus.
I sat there with the first three songs "processing" for 20 minutes, surfing the forums, but there was no apparent solution. I went back to iTunes, searched around, and came upon the little greenish grey status window at the top of iTunes, where it tells you what is "Now Playing" and shows you the loading bar for the iTunes store browser.
I noticed if I scrolled through the current functions, it was "connecting to the iTunes store."
I saw the "X" and clicked it. Worked like a charm. The files immediately finished "processing" and the next songs continued to download. WIN!
(Alive 2007 is great, by the way.)

I have a song that has also been processing for about an hour and has not finished yet. Does anyone know how long this processing can take? Also, I have downloaded plus songs without problems. This is the first time since getting the most recent Itunes update. I did have another problem downloading this song. It gave me a download error. The song did download and was on my computer in the temp file along with an info file. Apple did credit my account and I tried downloading it again, now I am stuck in the processing problem.

I've been having the same exact problem. I just reinstalled itunes and I'm going to see if it helps. Otherwise I might just nuke my HD and reinstall Vista.

It really makes me mad that apple support hasn't even responded to my last emails for 2 or 3 days.

I've discovered that it only happens with itunes plus songs, but reinstalling itunes hasn't helped me.

Has anyone had this problem after reinstalling their OS?

hey everyone, I think I might have found a solution

I downloaded an album today, (M83's Saturdays = Youth) and they got stuck on processing file. I shut iTunes, and logged in/out, reopened iTunes. It started the download again, but the first three songs weren't there, nor in my library. So
i found them in the Download file under my iTunes, its there among all the other artists. So the song that never technically finished processing is still here. Its annoying, cos the songs wont have any information on them, but they still play. Hope this helps.

I have the same problem. I'm downloading a bunch of albums now. The actual download is extremely quick but then my music sits at "processing file" for a ridiculous amount of time.

Hey guys,

I ran into the same problem (ridiculous processing time) and resolved it by closing itunes and reopening it after the download was finished. Now I have a Download folder and ipod full of unnamed music files. The files still work but does anyone know of an easy way to get all the information back to the files? I don't want to have a 'pod full of tracks titled "download". Plus having the album picture is cool too. Any help would be greatly appreciated

I have the same problem, but I have found a way around the issue. As previously noted goto the itunes\download folder and find the song that is stuck on the Processing File, double click on filename 'downlaod.m4a'. It now asked me to authorized the computer to play this song and prompted for the password. After entering the password it tells me this PC is already authorized. After a short time (60-90 seconds) the file download finished and the music is available to play! Now, check the location of the file since two of the four problems files were playing from the download folder not the folder under the artist name. To resolve this I went back to the download folder, copied the file and pasted it into the artist folder and all is fine. You may now have two versions of the same song, just delete the one from the download folder but I would not move to recycled bin when asked. All in all this has been a very enjoyable process to get a album....NOT.

Apple please fix this problem for us!

Same exact problem for me. I went ahead and repurchased my album because I need this music tonight. I let iTunes process this second purchase attempt for nearly an hour and finally the import was successful. I sent a message to iTunes music store letting them know about this problem, this thread, and that I needed to be refunded for my first faulty purchase.

- Paul
<Edited by Moderator>

Just one last thought. Apple needs to fix this issue because it probably had led to some people unknowingly loosing tracks that they paid for. If they realize their loss, or don't take the time (about 20 minute process or more) to report this issue to apple they loose out on their purchase and Apple keeps their $$$. This seems unfair and if the issue persists on a wide scale (especially if only a small percentage of people are catching this error) it could lead to legal action against Apple. As a longtime fan and big-time purchaser of apple products I hope Apple gets on this problem pronto!

- Paul

This is horrible, I just purchased two albums and it is taking hrs. Albums are the plus kind, why does it take that long to process the file? The songs download in seconds but they get stuck on "processing file" status for 5-10 minutes- HELP--
WHAT DO WE NEED TO DO TO AVOID THIS ISSUE !!

This is utterly frustrating. I am happy to know that I am not the only one having this problem. Thought it was just my lap top, then tried my desktop computer. Same issue. So lame!

Same thing is happening to me now...again. Last night I tried to download something. It gets to the end and says "processing file" and then nothing happens. Last night this happened to me and so after waiting a long time I exited iTunes and it told me I was in the middle of a download and if I exited then it would resume when I restarted itunes. However, it didn't start the download. i went to the store menu and did "check for purchases" and still nothing. I reported it as a problem and this afternoon when I got home I did check for purchases and it started downloading again but it's doing the same thing again--processing file. This is an audiobook (although it's set up kinda like a playlist), which is $9.99, so this is pretty annoying. I hope they fix it or can refund me or something.

well, this time it FINALLY finished the download but man it took forever on processing file. Maybe try to be a bit patient with this but I hope apple is taking steps to remedy this as many ppl are having this problem.