iTunes 9 incredibly SLOW [imac 2ghz Intel]

Im with you in this. iTunes 9 is so frustratingly slow! grrz I don't know how to downgrade to iTunes 8 though 😟

Frustrating. In my case it takes up to 90 minutes for one CD to trasfer....I will probably quit this whole darn scam.

iTunes 9 is unacceptably slow. It has taken over two days for me to download Sons of Anarchy television series and it still has 17 episodes remaining to download. My internet runs at between 5 and 7 mbps. My system has 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive with plenty of space, running Snow Leopard, and there is nothing else running on my system (completely dedicated to iTunes at the moment). Also iTunes completely ***** up my entire internet connection when downloading so I had to actually pause the downloads so that I can enter this complaint. This problem did not exist until I upgraded to the latest iTunes 9 the other day.

I was hoping to move to Apple TV (and eliminate Dish Network) and have been building up my library of shows, movies, and music. Once my library has been built I was going to purchase a couple of Apple TV units and a couple of Minis... At this point however I'm glad I did not make the switch and I will probably stop using Apple TV. I'm not going to wait three days for a download to complete and at the expense of sucking up my entire connection. Finally I'm a software engineer so I have some knowledge about computers (hence I know the problem is not at my end).

Unfortunate.

Let's hope Apple quickly releases a patch - obviously 9.0 is not completely baked - too many people indicate extremely slow performance. I will NOT use Itunes, until a patch is released. On a positive note, the ability to manage iPhone icons from iTunes is great - however the overall speed & performance renders Itunes 9 unusable.

Jonathan, here's how to "go back." Download the older version here:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/ipod_itunes/itunes821forg3.html

A) Before you attempt to install it, however, you have to

1) Throw the iTunes 9 application in the trash (no need to delete).
2) Move the "iTunes Library" file into the "Previous iTunes Library" folder, and
3) Replace it with the *2nd most recent* "iTunes Library" file from the "Previous iTunes Library" folder. Literally, drag it out into the main folder and rename it "iTunes Library" (For example, mine was named "iTunes Library 2009-06-15" Be sure not to pull the one with the most recent date on it.)

B) Install iTunes 8.2.1. Breathe easy (I hope. It worked for me after a bit of fussing. I don't think there's anything missing, but I can't guarantee it. That's why I recommend not trashing anything until you complete the process). You should be back in business until there's a patch for 9.

Man, it's awful...

Oh, one more thing. I noticed that any new music that I had added was not listed in the older library. It's still there, however, in the "iTunes Music" folder. The last thing to do, I hope, is to go to the file menu and hit "Add to Library..." and then choose your "iTunes Music" folder. Everything should update.

Good luck.

I agree it *****. I have it on both Leopard and Snow Leopard and it is taking forever to import my files on the new install of SL.

I have a Mac Pro dual Quad Core 2.8GHz.

Changing tracks (by pressing the "next" button") > 3 seconds
Ejecting a CD, sometimes up to 10 seconds

I think this is unacceptably slow. In iTunes 8 this was all much much faster.

No plug-ins or other special stuff running.

Send your feedback to http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

same here. except i'm on windows. when i try to run the setup file for itunes8, it tells me 'there's already a later version of itunes installed on this computer'. like i didn't know that. I'm trying to get rid of it. if you've figured out how to seamlessly downgrade without having to re-import the entire library, pls let me know.
HELP!!! iTunes 9 is such a painfully slow app!

The link to the earlier version of iTunes suggests that it is for a G3 and not an Intel Mac.

I'm seeing the slow down too. I just figured that my old iBook G4 wasn't able to keep up with apps that may have been tweaked for intel machines. So much for my conspiracy theory. UFO's and bigfoot are real though...

Seriously though the problem seems to be with accessing the iTunes store. It takes forever to come up. The search function totally drags. I'm holding off on any purchases until this gets fixed.

I thought it was just me that thinks 9.0 is really slow. Also my 2nd generation Shuffle is no longer recognized. I called Apple about this and some of the other issues I have with my Imac. Hopefully they get an update out soon. If worse comes to worse I can revert to 8.0.

I usually wait for x.2 of a new version before upgrading. The 2 times I didn't I have had issues.

iTunes 9 and Safari running at the same times seems to slow everything down like if I were using Internet Explorer. I have done the upgrade to 10.6.1 where this is supposed to be resolved, but I'm still not seeing a change.

Judging by the number of posts, I would think Apple is working on it, but thought I'd add to the list of those who are frustrated with the spinning ball every time I try and do anything on the new iTunes.