iTunes slow when changing some info???

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Level 1

63 points

iTunes slow when changing some info???

Hello,

I've bought a few videos from iTunes and if I decide to change the genre or artwork, it is really slow to update the info. The beach ball spins and spins.

It is only in the genre and artwork.

What could cause this? Should I use a different meta data editor than iTunes itself??

Cheers

iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.5.8), 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Posted on Feb 23, 2010 10:55 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 4, 2010 9:00 AM in response to NeddySeagoon

I'm experiencing the same problem (I think). Whenever I change the artwork for any of my Movies or TV Shows, I get the spinning beach ball and it takes FOREVER to sort itself out and update it. However, I've discovered that if you edit the metadata from a playlist (Recently Added for example), it's slightly quicker and less prone to locking up. Of course, this could be my imagination! This is obviously some sort of bug as I never had any problems with previous versions. Either way it's seriously frustrating, not to mention time consuming.

Tim.

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Answer 2

NeddySeagoon Author

Level 1

63 points

Mar 6, 2010 4:59 AM in response to wingcomothyallen

I'll try that.

It is frustrating.

Cheers.

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Answer 3

Mar 6, 2010 6:22 AM in response to NeddySeagoon

The reason it happens with some information and not others is because not information is stored the same... some is embedded in the actual media file, and some is stored in the local XML file.

Embedded information is slow because it has to 'unspool' all the data to make the change (therefore how long it takes depends on file size). XML information is fast because it's just making a database record.

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Answer 4

NeddySeagoon Author

Level 1

63 points

Mar 6, 2010 2:41 PM in response to Greg Robinson1

Thank you.

Is it better to to delete the files from iTunes (not the drive), use Subler and re-import them?

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Answer 5

Mar 11, 2010 8:03 PM in response to NeddySeagoon

Any experience creating a RAM disk, specifically for helping iTunes run faster?
I am on a 2006 iMac coreDuo with 2GB RAM. Snow leopard latest.
ITunes library is 500GB, so library file is 25MB and the library xml is 136MG.
The genius lib file is 1.2GB.
Anyway, running alone, iTunes is sluggish giving the spinning wheel anytime I ask it to do anything that writes to or reads from disk the itunes Library file. So managing the collection, sorting names playlist creations and modification, all the daily doings of my music maintenance involve this library file being accessed all the time.

I think this is at the core of my sluggish iTunes. Mac OS activiity monitor shows free ram, and a modest 40GB virtual memory use. Even when other apps are involved, there is still free RAM. anyway, as soon as I ask itunes to do something in a new field, like go from scrolling artists to viewing the main list, and clicking sort all songs by date added..boom boom pow, I get the ****** rainbow wheel.

Is my bottleneck, as I think, the disk write-time for the library file and library XML, or will my problem e solved with a new iMac ro even a new mini? If it is the disk write time beings slow, is there a way to either trim the file size or get the read-write faster than an internal drive already is?

Would a RAM disk help. Can I direct iTunes to use RAM disk scratch space, or perhaps create an applet that will pair with Itunes launching, create a RAM disk and create a fresh copy of the iTune library there, and keep it synced with the master library file there on the internal HD. Then tell iTunes to use this new RAM disk copy of the library file.

any thoughts or advice appreciated!

I've already tuned off mac for more than 20 minutes to allow a full reset, then restarted 2 more times, then relaunched iTunes, also I've deleted and reinstalled itunes the application.
This is not a new problem, its been ongoing for years, as the library has grown.
I feel as though iTunes is not cut out to handle this large database, but I want it running as fast as possible, since I'm wedded to iTunes. It's running the whole-house music and ipod and iphone syncs etc.

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Answer 6

Mar 17, 2010 9:11 AM in response to dasher@gmail

I have the same issue - I have a fairly large (300Gb) library which shows the beachball whenever I update ratings or artwork. My machine is a quad-core MacPro, with 4Gb RAM and I virtually always have 2Gb RAM free. The iTunes library is on internal drives (I even striped them to see if disk access was the problem) and the raid set has 1Tb of free space. Everything else on the machine flies, but iTunes freezes when scrolling or updating, only for a few seconds, but every single time, so it is annoying.

I have turned off "Keep iTunes Media Organized", turned off sharing but that has had no effect. This has happened on all the releases of iTunes (now using 9.03 on Mac OS X 10.6.2). Sadly, transferring my library to my Windows 7 machine show none of these problems, but I can't accept that as the solution surely!

Any suggestions, anyone?

TIA
Shaun

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Answer 7

Dec 23, 2010 4:13 PM in response to Shaun Conn

Glad to hear Im not alone. Im getting delays of 2 to 3 min when changing artwork. It makes a simple task very tiresome.

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Answer 8

iLeeShuo

Level 1

0 points

Apr 3, 2011 11:23 PM in response to glennwilson

I have got the same issue, I'm really frustrated by the LONG WAITING time. However, iTunes does well on my colleague's windows 7. I really don't know what I can do.

LeeS in Shanghai, China

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Answer 9

Aug 22, 2011 7:57 PM in response to iLeeShuo

I'm using Win7 and am experiencing slow import from CD (15 mins per disc), and slowness when changing track metadata (genre, year, etc). Basically, any change made to the library is taking a long, long time to complete.

I had the same issue in WinVista as well. My library is quite large, the Itunes Music Library XML file is about 17 MB in my case.

Is anyone else having this issue? I tried recreating the library (i.e. reimporting all of my media files from the itunes folder) after doing a clean install of Win7 recently and the issue persists. I believe it to be due to the size of that XML file that has to be updated for every change but I'm not aware of any solution or resolution to this.

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Answer 10

Sep 27, 2011 6:57 PM in response to NeddySeagoon

Add artwork to your files (tv shows, movies, songs). Once the meta data has been written with an image, iTunes no longer needs to scan the file for a poster frame each time. Just did this and no more stuttering or prolonged thinking between info pages.

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Answer 11

Sep 27, 2011 7:50 PM in response to NeddySeagoon

How many smart playlists and playlists in general do you have, especially large ones? When you edit data iTunes has to review how it affects playlists and if you have a large library with many playlists this places demand on iTunes.

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Answer 12

deeze28

Level 1

0 points

Jan 21, 2012 9:39 AM in response to wingcomothyallen

Hi,

I have found that you can easily fix this problem by starting iTunes in Safe Mode. Quit iTunes and hold Command + Option and then launch it. Click OK or Continue and then when you change movie metadata it is instant. I have no idea why this works and while it is a small hassle - well worth it since the spinning beach ball takes forever and is frustrating.

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Answer 13

Jan 31, 2012 8:34 PM in response to hoosierbenzo

My issue of slow import from CD, and slow updates from metadata changes is resolved now! It has been for a few revisions of iTunes but I don't know exactly which one apparently fixed the issue.

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Answer 14

Feb 27, 2012 8:53 AM in response to hoosierbenzo

I am still having brutally slow metadata update wait times. from what I can tell, they are all due to itunes needing to immediately re-write the library and xml file after any metadata changes when your library goes past a certain level of complexity. by re-adding all of my songs (53K songs, 30GB) to a new library, or stripping all of the playlists (about 500, half of them smart, heavily nested interdependencies) from my existing library, i see that metadata changes are only folded in after all user activity ceases for a few seconds. in my normal library, any changes is written immediately. I've been working with an apple senior support tech on this and am told he's talking to the at least one programmer about the matter.

it's **** to do anything in my itunes for the last few years now and it's been getting worse...

not the end of the world, but boy does it take the smile off my face when i have to deal with it for an hour to do 5 minutes worth of work some times....

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Answer 15

Feb 27, 2012 8:54 AM in response to deeze28

this worked for me, for the movie metadata changes, but not the immedate re-write of library and xml files problem that's even worse.. THANKS nonetheless 🙂

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