Can't upload songs to library for iTunes matching

Having the same issue. Usually, I can get it resolved with a few tricks.

Added 4 albums. 6/10, 2/13, 1/10, and 8/14 songs uploaded from each. I tried removing songs from library, re-adding from downloads folder...same result. Running latest iTunes. Signed out, signed in. Turned off/on sync library on iphone. Restarted iTunes. Restarted Computer. File > Library > Update Cloud Library results in a forever spinning icon, "Matching your music...". When will iTunes work??? It's been a zillion years. I see I have a Windows update, will try that now. (2021-07 Update for Windows 10 Version 2004 for x64-based Systems (KB4023057))

Thanks very much for keeping at this and posting this update. I finally had my person reach out to me and promise to get it to an engineer (although she said that the first time too) but I never actually talked to the engineer.

Thank you so much for continuing to follow up with this. That so many of us have the problem and got no help from Apple it is encouraging to think someone at Apple is finally listening. Isn't that just good/reasonable customer service? Please keep us posted so we can look for the problem to fix. I have a CD I am trying to download and it is over a week into it.

I had two calls with Apple yesterday - the first was almost an hour and a half and ended with a "senior" advisor promising they would "personally" make sure this issue was resolved. They told me to do a software update (big sur to 11.5.1) and said they'd email a link for me to follow if I was still having the problem. The update didn't fix anything - I can still not upload to my cloud - so I clicked the link and it sent me to the billing department. Huh? They forwarded my call to the department that handles "laptops" though I kept saying it's not a hardware problem, it's a cloud problem. When I got the new advisor I had to start all over again... and again I got bumped up to a "senior" advisor who promised me they'd "personally" make sure it gets resolved. They said they couldn't do anything to fix it at the moment but that they'd tell their engineering department. Then they promised to call me back in a couple of days to "see how I was doing." I had a similar back and forth with "senior" advisors who made promises they never kept earlier in the year when I was having an airpods pro problem. I never spoke to the same person twice and must have spoken to five or six different advisors. Sooo maddening. I'll update if I ever get it.

You’ll find from time to time the ghost songs occur; if you allow the sync to continue, they’ll eventually disappear. If you selected to show file type, you’ll see those ghosts are MPEG4 files; my guess is that iTunes/Music hiccups and gives you visibility (temporarily) into the locally hosted files as though they are local on your device. I don’t think this is specific to the wider issue.

Had same issue last Sunday when cahtted online with apple - tracks eventually added overnight.

Last 2 days two Sigrid tracks will simply not upload whatever i do.

Have today logged a case with apple who have shared my screen and seen the issue first hand.

They will get back to me next week.

Will keep you posted!

Maybe a little update; as regards the mp3 I've been trying to add to the library in the past days still no way, but I tried a different thing as well. I tried to upload "unpublished" tracks; specifically, two recordings from my PC and... Boom, they have been uploaded in a few seconds! So I took one of the (many) songs that currently get stuck in the upload, modified it heavily and then tried to upload it again. Again, no problems at all, and the upload was super fast. So my guess is that only the songs which have an Apple counterpart in Apple music have problems, not the unpublished ones.

Yes that’s exactly what I’ve found - tracks / albums that are NOT anywhere on Apple Music or the iTunes Store upload fine. Tracks / Albums that have a “match” are the problem. They are perpetually in “waiting” mode.

A workaround might be to download those tracks from Apple Music and then delete the duplicates that are “waiting”. Or just delete then download from AM. The issue with that is that it might not be the same mastering - but it could solve some issues.

I began using iTunes in 2005 and then subscribed to iTunes Match in 2010. I relied on iTM to manage my music. Since mid-July 2021, I wasted DAYS trying to upload new and previously uploaded music files.

My thinking is Apple engineers re-designed iTM to not upload a music file that was not purchased at iTunes. Period.

I currently have 260 music tracks 'waiting' and 'matched' in iTunes Store. iTunes Match goes through the full library each time I request to update the library. But nothing is ever matched and finally uploaded. I have removed 120 'ineligible' music files - originally purchased from iTunes and never modified.

To test the iTunes Match service, I repurchased 12 music files from iTunes, 12 from Beatport, and 12 from Traxsource. Not (1) ONE single track has been matched and uploaded over a 7-day period. Before the iTM disaster, all my purchased tracks uploaded in seconds. No file ID labels are modified, no alternative formatting is used; the test files were submitted to iTM exactly as received.

Like said, I relied on iTunes Match to manage my extensive music library but now that library is in complete disarray. Even my playlists have been changed by iTunes Match during the 'waiting to upload' period of time. This is 100% BullShitakke and a clear example of Apple's arrogance to The Customer.

Suggested work-arounds are described in this Community blog to modify our music libraries into an accepted state of iTunes Match. The engineers at iTunes are surely laughing their collective asses off reading these iTM requests for support.

So... does The Customer: A) wait until Apple's engineers decide to fix iTunes Match; or B) realize iTunes Match is a failed product and dump it. Either way, I want my money back.

Anyone confirm the IP address theory ( one good up address for matching and one dodgy one) - if so I imagine we could create a local firewall rule to stop the music app connecting to the bad backend ???

I am now 11 days into Matching my library of 7700 songs. So far 2235 are matched - a rate of 7 minutes per match. As others have reported, it seems when a match isn’t found (about 32% of the time) the upload to iCloud is fast. At the current rate of matching I’m looking at another 25 days to match my library!!!! So someone with 60K songs that need to be matched is in for a very long wait. YML

So from this thread I'm getting that it is the Matching that doesn’t work. What would happen if we turned off iTunes Match and just downloaded our CDs? Can you even do that’s? Would we still see them on our iPads or phones? I have a CD I’ve been trying to download for at least two weeks. It is in the iTunes Store. Two songs of 20 have finally showed up, the rest are still waiting.

My problem isn’t matching. It’s uploading files that otherwise only exist on my computer. They’re original songs and tracks from other people that don’t exist in iTunes. I’ve never had a problem getting them up into my cloud before about a week ago.

I have exactly the same problem, the matching function is not working for me at all. It is not slow, it just isn’t working. I have three albums that I ripped to my library on the 04 August and they are all stuck. I have another anomaly going on and I wonder whether anyone else is seeing it. Like many people I have tried obvious tactics like logging out of iTunes and logging back in, de-authorising my pc and re-authorising it, disconnecting from my iCloud Music library and reconnecting to it, closing down the pc and rebooting. None of that makes any difference. Now, I keep my iTunes library on an external drive, so have this set up through preferences (G:\iTunes\Music). I have found that when I come out of iTunes and relaunch it I have to go back into preferences and reset this because it keeps defaulting to the c:\ drive when I exit. I also have to reset the import settings (l like it to be mp3 at 320 Kbps, but it defaults this to aac). All this may be coincidental but I’m not a big believer in coincidence. Anyone else have additional weird things happening along side the (not) matching issue?

Mine is not working at all either since Friday and I have logged a support call which has been escalated.

I have drawn attention to all the complaints re this online and media articles.

I'm getting a call back next Friday