My iTunes 12.9.4 keeps freezing

@sem6x3ag

I was thinking the same thing! This issue has crippled the functionality and use case for iTunes since May 24, 2023. Close to 5 weeks ago with no acknowledgement as to the issue or a solution. I have also seen other posts calling out the same problem around the globe. There is no way they are unaware of it.

The question is if they aren't going to fix it, will they offer relief? Historically, not likely. Either way its arrogant to leave paying customers in the dark and not expect them to start asking for some engagement one way or another.

We are on Windows machines. Apple doesn't give a fig about what kind of experience we have when we use their products on Windows machines. That's why there are 31 responses without a reply. The answer to our issues, insofar as Apple is concerned, is to buy an Apple branded machine to make iTunes work properly.

I'm using iTunes on Windows and Macbook Pro and both are screwed up.

I am having the same issue with 12.9.4 - plays tunes for a while and then freezes randomly so have to stop process. On one occasion I noticed that the CPU and memory were very high for iTunes, so re-started. Everything is OK just playing from the library (~few % ~ 100Mb) but as soon as I went on 'Browse' or 'For You' the CPU and memory jumped (~10%, 800Mb) and then kept on going upwards even though not doing anything new. My guess is that it keeps on rising and eventually runs out of memory so just freezes.

I'm having the exact same issue as people have mentioned here (Windows 11 user). I'm currently on creating playlists for my wedding day and was planning to use my laptop to play the music from. Not only is adding music to playlists almost immediately causing the program to freeze, but I'm losing faith in being able to use it to play music for an extended period of time without freaking out. If they don't fix this bug by the end of this month I'm GONE.

I've been using the web based pages to build my playlist. If you log into your account from music.apple.com, you can build your playlist there. It seems to only be freezing when you add songs to your playlist from Apple Music via the iTunes app. I know it's not ideal, but it's been working for me without iTunes freezing.

That does help, thanks for the suggestion. However, I have experienced a freeze just from playing music which is definitely putting me of the idea of relying on it for my big day. Using Apple Music to play music feels like a really low bar for them to hit!

I have been having exactly the same issue as described throughout this thread ever since the iTunes 12.9.4 update. I use Windows 11. I have been a loyal user of iTunes since the early 2000s and love the ability to integrate Apple Music and my own library of music. I also love using star ratings to create Smart Playlists BUT this is driving my bonkers.... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fix it Apple.

Okay it's now July and this is still going on. I have been using iTunes religiously for almost 20 years and never have I experienced something like this. Please help us!!!!!

Update: I've switched to Spotify.

Latest freeze - looked at Task manager 'Details' in Windows and found 'One or more threads of iTunes are waiting to finish network I/O' so assume something related to getting data from the cloud. It seemed to happen randomly when moving from one playlist to another.

For those who have this problem and have their music downloaded I found an intermediate fix for Windows users with the information provided by tollbridge above. It's the equivalent of slapping some scotch tape on a broken shovel but it'll work temporarily for me and I assume a few others. All I did was create an outbound firewall rule for iTunes.exe to block network access to it.

1. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type "Control Panel" and press Enter to open the Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel click on "Windows Defender Firewall." You may have to click "System and Security" first.
3. On the left side of the Windows Defender Firewall window, click on "Advanced settings." This will open the Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security.
4. In the Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security window, click on "Outbound Rules" in the left pane.
5. In the right pane, click on "New Rule..." to create a new outbound rule.
6. In the New Outbound Rule Wizard, select the "Program" option and click "Next."
7. Choose the "This program path" option and click "Browse" to locate the executable file (Typically C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe) of the app/program you want to restrict network access for. Once you've selected the file, click "Next."
8. Select the "Block the connection" option and click "Next."
9. Choose the network types for which you want to apply the rule and click "Next." You can select all three options (Domain, Private, and Public) if you want to block the app/program on all types of networks.
10. Give the rule a name and, if desired, add a description. Then click "Finish" to create the rule.

Hopefully some people can use this temporarily because this issue has been going on for over a month.

Same here. Windows 10, same version. It freezes all the time, especially when downloading music. The song does download but i can only play it back after I've closed iTunes through task manager because its frozen.

As a DJ, I use iTunes to store and organise my files. Need a super quick solution otherwise I'm gonna have to switch to Spotify or amazon music asap

Its been 90 days since Apple updated iTunes with a buggy version that makes the application unusable or extremely painful to use with constant freezes requiring a restart.

Not one Apple Tech support person has acknowledged there is a problem. This is what a trillion dollar company thinks of people who use and pay for their products. Absolutely nothing.

Yep. Really disappointed with them. I've now unsubscribed from them and gone with Spotify. I've been using ITunes for over 20 years so was just used to it. In hindsight, Spotify is way better as a streaming service anyway.