My iTunes 12.9.4 keeps freezing

I search for this issue a couple of times a year hoping someone has a solution. It's been 3-4 years and itunes still freezes between 5 minutes and 30 minutes after opening. I don't want to delete my manual playlists because that is the whole reason I use iTunes. The web application is worthless. Anyhow, maybe someday. But for all of you out there don't waste too much time trying to fix this with all the solutions proposed. None work. The only thing I recommend is to leave "Task Manager" open so you save yourself a few clicks when it's time to "End Task" of the iTunes process and restart it. I do this about 10-15 times per day. This happens on all of my family computers, so I know it's not something with just my system.

Hello,

currently it is very bad. As soon as you start iTunes, it hangs - without having done anything before. Very annoying - Apple has left its customers out in the cold for months with this problem and does exactly nothing.

Many greetings from Germany

Rainer :)

Hello,

I had a long conversation with Apple support today. I was recommended to enter high performance for iTunes under System/Monitor/Graphic.

I will test this the next few days and hope that this is a workaround. This workaround is only to be used until Apple fixes the problem. According to the employee the problem is known and we are working on the solution.

Many greetings from Germany

Rainer :)

Hello,

the changes I made yesterday to the system settings did nothing. This morning iTunes hangs as usual. I have the feeling that with the new version everything has become much worse - with the previous version iTunes only hung when you actively did something in the program. With the new version, iTunes hangs even when it's running in the background.

Many greetings from Germany

Rainer :)

Update from my previous post a few months ago. For other reasons I have had to change PC so now on Windows 11. For a while I just used Apple Music Preview - which at least allowed me to listen to my playlists etc. from the cloud, but it has it's own problems and froze a few times (but much less than iTunes). Also, I couldn't get it to link to my iPods (classic and shuffle) using the Apple Devices Preview - didn't recognise them at all.

So I have downloaded the latest iTunes (12.12.10.1) and so far it does seem to be more stable. However, to sync to my iPods I'll have to download all the matched / purchased music from the cloud (or backup which I have) and I'm not sure whether to bother if iTunes is going to be discontinued, and wait for Apple Music and Apple Devices to work.

Hello and good morning,

I can only confirm that it seems that with each new version the problem gets worse. Now it happens all the time that iTunes freezes right after startup - I've never had that before; until now it always seemed to be related to a previous action.

Apple is getting on my nerves - there must be a capable mind among the highly paid developers to find the problem and finally solve it?

Greetings from Germany

Rainer :(

Same problem here, started right after I switched from my old Windows 10 computer to my new Windows 11 machine. Problems galore. In the past I always refused to update iTunes out of habit because I disliked the installer, seems like I unconsciously made the right choice there. This is a broken mess and I find it infuriating that they are apparently not able or willing to fix it.

I have the same issue with my WIN11 laptop.. started a few years ago. iTunes either (1.) completely locks up when I connect my iPhone via USB to my laptop or (2.) simply won't recognize my iPhone. My iPhone asks me to "Trust This Computer" and asks me to type in my passcode. I am trying to add some songs to my iPhone but this obviously can't be done until Apple fixes this issue. Glad I am not the only one with this problem but it's been going on for a few years.. C'mon Apple! Fix this.

Been happening to me for many months too. Not a laptop memory issue as far as I can see, and have the same issue even after upgrading to a new laptop. As others mentioned, often happens when trying to build a playlist. Songs keep playing on iTunes, but iTunes won't respond to anything, so have to cancel task. Using Windows 11. Using iTunes 12.13.0.9, which I downloaded from Microsoft.

Also having this issue. Switched to Apple Music and then switched RIGHT back to Spotify. Apple Music is severely lacking in ALL features almost compared to Spotify. Get Spotify instead. Had it for years and ONLY switched due to a promotion from Apple and boy do I regret it. I’ve listened to less music because of freezing problems than ever before. Apple Music / iTunes is something you should definitely avoid.

Good morning,

This morning the program is constantly hanging. I have already had to consult the task manager 3 times to close iTunes.

I wonder how long customers will have to wait for a solution?

Greetings from Germany

Rainer :)

Recently, as of maybe 3-4 months ago (coinciding with the release of either version 12.12.10.1 on September 13 or 12.13.0.9 on October 24), I started experiencing this consistently after playing only 3-5 songs. VERY frustrating needing to Ctrl-Shift-Del to close it through Task Manager every time. However, I noticed that one of the things I always did was extend the window length to show more songs.

iTunes no longer freezes on my Windows 11 desktop ever since I stopped changing the window size. I did also change my library name to exclude any characters other than lower-case letters, hoping this would fix it, but it did not... but it may have contributed. Hopefully this helps for someone!!

I've reported freezing issues, and it's been happening for quite some time, probably over a year now. I'd increased memory and even purchased a new laptop as well as trying all the suggested workarounds, but it still happens.

A further action that will gaurantee a freeze for me is if I add a song to a playlist after starting itunes on Win11.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete to cancel the task is used numerous times per session.

I tried all of the fixes below and nothing worked. Then I noticed on a listing of all the songs in my library, everything was checked. I held down CTRL and clicked the first check box to uncheck everything and that seems to have fixed the problem.

It's now gone next level... store won't fully appear... nothing but a blank screen on 'for you' and 'browse'. Continuous crashing on the browse page. Completely crashes my PC at least once a day.

Add this on top of freezing when I try to download music from my iCloud and/or edit tracks.

Nice job, Apple... you win. I'm now ready to stop giving you my money!

Someone who worked on iTunes has moved to Spotify and left a parting gift.

I've put up with it for almost a year and now I'm officially out!