iTunes Match Freezes in Step 2

Same here, seems like it is stuck but I can see in Network Utility app that I am sending a lot of packets.

Is it possible that we're wishfully seeing things that aren't there...? What I mean is this - I asked my teenager to start iTunes this afternoon when he got off the bus. I walked him through starting the Match process, where the last 35 of my 4,000 songs have been waiting for Match to stop f#@!ing around...

In my office, ten miles away, I watched on my laptop and my 3GS, as (some of) the remaining songs came online. All in all, over the span of only a few moments, it shot through all but 6 of the last, troublesome 35 tracks.

Since 2:30pm EST though, it's been whirling around and around and around, not doing much of anything, so I finally shut it down.

I still think it's an Apple issue that has something to do with the global rollout earlier this week. My Apple Support person has passed my case on to someone more "technical", who's supposed to email me tomorrow.

I'll be hoping there's a fix & that I'll get the chance to deliver GOOD NEWS...!

Bad News!

I just tried to add one more CD to my collection to test after iTunes actually finished the match last night. Only 16 tracks and it has been spinning now for about three hours.

I guess I just got lucky last night. This is still an issue for me.

Bummer!

Hello,

I found out what was stopping me at step 2. 🙂

I have two accounts from two different iTunes Stores. (2 countries).

it appears as if my .m4p songs purchased in the other itunes store causes iTunes Match to "freeze" at step 2 no matter how long I waited.

So I dragged the songs that were waiting to upload out of my music library and onto a folder on my desktop, then I deleted them from my iTunes libarary. (if you follow this make sure you have a backup first just in case).

Then I sorted out the .m4p songs from the other songs. Uploaded the remaining songs (not the .m4p songs) and iTunes Match worked perfectly.

Now I have to sort out what songs in the .m4p folder were purchased from which country and then upload only those songs into itunes and match again. (a rainy day job).

I hope this helps some of you who may have the same situation.

-F

Yeah I agree here.

UK user and had Match since launch in December.

Just threw in 300 songs, grouped in three batches. Step 2 froze at the last few songs but on my iphone they were uploaded, even if they had not progressed as far on iTunes.

However, i then threw in another 200 songs which agani freezes at step 2 but strangely the tracks dont appear in my iTunes library but do on my iPhone?!?!

I'm done guys, finally checked my library, 18% was uploaded, the rest was matched or is purchased. I'm not even going to try to rip CDs for now until the load on Apple's servers ease.

Although my library is small (355 songs) it took me 3 days to get it done.

Hey, iTunes Match seems to be back at work here in germany!

Posted before about the .m4p files.

Today I added them in one go. Everything went as planned.

I think I am completely matched, uploaded, or duplicated 🙂

Thanks to the tips here - finally back and running. I had dupes that were somehow both on my hardrive and in icloud. I paused Itunes match, deleted the duplicates on my hard drive, emptied my trash, restarted Itunes match and in less then 20 minutes, it completed.

As of last week, Match had freed itself up here on the US east coast. In my discussions with Apple, I'm convinced that the problem was the global rollout & too much demand on the servers, and that the solution is to be patient. I would strongly advise against deleting your music files, etc.

The answer oon Itunes match stucking is just simple. Ad a column 'iCloud' status in iTunes. Now push on this button. In the row you can see which files are matched en uploaded. Just remove alle the files that are not uploaded, matched or bought. Those are the problem files on which ITunes stocked at step 2. It worked in a second for me.

I have been having the same problem.... after reading through hundreds of these posts I tried someone's suggestion to convert all non-AAC (256 kbps) songs that were "waiting" status to iTune's AAC 256 format. In order to do this I had to physically delete from itunes (and my local harddrive) songs I had purchased in iTunes in 2008-9 which were DRM protected (they will not convert since they are protected... so I got rid of them hoping that I can download them later from the "purchased music" section of the iTunes Store). Then I converted the rest of the "waiting" songs to AAC. Then I turned off iTunes Match on my computer and all of my iOS devices, quit iTunes (for good measure), and then opened it up and turned Match back on. For the first time in weeks, Steps 1, 2, and 3 completed.

The problem could well be with DRM protected music purchased on iTunes several years ago. I haven't tried to redownload any DRM music from the store to see if that messes things up again, but for now, I'm just happy that I'm not staring at a busy match status bar.

I found a definitive solution that solve the freeze at step 2 of iTunes Match! 😁

You can try with only one song of iTunes Library and NOT from the "iTunes Match" page manager.

I suggest to enable, first, the "iCloud State" and "Bit Rate" into the column view of iTunes.

Into iTunes Library, add the songs (a single song or an little group) to iCloud, with CTRL+Click or with Right Click. Alternatively, select all songs into a Playlist, Playlist by Playlist... and adding they into iCloud, with patience.

In this mode you can see directly all problems and solve :-)

Verifing with iPhone ... now my Music exists!!!

Great idea!!!

It's working fine although it's a bit slow but, with patience...

Thanks a lot.🙂

I've looked at many, many posts, both here and on the net, and between all I've figured out the core problem; the apple match servers are not as sophisticated as the wide range of "junk" we throw at it. If you purchased all your songs off of itunes, then no problem. But like me, I've got songs from youtube, old albums, my kid's ipod, etc.

So...

1. Clean up your files. ensure that the apple match server can recoginze them. Remember, it cannot hear the songs, only the meta-tags.

2. Fix songs that are not labelled correctly

3. Delete stuff that just isn't easy to recognize; put them in a separate folder and import them one at a time.

4. Convert all songs to aac format

Good luck!

VB