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dViper Author

Level 1

0 points

So many problems with iTunes Match...

So far my experience with iTunes Match has been horrible. I keep getting a ton of unmatched songs that absolutely should be matched, and lots of upload errors.

For example, the album "Houses of the Holy" by Led Zeppelin.... http://i.imgur.com/RscRg.png

After toying around with it for a while, i found that sometimes using iTunes to create an AAC version of a unmatched song, the newly created AAC version does get matched. Not sure why this is, as the original unmatched files are 320bit MP3s.

Another issue I've found is that albums are not sorting correctly on my iPhone with iTunes Match active. I use dougscripts in iTunes to copy the release year of all my albums into the "sort album" meta data field. So that way on my ipod or iphone albums are sorted chronologically. Through iTunes match, none of my albums are being sorted correctly. Its not even that they're sorted alphabetically instead of chronologically. They're just listen in what seems like a completely random order.

Yet another MAAAJJJOOORRR complaint is with the album art. I am very meticulous about my album art. Every album in my library has album art displayed. My first step in getting album art is trying to get album art through iTunes. Most of the time this works fine. For the ones that dont, I just search google images and copy and paste the album art in... What I'm finding though, is that all my albums with album art gotten through iTunes, is not showing up on my iPhone when using iTunes Match. But albums where I had to paste a image in to iTunes, those do show up on my iPhone. This is not 100% consistent, but pretty close.

Overall I am very disappointed with iTunes Match so far. The Apple philosophy of "it just works" certainly does not apply to this product.

Im going to wait it out another couple of days or a week or so, and if things don't get better, I'll be calling in asking for a refund.

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Nov 14, 2011 11:12 PM

629 replies

Nov 24, 2011 9:16 AM in response to Greg F.

Here's my experience with iTunes Match:

- I have a library containing about 9600 songs

- It took about 3 days for iTunes Match to complete (failed initially after a few hours and required a restart)

- It matched about 7500 songs (which really surprises me)

- It uploaded about 1300 songs

- It reported about 650 "errors" (which I am attempting to upload again)

tonebrew

Level 1

0 points

Nov 27, 2011 8:38 AM in response to dViper

My question: Where is Apple? My problem with Match is that if I click on Song A, Song B plays. At least they should get that part right. Kinda reduces the value of my library. And the problem is in the song record itself, so a re-build of iTunes will not help. Here's where Time Machine will come in handy... at least on my iMac.

In the middle of all these complaints, Apple is absent. This set of problems is worse than may other "product/application" problems, because in this case the application has screwed our own assets - our libraries.

Seeing a "Genius" tomorrow, lessee what happens...

Nov 27, 2011 11:51 AM in response to tonebrew

Are you talking about your music on your iphone?

tonebrew

Level 1

0 points

Nov 27, 2011 12:21 PM in response to johnskies

The main problems are on my iMac and PC, although they are reflected in the iPhone. On each computer, files where music is stored for iTunes have been corrupted with erroneous song data. So in "Bruce Springsteen/Born to Run/Jungleland, the song record is there with that title, but additional new columns in the record say "Coldplay", X & Y", "What If", and in iTunes when I click "Jungleland", "What If" plays...

Nov 27, 2011 12:35 PM in response to tonebrew

As far as itunes on a mac or pc I havent encountered any problems. On your phone though under your turn itunes match on toggle is your show all toggle on? If so turn it off. If that is off and not the problem you can also reboot your phone and then sync with itunes. It should solve your problem, I deleted all the music that on my phone when I experienced this issue but thats me and I only had a couple hundred song which i didnt mind putting back. I dont know how many you may have so that is up to you.

Nov 27, 2011 2:07 PM in response to tonebrew

tonebrew wrote:

The main problems are on my iMac and PC, although they are reflected in the iPhone. On each computer, files where music is stored for iTunes have been corrupted with erroneous song data. So in "Bruce Springsteen/Born to Run/Jungleland, the song record is there with that title, but additional new columns in the record say "Coldplay", X & Y", "What If", and in iTunes when I click "Jungleland", "What If" plays...

I had something similar happen when I upgraded to iOS 5.0 on my iPad...had nothing to do with iTunes Match. When I first tried the new Music App incorrect songs would play, others wouldn't play at all, wrong cover art, etc.

To fix it I connected my iPad to my computer, opened iTunes, unchecked "Sync Music" (or turn off iTunes Match) and let it sync. That wiped all of the music off of my iPad. I then disconnected it and performed a reset (hold the Sleep/wake switch and the Home button together for at least 10 seconds, until the Apple logo appears) and waited for it to completely boot up. Then I reconnected it to my computer, opened iTunes, re-checked "Sync Music" (or turn iTunes Match back on) and clicked on "Apply". Everything worked and played normally after that.

Hope that helps!

Nov 27, 2011 8:30 PM in response to dViper

I too am having issues with Match on my iPhone 4S. I have the 64GB version and tomorrow I'm going to call Apple to see if I can get a refund. I HATE not having my album artwork being displayed on my iPhone! It's easy for me as I'm driving to take a quick glance and see what song is popping up with a quick glance at the album artwork. All of my album artwork is sitting perfectly fine on my MacBook Pro, but because Match is more of a beta than a finished product, my album artwork doesn't move over to my iPhone. I'd rather save myself the $25 than the headache of dealing with Match. I had called in to tech support and they seemed like they were completely clueless about this issue.

Nov 27, 2011 9:50 PM in response to meatbag21

meatbag21 wrote:

I too am having issues with Match on my iPhone 4S. I have the 64GB version and tomorrow I'm going to call Apple to see if I can get a refund. I HATE not having my album artwork being displayed on my iPhone! It's easy for me as I'm driving to take a quick glance and see what song is popping up with a quick glance at the album artwork. All of my album artwork is sitting perfectly fine on my MacBook Pro, but because Match is more of a beta than a finished product, my album artwork doesn't move over to my iPhone. I'd rather save myself the $25 than the headache of dealing with Match. I had called in to tech support and they seemed like they were completely clueless about this issue.

I get the frustration and the the desire for a refund, but I'm not sure I understand why you don't just turn iTunes Match off, sync your iPhone with your Macbook's iTunes library like before and move on.

Best of luck and hope things work out one way or the other.

Nov 27, 2011 10:23 PM in response to richsadams

That's what I intend to do is to just go back to the way I had been working before. I can't move on until either 1) they resolve this issue or 2) give me a refund. Why pay for a service that isn't working the way it should be?

Nov 27, 2011 11:03 PM in response to meatbag21

meatbag21 wrote:

That's what I intend to do is to just go back to the way I had been working before. I can't move on until either 1) they resolve this issue or 2) give me a refund. Why pay for a service that isn't working the way it should be?

Okay, however I didn't say you should pay for the service if you can't get it to work. I just didn't understand your post...it sounded as if you couldn't do anything to correct the situation. Guess I misunderstood. Turning off iTunes Match and going back to synchronizing your iTunes library "the old fashioned way" sounds like the way to go...for you at least.

Nov 27, 2011 11:07 PM in response to richsadams

Sorry, I may have misunderstood your post. I'm currently going back to the old way of not using iTunes Match. Currently in the process of doing a restore just to make sure I get it completely fresh again. Synching my music through my iTunes library is the way to go for me since Match didn't want to get my album artwork on my phone correctly.

Nov 27, 2011 11:54 PM in response to meatbag21

meatbag21 wrote:

Sorry, I may have misunderstood your post. I'm currently going back to the old way of not using iTunes Match. Currently in the process of doing a restore just to make sure I get it completely fresh again. Synching my music through my iTunes library is the way to go for me since Match didn't want to get my album artwork on my phone correctly.

I had the same problem with cover art...particularly the ones that I had added myself over the years. In fact I started a thread about it the day iTunes Match was released.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3494271?start=0&tstart=0

A few days later Apple contacted me and asked several questions. I replied with the details about what had happened and how I got it sorted out. At least we know that they're aware of it.

What I did to straighten it out is in that thread somewhere (others added some more suggestions too), but basically after some tinkering with how it was set in the metadata (adding it to the song list rather than just the album), turning iTunes Match on and off and well as updating it repeatedly, quitting and restarting the Music App several times I finally got all of it on my iPhone and iPad. It was a real pain though...and that's not how these things should work.

Hope it all works out!

Turbopgt

Level 1

7 points

Dec 4, 2011 8:00 PM in response to catalyst9

No, ideally they'll leave it just as it is, because they got it right the first time.

Lots of things to fix with iTunes Match, but streaming vs. caching-while-playing is not one of them. This is the one thing that sets it apart from other services, and actually makes it useful and intutive.

A direct stream which requires endless and repeated buffering is stupid and archaic, and thats why iTunes Match does nothing of the sort.

Dec 7, 2011 12:58 PM in response to dViper

I have to agree iTunes Match is not ready for prime time. Google Music is a superior product at the moment and its cheaper by $24.99/yr.

Dec 7, 2011 1:34 PM in response to john.sawyer

john.sawyer wrote:

I have to agree iTunes Match is not ready for prime time. Google Music is a superior product at the moment and its cheaper by $24.99/yr.

What Google offers and what Apple offers is apples and oranges, particularly when it comes to syncing across all computers and devices including the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and the Apple TV2 (for which there is no Google support).

Using multiple apps to access my iTunes library on different devices is a deal killer. Having to upload not just some of my music library but everything I own is a deal killer. Not having access to my entire iTunes library at 256kbps on all of my devices 24/7 via Wi-Fi or 3G is a deal killer.

iTunes Match/iCloud is a one-stop shop, fully integrated with every device I own. I can listen to all of my music on any computer in my house, on my home theater, on my iPhone, on my iPad, in my car, at work and so on.

Granted, iTunes Match was problematic to get up and running but now that it is there's no competition, free or otherwise. YMMV of course.

So many problems with iTunes Match...