So many problems with iTunes Match...

Yup, this seems to be working ... time to crack open a bottle of Merlot, it's going to be a long night!

moidah, sorry, I've been busy working on the house, so just got to see your post.

It doesn't sound to me like the poor match rate you experienced has anything to do with the way you ripped the CDs, I have read a few posts suggesting doing an iTunes AAC version has made a difference, but I'm wondering if it has more to do with simply trying again after a few days, particularly for people who just signed up last week.

You mentioned the "fingerprinting code". I'm fairly certain that's all done on the server side. The sheer horsepower necessary to scan your file, then try to find a match in the millions of tracks Apple's got on its servers well I'm not a computer genius, but Apple is scanning and finding matches as fast as I can rip an AAC in iTunes. No way do I believe my old white Macbook could do it, and if it could, I'm sure I'd notice a difference between how it runs compared to my wife's nice new MacBook Pro.

Really last week was horrible for a lot of people, particularly in the 19 countries that just came on board.

You are right that the issues people have today are largely the same ones people had two months ago. In particular, the lack of any real support for smart playlists on iOS. Whether that's going to take an update to iOS or something that can be handled entirely on the server side I don't know.

Anyway, before you put a lot of time into re-ripping, I'd suggest you create a new iTunes library, use the empty library as a way to delete some albums from the cloud, then add them back to your library and try to run match again. I have a feeling you know how do to this, so I'll just say update iTunes match after you've yanked the tracks, then wait for awhile (if you can stand overnight do it) before you add them back. Most of the time the updated database propogates pretty fast, but if it doesn't all that happens is the links are re-established to the files you already have in the cloud and you sure don't want to do a lot of work for nothing.

Can anyone help me understand why trying to drag around the order of songs in a playlist from iTunes Match doesn't work? It just snaps back to its original position. I though the idea of iTunes Match was to be able to make edits on any iDevice set up with iTunes Match and then the changes appear everywhere. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Trying to make change to a playlist on my new MBPro 13' with iTunes Match turned on. But can seem to make the change.

Any thoughts?

Grant

Has Apple given ANY feedback whatsoever on whether they are trying to fix these issues?

NewdestinyX wrote:

I though the idea of iTunes Match was to be able to make edits on any iDevice set up with iTunes Match and then the changes appear everywhere.

I may be wrong, but I've never heard of that as a feature.

I've never heard anything remotely like that either. You can't make any changes to the cloud via an iOS device. and I've never read anything from Apple that suggests that you can. You can't even delete a track from the cloud from an iOS device. You can make basic playlists on an iOS device, but they're local to the device.

Anything you want to do related to iTunes Match has to be done from a computer that's been associated with your Match account.

C'mon gents. We manipulate info in the cloud all day every day. We change a contact in any iDevice and it updates everywhere including the cloud. Same with calendars and mail in iCloud and all the rest. I guess what you're telling me is that photos in photo stream and music and playlists, though in iCloud are only essentially 'backed up' there and not user accessible like the other things I've mentioned?

If that's the case - then where DO I access the 'feeder' to iCloud? Is it the orignal computer I used where I turned on iTunes Match? Surely you're not telling me that the first time I uploaded to iTunes Match is the all the playlists that will ever appear there AS they were upon upload?? If that's the case I want my money back. Useless junk.. And how then do songs I've purchased on my iPhone or iPad get up to iTunes Match to stream from my Apple TV? If there's no 'synching' of music - I don't understand the use of iTunes MATCH.. Match=syncing as 'some level' right?

What brought this up.. is I changed the amount of songs in one playlist ON THE COMPUTER i used to start iTunes Match - but the changes aren't being reflected in any other of my iDevices linked to iTunes Match. Why would that be.

To be clear none of my iDevices are being synced for music thru the software iTunes on my desktop computer. I keep that computer updated with any changes I want to reflect everywhere.

NewdestinyX wrote:

I guess what you're telling me is that photos in photo stream and music and playlists, though in iCloud are only essentially 'backed up' there and not user accessible like the other things I've mentioned?

You guess totally wrong then.

All I was saying is that I hadn't heard what you stated in your post. You've read a whole lot more into that.

Anyway, on to your point about playlists syncing. I've just done a test. I created a playlist on my main computer and added 9 songs. A minute later that playlist was showing up on my laptop and my iPad. I then added some more songs to that playlist on my laptop and deleted a couple of the original ones. It updated those changed almost instantly on my main computer, but took a bit longer some time on my iPad. All the while, there is general match uploading going on in the background.

I then deleted a couple of songs from the playlist on my iPad and those deletions spread round to the two computers, so it does seem that some playlist changes done on iOS devices do spread to the main iTunes libraries.

If you aren't seeing this behaviour then it looks like it is a technical issue, rather than by design.

YAY, Keith. Thanks!! That's exactly how it SHOULD work and is advertised to work. Though, we all know you currently can't access your photos stored in iCloud now directly see your music by logging into iCloud.com. Where you can see contacts and all the rest and manipulate them from iCLoud.com. So music and photos from stream and camera roll, if you're backing up to iCLoud, are in a 'holding place' you can't access. But I digress.

So great.. Something's technically off. Were you doing this all from within your home and have SYNC iTUNES via WIFI turned on in your main computer? My main question is - is the functionality I need ALSO available via 3G (or WIFI) when you're not sitting at home in your network and without "SYNC via iTUNES over wifi" engaged and on. I want to see if your music is TRULY in the cloud.

The symptom I noticed NOT in my home WIFI was trying to reorder a playlist from within my MacBook Pro whose only music source is iTunes Match. When I try to slide a song to a different position in the list it snaps back to original position. There's also no 'delete option' when you select a song in a playlist. So some 'functionality' must be turned off somewhere in my MBPro. And yes I'm running latest version of iTunes there.. And am on iOS 5.0.1 everywhere else.

Any help would be great. And thanks to all who've offered help already. My problem isn't solved though.

OK, I've just done another quick test.

Yes, I was doing it all at home on my home wi-fi. However, my understanding is that once you have turned match on then no music syncing will happen, even if you are plugged in or have wireless syncing on.

Anyway, I set up a playlist again and added 4 songs. I then went into the Music App on my iPhone, which is not connected to my network, and the playlist was there. I then deleted one of the tracks from the playlist on my phone, and when I looked at my laptop I found that there were now 3 songs in the playlist there. I added another one, and that appeared on my main library and my phone. I then deleted the new track on my phone and it deleted everywhere.

It certainly seems to work well here. My smart playlists are all over the place, but that's a different (and well documented) issue.

I'm glad I seem to have helped you to identify that this is a technical issue, but I'm not going to be much use in troubleshooting I'm afraid, especially as I'm off to bed now (it's just gone 1am).

Cheers.

This is in general a helpful articleon the Macworld web site:

http://www.macworld.com/article/163743/2011/11/troubleshoot_itunes_match.html

It explains some of the isssues you can fix and some of the still outstanding issues. Let's hope Apple fixes them soon.

Yes, that article from November is still a good starting point. Here are a few more.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3619849

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3626829

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3704688

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3704779

And then there's this one. If you haven't watched the video at the top of the page, it's worth a look.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/itunes-match/

It would appear that they fixed my major problem, which was ignoring limits set in smart playlists. My Top 25 playlist now actually has only 25 songs....

Oops. Never mind. Forgot I was looking at my Macbook (on Apple TV). Still broken. Bad apple.

Really? That's good news if true for everyone.

Sorry - I was wrong. I edited my post.