So many problems with iTunes Match...

I'm reading threads on the problem with ITunes Match since November 2011! This is a disgrace for the Apple brand. I own 3 ipads, 2 iphones and 1 ipod. I can get all my music anytime on my ipod but can't get much of my music on my iphone or my ipads since I moved to the cloud and launched iTunes Match. I travel 10-15 days per month and I'm so frustrated with my ipads which I purchased to eliminate carrying all this equipment. WHEN IS APPLE GOING TO FIX THIS? Yes, I am shouting, I'm ****** and ready to dump all of these and go back to what I had before which worked just fine. Why are we the Customers allowing them to get away with this?

I'm 60% towards getting a Galaxy as my next phone after years of being an iPhone user. I had to completely wipe the iPhone to fix my issues with Match and iCloud - and not being able to play music or video.

Meanwhile I'd rather not pay Apple a service fee for a call to solve a problem they created.

And in Australia here at the moment - Apple are refusing to attend a government inquiry into why Apple products cost so much more than other markets.

Why anyone would RELY on a beta product and completely part with their old paradigm (a filled iPod) is beyond me. Apples been clear in ALL their literature that this is a beta product. Period.

What I don't understand is what would explain such varied experience. iTunes Match works PERFECTLY for me since day 1 of my use of it with over 2,000 songs. Every piece of artwork, every order of album, everything exactly as expected over my computer, iPad 3 and iPhone 4s. How is that possible?

When I add or remove a song from any device - the change is reflected in all other devices within seconds. From my perspective iTunes Match is one of Apple's finest achievements. I wonder what about my setup makes for this great experience...??

OS 10.7.4 -MacPro

iOS 5.1.1 on both 4S and iPad 3

I reiled on iTunes Match because I received an email or saw a promo on their website telling me what a good product it is. I did not see anything that drew my attention to the fact it was a beta product.

You start out wondering why anyone would rely on a beta product, and then go on to say it's been working perfectly for you. So did you hedge your bet in some way?

NewdestinyX wrote:

Why anyone would RELY on a beta product and completely part with their old paradigm (a filled iPod) is beyond me. Apples been clear in ALL their literature that this is a beta product. Period.

What I don't understand is what would explain such varied experience. iTunes Match works PERFECTLY for me since day 1 of my use of it with over 2,000 songs. Every piece of artwork, every order of album, everything exactly as expected over my computer, iPad 3 and iPhone 4s. How is that possible?

When I add or remove a song from any device - the change is reflected in all other devices within seconds. From my perspective iTunes Match is one of Apple's finest achievements. I wonder what about my setup makes for this great experience...??

OS 10.7.4 -MacPro

iOS 5.1.1 on both 4S and iPad 3

iTunes Match has been GA (general availability) since November 2011, it is no longer beta. Show me the reference materials that say otherwise because it would be news to me.

As for your experience with the product, I'm happy to hear that it works the way you expect it to. I, however, find it lacking in a few areas - not the least of which is support (or the lack thereof). No communication on outages, and no easy way to even get a support person on the phone unless you have Apple hardware (what if you only use it with Windows?). Explcit songs being censored which engineers have ack'd but no one has corrected yet, songs that should be match (no remaster, same song length as what's in iTunes) but do not, mono tracks being matched to stereo ones (ie. The Beatles in Mono) with no "force upload" option to stop that.

You don't pay for beta software (in general). Here we've paid a yearly subscription and there are issues and some of these issues are over six months old now. I keep hoping that Apple does correct these problems eventually (and they are problems for some of us). If not, I'm not renewing - simple as that.

@Roebeet--

Just because a product is in GA does not mean it's not still a "beta product". A product "in beta test" and a "beta product" are different things. Case in point: Siri. Siri's been in general availability since the 4S' release but is still a "beta product". This is also so with iTunes Match.

I will agree that it's a bit unconventional to charge $ for a "beta product". So if it's not working for you I can understand the frustration with alleged hiccups. I don't do anything unconventional with my music library. Stereo files from hundreds of stereo sources from 60's music forward - Classical to Heavy Metal to R&B and everything in between. I think some people have some very unique needs and want iTunes Match to be a "do all" product. It doesn't advertise "doing all". Everything they advertise it to do - it does for me since day 1 of its release. Minor early bugs quickly fixed by Apple. Well worth the $ to me. I now will never need anything larger than a 16GB iOS unit thanks to iTunes Match.

NewdestinyX wrote:

@Roebeet--

Just because a product is in GA does not mean it's not still a "beta product". A product "in beta test" and a "beta product" are different things. Case in point: Siri. Siri's been in general availability since the 4S' release but is still a "beta product". This is also so with iTunes Match.

I will agree that it's a bit unconventional to charge $ for a "beta product". So if it's not working for you I can understand the frustration with alleged hiccups. I don't do anything unconventional with my music library. Stereo files from hundreds of stereo sources from 60's music forward - Classical to Heavy Metal to R&B and everything in between. I think some people have some very unique needs and want iTunes Match to be a "do all" product. It doesn't advertise "doing all". Everything they advertise it to do - it does for me since day 1 of its release. Minor early bugs quickly fixed by Apple. Well worth the $ to me. I now will never need anything larger than a 16GB iOS unit thanks to iTunes Match.

I have never seen any documentation anywhere that states that this service is in beta. Not since November, anyway. And I've been on the phone many times with Apple and I've never once heard an L1 or L2 rep called this a beta service. If you've seen otherwise, please share it -- being serious here, I'd like to be proven wrong as it could certainly explain a few things.

I don't have very unique needs. I own "The Beatles in Mono" -- it's a pretty popular boxed set from a pretty popular band. Except about ~45 songs from that set do not upload, they Match with stereo versions. I've called them and put in feedback forms, and it hasn't been corrected yet. I have a Jay-Z album (again, a fairly popular artist) who's Black Album refuses to match to the explicit version. Again, I've called and I even have a case number from January. Still not fixed yet.

My more obscure abums are actually the ones I have fewer problems with, believe it or not. Either they Match or Upload, but it's usually all or nothing (which is fine). It's when it becomes a hodge podge of both that the problems start - the "flow" is broken.

You stated that you have around 2,000 songs in your library - I have a lot more than you do so maybe it's just the luck of the draw. Again, I'm not really worried about it anymore - my auto renew is off and assuming iTM 2.0 isn't around by November, I plan to let it lapse. I'll keep watching for updates, however.

My problem, which makes some sense to me - was that songs and videos would not play on my iPhone from the Cloud - I assume because they had to stream instead of just being there on the phone.
I would receive messages such as 'This file is over 50mb and cannot be played. Please connect to a Wi-Fi service.'

It's not going to be useful to require constant, high speed streaming to play my music - it would cost me a fortune.

(HONG KONG) today iTunes Match stucking in step 2 long long time. Util now 4 hours no function at all.

Same here!!!!! (Hong Kong)

Stuck in Step 2 since yesterday night. Sosad...

First off, the product came out of Beta in NOV 2011.

Secondly, I had great luck with Itunes Match, "beta testing" it before NOV 2011, and never had a problem until I recently upgraded to Mountain Lion after months of testing. I have 12,800 songs, and all my devices can see my library, its just when I try to update Itunes Match from this computer.

I think the servers may be down or acting weird.

whitewater2 wrote:

First off, the product came out of Beta in NOV 2011.

Secondly, I had great luck with Itunes Match, "beta testing" it before NOV 2011, and never had a problem until I recently upgraded to Mountain Lion after months of testing. I have 12,800 songs, and all my devices can see my library, its just when I try to update Itunes Match from this computer.

Okay -- I admit it's been a while since I participated in this thread. You'll notice this thread started a LOOONG time before November of '11. And like you - iTunes Match has been working for me since the beginning. I DID miss that it came out of beta in Nov'11. Sorry for the misinformation. But I still think Apple is 'testing it' with us - like they're doing with Siri that's out for General Availability but is still considered a 'beta product'. "In beta" (means before release to public) and a "beta product" are two different things in the electronics world (that I work in professionally). My original point stands. Don't bet your whole paradigm on a product that is getting refined NOR expect it to work outside the parameters that are advertised.

Server problems are another whole story and can be a temporary problem with any of these gizmos.

I'll admit I have a simple straightforward library -- no mono songs that I want to stay mono (which they would remain in mono to your ears when converted to stereo anyway).. and no CD ripped versions no explicit that I want matched to the explicit versions... All of that sounds outside the scope of what Apple promises to deliver with iTunes Match - so to be upset that it doesn't work is simply being upset at a feature they didn't choose to implement. But I could be missing something.

Bottom line -- it works perfectly for most of us. Think about how many people are using iTunes Match compared to the number of people that come to a thread like this. The 'problem' cases have been reported by, what?, 30 of us?? --compared to the '10's of thousands+' using iTunes Match?? To say Apple has scarred their reputation by this 'piece of junk' - is a WAAAY overstatement - which was my original point. For the vast majority of us - only asking of iTunes Match that it deliver what it says it can deliver - iTunes Match is functioning 'perfectly' -- on systems before Mountain Lion. Any problems with Mountain Lion itself will be quickly repaired as people report in. On Lion - again - it's flawless for me. I'm sorry some of you are having trouble. I couldn't live with out it.

For those who are worried about streaming speeds and data usage - just adopt the working paradigm of downloading to the device - all your main 'playlists'. Leave everything else in the cloud. It still takes up WAAAY less space than wanting your whole library on your phone or iPad. I end up having about 2-3 GB of songs that I want 'on the plane' with me that don't have to access the cloud.

Newdestinyx,

Great post, great outlook.

I strictly use Itunes Match as my last case scenario backup and my upgrade from old RIPs from 10 + years ago. I dont use it as my sole backup, but I would like to get it to work correctly like it used to.

AppleTV/iPod/iPad all see my library correctly. Just since doing a clean install of ML, has it failed and it might be due to their servers but really unsure at the moment.

I am not upset with the product, as I never have had a problem until recently, I am just waiting for a fix to solve my problem. It worked fine, until I went to Mountain Lion. It worked fine on latest iTunes in Snow Leopard before making the full time switch to ML. I submitted BUG report so we will see what I hear.

The weird thing is, that its showing my recently adding songs on the other devices, so its like its going through and updating, but Itunes is showing that it just keeps restarting the process.

@NewdestinyX, first off thanks for clearing up the beta question - at least we're in sync. Although I don't agree with you on your feelings on this being a "test" product. It should be GA which means full support. But it's not. I also work in Operational support so I know the difference between a beta or a pilot program, and a GA release. You don't get to have it both ways -- if you're charging for a product that's GA, it should be treated as such. Fixing bugs? Of course. But full support should also exist and that's where this product is lacking. Most of the time when there's an outage, the L1/L2 teams aren't even aware of it (I'm not making this up - I call them each and every time theres an outage). And there is still no iTM status page - there's an iCloud one but that's not the same thing (ack'd by their own L2 support). In comparison, Amazon Cloud Service has a very detailed status page so when something's down this status page should pick it up.

Mono isn't just mono to your ears -- it's a different mixes, not folddowns. But it shows that their Matching process needs tweaking, and one would think that The Beatles, of all bands, would get the gold treatment. But 6+ months later and it's not fixed yet. There's a reason why tens of thousands of us bought this boxed set.

And how would you know that it works for "most of us"? Have you done a survey? For every person that complained here, there could be 50 more that never even bothered to create an account and just turned Match off. But I guess we'll find out in November when the first US customers hit their one year renewal window.

As for Mountain Lion, I haven't upgraded yet but this is actually a perfect example of what I'm talking about. A major OS update and nobody tested iTunes Match to make sure it was compatible? Are you kidding me? How did that fall throught the cracks? Honestly it again shows me where Apple puts iTM on its priority level, which isn't very high from where I'm standing. I still have bugs that haven't been fixed in over 6 months.

You make a lot of assumptions from one board. And you give a lot of excuses for a product that should be given more attention than Apple seems to. I think it needs more resources and support to make it a great product and it's why I call them and put in feedback forms. But after 6+ months, I'm beginning to feel that I'm just wasting my time and if Amazon/MS create their own Match service, that will be the final straw. Or I'll just use Google Play for free when my Match subscription is up.

NewdestinyX

You are obviously living in a different zone of reality. The net if full of complaints about Itunes Match, just Google it. I have had a Mac since 1984, and own more Apple Products than almost anyone I know (5 lap tops, counless Iphones, Ipods, Ipads, and Desktops, just in my home, not counting the dozens of machines I have purchased for my business). Itunes Match is the worst Apple Product ever. I know how to trouble shoot problems. There is no solution. It may work for a tiny music collection. However, the product which is not BETA, simple doesn't work for anyone that has an extensive music collection. Hate to tell you, but 2000 songs is not an extensive music collection. Plus, there is little customer support. No, let me change that, there is zero customer support. The product has two major flaws. First, it doesn't match properly. How can it not match Us and Them, from one of the greatst albums of all time. Since it is probably not in your 2000 song collection, the album is Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Second, it doesn't play more than a half dozen songs before it craps out. I have become so frustrated with Itunes Match, that I gave Amazon's Cloud Player a try. Amazon's cloud player (hate to say it as an Apple stock holder) does a much better job of continuously streaming music. It also has the added advantage, of just streaming, and not downloading the music to your Iphone. However, it is not without its flaws as well. Bottom line, while neither product is perfect, overall Amazon's product has fewer issues. I will be among the legions, not renewing when my Itunes Match subscription comes up, unless they get the ship turned around.