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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

Reply
629 replies

Nov 13, 2013 7:43 AM in response to dViper

Since the new iOS 7 update, I had the same sync problems and couldn't play my music over 3G/4G for example.

But I found the answer and now it works perfectly on my Macbook Pro, iPhone and Apple TV!

Simply turn OFF iMatch on every device and turn it back on, starting with your iMac or Macbook (Pro), then your iPhone and finnaly your Apple TV. This all is done in about 10 minutes and everything is working again as is should. I hope that more people find my sollution helpfull.

Good Luck!

Jan 1, 2014 2:52 AM in response to dViper

Whe n uploading iTunes Match, after Steps 1 & 2 have been successful, it gets jammed on "Step 3 - Uploading Artwork and Remaining Songs" - showing "0 of 1726 songs uploaded".. It always shows the same song as being uploaded, but nothing happens. I suspect the "Remaining Songs" are from LP's I had burnt to CD's and then downloaded onto iTunes - some over 50 years old, no longer in the "catalogue", but very precious to me.

Approx 4,500 other songs from bought CD's and iTunes store purchases have downloaded.

Quite frankly, I can live without iCloud. How do I uninstall it without losing my iTunes library?

Also, how do I stop Apple from debiting the annual fee next time it is due?


I am in my 60's, not overly computer literate, so a reply in lay terms would be appreciated.

Jan 1, 2014 5:05 AM in response to Mulac Abu

Mulac Abu wrote:


Quite frankly, I can live without iCloud. How do I uninstall it without losing my iTunes library?

There is nothing to uninstall. Simply turn off iTunes Match in iTunes by pulling down Store menu > Turn Off iTunes Match. Nothing in the iTunes library will be lost.


Mulac Abu wrote:


Also, how do I stop Apple from debiting the annual fee next time it is due?

In iTunes pull down Store menu > View Account. Enter your Apple ID credentials when prompted. Where it says "iTunes Match" click the button labeld "turn off auto-renew."

Feb 16, 2014 12:15 PM in response to Mulac Abu

If it makes any difference to you, I had similar problems when I initially set up iTunes Match, but after stopping and starting it a few times (it would process a few more and then get stuck again), I got the whole library loaded. Since then, it's been fairly easy going loading new albums, since they're going in one at a time. Getting it set up the first time was far more difficult than it should be (but, I had already paid the $25, so I figured I might as well wrestle with it for awhile), and after that, while it's not perfect, it hasn't been any more of a hassle than plugging in my devices for updates would be. Plus, it seems to have matched a bunch of songs later on that it didn't match initially.

Feb 16, 2014 12:58 PM in response to MikeNM

Biggest problem still to be addressed by Apple is that you can't override the matching process on occasions where quite simply it's f***ed up. Apple seem to be in denial that iTunes (mis)Match ever gets it wrong. In my library of about 10,000 songs there's hundreds of mismatches. Mostly they're the wrong versions of the same song (Beatles Mono Box Set being the most famous debacle; this is mentioned elsewhere on this forum) but I've even got a few examples of songs where it's matched against completely the wrong song by the wrong artist. Deleting the Cloud version and forcing a re-scan doesn't guarantee to fix it either (though sometimes it works.) Then there's the 200-or-so songs which have just plain errored with a '!' through their Cloud icon; they won't upload no matter what I do.

Mar 17, 2014 1:58 PM in response to Gams

So THAT'S what's causing my (latest and greatest) horror story with Apple and iTunes? Fan-freaking-tastic. I'm wondering if I should just ditch this and move on. Not happy to read this.


And you know if some of our playlists happen to "disappear randomly, forever", of course Apple will be happy to sell them back to us, at a higher price.


I had been wondering why my devices keep asking me to purchase my own playlist over and over again. Something seemed very odd.


Thanks for the heads up.

Apr 22, 2014 6:26 AM in response to Michael Smith3

I am at the same situation and mindframe as Michael SMith3, and baiscally I subscribed two weeks ago and since then after a painfull completion of the three iniital phases of itunes match (needed to restart the itunes tow hundred times at least) all my music dissapeared (cannot locate fine!), then I decided to reload all my library and had never ever able to complete the step 2 of matching your library. I want my 25 US$ back as this is a total f *** up from apple and for usre never again will buy any, I mean any at all product or software from Apple, ridiculously unrespectfull, and yes, good luck for you all using itunes match as it is another piece of apple crap.

Apr 22, 2014 1:19 PM in response to dViper

For all that's wrong with iTunes misMatch (and God knows that's a long list), you only have to read the last four or five pages of this thread to realise that some people just simply (a) don't understand how it (or iTunes) works, and (b) don't have even a rudimentary understanding of file-management to correct its occasional f'k-ups.


For a start, Apple don't sell you playlists, they sell you tracks and albums. Playlists are just custom indices which point to tracks and albums in your library that you already bought or ripped. So if iTunes misMatch has f'd up a playlist, just recreate it again (ball-ache though that is). There's no hidden agenda to make you re-purchase a playlist 'at a higher price', because you didn't purchase it to start with.


I too have also had a few instances of iTunes losing the location of some tracks and albums after a Match scan. Yes, it's another ball-ache. But I've never had a time where it's literally deleted the tracks from my HDD (which in my case is a NAS...not sure if that's relevant). And for nearly all the people who claim it's wiped out part of their library, it probably hasn't either. Just add the missing tracks back to the library via 'File > Add to library...' and navigate to your iTunes library.


I'm no Apple fan-boy and I've done my fair share of whining on this thread about iTunes misMatch (including a decent-sized moan four posts above this one), but on the remotest off-chance that an Apple programmer frequents these boards even in just his own time out of sheer curiosity/boredom, it must be very difficult sometimes for him or her to separate the genuine issues from the bullsh-t.

May 4, 2014 7:43 AM in response to dViper

So many problems with iTunes Match, so little help from Apple. Did I say "little?" I meant "zero." I've read so many forums on Match problems. Mine is the oft-stated problem of Match freezing on Step 1 and then either dumping the connection or starting over. Today I turned off my Auto Renew for my Match subscription. Waste of time for a program not supported by Apple (concensus across the country that Apple support is getting worse by the day, which I find amazing. I thought Apple had its act together, but apparently not). My handy-dandy 160GB iPod is back in service ... and ... with that iPod I can have my music in lossless format! I just have to add an iPod connection to the radio which came with my Subaru Forester if I want to listen to my music in the car. However, when I'm out and about, I will now use Rhapsody and not iTunes Match. So long, iTunes Match. Oh, by the way, I once tried out the Amazon music program. Yikes, what a mess that is. Also not interested in the Google Play GUI.

May 4, 2014 8:52 AM in response to rkeesecker

I agree. I've spent the best part of a day trying to get iTunes (mis)Match to upload just three new CDs that I ripped last night. First time i've tried to add new stuff to Match for about three months. It either freezes on Step 1 or 2. Last time it did this (last year) I found the only way forward was to delete everything from the Cloud and start again. To do that, follow these steps:


1) Open iTunes and find out where your existing library is under Preferenes > Advanced.

2) Create a brand new iTunes library by holding down Option (Mac) or Shift (Win) when you boot iTunes

3) iTunes will prompt you to Choose an existing library or Create a new library. Click Create and direct it to your desktop so you can easily delete the new library later.

4) With the new empty iTunes open, sign into your Apple account and then into iTunes Match.

5) After a few minutes all your albums/tracks will appear with the iiCloud icon in their top right.

6) Go into Songs view, click on any then highlight the lot with Option + A (Win: Ctrl + A)

7) Hit Backspace. You will be asked if you're sure you want to delete all the songs from the Cloud.

8) Click 'Delete songs'. It will take a few minutes and iTunes will appear to freeze during the process.

9) Quit iTunes

11) Delete the iTunes folder from your desktop

12) Re-open iTunes.

13) Because it can't find your library, you'll get get given the prompt to locate or create again.

14) This time, click Choose and re-direct it where your real library is.

15) Log back into Match and go into Songs view

16) Highlight all your songs with Option + A (Win: Ctrl + A)

17) Right-click on any song and pick 'Add to iCloud'

18) Find something else to do for the next 24 hours while it basically gets on with it.

May 4, 2014 9:29 AM in response to Cruurakd778

Wow, MajorF ... thanks for taking the time to post that process. I may try it just because you put such an effort into your post! 🙂 I have a little over 19,000 tracks, so I'm not sure I want to go through that whole upload thing again. I have to give some credit to Apple, though, because it was neat to be able to delete many of the old 128mp3 matched songs from my hard drive and download the iTunes 256AAC matched version. That said, all I know is that backups are a beautiful thing. I sure hope people have redundant backups of their music and don't rely totally on programs like iTunes Match and the others. I may instead spend my time re-digitizing my favorite LPs (Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape and such ... and I have a ton of great LPs from the late 60s) with the turntable I still have and saving them in lossless instead of 128mp3. Worth the repeat effort. Although, most of my 128s of LPs I already had were recorded off the Rhapsody service. Geez they sound crappy at 128, y'know? Turntable, LP, sound board, Sound Forge software = new life for old LPs as lossless digital. Thanks again, Major.

May 4, 2014 2:33 PM in response to Cruurakd778

Hey, you know what, my friend(s)? I reached my limit today. I just sent in a request for a pro-rated refund on my iTunes Match subscription. I told them I've had enough with the problems and enough with the fact that Apple doesn't address the issues of the hundreds of folks who post in the user forums and enough with the fact that the Apple Support FAQs do nothing to address major problems. I will not pay for a service that is less than mediocre and a company which ignores its customers.

May 6, 2014 12:40 PM in response to rkeesecker

Here's an original one.


I just bought "The Man Machine" CD by Kraftwerk. I ripped it (Apple Lossless as usual), then I let iTunes Match go ahead and do its thing. When I play track 4 on my iPhone (ie via Match), what's supposed to be "The Model" by Kraftwerk actually plays "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by The Beach Boys.


Full marks there Apple for (mis)Matching it to a completely random unrelated track by a completely random unrelated artist. 😠


(And yes I've tried deleting the rip and re-ripping it, and the same thing happens every time).

So many problems with iTunes Match...

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