attempt to "re-match" tracks

I believe your observations are correct. Note that most people having low sussess rates are those that converted their own CDs and those with a lot of tracks that were not purchased from iTunes. Both kinds may differ in length from similar iTunes tracks (even if they are from the same album) or might be from different issues of the same album.

I believe Apple set the threshold for matching very high, and rightly so. I, for one, would be very upset if iTunes Match ignored differences in album issues (some differ radically), remastered issues, track versions from album, singles and EP versions, collections, remixes, etc. Just think how many different live versions some artists have issued. You certainly wouldn't want iTunes Match to substitute your favorite version for another live recording. I'm sure refinements to the matching algorithm are coming, but they should remain at a high threshold.

Regarding artwork for unmatched songs, Apple has two sources for artwork. Its own database of tracks for sale, and when that fails, the Gracenote music database service (which has a much lower matching threshold and is often wrong).

A user at MacRumoprs (yeah, I know...) posted a collection of observations that might be informative: http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=13850490&postcount=58 One is that the original estimate of matched/uploaded songs is not the final one, until all three steps of the process are finished.

You might also check this thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3493002?answerId=16731714022#16731714022

I, too, suffer from the "Bathroom Window bug." Everything else on Abbey Road matched. Did anyone get that track to match?

It doesn't really make sense that the fact that that song transitions directly from and to other songs would make a difference, as most of the songs on the second half of the album do that.

secondandc wrote:

Fair enough, tho it seems to me it would be simple enough to have an algorithm that says "the user matched 16 of the 17 tracks on this album, so this one track that didn't match is probably a mistake and we should go ahead and match it."

I agee, however I have a few albums where more than 50% of the album did not match (I ripped from CD myself). I created a Smart Playlist of everything uploaded. I have 6858 total songs in my Library with 843 uploaded (roughly 88% matched). Of those, I made a normal playlist of things I know iTunes has that were unmatched (leaving out the live concerts and demos that I have in my Library that I know iTunes will never match). That playlist has 248 songs (giving iTunes Match roughly 96% match rate for things in its catalog). Overall, it's a good match rate and I hope they improve the algorithm so that these uploaded tracks I have get matched and I can download them in 256kbps AAC. Some sort of re-match feature would be great once they improve the algorithm or find a way for us to manually identify tracks. I'm sure there are piracy/legal issues with doing that, but hopefully Apple finds a way.

Dylan Gentile wrote:

I, too, suffer from the "Bathroom Window bug." Everything else on Abbey Road matched. Did anyone get that track to match?

It doesn't really make sense that the fact that that song transitions directly from and to other songs would make a difference, as most of the songs on the second half of the album do that.

All of The Beatles catalog fully matched for me, including Abby Road. I bought the full Stereo Remaster set back in 2009 and ripped those and had no problems with any of it matching. It seems that all The Beatles unmatchings are related to CD rips from original discs as opposed to the remasters.

Can I ask how long it took to upload all of those songs? It's been taking forever to just upload about 400 even with leaving my laptop on all night long.

RobNYC wrote:

Can I ask how long it took to upload all of those songs? It's been taking forever to just upload about 400 even with leaving my laptop on all night long.

Mine took about 5 hours for 200 songs at home on my Time Warner connection (1Mbps upstream). I brought my MacBook Pro to work to finish the uploads yesterday on the 40Mbps connection and it finished in about 30 minutes. It all depends on your broadband speeds.

I'd like to throw iTunes Match out "through the bathroom window." Same deal with my Abbey Road - All matched except that one (1:58 length). So odd.

I would like an easy rematch as well, preferably an automatic one. There is hope - they have the songs, and the library data, so it is possible for an engineer to look at problems, like "four out of five songs on the album matched. What on earth..." without needing to talk to us directly.

I'm having the same problem with an album I PURCHASED FROM ITUNES. I bought Watch The Throne by Kanye and Jay-Z when it first came out.Yet when I ran Itunes Match, 3 of the songs did not match and were uploaded. This does not make any sense. If I bought the entire album all at once from itunes itself, then why are 3 of the songs not being matched????

Oh Apple, you should of just kept it in beta....smh

Something I tested with one track...

One track was part of an album. The whole album was matched except for the one track, it was UPLOADED.

I created an AAC version of that track within iTunes then deleted the original from computer and iCloud.

After another pass of "Update iTunes Match" the converted version of the track showed as MATCHED instead of UPLOADED.

Don't know if this will hold true for every case as I have only tested it with one track.

Rysz wrote:

I believe your observations are correct. Note that most people having low sussess rates are those that converted their own CDs and those with a lot of tracks that were not purchased from iTunes. Both kinds may differ in length from similar iTunes tracks (even if they are from the same album) or might be from different issues of the same album.

Interesting theory but I have many multiple tracks purchased from iTunes that are uploaded. These tracks are still available in the iTunes store. I can find no explanation for why those tracks wouldn't be either match or purchased status. I have other tracks that I purchased that are marked Match. Again, other than bugs, why would this be the case?

Solace666 wrote:

Something I tested with one track...

One track was part of an album. The whole album was matched except for the one track, it was UPLOADED.

I created an AAC version of that track within iTunes then deleted the original from computer and iCloud.

After another pass of "Update iTunes Match" the converted version of the track showed as MATCHED instead of UPLOADED.

Don't know if this will hold true for every case as I have only tested it with one track.

Good idea and it even preserves rating and play count. Unfortunately the new file isn't in the same playlists as the old version so for anyone with lots of files in various playlists so that's not quite as useful. I wonder if there's a way to work around that without having to manually put each file in the right playlists again.

I have tried it with about 30 differing tracks so far (all ones that, most of the album is Matched, but the one track says Uploaded). Really hit or miss. Does not work everytime.