iTunes Match vs. Play Counts

As previously said, I can confirm play counts are almost completely non-working still.

I even started with iTunes Match completely fresh. (I deleted everything from my library and the cloud before restoring my library and turning Match back on.)

The first day things seemed fine. Then I got new music. Listened to it. Everything still fine. The next day all of a sudden the music reverted back to zero for play counts. Played it again. Everything fine. Next day once again it reverts to zero plays.

I have a playlist for "Recently Played" and one for "Never Played."

At this point this music is literally in *BOTH* those playlists, i.e. many tracks are both "never played" and "recently played" at the same time.

(Incidentally, the problem is not only with these newly added files - it just makes it easy to track this way.)

The only reason I've really used iTunes for this long was because of the way you can tune playlists based on play counts and last played dates, so at this point I'm leaning toward just using Spotify or Tomahawk.

I'd like to add something.

I've now upgraded to iTunes 10.6. And play all music either on my iPad2 or iPhone4S (in car) I use iCloud and Itunes Match. My devices are both now on IOS 5.1

As others have said if I rate(star) a track on either device I see the results in seconds in my itunes library. But if I play a track from either an album or playlist, it doesnt show up in my recently played list or update my play count.

But then the following day I'm getting a 'batch' update of what I played from the day before. So when I leave work, play music on the way home, then again at home. My itnues doesnt get updated that I played anything. But the next day when I load itunes in the morning these updates all arrive in one big blast.

So for me its sort of half working. I'm not aware of any trigger which makes these updates arrive, just then since upgrading my updates appear to be arriving in this way.

Anyone else seen anything like this.

Jon

I see something like that too, Jon, but only sometime.

I did an experiment a few days ago in which I played a song that I'd never played before, on my iPhone. I checked my iTunes library on my Mac a few minutes later, and it was still at 0 play count / last played. I checked 24 hours later, and still at 0.

I checked again last night, and it was at TWO plays. I'd only played the song once.

So there's yet another bug for you, but at least it kinda sorta updates eventually.

Also, is anyone else finding that, since Match, the Music app on iPhone/iPad is completely unresponsive for 30 seconds or so when first starting it up?

I have noticed the 0 to 2 on new songs also. Hard to say if it happening with all but I do t think it is. I wonder if it happens if a song has a buffering/pause because its not happening all the time a play a new song.

I have about an 18-24 hour time between batch play/last play updated back to iTunes. But if I make a change in iTunes to a rating or a playlist that update comes to an iOS device within minutes. Also the other day I imported an album and it matched and was available on the iOS devices within minutes and also seemed to refresh the plays/last played much quicker.

Oddly two days ago my plays were updated about 6 hours behind.

So, I am observing it working (mostly aside from some odd play increments) and somewhat timely (6-18 hours delay). That delay is only the iTunes feedback, iOS playlists for recently played etc update instantly.

The issue of playcounts updating still has not resolved for me. Additionally, I'm having several issues with my playlists: When I am adding tracks to a playlist, they disappear from the playlist as they are uploading to iTunes match. If I attempt to modify the track information, including album art the track I'm currently playing and a few others won't update with the new information. Finally, I reorder my playlists constantly during play; sometimes I rank them by plays, artists, album or year by clicking the corresponding heading along the top of playlist window. These alterations, however, are not reflected in the playlist when it appears on iOS; iOS only preserves the initial playlist order as it was first created. Additionally, with the new iOS 5.1 update I'm also experiencing unresponsiveness on the iPhone music app that can last for several long seconds.

How unfortunate that the way I organize and listen to my iTunes library has proven so incompatible with iTunes match. I'm sticking with the service though; even with these limitations, the access I have to my entire 24,000+ track music library on the go through iTunes match outweighs the few bugs I've encountered. But please, apple, work on a fix for these shortcomings!

Now mine seems to be updating once a day - like it's playing 'catch-up'

Weird.

I have been having this problem since day one. I now use it just to get the 256kbs upgraded tracks, but that's all done now. Unless this problem is fixed, I won't be renewing iTunes Match in November. The only use it is to me is for keeping my Macs in sync, but I've been thinking of deleting all my tracks on my MacBook Pro since home sharing works so well for me. My iPad is still set for iTunes Match, just to play with it every now and then to see if this bug is fixed. My iPhone is syncing over Wi-Fi until this is fixed, because like others, I have playlists that depend on it. Everything else works great, but the play counts are a deal-breaker.

and... It's fixed! Yay!

well, for me, for now, at least 🙂

It appears my Smart Playlists that use the Grouping tag work, and the play counts and play times sync between Macs and iPhones too.

Hopefully it'll stay fixed! 😉

Are you saying for you now playcounts in itunes are updating the moment you play a track on your iDevice? Right now for me it's working but only catching up the next day. So my updates arrive in a batch. Usually the following day.

However if I star a track on my iphone/ipad - then that is shown in itunes in seconds.

But play a track on iThing, then it could be 24hrs before that action is recorded in iTunes.

Connecting the device has no impact.

Perhaps Apple are sending round some updates.

Jon

Seems fairly random, but stuff I've played about 10-15 minutes ago in iTunes have appeared on my iPhone. Don't know if that's just luck, but I noticed the updates when I realised that music I was listening to last night in iTunes appeared in my Recently Played on the way home. Then I noticed stuff I'd listened to the previous day on the iPhone was in the iTunes Recently Played.

I have experienced the same problem. I called Apple about it. Apple indicated that I was the first person to advise of the problem. Based on these posts the statement is clearly untrue.

Still a lot of problems here.

Probably should have sent them here.

Everything was working fine for about a month until about 3days ago.....am I the only one not getting "last played" updates?

Seems to worse than before...still getting 'last played' dates with no playcount against it?! 😠