Hey guys! New to this ever increasing thread. I've been testing the way iTunes Match (iCloud) updates Plays and Last Played very intensely over the past several days, and I thought I would share my results.
The devices I used to test:
iMac and rMBP running 10.8.2 and iTunes 11.0.2, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV running latest version of iOS (6.1.2)
All of these devices have iTunes Match enabled.
rMBP - stream:
I got on the iMac and rMBP and noted that Plays was 29 for a specific song on both Macs.
At 11:38 am, I listened to it all the way through on the rMBP. The song was played from iCloud (not already stored locally).
Plays updated on the rMBP to 30, and the Last Played date changed as expected.
When the song was done playing, I paused the next track and waited a couple minutes before I put the computer to sleep.
I let the iMac go to sleep and returned at 4:40 pm. Plays nor Last Played still had not updated.
The next day, I was using the rMBP, keeping iTunes running in the background.
At 1:30 pm, the iMac metadata still had not changed. So I forced an update on the iMac via Store > Update iTunes Match. That did not cause the metadata to update. So then I forced an update on the rMBP, waited a minute, then forced an update on the iMac. Finally, the Plays and Last Played metadata updated to the correct values - 30 for Plays with the newer date in the Last Played field.
EXPECTED: It should have updated automatically and very near instantly on both Macs right after the song finished playing.
rMBP - local:
I got on the iMac and rMBP and Plays was 68 on both Macs.
I downloaded a song locally on the rMBP then began to play it, listening to the entire song. Once the song finished, at 2:02 pm, it incremented Plays by one and updated the Last Played date as expected.
I then paused playback of the next track and waited a couple minutes before I put the computer to sleep.
I woke the rMBP and continued to use it for a while, leaving iTunes open. The iMac remained active with iTunes running in the foreground.
At 3:40 pm, the iMac still had not updated Plays nor Last Played. So I forced an update on the iMac via Store > Update iTunes Match. That did not cause the metadata to update. So then I forced an update on the rMBP, waited a minute, then forced an update on the iMac. Finally, the Plays and Last Played metadata updated to the correct values - 69 for Plays with the newer date in the Last Played field.
EXPECTED: It should have updated automatically and very near instantly on both Macs right after the song finished playing.
iMac - stream:
I got on the iMac and rMBP and noted that Plays was 52 for a specific song on both Macs.
At 4:15 pm, I listened to the song all the way through on the iMac. The song was played from iCloud (not already stored locally).
Plays updated on the iMac to 53, and the Last Played date changed as expected.
When the song was done playing, I paused the next track and left iTunes open in the foreground.
iTunes was running on the rMBP during this time. I watched and waited for the metadata to update.
At 5:00 pm, I got sick of waiting, so I decided to try to force it to update the metadata.
I Quit iTunes on the rMBP, then relaunched, and it didn't update. Then I clicked Store > Update iTunes Match on the rMBP, which did not cause the metadata to update.
So then I clicked Store > Update iTunes Match on the iMac. Doing so caused the metadata to update on the rMBP automatically.
EXPECTED: It should have updated automatically and very near instantly on both Macs right after the song finished playing.
iMac - local:
I got on the iMac and rMBP and noted that Plays was 90 for a specific song on both Macs.
At 5:10 pm, I listened to the song all the way through on the iMac. The song was stored locally (not streamed from iCloud).
Plays updated on the iMac to 91, and the Last Played date changed as expected.
When the song was done playing, I paused the next track and left iTunes open in the foreground.
iTunes was running on the rMBP during this time. I watched and waited for the metadata to update automatically.
The iMac went to sleep before it updated on the rMBP.
At 6:00 pm, I decided to force the update by waking the iMac and clicking Store > Update iTunes Match on the iMac. Doing so caused the metadata to update on the rMBP automatically.
EXPECTED: It should have updated automatically and very near instantly on both Macs right after the song finished playing.
iPad/iPhone - stream:
I got on the iMac and rMBP and noted that Plays was 6 for a specific song on both Macs.
At 11:13 am, I listened to that song all the way through on the iPad while on Wifi - the song was played from iCloud (not already stored locally).
When the song was done playing, I paused the next track, hit the home button, then hit the sleep button.
At 11:35 am, I noticed the Plays and Last Played metadata had updated on the rMBP.
I let the iMac go to sleep and returned at 4:40 pm. Plays and Last Played had updated.
EXPECTED: Plays updated to 8 when it should have only been 7, and it should have updated very near instantly on both Macs right after the song finished playing.
Note that I followed these exact steps on my iPhone with a different song, and the behavior was the exact same.
iPad/iPhone - local:
I got on the iMac and rMBP and noted that Plays was 54 for a specific song on both Macs.
I downloaded the song on my iPad and then began to play it (rather than stream it from iCloud, I downloaded it locally beforehand).
At 2:51 pm, I listened to it all the way through on the iPad while on Wifi.
When the song was done playing, I paused the next track, hit the home button, then hit the sleep button.
At 3:05 pm, I noticed both the rMBP and iMac had updated the Last Played and Plays metadata.
EXPECTED: Plays updated to 56 when it should only be 55. It also should have updated very near instantly on both Macs right after the song finished playing.
Note that I followed these exact steps on my iPhone with a different song, and the behavior was the exact same.
Apple TV - iTunes Match:
I got on the iMac and rMBP and noted that Plays was 15 for a specific song on both Macs.
I began streaming the song from iTunes Match on the Apple TV.
After the song was over, at 6:01 pm, Plays automatically updated on the rMBP to 16 after about 10 minutes, but Last Played did NOT change. Metadata did not update on the iMac, so I left it open and waited. I decided to force iTunes Match to update (Store > Update iTunes Match) before the metadata changed to reflect the recent play.
EXPRECTED: Last Played should have been changed, and the metadata should have updated on the iMac automatically and quickly.
This behavior is not acceptable, and I filed a bug report to Apple. I suggest you test this for yourself and file a bug report as well via bugreport.apple.com. Or even sending feedback via http://www.apple.com/feedback/icloud.html could help. This must be fixed ASAP.
