iTunes Match vs. Play Counts

Be sure and submit your polite feedback <http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html>.

Done several times, very politely. I doubt anyone's reading it. Apple has terribly mishandled this debacle.

I'm having a problem with play counts and ratings updating in iTunes when I manually sync my iPhone or iPad, which is why I don't tink the problem has anything to do with Match or The Cloud. Hopefully Apple fixes this soon as my Smart P,aylists depend on this info getting updated.

Christopher E. wrote:

Maybe there's a good reason for it, but why can't these playcounts be kept track of in the cloud? Just because you don't have to sync with a computer doesn't mean playcounts and last played data needs to be eliminated.

I don't think they're eliminated, it seems like they're working some of the time so my guess is that they intend it to work but can't get it right yet.

I think BadSanta is onto something. I've turned off Match on my ios devices, and now they are correctly reportingrecent plays to iTunes, and iTunes correctly updates my smart playlists on the computer. However, after synchronizing, the playlists on my ios devices do not update. In other words, the smart playlists on iPhone/iPod do not match iTunes. I wish I could go back in time before Apple ever conceived of Match.

same issue here as well...

Same issue here too

More than two months after iTunes match launched and this issue still hasn't been resolved. Additionally, i'm noticing that my playcounts have decreased on many tracks in my library. I've tried to turn match on and off on my phone and even through iTunes, which seems to have resulted in matching my entire library all over again when I reactivated it. The convenience of the iTunes match in theory is exactly what I've been waiting for, but after two months, the implementation has been incredibly substandard. I'd like to return to syncing my iPhone via playlists on iTunes but that option appears no longer available. This is a huge, huge misstep for apple.

I have been having all of the same problems with iTunes Match not syncing play counts and last played dates.

BUT - I have actually been able to consistently sync BOTH play counts and last played dates when streaming songs via iTunes Match from another computer. My main library is at home and when I'm at work on my work computer I am able to see and manage my entire library. If I listen to any songs by streaming them, I can then choose "Update iTunes Match" (on the same computer I'm streaming on) and it pushes the updated play counts and last played dates for everything I've streamed back to my home library. I don't even need to "Update iTunes Match" on the home computer. This is working consistently.

I haven't tested with downloading and playing tracks to my work computer or trying to let it sync without manually choosing "update iTunes Match". Playing on my iOS devices still seems completely inconsistent at best.

This has worked for me as well, except I don't stream from cloud I have all my songs downloaded to my main computer. Before I close iTunes, i'll manually update iTunes Match and it will save all my recent play counts. I was just curious if it actually stores theses on icloud, so if I ever needed to switch to another computer, they would all be up to date.

also, i'm wondering if this would work with editing song titles, artists, artwork, etc after they've already been matched and uploaded?

To clarify, I have my main music library on my home computer with all files present on the computer and iTunes Match turned on. I then turned on iTunes Match on my work computer and was able to see my entire library, but I didn't downloaded any music files to the computer. Streaming music on the work computer will update play counts and last played dates in iCloud which will then push the changes to my home computer after manually choosing "Update iTunes Match" on the work computer.

I also noticed that if, on my work computer (with no downloaded files), I change any tags on any music, the changes are pretty much instantly applied to iCloud and pushed back to my home/main computer without me having to do anything. Also works the other way, tag changes are being pushed from home/main computer to work computer.

So this confirms that iTunes Match does indeed store all of your iTunes library metadata in iCloud seperately from the actual files and it pushes all changes. Updates to metadata are being consistently synced between computers (I can't yet speak to iOS devices). Changes to "play counts" and "last played dates" should work the same way and should be instantly and automatically pushed to all other computers and devices using iTunes Match. Unfortunately, it appears that those particular pieces of metadata are currently plagued by bugs - particularly on iOS. Artwork syncing also appears to be somehwat buggy.

It is nice though, that it's now possible to get play counts and last played dates to consistently sync between computers.

"Streaming music on the work computer will update play counts and last played dates in iCloud which will then push the changes to my home computer after manually choosing "Update iTunes Match" on the work computer."

Does it work in reverse? That is, when you play songs on the home computer, do the play counts and last played dates on your work computer get updated?

www.tikilab.com wrote:

Does it work in reverse? That is, when you play songs on the home computer, do the play counts and last played dates on your work computer get updated?

For the most part, yes. Although it has been working only sporadically for some tracks for me. I don't know why. I've got a handful of tracks that for some reason just dont' update the play count and last played date on the server, which other tracks do. It's a puzzle.

Michael Allbritton wrote:

For the most part, yes. Although it has been working only sporadically for some tracks for me. I don't know why. I've got a handful of tracks that for some reason just dont' update the play count and last played date on the server, which other tracks do. It's a puzzle.

The reverse works consistently for me. I play music as normal on my home computer and then choose "Update iTunes Match" and all of my new play counts and last played dates are then updated on my work computer.

Good to know it's working for someone. 🙂