iTunes Match never connects on iTunes startup

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Level 1

34 points

iTunes Match never connects on iTunes startup

This is the lovely non-descript icon sitting next to my Music library every time I start up iTunes. After startup, I don't have the ability to add songs to, update or download from iTunes Match. I can click the icon and it starts swirling like a barber-shop pole, but stays that way forever. I have to actually turn iTunes Match off then turn it back on again to access my music in the cloud.

I've installed iTunes on other computers, as well as virtual machines on my current computer, and they all work flawlessly the first time.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled all Apple software (including all the little things like Bonjour... basically everything published by Apple has been deleted and reinstalled), nothing seems to work.

I suspected it was my WLAN card's drivers (I have an Alienware laptop with a Bigfoot Killer 1103), as they initially caused problems with iTunes 10.5, but after uninstalling them completely, shutting off my WLAN card and connecting via cable to my router, I still get the same problem.

My OS is Windows 7 x64. I installed iTunes on a Win 7 x64 virtual machine and it worked just fine, so I don't think it's the OS.

Has anyone else had the same problem?

Posted on Dec 2, 2011 1:48 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 2, 2011 2:01 PM in response to Locust76

That is an esoteric problem, alright. Have you checked your software firewall settings?

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Answer 2

Locust76 Author

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Dec 2, 2011 11:11 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

I've turned the firewall off entirely, no dice... connectivity is generally no problem: I can connect to the iTunes store and download things without problem, just the startup connection to iTunes Match fails, as well as subsequent connection attempts until I actuallz turn it off and back on again 😟

My security software is Microsoft Security Essentials, which is also installed on all my "test" machines as well... Everything's up-to-date...

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Answer 3

Locust76 Author

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34 points

Dec 3, 2011 12:29 PM in response to Locust76

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with some of my startup programs, like Daemon Tools or AnyDVD HD... I will try uninstalling/disabling these programs and report back here with the result.

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Answer 4

Locust76 Author

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Dec 3, 2011 3:14 PM in response to Locust76

Ok that apparently worked! I disabled AnyDVDHD and uninstalled Daemon Tools. It didn't work, so then I uninstalled AnyDVDHD and rebooted my machine, then suddenly it started working!

I downloaded the latest version of Daemon Tools and installed it, restarted and iTunes still worked.

I downloaded the latest version of AnyDVDHD and installed it, restarted and iTunes still works!

I think it may have been an old version of Daemon Tools, since I had already had the latest version of AnyDVDHD...

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Answer 5

Locust76 Author

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34 points

Jan 5, 2012 1:22 AM in response to Locust76

So I pretty much had working iTunes match until a few days ago. Same problem:

When I start iTunes, iTunes Match tries to connect and fails, producing this icon:

If I click on the cloud icon, it will start to spin like a barber shop pole, but won't connect. I actually have to turn off iTunes match and turn it back on again to get it to work. Same as before.

I tried uninstalling Daemon Tools and AnyDVD HD completely, but it still doesn't work. I've completely uninstalled all Apple software and reinstalled everything again and it still doesn't work. I have terminated programs running on the task bar one by one and looked to see if one of them was the culprit, no help. I uninstalled my Wi-Fi card drivers and reinstalled them, no help. I've tried using a LAN cable, no help.

It's definitely something software-side on my machine. If I load up my copy of Windows XP or Vista x64 or Windows 7 x64 via VMWare, iTunes match works just fine, so the problem has to be specific to the actual software running on my machine.

Has anyone else had such a problem? Maybe someone can throw me some clues as to what might be the problem here? Does iTunes keep logs somewhere?

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Answer 6

Jan 5, 2012 7:14 AM in response to Locust76

I have multiple computers. Most of them are Macs and one of them is Windows 7 Enterprise. I have iTunes on all of them. They are all on iTunes 10.5.2.

The source library the original iTunes Match setup was my Mac Pro at home. It works fine all the time, every day. I set up an iPad on iTunes Match and it too works pretty well. I set up iTunes Match on the Windows 7 machine as an additional computer.

Every 24 hours I have this same problem. I can open and close iTunes on the Windows machine several times a day and it's not an issue with connecting to iTunes Match. The next day however I open iTunes on the Windows machine and it spins connecting to iTunes Match. I have to turn off iTunes Match and then back on again - then go through the reauthorization steps of adding the computer to iTunes Match. It's pretty annoying.

So yeah, basically, I'm saying I have the same issue 🙂

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Answer 7

Jan 5, 2012 4:37 PM in response to Vermyndax

Same issue. Windows 7 64 bit

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Answer 8

Jan 5, 2012 4:58 PM in response to Locust76

I read on here a few days ago that some folks that had NOD32 installed actually had to completely uninstall it to get iTunes Match to connect.

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Answer 9

Jan 5, 2012 5:00 PM in response to Locust76

Same problem here - Windows 7.

Every time i start up iTunes on my second computer i have to sign in twice and then i get the barber shop cloud symbol and i'm unable to touch my music collection.

On my main machine iTunes won't work at all since installing iTunes Match / iCloud. It freezes up the moment i start it up - have done a complete clean uninstall and reinstall and the problem is still there. It worked fine until i installed the iCloud control panel.

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Answer 10

Locust76 Author

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34 points

Jan 5, 2012 10:18 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

I've never had NOD32 installed on this machine. It's a "fresh" install, meaning I installed Windows and the drivers and left out any unnecessary software. I honestly cannot think of what might be causing this problem. I've uninstalled everything that might have installed any additional drivers or resident services...

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Answer 11

Locust76 Author

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34 points

Jan 6, 2012 1:11 AM in response to Locust76

So I brought my computer to another location with a completely different internet connection (different provider, different router, via cable, etc..) and it still didn't work, which didn't suprise me. I just installed Wireshark to see what iTunes is doing, but I won't be able to do that until the end of the day (@ work now)... Is there a debug mode for iTunes? The Network Diagnostic mode says everything is ok...

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Answer 12

Feb 1, 2012 8:44 PM in response to Locust76

Did you ever find a resolution to this issue? I am experiencing it myself on my Lenovo X1. Every time I open iTunes, have to turn iTunes Match off, then back on, before I can listen to any music. Quite an annoyance.

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Answer 13

Locust76 Author

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34 points

Feb 1, 2012 10:09 PM in response to dhumes0524

Out of frustration I completely wiped my laptop and reinstalled Windows. Since then iTunes has been working properly, regardless of which applications I've installed.

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Answer 14

Locust76 Author

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34 points

Feb 7, 2012 1:51 PM in response to dhumes0524

I take it back. My system just started acting up again, and I have the same **** problem as before.

I seriously didn't install anything except for new video drivers (AMD Catalyst 12.1, which are brand new and couldn't be causing the problem since they didn't exist when I started having this problem), and Microsoft DirectX 9.0c runtime (to diagnose a problem with a game).

Now, I'd love to say that installing DirectX 9 was the problem (since uninstalling my video drivers and FRAPS did not solve the problem), but one cannot uninstall DirectX 9. I tried using system restore, but all my restore points are corrupt and unusable.

Great.

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Answer 15

Locust76 Author

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34 points

Feb 8, 2012 9:35 AM in response to Locust76

I'm starting to think that something else is at work here. I have rolled my Windows partition back to a backup that was made on the first of February. I, pretty sure it worked then, but it still didn't work. I then rolled back to the 31st of January, still didn't work. I'm now rolling back to the 22nd of January. I know for 100% certain that it worked then.

If it doesn't work now, I think the problem must be my hybrid hdds. I am thinking that they are somehow caching parts of iTunes over time and after about a month it just stops working, because something gets cached and iTunes can't deal with it somehow.

I will post back here as soon as the rollback is finished and i test iTunes.

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