Q: 30% of songs in Status "Waiting" iTunes Match problem

The whole point is that we shouldn't have to delete our music and put it back on iTunes. iTunes Match is a paid service, and it should "just work".

I whole heartedly agree, but they did say it was a beta.  They said it would just work, but match doesn't.  You have to try different things to get it to work around issues that arise.  I don't like it either, but if I can get it to work by messing with different options then I'm happy cause now its doing what I expected it to.  It was frustrating going though the process, but thankfully i'm pretty much done. 

Thanks for your suggestions - unfortunally nothing works. Neither deleting competely and re-adding, nor converting to aac.

Tough call.

I'm lost on what to tell you.  Call apple I guess.  Are you working off of a PC or Mac?  You can try and call apple and see what they say.  All they'll probably do is look on here for the answer themselves.  But you can try.  Those are the only things that I done to fix the issue and it worked for me.

Same problem here, about 400 songs stuck on waiting.  I know some are files with errors, previously some showed "error" under iCloud status but now all just say waiting.  I'll try removing and adding back in with some but that would be a very time consuming process considering it would lose ratings and playlists which would have to be reset.

Hopefully Apple will fix this with an iTunes update, seems like it got worse with 10.5.2 than the previous version.

I had the same problem and no suggestion helped. After hours of syncing and resetting, the follwoing steps solved the issue for me:

Sync iTunes Match (from Store Menu) => Wait until Sync finishes (watch the iTunes Match status in the sidebar) => select a "waiting" file => Create AAC Version => Delete the Original (also check "Delete in iCloud" Button) => Sync iTunes Match (from Store Menu) => Select the new AAC Version and right-click "Upload to iCloud"

Now everything was uploaded as it should be

I found some files that didn't have ".mp3" for the extension, some with none and some with a different one (some were things like .mpg or .mpeg).  Changing those to mp3 helped for some of those files but I still have a couple hundred that are stuck on waiting.

And for the record, Match is NOT a beta, it's a regular release with users paying for it.

I asked for a Refund because of the "Waiting" songs, and got my money back without any problems. Maybe this is a bad sign, as this shows that the problem will not be solved in a few days.

I will try iTunes Match again, as soon as a fix is available.

Can anybody tell me if the "Waiting" problem is solved with iTunes 10.5.3?

I haven't seen any improvement to any of the match stuff with 10.5.3.

andbaum

Your approach worked just fine for me:

In iTunes…

Select View, Options…, and check iCloud Status to display the status column,

best viewed as iTunes Album List sorted by Album…

a) Select Store, Update iTunes Match, [to ensure all songs are at the most up to date iCloud status],

b) select an iCloud Status "Waiting" Song, right click, Create AAC Version,

    the Original and New version of the Song will be listed,

c) right click the Original version, select Delete, and check Also Delete from iCloud,

    [initially, keep the Original version on file]

d) wait until the iCloud Status indicates "Removed"

e) select the New version of the Song [the old will have been removed from you local iTunes list]

    right click and select Add to iCloud.

f) be patient, eventually, the sat us will change to Matched, or Uploaded, as is appropriate...

Now the really good news…

You can do the above with multiple Songs selected. 

Don't go mad until you have proven it works for you…

Have fun…

Robert

Note:

The Waiting Songs were already an AAC Audio File, 256 kbps (VBR), encoded with iTunes 10.1. 

The new AAC Version is the same, but now encoded with iTunes 10.5.3.

Right click on a Song, and select  Get Info to see Song detail... 

Add to the beginning of d) select Store, Update iTunes Match, and

I tried this work around and got zero results. I have been wrestling with this process for days and days. Any music I add just goes to waiting. The process runs through full and says 161 songs are available in icloud. However I have 304 songs in my library. The remaining songs are hung up in waiting status. I have tried deleting them and ripping them from the cd again with no better results. Any other ideas out there???

Sargentks,

I assume you are now at iTunes Version 10.6.

May I suggest you take just one Song that is still stuck in "Waiting", perhaps one that you recently added direct from CD, and create a new ACC Version.

Then carefully follow the steps below.

I know, you said you have tried this, but, please try once again, carefully.

[Most of my "Waiting" status Songs were already AAC Audio File, 256 kbps (VBR), encoded with earlier versions of iTunes, but so were many of the Songs which iCloud was happy to accept. Re-creating the ACC Audio File just worked, for some strange reason].

In iTunes…

Select View, Options…, and check iCloud Status to display the status column,

best viewed as iTunes Album List sorted by Album…

a) Select Store, Update iTunes Match, [to ensure all songs are at the most up to date iCloud status],

b) select an iCloud Status "Waiting" Song, right click, Create AAC Version,

    the Original and New version of the Song will be listed,

c) right click the Original version, select Delete, and check Also Delete from iCloud,

    [initially, keep the Original version on file]

d) select Store, Update iTunes Match, and

    wait until the iCloud Status indicates "Removed"

e) select the New version of the Song [the old will have been removed from you local iTunes list]

    right click and select Add to iCloud.

f) be patient, eventually, the sat us will change to Matched, or Uploaded, as is appropriate...

If it works for you, do the above with multiple Songs selected, say one an Album at a time.

Like you, I struggled to sort this out on and off for a month or so, until I came across andbaum's entry above.

It worked for me, but I found the description a little cryptic, so I carefully documented and tested the steps, in the hope it may help other iTunes Users... 

For some strange reason, recreating the ACC Version with the latest version of iTunes seemed to unlock the "Waiting" status. 

Unfortunatley, I have no other magic to offer, so I do hope it works for you this time...

Robert.