An easy fix for some iTunes Match glitches

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An easy fix for some iTunes Match glitches

I found that some cover art would not display on my iPhone, even though the same album would show cover art on my iMac and on the MacMini, from which it was uploaded to iCloud. Other problems occurred, too weird to describe here.

Investigating the problem, I found that this was caused by some "stuck" sync attempts, trying to download songs from iCloud to the iPhone.

Fix:

1. disable iTunes Match on the iPhone.

2. Delete all music from the iPhone (right swipe, click delete)

3. some music will remain and can neither be downloaded nor deleted. These are the "stuck" items that cause the problems.

4. Attach iPhone to iTunes

5. Select your iPhone in iTunes, then click on "Music".

6. You will see the "stuck" songs, greyed out. Most of my problematic songs showed up twice or three times, with a non-moving sync indicator in the first column.

7. delete these songs (select all, right click, delete). I had to do this twice for some unknown reason. Force a sync and check again, to verify that they are indeed gone.

Once the songs are gone, disconnect the iPhone from your computer. Check the music application. It should display no songs. Now, go to settings and re-enable iTunes Match on the iPhone. Wait until the busy indicator disappears. This may take several minutes, depending on the size of your music library. I assume that this is the time it takes to download cover art and metadata, needed to display the list of albums.

What is displayed on your iPhone should now match what is in the cloud.

At this point, I am just guessing, but it seems that the iTunes Match code on the iPhone is not yet 100% bullet proof, and that it can sometimes become confused by a combination of intermittent network connectivity on the iPhone and updates to the iCloud library. Once a sync attempt gets stuck, the affected file seems to be locked and will never display the proper cover art, sometimes affecting the display of the whole album.

I will keep an eye on this. Probably the code will become more robust over time.

Posted on Dec 21, 2011 8:39 AM

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Answer 1

gianfri

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Dec 21, 2011 12:17 PM in response to jguther

Hoe exactly do you delete the songs? Do you mean from the phone or from iTunes on your computer?

I am stuck in the same position - I have 139 songs on the iphone that I can't get rid of, some showing the non-moving sync indicators.

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Answer 2

Dec 22, 2011 4:24 AM in response to jguther

Thanks! This actually worked great for me... I had lots fo duplicated and greyed out songs on my iPhone. I've noticed when the first song of the album was greyed out, the artwork wouldn't show... After this everything is working perfectly!

Just one thing you forgot to mention and this will help gianfri, in the 'Summary" tab, you have to check the option to "manage music and video manually" otherwise it won't let you delete the stuck songs... Once you check that checkbox you can delete all stuck songs and start from scartch!

Thanks again!

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Answer 3

jguther Author

Level 1

145 points

Dec 22, 2011 4:27 AM in response to gianfri

You have to delete them from your phone. For those songs that are not "stuck", you do this with the usual swipe and "delete".

The songs that are stuck, you cannot delete this way. They are greyed out on your phone, and the swipe gesture does not work. This is where iTunes comes into play. You connect your phone to iTunes, and when the phone shows up in the source pane, you select the "Music" section of your phone, and iTunes will show the remaining songs and will let you delete them from the phone. (select, right click, delete).

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Answer 4

gianfri

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Dec 22, 2011 6:20 AM in response to jguther

I feel really stupid, but I still don't get it.

When I right-click on the stuck songs, I see no option to delete - only play, ping (grayed out), get info, and rating. What am I missing?

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Answer 5

gianfri

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Dec 22, 2011 6:23 AM in response to gianfri

NEVER MIND, I got it, I think! I missed the "manage music and video manually" step. THANKS!!

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Answer 6

Dec 22, 2011 6:25 AM in response to gianfri

Hey Gianfri, as long as you dont go to the Summary tab on iTunes and check the option to manually manage the music, you won't be given the option to delete.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 7

gianfri

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Dec 22, 2011 8:42 AM in response to laminarpanda

Yeah, I figured that out, thanks. This work around alleviated, but did not eliminate, my problem. I still have a bunch of songs with the "stuck" sync symbol visible in iTunes-Phone-Music. The good thing is, only one of them is actually visible on my phone.

REALLY buggy implementation of iTunes Match on the iPhone, isn't it?

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Answer 8

Dec 22, 2011 8:50 AM in response to jguther

I have had many serious problems with iTunes match - have had incorrect songs playing (wrong song being displayed whilst playing another .. weird :s), have had songs, playlists disappear randomly.. and most recently one of my playlists was duplicated (also randomly) at least 200+ times but intead every instance is empty (wasnt previously)

seriously peev'd with the poor QA apple have done on the devices as i've seen nothing but errors, crashes, and posts from others also complaining about other random errors...

Gunna give your idea a go and see if it helps, as a fresh sync may indeed help...

I dont think it helps with the fact i currently have over 10,000 songs being pushed to iCloud and as such my phone attempting to sync

Defo a phone issue though, that or the remote webservices is a bit buggy... or indeed both!

Regardless of which, an update is certainly crucial at this stage, more so as they are charging for this service.. err money back please? lol

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Answer 9

gianfri

Level 1

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Dec 22, 2011 8:55 AM in response to simonchapman1986

I asked for my money back - they refused. 😠

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Answer 10

Dec 22, 2011 8:58 AM in response to gianfri

what ******** wankers.. how the **** do they deem that acceptable? Build a service that works then you can have the cheek to decline a refund!!!! 😠

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Answer 11

Dec 22, 2011 10:44 AM in response to jguther

i got this problem since yesterday.

at first (a couple of days) --> i could delete all the songs by a simple sync due itunes....

--> clean music app

but now... everything stuck in itunes match sync

--> no fix, worked for me

i thought i had played around with the iphone to much, so i took the ipad...

and did a VERY CLEAN delete.... close music app --> disable itunes match --> wait for the spinner --> open the musik app --> wait for the spinner --> close music app --> usage --> delete all music --> itunes sync..

but same problem like on the iphone about 10 songs stuck in itunes match sync... not able to get rid of them.

on ipad and iphone! --> strange!

i tried also to delete all grey songs by (managing music and video manuelly)... after new sync i see the grey songs again.

i have also noticed that there is a sync problem when you are changing any "Metadata" - cover, ablum, genre... so you have to clean your music app - (fresh itunes match sync)

so i stuck 😟

and im not able to sync any new data from itunes match.

where is the magic? Apple?

this is like windows ME

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