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mracole Author

Level 4

1,102 points

iTunes Match - Step 2 Freeze - Solved

Just resolved the apparent Step 2 freeze! Steps taken were as follows:

1. Stop iTunes Match in iTunes client;

2. Close iTunes client;

3. Restart computer from cold;

4. Start iTunes client;

5. Watch iTunes Match proceed through Step 1 to stall in Step 2;

6. List Music library on iCloud status - noted Songs marked 'waiting' and Songs marked 'duplicate in iCloud';

6a. Took backup of all Music files concerned;

6b. Using iTunes client deleted Songs with status shown in (6);

7. Repeated steps 1-4;

8. iTunes continued successfully through Steps 1, 2 and 3;

9. iTunes Match now reporting all Songs available in iCloud!

Please do try and report the results in this thread so we can see if this proves to be a general fix.

Note: Prior to this iTunes client had been left for 20+ hours with no change, apparently hung at iTunes Match step 2.

iTunes 10-OTHER, Windows Vista, iMatch giving inconsistent results

Posted on Jan 18, 2012 3:23 AM

48 replies

Jan 18, 2012 12:52 PM in response to mracole

OK. I was not aware of any Apple server problem(s) and just decided to subscribe to iTunes Match. Apple's problem(s) apparently do not extend to the swift collecting of my $25.00 U.S. for my subscription, that went quite smoothly. HOWEVER! of my 12021songs (hmmm, I am suspicious of that total calculated by iTunes being a pallendrome), 3 uploaded/matched (the only 3 I've purchased from the iTunes Store) and 12018 (I assume) show iCloud Status "error".

I am very unhappy that subscriptions can still be initiated and paid for, but use of the subscription is not available.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

mracole Author

Level 4

1,102 points

Jan 18, 2012 1:03 PM in response to John Gruver

Currently subscribing to iTunes Match and purchasing Songs all work very well.

Sadly the iTunes Match service itself has now been effectively out for 36 hours+.

As reported from Apple in this thread this is due to the recent addition of so many countries in one go.

It is frustrating for all since even those with stable libraries in the iCloud already are suffering an inability to add new Songs, unless these are new purchases from the iTunes Store.

Jan 18, 2012 1:15 PM in response to mracole

My theory was that, if this worked, it had something to do with how Apple was dealing with their overloaded systems.

For example, lets say that the bottleneck was on a farm of application servers and not a network throughput issue. So Apple puts their contingency systems online to deal with the overload. But it's not setup to migrate over current processes, it only takes over new ones. If that was the case, then it would explain how stopping Match, deleting the "waiting" songs and then rebooting / retrying after addng the songs back could work, as perhaps you'd be using the contingency systems instead of the overloaded systems you were on previously.

However, so far I'm in the same boat. So that theory went out the window. 🙂

EDIT: I just went back to Step 1 in the last few minutes. Maybe my theory isn't so crazy -- if they adding new systems to deal with this, perhaps they just ported me over which forced me back to Step 1 as it's a "do-over", kind of like a new session. Wishful thinking, but we shall see.

mracole Author

Level 4

1,102 points

Jan 18, 2012 3:10 PM in response to Community User

The current lack of performance certainly does have all the characteristics of an Apple infrastructure issue. There are too many reports globally for any single network / ISP to be at the root of the issue.

As for the notion of new server capacity forcing process restart it is possible. Given the level of service outtage it may be that the reconfiguration of the infrastructure to load balance is significant.

It may well be that they have maxed out on the sheer number of parallel 'upload' and/or 'matching' sessions that can be catered for at any one time - a poor infrastructure design may well start swapping desperately at this point to share performance across too many service requests.

Whatever the specifics this is clearly an Apple infrastructure issue related only to 'uploading' / 'matching' Songs not immediately recognised as iTunes Store purchases. As my trial above demonstrated this category is being processed with no delay.

Hopefully Apple will provide some form of formal annoucement soon, just to set expectations.

Jan 18, 2012 3:16 PM in response to mracole

mracole wrote:

Hopefully Apple will provide some form of formal annoucement soon, just to set expectations.

Good luck with that. We should all know by now that Apple doesn't make public comments like that.

Jan 18, 2012 3:25 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

Michael Allbritton wrote:

mracole wrote:

Hopefully Apple will provide some form of formal annoucement soon, just to set expectations.

Good luck with that. We should all know by now that Apple doesn't make public comments like that.

On that we are in complete agreement. 🙂

I'm going to probably wipe out my current session soon and restart again, maybe with one album this time, and probably another system entirely. Maybe I'll get lucky.

mracole Author

Level 4

1,102 points

Jan 18, 2012 3:46 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

Apple have made several conciliatory statements on products with apparent shortcomings. The iPhone 4 antenna issue was a good example.

Leaving many users to face the current level of widespread frustation will hurt their reputation - this would be a great pity if the issue is purely a few days needed to re-scale the Apple infrastructure.

Of course there may be a more alarming circumstance such as an on-going denial of service attack, or similar difficult event, that makes such an announcement undesirable at this time.

Jan 18, 2012 4:17 PM in response to mracole

Well, just after I posted my original, I contacted Apple Support... my rep knew of no current problem announcements (holy crap! spell check doesn't work in this forum... at least on my Mac) but suggested I hit the "Update iTunes Match" selection in the Store menu in iTunes... I did, it is still running (about 2/3 done on the time line in ~3.5 hours). I'll let you know what I end up with, if it ever completes.

Jan 18, 2012 5:49 PM in response to mracole

Finished collecting info, now doing matching, same extremely slow timeline. BTW: two of the tree previously approved and uploaded and matched are no longer part of my iCloud music... grrrrrrrrr.

Jan 18, 2012 5:54 PM in response to John Gruver

Where did you write to complain about it?

Jan 18, 2012 5:59 PM in response to John Gruver

Have been trying to match just 13 songs, and have been sitting at Step 1 for at least 45 minutes now.

As a comparison, I started running an Amazon Cloud Services upload (560 songs - mostly the ones I Matched just 2 days ago before this all blew up). Apple has 0 of 13 songs completed, and Amazon currently has 88 of 560 completed. Methinks I'll see the other 470+ Amazon uploads completed before iTM is done with that 13. Just a guess, if I was a betting man.

I usually bring up Amazon (or Google) when I call just to remind the rep (and thus Apple) that they do have competition in this space and hopefully they're taking these issues seriously. I sometimes wonder if iTM is really high on their priority list, sometimes. 😟

Jan 18, 2012 6:19 PM in response to Regodedor

Didn't write... connected with Apple Support on their iTunes section... they called me

Jan 18, 2012 6:21 PM in response to mracole

So far, 3 of 11997 songs have been checked... this could be a looong time.

theeye

Level 1

0 points

Jan 18, 2012 7:18 PM in response to John Gruver

It appears that iTunes Match does not work for me either. I am having the same problems that many people on the web are reporting. In my case, it gets stuck on song 219 of 24513 in Step 2. I have tried deleting all duplicates and ineligible songs, but the same problem persists. Quit many times and restarted the process only to get stuck in same place. Since I have only had it one day, I would like a refund of my subscription price and I will wait until the bugs are worked out. Sure would like to know how to make that happen.

Jan 18, 2012 8:01 PM in response to mracole

I'm glad I found this thread. I have a Windows 7 PC and just purchased a 64 GB iPhone 4S. I'm trying to upload 24,668 songs to iTunes Match. It stalls at 14, 288 songs. The first time it stalled I got the message, "The iTunes file library can't be saved. You do not have enough access priviledges for this operation." I spoke to several Apple Level 2 technical support people and was told it's a Microsoft issue. Microsoft wants to charge me $59 to troubleshoot the problem. I did some checking on my own and figured out how to give all the "users" on my laptop full access permission. However, that didn't solve the problem. Now I'm reading on this and several other threads that the stalling is an Apple server issue.

I'm very dissapointed because I was looking forward to uploading my music to the iCloud. My upload stalled the first time at Step 3 and now it stalls at Step 1. Any additional guidance is appreciated.

iTunes Match - Step 2 Freeze - Solved