Error in iTunes Match - "This item cannot be downloaded"

I just started having the same problem a few days ago. Turning Match off then on again doesn't seem to help, neither does Update iTunes Match (error 11111). I can restore from a local backup, but since this is individual songs from a 10,000 song library I can't imagine how long weeding individual problems would take, and whether or not iTunes Match would count the restored songs as new ones.

I just noticed this problem yesterday. The affected songs originally had "Matched" status, but after removing them from iCloud and re-adding them, the status changed to "Uploaded" (for the exact file I had previously downloaded from iTunes). Very weird.

Having spotted a vague "normal service has been restored" message on the iCloud status page ( http://www.apple.com/support/icloud/systemstatus/ ) I once again tried deleting my entire iTunes Match cloud library from another computer, doing alt+"Turn off iTunes Match" on my main machine, then rerunning the matching process. After all that, the same problem persists, I'm sad to say.

When downloading playlists to my iPhone, it inevitably hits the "item not available" error sooner or later. This time, some songs I had trouble with before are fine, some that were fine before are giving the error, some that were previously matched are now uploaded, and some that were previously uploaded are matched. It is all over the place.

In short, I'm finding the whole thing an enormous headache. Most annoying of all, there's absolutely no way of knowing that a particular song will not download until you try it. I've reported the problem again, this time on phone support, and they said it would be "escalated" and would get back to me. I will keep you guys informed.

I'm bittterly disappointed because, until just over a week ago, iTunes Match was working absolutely perfectly for me across my iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. This is pretty much the first time I've been anything other than really pleased with an Apple product or service. Even MobileMe worked for me :-)

I am having the same issue. Several tracks from Radiohead's "The Bends" are not available. I took the advice of one of the posters to this thread and turned iTunes Match OFF on my iPhone, so I can manually drag them from my Mac library over to the iPhone, as a temporary fix, but this is not a preferred course of action. I don't know how many of my thousands of songs I have on my iPhone this is happening to and would hate to have to keep iTunes Match turned off on my iPhone for this.

Experiencing the same issue here, and until a few days ago I had *never* seen this message for anything I attempted to download. As with other users, turning iTunes Match OFF then back ON makes *no difference*.

Attempting to play or download certain tracks on my iPhone 4S will result in the message "This item cannot be downloaded. The item you have requested is not available for download."

It does not seem to matter whether their iCloud status is flagged as 'Matched' or 'Uploaded' -- both types of files can result in this message. For example, the self-titled album by Blind Melon is in my library, and all tracks except #7 are flagged as 'Matched' in iTunes while track #7 is flagged as 'Uploaded'. I am able to download/play about half of the album, including track #7 (No Rain), but I get the error message on tracks 2, 5, 6, 8, & 10. The error message has persisted on specifically those tracks (and no others) for a few days now.

re: ocmacdude & the song 'Mexico' by 'Cake' -- I happen to also have this album in my library (half matched, half uploaded), and seeing your post I decided to try downloading that same song 'Mexico' (track #2, flagged in iTunes as uploaded). It worked with no issue whatsoever, but then on track #4, 'Guitar' (flagged in iTunes as matched), I got the error message again. So, it doesn't appear to be a problem with the *specific song* -- at least in this case.

Perhaps the problem has nothing at all to do with specific songs in the iTunes catalog (as demonstrated by the above example), but rather speicifc songs as referenced in our individual accounts?

In any case, BAH! How frustrating. I guess it's time to go back to AudioGalaxy for streaming and regular old iTunes drag-and-drop for offline access.

...will be watching this thread.

I have contacted Apple about this issue, and have received the following correspondence:

Walter here again with iTunes Store Customer Support. Thank you for getting back to me with screenshots of the error messages you have been receiving when trying to convert and download songs. I know you're eager to have this error message investigated and I apologize for this inconvenience.

I found that other customers have also been experiencing this issue and Apple's engineering department is currently working toward a resolution for this issue. Don't worry I'll keep you updated with the developments of the investigation.

Thank you for your patience and for being a great customer. I want your iTunes experience to be as enjoyable as possible. Have a great day.

I'm having this problem again, too.

I have about 6k songs in match (most matched, some uploaded). I noticed a particular song would not play from my apple tv (Theory of a Deadman 'So Happy'). So I tried to download the song on my phone but I got the error. Then I tried the same song on iTunes and got the 'cannot be downloaded' error.

So I started a fresh, complete download on a Windows laptop. I still have about 2500 to go, but there have been about 100 that get the 'cannot download' error. A frustrating thing is you cannot leave this unattended. It pops up the error box and you must click it before itunes resumes the downloads.

Some of the offending songs seem to all be from the same album, but some are single random songs.

I know this was working in the past as I had played and downloaded the Theory song many times.

I was relying on itunes match as my master, cleaned up, organized copy of my rips. Now I have to go back and re-add these missing songs, I guess.

I'm also uploading a complete copy to my google play music account as another backuup.

I too finally received a response via email to my phone report of the problem, stating that engineers are working on the problem. I just hope they resolve it soon - Match had been working flawlessly for me until about two weeks ago. The most bizarre behaviour I've noticed is streaming music via iTunes Match on my Apple TV. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes I get an error message for a particular track but it plays anyway, and other times the track fails with a "no content" error. As of today, this is still happening.

In my case I had the problem with the Album "Siames Dream" from Smashing Pumpkins.

I deleted all songs from my Mac and iCloud and tried re-importing.

When I saw that the Cover Artwork changed, I checked on the iTunes Store and funny thing: The original Album doesn't exist anymore, only a Remastered and a Deluxe Edition.

Now I am stuck as the tracks from my original CD of the original release from 1993 can't match with iTunes.

Anybody else noticed this?

Not sure what to think, but if this happens in the future it would be great if Apple could keep also the original Album on their servers so at least you can match your CD Rips...

seems to be fixed here as well. tracks that gave the message just 24 hours ago seem to be fixed.

however...

some of the tracks that were matched are still listed as 'matched' but have turned back into the original mp3's!

I know for a fact it used to download the matched aac file because i have a separate mac that I have had them all downloaded to and they were matched aac file. i even checked the file extension and played them outside of itunes to make sure it wasn't a corrupt file and sure enough it was the aac. (as a test i deleted a couple of matched aac tracks and when redownloaded it said mpeg audio file instead!)

the strangest thing is these were files that matched as soon as i signed up to itunes match. so at no point were the mp3's ever uploaded to the itunes servers. this is very, very bizarre behaviour and very frustrating as i have no idea what's being downloaded through my iphone, aac or mpeg??

anyone else noticed this?

P.S should also add that deleting this 'matched' mpeg from the cloud and adding either the original mp3 OR the matched aac file results in it being uploaded not matched like it used to.

Yes, this information is helpful and the technique works. I have the same problem as well.

However, the songs affected become un-downloadable again after a few months. Re-upload, happy again for a month or so, then it fails again. This isn't the difference between matched and uploaded either as I have several (thousand) tracks which are uploaded and not matches, most of which play or download just fine. I find it hard to believe the exact same tracks happen to become corrupted unless there is a dedup scheme running amok, which I think is likely the case.

I have the same song twice from two greatest hits albums and neither is eligible for download. I checked the iTunes store and both albums and songs are available for purchase so it can't be that they're not available for download despite what the message says.

Yep. happening to me too on a fairly new iPhone 4S, so far only with matched rather than uploaded songs. "Single Again" off the Fiery Furnaces "EP" album being the most recent example. While this song was ripped from a CD in my home library, If I understand how iTunes Match works then my original encoding should not matter at all for matched tracks since my copy was never uploaded in the first place and the one I'm supposedly pulling down is the one Apple sells in the store. Infuriating.

Same thing here. Song was originally downloaded from eMusic. Imported into iTunes. Matched. But when trying to download to my phone I see the "The item you have requested is not available for download" error.

Hopefully a temporary glitch with iTunes Store.

Best,

Dave

This has been happening to me too over the past week or so.

Whether it's 'Matched' or 'Uploaded' tunes, some are simply not downloading. Tested this on my Mac too & I get the Error Code "11111" that's been mentioned,

Perhaps some work going on in the background that we don't know of causing troubles.

Come on Apple, tighten up, apparently 'it just works'. Don't lose grip of this ethos.