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

Has anyone else had this issue? I've searched on here but can't see any mention of it.


I have recently uploaded several albums from my pc into iTunes Match and some of the songs were 'matched' and some 'uploaded'. However, when I try to download these songs to my iPhone, only the matched ones download. The uploaded ones give the following error...


This item cannot be downloaded

The item you have requested is not available for download



The status for these songs in itunes on my pc says Uploaded (no errors) and they are all in Apple Lossless format. I am wondering if the Apple servers need to convert them to 256kps format before they are available for download? But these songs were uploaded a couple of days ago and still won't download. I uploaded some other Lossless songs last week and they were available for download on my iphone almost immediately.


Any help most appreciated!


Thanks.

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Jan 24, 2012 5:58 AM

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Posted on Jan 4, 2017 6:51 PM

I have found the solution to most of these problems it seems.


I was having this very same issue with a growing number of songs in my iTunes Match, all of which, for me, were actually uploaded to the iTunes Match Cloud, not Matched with their database. After speaking with a Senior Advisor at Apple about this issue we broke down and figured out it was likely data corruption on the match storage servers.


FAIR WARNING before I explain the solution: You will need the original song files or CD to re-add and match to correct this issue.


The solution was to, in iTunes, select the song(s) in question, Song->Delete from Library. (You may need to do this twice). It will ask if you want to delete it from iCloud, you will need to say yes. This will delete it from all linked devices as well, so you will need to re-add them from the original files, then re-add them to your playlists appropriately.


Once you've re-added the song files back to iTunes, in File->Library->Update iCloud Music Library will re-add them to your iTunes Match, either by Matching or Uploading again.

96 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jan 4, 2017 6:51 PM in response to dannym52

I have found the solution to most of these problems it seems.


I was having this very same issue with a growing number of songs in my iTunes Match, all of which, for me, were actually uploaded to the iTunes Match Cloud, not Matched with their database. After speaking with a Senior Advisor at Apple about this issue we broke down and figured out it was likely data corruption on the match storage servers.


FAIR WARNING before I explain the solution: You will need the original song files or CD to re-add and match to correct this issue.


The solution was to, in iTunes, select the song(s) in question, Song->Delete from Library. (You may need to do this twice). It will ask if you want to delete it from iCloud, you will need to say yes. This will delete it from all linked devices as well, so you will need to re-add them from the original files, then re-add them to your playlists appropriately.


Once you've re-added the song files back to iTunes, in File->Library->Update iCloud Music Library will re-add them to your iTunes Match, either by Matching or Uploading again.

Feb 14, 2017 2:55 PM in response to Psi-Jack

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.

Jan 24, 2012 6:35 AM in response to dannym52

Itunes does modify certain lossless formats - AIFF and WAV - in the background whenever a file in one of those formats is marked for upload. It is that AAC that gets uploaded, so it's done local on your computer prior to being uploaded. I doubt this is the cause of your problem on the iphone though.


You seem to have the iPhone set properly for downloading from Match, or you wouldn't get the matched songs downloaded. The easiest way to confirm that is to pick an album where you have a mix of matched and downloaded songs and go to the bottom of the track list on the iPhone and hit "download all" Watch to see if all the download clouds change to circles and eventually fill in. If you are still getting that error. I would start by powering down the iPhone, waiting a few minutes before starting it back up, then see if that clears the problem.


Barring that, I'd call Apple support.

May 31, 2012 2:38 PM in response to dannym52

I've been haivng this issue too. It seems like it's been happening a lot in the past few weeks. Random songs that I uploaded and successfully matched now "cannot be downloaded" (error 11111).


These are songs that I ripped from my CD collection and have been in iTunes for years as AAC files. Most were below 256k and are now showing up as matched so they are truely "the iTunes Store copy". This error shows up on my phone as well as any computer I log in with my iTunes Match account (on different networks even).


I contacted iTunes Store Support via email and was told they are consulting with the "Senior Adviser" and will contact me when my issue will be resolved, but I'm guessing that won't be anytime soon...

Jun 2, 2012 6:53 AM in response to dannym52

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.

Jun 3, 2012 3:22 AM in response to dannym52

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.

Jun 3, 2012 4:09 AM in response to Russ DCA

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.

Jun 3, 2012 11:49 AM in response to digitalgeist

I too am having this error.


I have found that deleting the individual file from my computer (and ticking the box to delete from icloud also), then readding that file to itunes (and readding to icloud), will allow that track to be synced to my iphone again.


However this is happeening to many songs randomly distrubuted throughout my library.


Is apple doing anything to fix this?

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

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