Cannot turn iTunes Match on

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Cannot turn iTunes Match on

So I navigated to the iTunes Match page on the Apple website and clicked the big subscribe button. I remember going through all the details and I've been charged, but the iTunes match menu option on the left menu-bar in iTunes has not appeared. Clicking Store>Turn on iTunes Match does absolutely nothing, just hangs. I've tried signing out of the store, clearing the store cache, shutting down iTunes, cold booting, and trying again to no avail. I've also reinstalled iTunes to no avail, and if I re-navigate to the subscribe button on the website it launches iTunes, goes the the iTunes Match store page and at the bottom where there'd normally be a 'Subscribe' button there is a 'Done' button - If i click this iTunes reloads the store home page and does absolutely nothing. Genius still works, iCloud is definitely setup and working on my Mac, I've tried multiple internet connections in case it was a firewall issue, etc etc

If it helps I'm running the latest release of Lion, and iTunes is completely up to date. Interestingly I have the option to turn on iTunes Match on my iPhone, but obviously I cannot sync any music as nothing has been matched/uploaded.

MacBook Air (13-inch Late 2010), iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Feb 24, 2012 11:33 PM

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Answer 1

carajargao Author

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Feb 24, 2012 11:38 PM in response to carajargao

Also, credit card is definitely valid and regularly charged. I'm in Australia, my sole iTunes account is Australian, and I subscribed via the Australia website and paid the Australian price 😉

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Answer 2

Feb 25, 2012 5:41 AM in response to carajargao

I know you say you've already done the trouble shooting steps I'm going to suggest, but just bear with me for a few minutes, if you don't mind.

1. In iTunes Pull down Store > Turn off iTunes Match.

2. Pull down Store > Deauthorize this computer.

3. Log out of the iTunes Store.

4. Quit iTunes and just for good measure restart your computer.

Now we're going to reverse these steps.

1. Start the computer then launch iTunes.

2. Log into the iTunes Store.

3. Pull down Store > Authorize this computer.

4. Pull down Store > Turn on iTunes Match.

You should see a new entry in the left-had column, under Store, called iTunes Match. If you click this is will show you the progress of the process. You can also enable the iTunes Status column in the iTunes Browser to show you what the status if for all your music. Pull down View > View Options, select "icloud status" and click OK.

There's also several tips for using Smart Playlists to help you manage the scanning process in this forum. Post back and let us know.

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Answer 3

carajargao Author

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Feb 25, 2012 6:24 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

Hey, thanks heaps for looking into this for me, I sincerely appreciate it.

Unfortunately, I've just tried the full deauth as you've suggested and when I got to step 4 in the reverse order the same thing happens- clicking on Store > Turn on iTunes Match doesn't seem to do anything. I checked Activity Monitor too, in case initializing the matching process was giving it a hernia or something, though everything seems normal (my library is only 2k odd songs anyway). Not sure if it matters but it's interesting that the in my Music pane, the iCloud Download column shows the dotted outline of a cloud next to each track, which I cannot click, and the iCloud Status column shows 'Waiting' for every track in my library. I've tried nuking the entire library and re-adding single songs / albums too.

I believe there may be another account authorized on my Mac, an ex, and I don't have her password. Whether or not this might be interfering with activating iTunes Match, I'm not sure- is there a way to wipe all current authorizations without having the respective account details/passwords? At this point I'm considering booking a Genius Bar appointment, though I've a feeling they might just end up wiping my Mac which is also an option I suppose.

Again, thanks for the help.

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Answer 4

carajargao Author

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Feb 25, 2012 6:27 AM in response to carajargao

One more thing- to clear up what I mean by 'nothing happens', the iTunes Match entry I garner I'm supposed to see doesn't appear in the column on the left-hand side of iTunes. No processing/action seems to happen, I've tried leaving iTunes open for ~20 minutes after clicking it and nothing transpires. It's as if the menu option to turn on match is broken.

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Answer 5

Feb 25, 2012 6:45 AM in response to carajargao

Hm. You definitely seem to have a unique issue that I've not seen reported on the boards before. My next suggestion is to power off all computers, then unplug the internet router for a few seconds, plug it back in and power your computer back on and let us know how iTM behaves.

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Answer 6

carajargao Author

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Feb 25, 2012 3:55 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

Just tried complete power cycle of modem/router, and also in conjunction with the deauthorization/reauthorization, no dice. I'm beginning to think this mightn't be a problem with my Mac, so I'm going to authorize another PC with my account and see what happens.

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Answer 7

Feb 25, 2012 4:09 PM in response to carajargao

That's a good idea. Also you might want to try creating a new user account on your Mac and enable iTunes match in iTunes on that user account.

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Answer 8

carajargao Author

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Feb 25, 2012 4:30 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

A-ha! Worked flawlessly on a PC, and also when I created a new user account on the Mac (using the same apple ID of course). It must be something corrupt in the installation of iTunes, which is odd because I tried removing it completely and starting fresh already. I used AppCleaner last time, for lack of a better, known alternative. Do you have any advice/guide on doing a complete reinstall? If not I might just follow this old guide I found:

http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=4045

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Answer 9

Feb 25, 2012 4:39 PM in response to carajargao

Before doing all that to iTunes, try this.

1. Restart and hold down CMD+s. This will boot you into single user mode.

2. When you see a command prompt type fsck -f and hit enter.

Let this process run until finished, you'll know when it is done. If it reports the file system was modified run it again, just for good measure. When it's done type restart and enter to get back into OS X. This should help; post back and let us know.

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Answer 10

carajargao Author

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Feb 25, 2012 4:52 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

Ran twice, both times it told me the file system appears to be OK. 'Bout to trash iTunes again, will let you know!

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Answer 11

carajargao Author

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Feb 25, 2012 5:28 PM in response to carajargao

Okay, used AppCleaner to remove iTunes, followed the iclarified guide posted above to cover anything that it had missed, did a manual scour of anything else iTunes related in Spotlight, trashed everything. The only thing I left were my mobile device backups in the MobileSync folder.

Clean install of iTunes 10.5 and iTunes Match appears immediately, everything working perfectly. 🙂

Thanks heaps for all the help Michael!

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Answer 12

Feb 25, 2012 7:19 PM in response to carajargao

Good. Glad you got it sorted out.

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