I have a 30 Mbps internet connection. When I run a speed test against my connection I almost always hit 30 Mbps. However, when I download podcasts and other files from iTunes my download speeds max out at just over 7 Mbps. I ran the diagnostics in iTunes and everything checked out fine. Any ideas on why I getting such a slow download speed?
Windows 7
I can't help, but by way of confirmation, I typically get a 12 hour forecast for downloading a SD movie on a PC.
This is not your system.
I have to stay up tending the computer- it may speed up overnite. Sometimes it loses even that which it had and starts over.
It's not my system. Netflix streams away with never a buffering moment, reliably, any time of day.
I wish, when the issue is clearly Itunes/apple only issue , they would stop dishing out the usual suspects which a savvy user will haved tried a million times already. It's a terrible time waster.
I'd fell much better if they said " We have server and distributor issues, we're sorry and we are fixing it."
I can't help, but by way of confirmation, I typically get a 12 hour forecast for downloading a SD movie on a PC.
This is not your system.
I have to stay up tending the computer- it may speed up overnite. Sometimes it loses even that which it had and starts over.
It's not my system. Netflix streams away with never a buffering moment, reliably, any time of day.
I wish, when the issue is clearly Itunes/apple only issue , they would stop dishing out the usual suspects which a savvy user will haved tried a million times already. It's a terrible time waster.
I'd fell much better if they said " We have server and distributor issues, we're sorry and we are fixing it."
Hello, if you are facing a problem with your download speed on iTunes and running on WINDOWS OS, I suggest the following steps :
-Check if you are running the last iTunes version
-Go into firewall settings
-Check if "Bonjour" app is checked for both private and public networks
-Then check if iTunes is checked too for both private and public networks
-Restart your machine
Hit helpful if problem disappears 😉
5 years later (based on the other posts here) and it still takes hours just to download 15 app updates. Updates. I am on a 100MB connection wired in. I have been downloading the app updates for one hour and I am still waiting for 8 others to download. This can't be real. But it is. Does Apple slow this down at the source? They must because I can download anything else pretty fast right now, even while the App updates download.
Same issue here - I am struggling to download anything at more than 500-700kB/s (I'm on a 100MB connection) - and I dont think thats anywhere near your 7 Mbps! :O(
Its been rubbish for ages yet Apple say there is no problem. Just wish others would confirm how fast they can download anything from the store!
Yes, it must be the fault of my windows PC, my stupidity, my internet provider and/or my router and not on Apple's side. The fact that I just downloaded Photoshop CS6 in about three minutes and iTunes is going to take 3 hours is simply, why???
I have to agree with the other posters. I've been getting increasingly frustrated with Apple's download speeds, and I also have had no issues with any other sites that offer streaming and downloading. I would agree that it is my ISP if my speeds were slow across the board. Consequently, I've been renting films from alternate sites, and I'll continue to do so until Apple fixes this issue. It's entirely too frustrating to try and rent a movie for the evening only to find you'll have to wait 4 hours just to watch it.
Hello, all, I am somewhat moderately knowlgedable about computer; I had a problem with my Apple iTunes running slower than it had before on my machine. I don't think I've done anything different but recently it started to get slow, as in .1 megabytes per second download, for even single files. It frustrated me when I downloaded movies that would take maybe part of a day to download, specially HD movies. Now I went surfing around and didn't find too much helpful information, but something did help me. I ran the diagnostics for iTunes network connectivity tests, which I looked in the information at the end that I could copy to my clipboard and noticed that iTunes said it was NOT enabled through Windows Firewall. I looked in Windows Firewall and saw that is showed it was enabled. So I decided to add it again, which I went and added it in again. Then I went to my router and added the TCP port 5223 to port forwarding, and now I get .4MB-.7MB per second instead. What I think happened is that after updated it, or/also since I am on Windows 7 64 operating system I went and added the iTunes 64 version. So maybe an update disconnected the enablement from Windows Firewall, or it had an issue with it being the 64 version or both. Now I know work ones can be cheaper with computers so I know my work likes old computers so it uses the regular Windows 7 and not 64 bit. So maybe that is why it works better on some and not others.
So the process, from iTunes' "Help" tab click it and then click "Run Diagnostics..." Have only "Network connectivity tests" selected hit the "Next" button then the "Next" button again and the "Next" button again. Under "Firewall Information" look at and see what it says, it might say "Windows Firewall is on" "iTunes is enabled in Windows Firewall" if it says something like "Windows Firewall is NOT enabled in Windows Firewall" then go to you "Start Button" click it and click "Control Panel" then click "Windows Firewall" you might want large icons as the view by option to find it easier, then click "Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall" and make sure to scroll down and see iTunes, and I made sure that I had clicked both options of "public" and "Home/Work (Private)" for iTunes as in checked. Then I clicked the button "Allow another program..." scrolled down to iTunes, and clicked it and then clicked the "Add" button. And made sure both "Public" and "Home/Work (Private)" were selected, as in checked.
And I instantly saw my speeds increase, then I went to my router's address and went to port forwarding and added the program iTunes to my computer's address and put 5223 for the TCP. I won't type all the steps for port forwarding because I think that all routers are different. So maybe look around and see how to forward ports on your router.
Hopefully that is enough information to get even the less tech savvy through to be able to get faster speeds. I would say I am more intermediate to advance level tech savvy than expert. But at my work sometimes I help the tech dude when he is overwhelmed. I am used to typing up long winded explanations for those with even barely the ability to use a mouse so sorry to those with more knowledge that end up reading this whole thing.
So remember this is what I did to "fix" my speed issues. Much happier now. I hope this helps you if you have slow speeds as well.
-DeeHunt
I posted to this question a while back because I was having issues with the speed.
In the interest of full disclosure, the iTunes download service on my Mac is ususally very fast.
Also, videos purchased by me over my Apple TV have no lag whatsoever in loading and being ready to watch in full HD. Ever.
I have 100 mbps Internet, so this is exactly what I expect. Yes, there have been times when I've been downloading a movie on iTunes on my Mac and it has been incredibly slow. I'm still not sure what causes this. However, consider this screenshot that I just took 5 minutes ago:
My file was ready to watch within 10 seconds. Full 1080 download scheduled to be complete in 7 minutes.
That is not to say that this is the rule, this may well be the exception, but this is to say that incredibly fast downloads over iTunes is possible and does happen (frequently, for me).
Well, I've just put this to the test, and finaleMile is right.
No, it does not make sense that DNS should alter your speed, because it should be routing to the same IP address regardless. But, apparently this is not the case with iTunes.
Here is a screen of my download speed with my ISP's (midco.net) default DNS server:
Here is me changing my DNS servers to Google's:
And here are my download speeds after making the switch:
Convinced? Or do I need to get some education also?
yeah, nice try.
So, what? I'm lying now? Or what do you mean by "nice try"? You seem to be implying I am trying to pull one over on you, or something.
I did an experiment and reported the results.
In fact, I can repeat them. I'll post a video of the entire process if that would convince you of this fact...
If I use my ISP's DNS servers, I get downloads at 116 Mb/s.
If I use Google DNS, my downloads change to 6 Mb/s.
Fact.
Doesn't this fact make you the least bit curious?
10 years experience doesn't mean that there might still be things you are not aware of. This is, clearly, one of them.
I mean, the Curiosity Rover on freeking Mars could've sent it to me twice! I'm like the others, any internet connection I use it's this. I know I'm clogging this up with multiple replies but I'm bored and it's looking like the fruit company there is to blame. I have called them and they say it can't be isolated as to what is causing the slowdown because of all the variables; ISP, your hardware, software, configurations of your router, network and computer system in general. Most PCs are different from eachother, it's a wonder they work at all.
But I think we've isolated it. I now have 17 minutes remaining and I'm not using any resources except to boredom-fatiguedly type this.
And so just dinner tonight, no movie. And I can spend time trying to get my money back for being stupid enough to try and start watching my 24 hour rental on the snaggy iTunes player because you can't use Quicktime (as far as I know) to watch a movie currently being downloaded, and it won't be finished downloading by the time the player catches up anyway. Hooray!
Just saying, this is what I get from a 20Mbit connection... I know 20 isn't super fast, but it's really odd. I have no idea why because other downloads (browser, torrents, video streams) roll in at up to 2 megabytes per second. It's only when downloading stuff in iTunes like app updates, itunes purchases etc...
From what I understand, this entirely has to do with a few factors:
1) The time you are trying to download items. Peak times mean more people, which means the servers have a bunch of people accessing them.
2) Your location. You could either be close to an accessible server for data, or you could be far away. The further away to the server you are having to download from, or the bounces it takes to get you to it, the slower the download is going to be.
3) It really still could be something with your network or anti-virus/etc on your computer. Try, perhaps if you have a firewall or router, to ensure that it is not blocking or slowing down iTunes in any way.
This article may be useful:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3204
Some others that may help:
I was trying to download updated Apps through iTunes. The download would start and go from seconds, to 1 minute to 5 minutes and would absolutely crawl.
I then read this post about turning OFF then turning ON iTunes Match, which I do not use at all. Went into iTunes Match, said No Thanks on the landing page. Once I did that, my App downloaded in about 11 seconds.
Why are My iTunes Downloads so Slow?
