Why are My iTunes Downloads so Slow?

I changed my DNS to Google as first and OpenDNS as second then restarted my network connection - went from 100kb/s to 3Mb/s - 3 hour estimated download time reduced to 4 minutes!! Thank you very much for your comment!

I like many people here had the issue of slow downloads due to bad DNS settings. In my case it was much more frustrating, as I'd learned about openDNS a while ago and had installed a proxy caching server (which defaulted to openDNS, in their docs and installation I was made aware of this). So here I thought, shoot! Simple fix, change the DNS in my network settings so connect to the best one around. So I disabled my proxy, re-enabled my desktop for automatic search, but to no avail. Thinking rats maybe there's some other issue with my computer, I kept digging and digging.

However I got curious, what DNS exactly did my computer pick when I left it run wild as opposed to the proxy? My internet speeds were virtually untouched switching from my openDNS proxy to window's automatic selection and that just seemed weird. Suprise suprise after cracking open cmd and using ipconfig /all I found that instead of hooking up to openDNS, my computer determined that 8.8.4.4 was the best DNS. In short the settings jumped from one bad example to use with iTunes (openDNS) to another bad example (google's DNS).

If you have any reason to suspect that something is in fact up with your DNS, because for whatever reason your internet connections are fast, but iTunes is ungodly slow here what I found to be the best tool to hook up your computer to a DNS likely suited for you. https://code.google.com/p/namebench/

Be aware the testing process will take a while, just leave it be, when it's done it will open up your internet browser with some stats, the important part though are the two ip addresses in the top corner, they described the closest and fastest DNS servers near you, use those in your ip v4 settings, done 🙂 see if you don't get results.

Have a good day all.

For reference my download speeds before I figured this out: ~0.2 mbs, after? Actually I'm not sure I wasn't paying attention after I got results but it managed to download a 1.52gb video in about 12 minutes, you're free to do the math, I'm just happy.

It would seem that I'm missing the relevance of the info you supply here — though it's generally very useful if you want to evaluate your DNS settings— as the issue causing slow iTunes downloads doesn't concern DNS response time as much as the consulted DNS influence on the physical location of the media server from which iTunes media is downloaded.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you imply here, because a 500ms difference in DNS response time wouldn't directly affect download speed in itself. Once my machine have consulted a Domain Name Server it caches the IP. My machine won't ask again unless the cache is flushed or deleted. But perhaps this wasn't what you meant?

Is it perhaps that the "near you" factor you mention affect also affect the physical server selected by Apple-associated delivery networks to be more near than when using a DNS further away from where you are?

I wonder, though. Given this report, it seems like Google & OpenDNS are working with Akmai regarding location issues. I wonder if blaming that is really an issue anymore.

http://betanews.com/2014/12/15/google-collaborates-with-akamai-to-improve-public -dns-offering/

https://gigaom.com/2014/06/03/akamai-signs-deal-with-opendns-to-make-the-web-fas ter/

I was having this problem, and changed from Google Public DNS back to my ISP's. Made no difference. Same sluggish performance. Which doesn't surprise me as I was getting fast downloads from Apple using Google DNS before the last few days (around Feb 13th or so I started noticing a problem).

This seems to be happening to not just Apple but other services as well. Everything from Apple, to Amazon, to Microsoft, to NetFlix, and everything in between. This shouldn't be happening. All of these companies should have the resources to be able to fill the pipe of any average home user's Internet connection. They all should have more bandwidth than God!

Then again, it could be because our ISPs are, like Verizon, letting their peering points over-saturate and thus we have this issue.

I'm sure this has nothing to do with DNS or anything related to your own internet connection. I can imagine downloads being slow when a new update for iOS is released and everyone is downloading it at the same time. But now i'm restoring an older iPhone to factory settings and it first downloads the latest iOS for that model. The update is 1.13 GB and it takes about half an our to download on a 100/100 fiber connection.. I would not be surprised if this is by design and they are limiting download speeds from their datacenters...

In a purely unscientific test, but working off the suggestions in this thread, I changed my router's DNS settings from those supplied by the ISP to Google's and I've been able to update a couple of dozen apps in a few minutes that iTunes was saying would each take hours. Several resets of the router and DNS cache flushes earlier in the day hadn't had any effect.

tt2

I've been wondering about this too.

Saturday night and Sunday morning (6/14 and 6/15) I was listening to track samples in the iTunes Store, planning my next purchases, and it was acting like the 90s with frequent "re-buffering" and "Connecting to URL" messages that I hadn't seen for quite a while. It seemed to get a little better by Sunday night.

someone removed by reply for reasons that are obvious. why are iTunes updates 155 mb? that is enough for a upgrade not an update.

go open-sourced software and forget Apple. they are really getting too proprietary and crazy. you can download music and burn them. when

you buy movies you have to use their software of hardware to view it. unless you understand the software like me and can bypass their so called

reasons for not being able to burn movies you buy from Apple. Might as well buy the movie. there are ways to burn to blue-ray and/or DVD movies from

Apple. just look it up online. if you buy it you should be able to burn it.

the reason the downloads on so called updates are slow is because its on the Apple end NOT YOUR END OF THE NETWORK.

they will keep asking questions about your network. it is slow on DSL and Fiber-Optic. I know from experience. it is not your network.

Apple the multi-billion $ company. the one that keeps on getting your money but not allowing you to really own what your buy.

It's time to go OPEN-SOURCE, IT'S FREE, EASY AND BETTER THAN ANYTHING APPLE CAN OFFER. YES I KNOW THIS WILL BE TAKEN OFFLINE SOON BECAUSE APPLE DOES NOT WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE UP TO.

SOON APPLE WILL BE SELLING THEIR PRODUCTS TO IRAN. THEY ARE TRYING THEIR BEST TO LOBBY THE PASSAGE OF THE NEW DEAL

WITH THE IRANIANS. (LIKE THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY) PIGS IS WHAT APPLE IS.

WHAT A SHAME.

BILL GATES, I THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER THAN THAT.

GOOD LUCK YOU WILL SOON SEE MORE AND BETTER COMPETITION I PRAY.

I AM SURE THIS WILL BE DELETED AS SOON AS A "WATCHER" SEES IT. (IT CAN ALWAYS GO OTHER PLACES)

HE OR SHE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT.

WHAT IS THE UNITED STATES BECOMING?

READ FAST IT WILL SOON BE DELETED

I AGREE 100%

APPLE IS ABOUT TO GO OUT IF THEY DO NOT SOLVE THESE PROBLEMS SOON. THEY RELEASE PRODUCTS ONE AFTER ANOTHER WITHOUT TRULY TESTING THEM.

IT IS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY.

GO OPEN-SOURCED, IT FREE, EASY, AND FUN

I am also having the same issues. ISP DNS settings: slow download speeds from store, Google DNS: same issue. Another ISP's DNS from my country: no issues at all.

I really do not know what is triggering this, but something at Akamai's network is not working as it should.

I will try also Level3 DNS servers and neustar.

The answer should not be "change your DNS" apple should change their settings for THEIR customers.

i rented a movie watch on itunes... little did i know,,, it was going to take 4 hours to download..

i will not rent from itunes ever again... i suggest getting movies from other sources..

I don't think it's a problem with iTunes in general. I have a 150MB/Sec connection. I'm experiencing the same slow download problem you describe on one machine but not on any of the others on the same network. That leads me to believe that there is something going on with that one mac.

same thing here i usually get about 50mb/s on internet speed tests and i can stream hd video without any issues but iTunes is downloading the iPod software update at about 100 Kb per second. Not sure what is wrong or where to start looking to try to fix it

35 minutes here to download 2.32 Gb. I have a 10Mbps connection that on anything else would eat this kind off side up in around 2 minutes max. This is clearly Apple throttling speed at their end... Abysmal! and as others have pointed out, this has been going on for years.l

I'm trying to download the 10.11.4 update package. The 10.11.0 install took around 10 minutes to install.. This is ridiculous!

Apple have been getting progressively less User Friendly since Steve Jobs passed.... The Watch was supposed to the new next best thing--- where on Earth did they research that one? Mr. Tim has seriously lost the plot! No wonder they saw a loss this quarter and Carl Icahn has bailed on them. I can see this as the start of a trend and a long slippery slow to follow Micro$oft down the chute!ap

Sorry... This is an app store issue... but even so.. just as bad if not worse...