Why are My iTunes Downloads so Slow?

They don't ever pay attention. Why should they? We're all so stupid that we'll just keep using them anyway. . .

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.

I want to thank Amar for posting the info on the relation of CDN's to the locatoin of the DNS servers that are used to connect to the Apples CDN. I really don't find this a problem with Apple, but rather witht the CDN's like Akamai and Limelight. There are so many things wrong with these CDN's. I hope someone comes up with a better CDN architecture in the near future.

I was using a nice static Level3 DNS server that I've always used in the past without problem. The trouble is, it's located in Colorado, and I am on the west coast. Now that I changed to local server, downloads are screaming.

After reading this thread, I reviewed my DNS settings. Turns out the old Comcast DNS servers at 68.87.64.146, 68.87.64.150, and 68.87.64.196 are no longer supported as of October 2012 (see dns.comcast.net).

Switching to 75.75.75.75 and 75.75.76.76 instantly made my iTunes downloads about 20x faster.

Thank you for pointing us to the root issue (CDNs and DNS settings).

Stefan

Just to add further confirmation as well as provide an extremely easy way to verify that it is, in fact, third party DNS solutions that are causing the problems.

Here's yet another article explaining how CDNs don't play nice with third party DNS solutions:

http://appleinsider.com/articles/10/12/20/apple_tv_itunes_downloads_slowed_by_go ogle_dns.html

An easy way to verify the DNS problem is to install OpenDNS DNSCrypt. It is a simple little add-in that provides a menubar icon to enable different aspects of OpenDNS.

1) Install DNS crypt: http://www.opendns.com/technology/dnscrypt/

2) Enable OpenDNS

3) Try to download a movie from iTunes. For me, I get TERRIBLE performance... something like an estimate of 3 hours to download a movie (for the record I have 50/25 FiOS... it isn't my connection).

4) Quit iTunes

5) Disable OpenDNS via DNSCrypt

6) Start iTunes and resume the download. Mine normally moves from 3 hours to about 5-8 minutes.

If that isn't proof enough, I don't know how else to convince those that doubt the problem lies in third party DNS solutions.

Full disclosure: I am a paying member of OpenDNS. I love their service, but have removed it from my home networking hardware configuration. It is now installed on each individual machine via DNSCrypt so as to easily disable when needed (and so that my AppleTV/iPhones don't use it).

Morning guys,

As inexperienced as I am in the ways of DNS and routing can I suggest you try something I did, after encountering the same issue. Downloading films (HD) was taking 3 hours, I'm on a 70MB/down, 20 up.

Once the download had started and showed 3 hours, I clicked on the pause icon after a few minutes. Then clicked again to restart. Instantly it goes to 7-8 minutes estimated time - as it should based on download speed. Thinking this was a fluke, I've done it on the last four films, with the same effect.

I have no idea why this works, sounds bizarre - but works everytime. Worth a go - just thought I'd put it out there

Cheers

Charlie

I purchased one movie in HD 4.5Gb in size and it said it would take 3.5 hours....about 2 mins later I rented another movie that was 1.46Gb in size and it downloaded in 10 mins.

I bought the 4.5Gb movie THEN the rental several minutes later and yet when the rented 1.46Gb movie had finished downloading the 4.5Gb movie had still done less than 500Mb...

Why?? Why are different movies downloading at different speeds??

I have no idea but this has been happening more and more and more lately! Beginning to really **** me off!!!

I found a solution for my problem...

So I was experiencing incredibly slow (like 35 hours to download an HD movie) when I have 35 mbps download speeds. Everything else was running and downloading fast, just not iTunes. Downloads were equally slow on my MacBook Pro, iPad 3, iPhone 5, and ATV3. I tried using every DNS (Google, OpenDNS, and just using automatic from my ISP), and nothing worked. Finally, I just reset my wireless router (a Belkin N600) to default settings (I did a complete reset, not just unplugging it). After that my speeds on all devices went back to normal fast speeds.

Hopefully this solves someone elses's problem on here because it was a nightmare.

I didn´t really expect this. As many of you I had these problems with slow downloads and it really made me upset, that noone of Apple replied here.

And I would have signed all posts regarding dns not interfering downloads, but: try it!

I´m in Germany, using Telekom as ISP. Telekom uses Google DNS 8.8.8.8 as first DNS server.

Now my Fritzbox allow to change the DNS server really easily, and I changed the DNS-Server-IPs to some free available IPs provided by Chaos Computer Club.

Guess hwat happened.

I really dont know what to say, I´m really speechless, that changing DNS-Servers restores my download speed.

Try it. Really try it!

Same here... I have a kick butt connection to the Net and everything else is fast, iTunes is sloooooow. It's going to take 4 hours to get one SD episode of a television show. :(. You'd think they'd fix this since it's costing them money. I am only going to use iTunes as a last resort.

Genious - Thanks so much. Went from 8 hours to 27 minutes when i did this.

finaleMile

If you're using Google DNS, Open DNS, or similar free DNS services, this may be what is affecting you. Try puting in a static DNS setting such as the following:

12.127.16.67

209.244.0.3 - 209.244.0.4

4.2.2.1 - 4.2.2.6

For Mac users (Lion):
System Preferences > Network

Now make sure your appropriate connection you are utilizing whether it be your WiFi, Ethernet or otherwise is highlighted and currently active, then click "Advanced..."

Click the DNS tab, and then click the "+" icon under DNS servers to add in one or more of the above static DNS IPv4 settings.

Click "OK" and make sure to hit "Apply".

Windows users:

Follow these instructions to add in static DNS IP settings:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Change-TCP-IP-settings

My apologies, I don't have a Windows machine in front of my to walk you through the steps quickly.

Hope this helps everyone, it worked for me! Went from 80 KB/s to 5 MB/s

Please like this post if it fixed your issues!

Yup. I have FIOS. I was on Open DNS. iTunes rental was SLOW.

Switched back to default DNS, download speeds increased by a factor of ten.

Bye-bye Open DNS!

Apple download speeds are slow for me too. These are my measurements (i.e. data, not opinion):

1. I measure my download speed from Apple to be 1 Mbs (megabits per second) on average. This measurement is from 47 iTunes downloads over the past 60+ days. This translates to about 4 hours to download a 45 minute television show at HD resolution (about a 2 GB file).

2. My ISP is Comcast, and I measure (and pay for) 20 Mbps dwonload speeds on average over the same 60+ day interval. I have a script that automatically measures this download speed several times per day for me, particularly between 8pm-10pm.

What this means is that my bottleneck is Apple's download servers, not my ISP. If Apple could match Comcast's 20 Mbps download speeds (which they don't) then my 45 minute HD television show should dowhload in about 13 minutes (instead of 4 hours), which my Apple TV could stream in real-time.

Warmest regards, Matt

@Matt: did you read my post? Or GibsonUK or NReichman1 ´s ones?

The bottleneck is your dns!