Griff1324

Q: Why are My iTunes Downloads so Slow?

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

Posted on Apr 17, 2012 5:18 PM

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Q: Why are My iTunes Downloads so Slow?

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  • by MissingLinkBusiness,

    MissingLinkBusiness MissingLinkBusiness Nov 17, 2012 9:06 PM in response to Joe Batt
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2012 9:06 PM in response to Joe Batt

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

  • by nameaneh,

    nameaneh nameaneh Nov 22, 2012 10:06 AM in response to Griff1324
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2012 10:06 AM in response to Griff1324

    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.

  • by Ulf76,

    Ulf76 Ulf76 Nov 23, 2012 1:47 PM in response to Griff1324
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 23, 2012 1:47 PM in response to Griff1324

    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!

  • by davelalande,

    davelalande davelalande Nov 23, 2012 7:43 PM in response to Griff1324
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 23, 2012 7:43 PM in response to Griff1324

    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.

  • by GibsonUK,

    GibsonUK GibsonUK Nov 24, 2012 9:57 AM in response to finaleMile
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 24, 2012 9:57 AM in response to finaleMile

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

     

     

     

    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!

  • by NReichman1,

    NReichman1 NReichman1 Nov 24, 2012 9:56 PM in response to Griff1324
    Level 1 (0 points)
    iWork
    Nov 24, 2012 9:56 PM in response to Griff1324

    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!

  • by matt_langston,

    matt_langston matt_langston Nov 28, 2012 7:53 PM in response to Griff1324
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 28, 2012 7:53 PM in response to Griff1324

    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

  • by Ulf76,

    Ulf76 Ulf76 Nov 29, 2012 2:09 AM in response to matt_langston
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 29, 2012 2:09 AM in response to matt_langston

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

     

    The bottleneck is your dns!

  • by matt_langston,

    matt_langston matt_langston Nov 29, 2012 7:57 PM in response to Ulf76
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 29, 2012 7:57 PM in response to Ulf76

    I am using hsd1.ca.comcast.net. (67.215.65.132, my ISP's default DNS server). I'll try adding some static routes to iTune's download servers for my geo (Sunnyvale, CA) and report my findings.

     

    However, I don't see how changing DNS servers will help me unless my iTunes client is doing multiple DNS lookups (i.e. many, many, many times) per download, which it is not (I monitored iTunes and my ATV with netstat). What is your theory of operation for why a different DNS server will improve download speeds by an order of magniture? I know you reported that changing your DNS server(s) improved your download speeds, but can you explain why?

     

    -Matt

  • by Rassilon,

    Rassilon Rassilon Nov 30, 2012 6:43 PM in response to Ulf76
    Level 1 (39 points)
    Nov 30, 2012 6:43 PM in response to Ulf76

    @ulf76: Your logic makes no sense. Changing DNS servers works if you cannot make a connection at all (due to lookup failures), but it has nothing to do with bandwidth.  The computer looks up a given address once, then caches the result.  It's not a constant process with each data packet.

     

    That said, Apple is obviously throttling downloads. Performance has become much worse in the past few months, especially this last week for me.  I can download a 3 Gb game from Steam in 20 minutes, yet it takes 4 hours to download a single, 1.4 Gb TV episode from Apple.  Ouch.

  • by NReichman1,

    NReichman1 NReichman1 Nov 30, 2012 7:16 PM in response to Rassilon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    iWork
    Nov 30, 2012 7:16 PM in response to Rassilon

    Rassilon:

     

    I get your logic about the DNS connection not needing to be queried continuously, but clearly something about DNS servers is going on here.  Apple's download system may be

    Considerably more complex than we understand.

     

    One more data point:  I was on Open DNS and Fios for years, and iTunes downloads were almost always fast. Speeds were noticeably better around the time of the North Carolina data center completion.  When I posted the other day here, an iTunes movie rental was agonizingly slow, and after trying numerous things, switching from Open DNs to my default Verizon DNS settings was like turning on a lightbulb.

  • by HM801,

    HM801 HM801 Nov 30, 2012 7:42 PM in response to NReichman1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 30, 2012 7:42 PM in response to NReichman1

    Like was mentioned earlier in the thread its not so much "DNS" as it is how the CDN (Content Delivery Network) providers respond to queries from anycast DNS services such as OpenDNS, Google, Dyn etc...   Not all CDN's are a problem, but Akamai is (Which Apple uses).  In simple terms the CDN looks looks at the DNS query for location (not the end user's location). It then uses serves the request for content from the distribution point closest to the point where that DNS query came from.  Unfortunately, when using anycast DNS, you sometimes do not end up using a DNS server that is geographically close to you.  It may end up across the country or further.   On the other hand you may randomly get great download speeds if you end up with a geographically close DNS server that in turn points the CDN to serve you from a closer distribution point.  It also explains why most people get great download speeds when using their ISP's DNS servers because you always get referred to a close distribution point.  If you are using your ISP's DNS servers and getting poor download speeds, it is highly unlikely it is a DNS issue.  The DNS providers and the CDN's know this is an issue and look to be trying to solve it.  Hopefully this at least helps explain the issue.

     

    There are many articles on this.  I linked to a few earlier in the thread and below are a few more.

     

    http://www.labnol.org/internet/changing-dns-servers/18996/

    http://apcmag.com/why-using-google-dns-opendns-is-a-bad-idea.htm

  • by Rassilon,

    Rassilon Rassilon Nov 30, 2012 8:26 PM in response to HM801
    Level 1 (39 points)
    Nov 30, 2012 8:26 PM in response to HM801

    Thank you, HM801. That makes sense, though if Apple is using the wrong server, that is entirely their fault. I only use my ISP's DNS, and that places me about 2 miles from my home.

  • by HM801,

    HM801 HM801 Nov 30, 2012 8:53 PM in response to Rassilon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 30, 2012 8:53 PM in response to Rassilon

    In this case Apple has offloaded their frontend content delivery (iTunes movies, music, tv shows etc...) to Akamai (http://www.akamai.com).  The issue is actually between Akamai and the Anycast DNS providers.  I guess Apple could use a different CDN and I actually think they may also use Limelight??.  I have read that Apple may build its own private CDN like Netflix ( http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/06/05/netflix-shifts-traffic-to-its- own-cdn-akamai-limelight-shrs-hit/  and  http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/04/netflix-open-connect/  ).

     

    Here is maybe a better explanation than mine 

    http://00f.net/2012/02/22/akamai-vs-public-dns-servers/

  • by Keola-X,

    Keola-X Keola-X Dec 1, 2012 12:22 AM in response to GibsonUK
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 1, 2012 12:22 AM in response to GibsonUK

    I changed my DNS to a static setting like you suggested and it didn't make any difference...

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