iTunes Match in an endless loop?

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Level 1

24 points

iTunes Match in an endless loop?

Recently my iTunes Match got stuck in an endless loop. It's been working well for the most part for the past year, but it just suddenly decided to stop and I'm not sure why. Basically, it goes through the first step in matching, "Gathering information about your iTunes library." The bar gets to the end and then goes to send the information to Apple, then it gets stuck on "Waiting for Apple to deliver your iTunes Match information." After that it just stops completely for a few seconds as if nothing happened, then automatically starts all over again. It just keeps doing this over and over. I tried turning Match off and on, same thing. I tried deleting the files it was attempting to match, still the same. I tried restoring the "iTunes Library.itl" file from a Time Machine backup. All don't fix the issue.

Posted on Nov 10, 2012 10:28 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 13, 2012 7:33 AM in response to JonD25

I'm having the exact same issue here. Worked GREAT on Lion, and actually worked "ok" on Mountain lion even though I had a few 4001 and 4002 problems... overall was fine. But since last week, there's nothing working. I stuck in this loop of step one and step 2 and it just never stops and since it's NEVER going to step 3, all my new songs are never uploaded. It's stops on the very LAST song, the text becomes a little grey and then it starts back to step one again and again.

I'm also getting this weird error: -9810

I tried everything I could find in the forum by turning off iTunes match, and Genius and turning it back on again... nothing is working.

Would be nice if they could fix that... because whether you like it or not, Apple made iTunes the central point of all iOS devices and if it's not working, then better find something else that would actually work.

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Answer 2

JonD25 Author

Level 1

24 points

Nov 13, 2012 7:22 PM in response to The FrenchMan

I found this somewhere, but I read that if you hold the Opt key while selecting "Turn off iTunes Match", that it somehow deletes whatever data is cached, so when you turn it back on, it starts back over. I tried this and it seems to have worked. There were periods where it seemed like it didn't, and it was stuck at one step for hours and hours. But I just let it sit and it seems to have fixed the problem I was having. Might want to try that out.

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Answer 3

KK4BCX

Level 1

5 points

Jun 1, 2013 2:22 PM in response to JonD25

It didn't work for me. I found this thread that implicates various Internet Service Providers. Although the exact means is still unknown.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4239785?start=15

All I had to do to get it working was turn on my VPN service on my iMac. Other have adjusted their router's upload speed, slowing it down. (See other thread)

The end result is that after months of utter frustration, everything worked just like it's supposed to. I didn't have one single restart.

Whatevers going on, it seems to be more of an ISP networking issue than an Apple software problem.

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Answer 4

Jun 24, 2013 11:09 PM in response to KK4BCX

I like this suggestion KK4BCX; however, I must ask an embarassing question: how does one enable their VPN? I checked my Network settings and could find anything for a virtual private netowrk setting. I checked "Sharing" too.

Thanks.

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Answer 5

ST67

Level 1

11 points

Jun 25, 2013 4:25 AM in response to JonD25

Jon,

What version of iOS are you running? I am curious because at a certain point my iOS devices stopped 'local caching' of songs when I use iTunesMatch. I have the most recent versions of iOS6 on my devices. Are you up to date? If so, it would seem that your iDevices should no longer be treating iTunes Match music in this way...

Devices:

iPhone 5 (but my 4S also did not cache iTunes Match songs locally with the current vers. of iOS6 either)

iPad 2

*Note: Maybe OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.4 still does this however..

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Answer 6

Sundog66

Level 1

106 points

Jun 25, 2013 5:31 PM in response to JonD25

Option key doesn't seem to work. It gets to the "uploading artwork and remaining songs" part... thinks about about, then starts over. Once in awhile it will upload one song and then do the whole stupid process again.

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Answer 7

JonD25 Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 25, 2013 5:40 PM in response to JonD25

Hello everyone. This is an old thread. The resolution in this thread only helped temporarily, but the issue came back. I ended up canceling my iTunes Match for a while, then later decided to try it again, but encountered the same issue. So I posted another thread about it and found the actual solution for the problem. So go there to read what you need to do: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4668694. It involves activating QOS on your router.

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Answer 8

Sundog66

Level 1

106 points

Jun 25, 2013 5:45 PM in response to JonD25

how do you enable QOS with an Apple Time Capsule?

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Answer 9

Kami78

Level 1

0 points

Jun 28, 2013 11:39 PM in response to JonD25

This is a really weird bug and Apple is wrong to mock customers with no reaction or notice after more than 6 months. Maybe Steve Ballmer could become Apple President, no difference...

If you out all the new added songs the bug can't upload, there is no change : when the update process begins step 3 "uploading artwork and remaining songs", the window says there is still 1 file to upload, but no name appears, and back to step 1 after a while.

If you use another Mac and log it in ITM, all seems good and the cloud base seems to synchronize ok. If you add to this new session the songs that have been blocked on the other Mac, they gently upload. The only remaining case may be to uninstall itunes and ITM on the original computer but its a drag.

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Answer 10

Jul 3, 2013 8:23 AM in response to JonD25

I had the same problem on both computers in my household. I finally turned off the matching in the menu. In order to obtain a package deal from my ISP and lower my monthly bill I was required to use the their modem. Since it was included in the package and wasn't costing me anything and was going to lower my monthly cost by $30 I took the modem home and installed it. Originally I had a Motorola Surfboard SB6121, I replaced it with a Cisco DPC3008. After I replaced the modem I decided to try matching again, and it worked on both computers. I had tried it the day before and it was just looping.

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Answer 11

Aug 25, 2013 12:55 PM in response to JonD25

If the cache deletion does not work for you, let me relay something that did work for me - and I was NOT the guy that figured it out. Reducing the upload speed from the problem computer was the trick - some folks do this in their routers with QOS settings, but I use a TimeCapsule and don't have that option. Download this free software: http://tools.chocoflop.com/entonnoir_en.html and then set the HTTPS port (443) to a maximum upload rate of 100 or so. Screenshot of my settings below. Some slightly quirky behavior in Entonnier though: You have to turn the throttling off to edit the settings, and once you enter a value into the text boxes below, you must hit <enter> or <return> on your keyboard for the settings to stick. Then turn throttling on with the button upper right, and watch iTunes. As I am sharing this solution my Mac is finally uploading the songs that have caused it to loop endlessly. It's quite possible that a higher setting would work but I only have 24 or so, so I'm not messing with it - it's working! Props to the guy that figured this out.

P.S. You're going to want to then turn the throttling OFF when you finish, or things like Gmail and others that use HTTPS to upload are going to crawl.

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