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How to fix huge iTunes memory leak in 64-bit Windows 7?

iTunes likes to allocate as much as 1.6GB of memory on my dual-quad XEON 8GB 64-Bit Windows computer and then becomes unresponsive.


This can happen several times a day and has been going on for as long as I can remember. No other software that I use does this - only Apple's iTunes. Each version I have installed of iTunes appears to have this same memory leak. Currently I am running version 10.7.0.21.


I love iTunes when it works. But having to constantly kill and relaunch the app throughout the day is bringing me down.


Searching for a fix for this on the internet just surfaces more and more complaints about this problem - but without a solution.


Having written shrinkwrapped software for end users as well as for large corporations and governments for more than 25 years I know a thing or two about software. A leak like this should take no more than a day or two to locate using modern software tools and double that to fix it. So why with each new version of iTunes does this problem persist? iTunes for Windows is the flagship software product Apple makes for non-Mac users - yet they continue to pass up each opportunity they have had over the years with each new release to fix this issue. Why is this?


Either the software engineers are not that good or they have been told NOT to spend time on this issue. I personally believe that the engineers at Apple are very good, and therefore am left thinking that the latter is more likely the case. Maybe this is to coax people to purchase a Mac so that they can finally run iTunes without these egregious memory leaks. I would like to offer another issue to consider.


Just as Amazon sold Kindles and Google sold Nexus tablets at low cost - not counting on margin for profit - but instead they wanted to saturate the marketplace with tools for making future purchases of content almost trivial to do with their devices. Apple also counts on this model with their pricer hardware - but they also have iTunes. Instead of trying to get people to switch to a MAC by continuing to avoid fixing this glaring issue in iTunes for Windows I would like to suggest that by allowing their engineers to address this issue that Apple will help keep Windows users from jumping ship to another music app. The profit to be made by keeping those Windows users happy and wedded to the iTunes store is obvious.


By continuing to keep this leak in iTunes for Windows all it does is lower my esteem for the company and start to make me wonder if the software is just as buggy on Macs.

iTunes-OTHER, Windows 7, 64-Bit 8GB Ram dual quad core Xeon

Posted on Nov 29, 2012 7:00 AM

Reply
28 replies

Jan 23, 2017 8:05 AM in response to KD8SHH

So here we are, YEARS after this discussion started.


I am on Windows 10 Pro x64 with iTunes 12.5.4.42. I built this computer to be so insane that I should be able to go a long time before having memory issues. I am a heavy multitasker.


I don't use itunes regularly, but I had it open on Friday to backup my phone. I left it open and came back Monday morning to a shocking sight.


I had the Windows notification to close programs to prevent information loss. I was like no way... I opened task manager and hit sort.


User uploaded file


SOMETHING IS STILL WRONG, APPLE.


Yes, that is real. My computer has 512 GB of Ram. iTunes drank it all up over the course of an idle weekend.


To add something productive to this conversation, I would like to also mention that I used iTunes in the past to do a mass digitization of my CD collection that is now in a 75-pound box in the garage. The actual files were moved to my plex server, so iTunes has a list of albums in my library that it can't locate the files for. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but that is all that is noteworthy about my configuration. I never considered that I should remove the albums from the list in iTunes because, like I said, I rarely even run the program. I don't have iCloud installed on this computer. I don't have genuis even turned on.


I will be submitting a support ticket to them. I suggest we all do the same.

Jan 24, 2017 1:58 PM in response to exintrovert

See Removing and reinstalling iTunes and other software components. Tear down what you have completely and install iTunes 12.5.5.5. iTunes and NAS don't always play nicely, but if your iTunes is full of broken links that might not help matters. Still no excuse to eat up all the RAM.


See Make a split library portable and Re: Why won't iTunes find my songs for thoughts on reconnecting iTunes to the media should you want to.


tt2

May 28, 2014 8:40 PM in response to DrTom from NH

This bug is back, with a vengeance. Version 11 crashes, constantly, whenever I try to update my podcasts. While tracking processes, it just keeps growing and growing, sucking up more and more memory until it crashes and becomes non-responsive.


I did not have this before the most recent 2 updates.


Anyone have a work-around? I've already uninstalled and re-installed.

Jun 21, 2014 12:41 PM in response to Sylvan012

I had the same problem, Win 7 64-bit. Uninstalled and reinstalled the current version following these instructions:


Removing and reinstalling iTunes and other software components for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8


Didn't fix the problem.


I finally uninstalled 11.2.3 and reverted to 10.3.1.55. I found the 64-bit installer here:


iTunes 10.3.1 for Windows (64 bit)


There are a lot of bogus places offering bogus installers; this one's direct from Apple, and is working fine.


I did have to delete and recreate my iTunes Library; it was incompatible with the older version.


I recommend before uninstalling that you export your podcasts.opml so you can easily re-subscribe to your podcasts after installing the older version.


Podcasts, How to export to .OPML file in iTunes 11

Jul 31, 2014 9:36 AM in response to KD8SHH

I have same issue. Ongoing for more than 1 year and currently running iTunes 11.3.


My PC is Dell OptiPlex 990 I7 processor, 8GB ram, W7 64 [always keep things patched up to latest OS updates etc]


I use this iTunes install to stream music videos etc to multiple appleTVs, ipads, iphones etc .. via Home Sharing


Store all my media including music, videos and apps on separate NAS .. so the iTunes running on PC is only doing the traffic cop role and streaming / using files stored on NAS .. creates lots of IO across my network


Previous troubleshooting suggest possible contributing causes include


a) podcast updates .. until recently I had this auto updates on multiple podcast subscriptions, presumably the iTunes would flow this from the PC to save on the NAS across the network .. if the memory leak is in the iTunes network communication layer (?bonjour?) this may be sensitive to IO that would not normally occur if the iTunes file saving was local on the same PC


b) app updates .. have 200+ apps in my library and there is always a batch of updates .. some updates 100s of MB is size .. routinely see 500MB to 1GB of updates in single update run .. all my apps are


c) streaming music / movies .. seems when we ramp up streamlining of music or movies . memory leak grows faster .. ie within hours of clean start


c) large syncs of music or videos to ipads or iphones .. noticed that get big problems when I rebuild an ipad .. I typically have 60+ GB of data in terms of apps / music / videos to load .. have to do rebuild in phases due to periodic lockups

Sep 25, 2015 4:07 AM in response to KD8SHH

Update and new issue iCloudservices.exe

Sometime this year (2015) one of the releases pretty much resolved or at least substantially mitigated the memory leak with the iTunes app. Nothing has changes on my PC and I run the same appleTVs, streaming music, etc and iTunes runs for days without issue.


However over past couple days the icloudservices.exe began presenting in similar manner. I am about to add a new post for this.

Sep 25, 2015 4:13 AM in response to lottytx

I am using a recent build of Windows 10 and the recent 64-bit version of iTunes. I do notice it to use a lot of memory and I only have 2500 albums.


I guess if I want to expand the library with more compact disks I am going to have to invest in more memory.


Right now I have 8 GB installed and it seems to be holding up but iTunes loads the memory heavily.

How to fix huge iTunes memory leak in 64-bit Windows 7?

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