Purchased songs don't always appear in library...

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Level 1

56 points

Purchased songs don't always appear in library...

Is anyone else having this problem with iTunes 11? On a couple of occasions I've purchased a song, seen it download, but then can't find it in my library (which I have sorted by date added). To get the song to download I have to go back to the store, try to purchase it again, and then select the "redownload for free" option. However, you're not always given that option - sometimes it just says you've already purchased the song, do you want to purchase it again.

Weirdly the songs do not show up in the all purchased music section of the store, so no way to download from there... This is definitely an iTunes 11 issue as it's never happened before.

Posted on Dec 7, 2012 4:03 PM

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Answer 1

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runrobrun

Level 1

13 points

Dec 7, 2012 6:46 PM in response to magnusbl

I have the same issue. It's a major bug. The songs appear as untitled song files in your download folder, which means you have the create sub folders, album folders, and then move them to your iTunes folder. Very bad. I don't have time to deal with Apple's obvious screwups. I'm super upset, because the whole experience just doesn't seem intuitive. Apple is having major problems with their software updates. I still hate that I cannot download an individual song on my iPhone. 😟

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Answer 2

magnusbl Author

Level 1

56 points

Dec 7, 2012 7:24 PM in response to runrobrun

Thanks... Only my songs don't even appear in my downloads folder. And I don't seem to have a downloads section in iTunes anymore, because some idiot of a developer decided to make the application more like th iOS app (or whatever).

I'm actually really annoyed about this - essentially if I hadn't spotted that the tunes I bought hadn't downloaded, effectively Apple's defrauding me out of my $1.29.

FWIW if your songs are appearing in the downloads folder, you don't need to create the directories do you? If the ID3 tags are right and you have keep iTunes folder organized checked, just moving them to iTunes should put them in the right place, right? Or have they broken that functionality as well in this steaming pile of update?

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Answer 3

sitryd

Level 1

13 points

Dec 7, 2012 8:51 PM in response to magnusbl

The download.m4a files do not appear to have any ID3 information stored in them, and I suspect this may be the issue with importing them into iTunes. Importing the file just results in a track titled "download" that has no associated metadata.

For some reason iTunes isn't getting the signal to stamp the files with the ID3 information (it seems the information is sent by the server and stamped locally by the application, which includes the purchaser metadata). Presumptively, it then is supposed to import the now-stamped m4a file into iTunes and deleted the tmp directory.

Partial work-around: for those of you with iTunes Match, updating your library from Store:Update iTunes Match seems to allow you to (attempt to) redownload the files - I seem to have success purchasing-and-actually-importing tracks about 50% of the time. It's quite frustrating to have to do this every time you purchase something, however... And of course, this leaves non-Matchers without a solution.

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Answer 4

Ferretbite

Level 4

1,586 points

Dec 7, 2012 10:35 PM in response to magnusbl

Thanks sitryd, your suggestion seems to have worked for me. I expect these bugs will be fixed soon but in the meantime they'll probably annoy a lot of people.

I suspect non subscribers to the iTunes Match service might be able to get their files directly on an iOS device then import to their computers when they sync. I have no idea if this will work because I am subscribed to it but at the very least it's worth a try.

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