iTunes Match error on some songs

I see that the files which fail to upload skew towards the larger side, however as tridentinecanon found, there are files which uploaded which are larger than files that failed in any case.

Here's an example of what I imported yesterday, with the tracks sorted descending by time.

Is it possible that the error may be occurring during the transcoding process that iTunes does before upload? Since ALAC and WAV files are transcoded to 256 AAC (iTunes Plus) before uploading, there is likely a temporary directory where those transcoded files would live until they are uploaded. I went looking on my Mac yesterday, but wasn't able to find anything.

Just grasping at straws. ;-) I had one more track from my Frank Zappa album go from Waiting to Uploaded after updating the meta tags. Certainly not consistent enough to say it is a fix.

Regards,

Neil

I received another response yesterday evening requesting that I remove duplicate items in my library (I don't have any) and to re-create my libraries and playlists. This was done early on in the troubleshooting process.

If this is the type of response I get from engineering, I can see why they're having this problem in the first place...

My understanding is that the transcoding from ALAC to AAC happens server-side. When I initially started iTunes Match, uploading took forever, and I assume that's why.

Actually, no. The transcoding take place on your computer. The temp AAC file is then deleted once it is uploaded.

Any idea where the temp files are? I think clearing out that temp folder may be something to test.

I've never looked for it. What do you want to test?

Perhaps the songs with "waiting" or "error" status are ones where a corrupt converted AAC file (or one with bad permissions, etc.) is cached locally, and iTunes continues to try and fail to upload this corrupt copy. If that's the case, deleting the files might allow an upload.

Michael, how did you know that the AAC files were converted locally?

Thanks to 0dayz for the workaround. I had tried all the usual fixes with several songs stuck in waiting. Library is over 20,000 songs. I tried using desktop Dell PC using ethernet and retina Macbook Pro. Your workaround helped me to get the last songs in. I did not need to re-import the entire cd, just the troublesome songs. I used a lossy format (AAC at 320), matched, deleted locally and then reran the import using ALAC. Lossless is now available locally and itunes has the lossy version uploaded. Thanks!

Glad it helped. I'm still having to use this method. In fact I added some tracks at the weekend [Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City] and only about two tracks were uploaded successfully 😟

I think for the time being, I will just rip to ALAC and AAC as standard, upload the AAC regardless, delete, then add the ALAC. Will save time in the long run.

Anyone else heard anything official back from Apple on this?

For they guys trying to see what is hapenning client-side, try using Microsoft Process Monitor: http://bit.ly/104fbGb

You'll need a fairly quiet box, a VM would be good. But you should see exacly what iTunes is touching. Though I'm pretty disappointed that we are having to debug a paid-for service.

They want to reset my match account. I had disabled match on all of my devices and notified them I was ready. I hadn't heard anything back in 2 days, and my wife was annoyed at not having music on her phone, so I had to turn everything back on.

I asked them if we could schedule this, and they said no, it's probably going to be a 2-3 day turnaround. I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to get this done. I'll try again tonight, and if they can get it reset before after work time, then great, if not, I don't know...

iTunes version 11.0.3 is out now. I just installed and am re-running Match to see if the issue is resolved.

This is interesting. I'm seeing progress, though it's very slow.

Previously, as I believe is the case with everyone else, when Match got to the Upload step, it was jumping past the bad tracks quickly and then showing that Match was completed successfully. (For example, if 2 out of 50 tracks uploaded, it might show "Uploading 10 of 50", the "Uploading 34 of 50", then stop)

What's happening now is that it's uploading a few tracks, then going back to the beginning of the Match process and starting over. When it gets to the Upload step, a few more tracks upload, then back to the beginning. It's run through about 4 times now, and I have 8 of the 217 queued tracks uploaded.

I must have a faster internet connection, but I will say this: All previous waiting/error songs have been uploaded!

11.0.3 has fixed the issue for me.

I really wish Apple Support would've just told me they were working on a new version to solve the issue...

It looks to me like this new iTunes update fixes the problem in this thread. Awesome!

It does not, however, solve this other problem that mpdwyer (and I) are experiencing. Boo!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4220354