Itunes match stuck at sending information to apple

I tried submitting something and I didn't even get a courtesy "We received your request" sort of email. Still having the problem here, too. In Chicago.

A very interesting thread. I've also noticed some very drastically different behavior from iTunes Match lately, although, unlike the rest of you guys, my performance has never been better.

The short of it, I upgraded my MacBook to Mountain Lion a month ago, and last week, some weird things happened to my iTunes Library that caused it to get so messed up that I eventually had to retrieve a backup copy of my library to start over. So what I did was erase all my content in iTunes, deleted the iTunes folder in Finder/Music, and opened up iTunes. When I did this, it had the welcome page, as if it were brand new. Once I did this, I dragged and dropped all my media into iTunes, so I could essentially have a fresh new library. Now, none of this is unique. What's unique is the behavior of iTunes Match once I turned it on.

Ever since I did this, iTunes Match has acted drastically different. It automatically starts updating itself about once every 5-10 minutes, but it updates itself in a different way than if you manually selected "Update iTunes Match" which goes through a lengthier 4-5 step process. With this, it will go straight to saying that it's "Waiting for Apple to deliver your iTunes Match results" and then it will display "Delivering your iTunes Match results". This is all done within a period of about 20 seconds and, again, done once every 5-10 minutes. Once it does this, all of my play counts and information is synced across all my devices.

So, to give an example: last night, I finished listening to a song at 12:53 A.M. At 12:55 A.M., iTunes Match triggered itself and within 20 seconds, everything was updated across all my devices. The reverse is also true: I played a song on my iPad (running the latest iOS 6) and, almost instantly, my MacBook updated the play count. I assumed that perhaps Apple is making some changes under the hood on their end, but here's what's strange: I can't replicate this behavior on my other Mac, an iMac running 10.6, or anywhere else. If I turn my MacBook off, and listen to a songs on my iMac, the information won't update. Likewise, if I listen on my iOS devices, my iMac won't pick it up. iOS to iOS also doesn't pick it up. My MacBook has to be on, with iTunes running, in order for the changes to get updated and sync across all my devices.

Because of this, I assumed maybe it was a Mountain Lion thing: maybe the iCloud performance is just better under the hood. So I started a guest account and turned on iTunes Match and even there, I can't replicate the behavior. While welcome, it's just really weird, and unprecedent behavior that I'm experiencing over the past 3-4 days. With iOS 7 coming in the Fall, I'm wondering if Apple is making some changes in preparation.

But for those who have gotten iTunes Match to work recently, has anyone else also experienced this behavior? Any insight into this would be appreciated, because something is definitely going on. Thanks!

Well mine finally started working albeit very, very slow. It takes a really long time to get through to the uploading step. I know others are talking about going to other services but I will say in messing some with google play on my computer and other peoples phones that itunes match does seem to work much better. When its working. If your an iphone or ipad user it is much easier to use match. Hopefully this issue is getting big enough that apple is hearing about it and will get it up and running smoother over the next few days. I would probably guess that they are messing with everything getting ready for the whole iradio thing and all.

After further experimenting, I have been able to replicate the behavior in my post and, while it has fixed my play count update issue (which I'll discuss in the play count thread), I've realized that it has nothing to do with the current topic. So since I can't edit the post, please disregard it for the purposes of this thread. Thanks.

I have the same problem in Peru, but I went to advance preferences and restart itunes store cache and it starts to upload itunes match... I dunno if it was a coincidence... if it helps anyone else please post

I am experiencing the same behaviour as Mr. Bellamy.

Although I did not do anything special.

I have been plagued by the issue mentioned in this thread since the weekend, and on Monday evening (Belgium time) I was still experiencing delays. But this Tuesday morning (Belgium time) iTunes Match works incredibly fast! Faster than before August 7.

I have added a few songs and listened to them. Then, in a couple of minutes, iTunes Match triggered itself, pretty much went straight to "Waiting for Apple to deliver your iTunes Match results" and in a few more seconds it decided what songs it matched and which needed to upload.

If it will keep up working like this from now on, then the delays from the past days were worth it.

Hi snakeye2013,

I have attempted to reset itunes cache and to no avail. I'm in Windows 7 64bit with latest iTunes. Attempting to syncronise with itunes match however i'm just stuck hanging on Sending Information To Apple. I have emailed Apple support this afternoon and waiting for a reply. I've been hit with this issue now since the weekend, and for it to still be happening to what i can see as a fair few users of the service is pretty rubbish support from the service provider... APPLE! I hope we get a resolution to this soon!

Dan

Wow, what happened, Apple? Match was working for TWO DAYS, but now it doesn't work again. I'm back stuck at at "Gathering information about your iTunes library..." prompt every time iTunes opens and tries to update Match data.

I'm on a Mac running OS X 10.8.4, iTunes 10.0.4. Flushed the Safari cache, logged out of Match and back into it, both to no avail.

I know it's not this machine because I have another Mac running exact same versions of the OS and iTunes and am having the same problem with both of them.

With my library consisting of 15,000 songs, I'm looking at 1-2 hours just to get through "Step 1: Gathering information about your iTunes library.

Now I'm going to email support AND try to get someone on chat.

iTunes 10.0.4, or did you mean 11.0.4?

Also OS X 10.8.4, iTunes 11.0.4. US, Denver. Working, but, painfully slow. Starts the "Sending to Apple" step for a long time, a bit of time on "Waiting for results", eventually flips to the iTunes Match screen and spends a long time on the "Gathering" step. Finally, gets results from Apple an quickly says it's done and ready.

Only about 5000 songs, but, not taking anything close to these times, when calculated out at a per-song time basis.

And, no, my network speeds are great for everything else, including iTunes purchases, app updates Only Match is working at dial-up speeds.

>iTunes 10.0.4, or did you mean 11.0.4?

Uh, yeah...😊...I'll edit that to fix it, if I can.

GOOD NEWS!!! I got my problem fixed.

The first tip off that it wasn't Apple's servers was that I got Match to work on my MBA. I did this by clearing the Safari caches, opening iTunes, turning off iTunes Match, turning it back on, "Add Computer."

Then I had to tackle my MBP. I'd had problems with it all morning. Truth me told, I had been retoring the files "iTunes Library.itl" and "iTunes Library.xml" from TimeMachine backups—over and over—in an effort to retrieve a Playlist I accidentally deleted last night.

So I learned the hard way that when you restore those two files (alone) it can muck things up.

The fix:

In Safari, use the Develop menu (you can look through this thread or search to find out how to display the menu) to Empty Caches. Then, on the Safari menu, Reset Safari, and have the following four boxes checked:

Remove all website data

Remove saved names and passwords

Remove other AutoFill form text

Close all Safari windows

Next, in the iTunes folder, delete ALL files but LEAVE the folders. I ended up deleting (on purpose):

iTunes Library Extras.itdb

iTunes Library Genius.itdb

iTunes Library.itl

iTunes Library.xml (I didn't have this one on the particular TM backup I used, but it's often there)

Next, use TimeMachine to restore those files that were deleted from yesterday afternoon's good copy

Now, open iTunes. Turn Match off. Close iTunes. Reopen iTunes. Turn Match back on.

This time, finally, for the first time to, iTunes Match blew right through the first phase of Step 1, and then continued on, finishing matching 15,000 songs in less than 5 mins.

I actually have 15,949 songs. The first time (shown above) I ran the fix, I very briefly saw a popup screen flash that began "Due to the number of songs in your library..." blah blah blah. I couldn't read the rest, unfortunately. It sounded bad, so I ran the whole thing again. This time I didn't see the message.

Well...today, for the first time in days, Match is working well for me in the US...at least as well as it was before Aug. 7 or so. And I did NOTHING since my original attempts earlier in the week (which did exactly nothing to fix the Match issue) to fix by reinstalling iTunes and deleting, reimporting, and cleaning up my library. So again...strong evidence that this was/is an Apple server-side issue. My library of 3600 songs now matches in 1 to 2 minutes instead of 1 to 2 hours like it was from Aug. 7 until today.

My iTunes Match experience of late has been a complete disaster.

Several weeks ago approximately 300 or so album covers SOMEHOW got stuck in the cloud. After the match completed, one album cover had managed to replicate itself 300 times. Yes, the same album cover repeated over 300 or so DIFFERENT albums in artists A-C. The cover did not repeat itself in chronic order, mind you. No, it appeared sporadically 300 times!

Trust me, I did everything I could think of:

Command I - edit info - replace with correct cover

Command A, then Command I

Delete iTunes library

Turn match on, off,

deauthorize, re-authorize, etc, etc, etc.

I even called Customer service and was routed through 3 cs agents, who suggested all types of fixes. One even involved re-setting my ipad because we thought that was the problem.

This process even involved a trip to the local Apple store and sought help. No go.

The final customer service agent I spoke to suggested I delete affected albums and replace. I balked at that idea and thought about the amount of time that process would take. After experiencing a LOT more headache I decided to

go ahead and delete the affected albums and re-install them. This entire process has taken about 2 1/2 weeks thus far.

I still have about 100 albums to track down and replace.

Needless to say, I WILL NOT renew iTunes Match next year.

Plus, let's not forget the numerous times the match got stuck on step 1 for HOURS and the number of times it would only collect a portion of the information and sit for hours and hours and hours before completing.

I hate to say it but when coughing up $25.00 a year for a service one expects it to work PERFECTLY 24/7/365!!!

Correcting Album artwork is usually straightforward and quick (try these steps: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3650114).

You may find Google Play Music works well, with gBeats or similar on IOS devices. It is free for 20000 Songs.

mracole,

Thanks for the tips.

I tried everything in the book and then some.

Nothing worked besides deleting the original files and replacing.

I spent several hours this morning editing and replacing images but nothing stuck.

So, I ended up deleting the rest of the albums that were affected and will replace as I go.

This entire process has been a complete disappointment.

No more iTunes for me.

How frustrating! Artwork is not help by deleting Albums ... sounds like its worth a fix offline from iTunes Match.

Just ensure you have a full secure backup of the Song files before you enable it again, this way you can restore with no further manual entry as needed.