Itunes match stuck at sending information to apple

My gripes about iTunes Match: it trashes your local playlists and dumps your music according to the generic info in the metadata. So, if you have a playlist Classical - Piano, for example, the music is dumped in a one for all Classical category by the Genius program and wipes out your very own created list.

Artwork upload is deceptive because although the program goes through the motions when updating your library, lots of artwork simply does not show up while straming music to an iOS device. Instead you get just the name of the album with a generic white bacground.

Otherwise, for me at least, ITunes Match is a great deal from Apple to enjoy great music anywhere, either from your own CD collection, purchased from Apple, or from iTunes Radio. Actual music streaming works flawlessly via Verizon Wireless iPhone or wi fi. And for that price a year, I can't complain when the cheapest radio subscription doesn't give you any backup storage for your own music.

Same issue here in The Netherlands. iTunes Match on my AppleTV works, but all devices with iTunes installed are not.

After much tredidation, I subscribed today hoping that I might luck out and have Match "just work". Well, it doesn't. Can't get past the initial send of information to Apple.....no matter what I do. It's these stupid well known problems that Apple really needs to focus on fixing. 32 pages of people posting about this.....geez. 😟

its just really annoying right now.

i purchased itunes match a week ago, first it seemd like it worked perfect. Now the same problem opccures everytime, when i start itunes, when sending information to apple. Specially really stupid if you have new music and want it to sync with your ipod nano which cant get connected to itunes match (no wireless...).

Apple, its time to fix this issue, the problem is already 2-3 years old. Problems like that can't get ignored from a company that big....

I agree. All Apple has to do is look at their forums and pick out the discussion threads with 20+ pages and fix those topics.....and they would make a lot of people very happy because those threads are clearly their biggest problems. It's actually pathetic that a company with $180 billion in cash can't put a few teams of people on this stuff to fix it once and for all....

Even with the latest iTunes updates for Windows and Mac it still doesnt work...Apple, you are a disgrace!!

OK....So I subscribed to Match and spent two full days stopping and re-starting the stuck initial matching/uploading process, but it finally completed. My 10,000 song library is in iTunes Match.

I subsequently added five devices to my profile, and they're all working with iTunes Match fine.

So the test now will be to see what happens when I add new music to my iTunes library on my Mac, and how Match syncs it to iCloud. I expect to do that within the next two weeks with some CD's that I just ordered. Will let you know how it goes....

This service could be absolutely awesome if they straighten out the quirks mentioned in this thread going back a long time. Maybe with all the announcements the other day for the Mac, iOS, and iCloud....things will magically snap into shape. We can only hope.... 🙂

I guarantee you it will fail on you the next time it auto-updates Match 😟

That's all that Apple does now...

Finally decided to give iTunes match a try with my 11,000+ iTunes library. Been going at it now for three days...never finishes. What a disaster. I keep my iTunes media library on my 802.11ac Time Capsule and access it via gigabit ethernet from my 2013 MacBook Air. Never had a problem with this setup but I wonder if having the iTunes folder on an external disk is causing the problem (although there is no shortage of people having the same issue with iTunes on their local drives)...

I think I'll give it a few more days and if it continues to fail to complete, go for a refund from Apple. What a terrible disaster iTunes Match turned out to be for Apple.

I've been using, playing with, fighting, and otherwise learning iTunes Match since it came out.

Initially it actually worked with very little issue. As I started to work more and more on cleaning up my library (album artwork, song names, artists etc.) I started to realize some of the strange things Match is doing to people.

Its not as intuitive as it needs to be for an Apple product. It feels more like something someone else would have done... but at the same time follows the bloated feel of iTunes.

Having said that, I've found work-around and fixes for each of the hangups I've run into. I've spoken to many who have no issues. I think the few that do label it an Apple failure are going a bit too far, though its natural to believe Apple should hit a home run or not do it at all.

The biggest tips I've learned:

- If things start to not update, disable match in all other machines and devices and concentrate on one. Once that one gets in sync, start up the others.

- Don't try manage music in multiple instance. Do it in once, then use Match on the others to stream.

- If you get in a complete bind, disabling match while holding down the ALT key fixes most if not all issues.

- You can't rely on iTunes to sync. Stop the sync, then do it manually from Store->Update iTunes Match. Works for me 100% of the time.

- Tools like Tune-Up are great, but can conflict and mess with iTunes match (especially as iTunes has been updated, and those tools have not.)

- Deleting from iTunes Match doesn't always work. Do an immediate sync and look for songs to re-appear (sort by iCloud Status, they are easy to spot) - delete these again before they become duplicates.

- There are times when Match isn't working on Apple's side. If you force a sync and it doesn't run, just give it another shot another time.. don't fight it. Come back another day and chances are its going to be just fine.

- I finally just let iTunes manage my library vs. keeping them stored in locations of my choice. I was kidding myself to think I'm ever going to need to get to the .mp3 files again... what am I going to do, buy and old school MP3 player? Or worse, use Android?

- NEVER EVER make hours worth of changes to your library and then sync. Do it in small batches so you don't lose a lot of work in the case things are not syncing right that day. I once spent nearly half a day correctly labeling my 80s music by year (so many get labeled by when a greatest hits came out, not when the original song came out) only to lose all the changes because Apple's servers were acting up that evening.

I have over 17,000 songs in iTunes match, well over 95% are "matched" (and subsequently re-downloaded at 256kbps) and the others are rare concerts and other music I would not expect Apple to every match.

Back up, back up, back up. If you go too long without one and end up messing things up you have nobody to blame but yourself for not taking some precautions.

If iTunes 12 goes with lossless music, I'll be prepared to take advantage of this for the majority of my music. I really hope these rumors are true.

I don't think any other service out there can match Match, even with its quirky struggles. Not in an Apple ecosystem at least, and thats all I care about.

Well, it's now 50 weeks since I signed up with iTunes Match. That makes it 2 weeks until my first annual renewal date.

For all of those 50 weeks, iTunes Match has been hideously unreliable. Not just the problem listed in this epic discussion thread (although that's been unrelenting), but the music app on my iPhone has also been as flaky as **** since I started uwing Match (entire days where it refuses to play any music at all, even stuff that's been downloaded, etc.).

So, long story short, unless something miraculous happens in the next two weeks, I'll be cancelling my subscription.

As an alternative, Google Music is looking pretty attractive to me right now. I'll be trying it out next week.

Absolute garbage product by Apple. I've used this itunes match since day 1 of its rollout, and despite initially thinking this was a convenient way to store a music collection, I've finally realised this is the WORST WAY EVER to listen to music. I've wasted an incredible amount of time adding songs, ripping CD's, and then browsing forums to find a way around glitch after glitch - regularly since its rollout in December 2011!!!! The "service" regularly - and I mean at least half the time I try to add music - gets stuck and won't update. This has been going on for 2 and a half years now, we should realize by now that they have no intention of improving their service.

Guess what Apple, I woke up and so should everyone else. Stay away from this horrible service AND the itunes store. Sign up for Spotify, which I've also had since day 1, and which ALWAYS WORKS. You'll never get shut out of your own music collection or waste any time whatsoever.

Spotify = press play and enjoy.

Itunes match = 2 and a half years of browsing forums like this one just so I can hear the music I BOUGHT AND PAID FOR to try endless "fixes" that seldom work.

I'm with DaveFromLondon. Cancel, run away, don't ever go back.

Wow, if a person is this emotional and worked up then yea, perhaps it's just not for you.

But don't get me started on spotify. Every other song skips at the start, not as much music available, albums missing songs, no match or download... Yea, great service. I look forward to Beats smashing spotify in the near future...

PUT SIMPLY - ITUNES MATCH - IT DOESN'T!!!!!!

Wow… Nico44044's right: This works!

I was skeptical. I read his tip and kept reading… But I kept thinking about it, and eventually I figured "WTH."

I have over 19,000 songs, and iTunes Match had been stuck for 4 *days* — during which time I had turned it off and on at least 15 or 20 times. But it kept getting stuck on step 2. Every. Single. Time… Then I tried Nico's method once, and my 19,000 songs were matched within an hour.

(NOTE: After you restart and launch iTunes again, if Match starts on its own, cancel it then select "Update iTunes Match" from the menu. I let the auto-match continue, at first, but it soon stalled. So I canceled it, selected the menu command, and boom — all 3 steps completed smoothly with visible progress the whole time.

I wish the person who started this thread would return, try Nico's tip, and mark it as "solved."

This one works, people!

Thanks, Nico!