Q: Itunes match stuck at sending information to apple

Okay, don't get your hopes up, but iTunes Match has worked, so far, for me in the last 2 hours or so.  That doesn't mean the problem is fixed.   But the reason I'm posting is that something got me further than before. 

If since August 7th you have not got past the message "Sending information to Apple" .. listen up.  The same thing kept happening to me, happened every time except for once, and then I would go on to get the error message.

But just now I read back through this thread to the instructions for clearing the cache (on Page 5 of this thread - I don't know how to link to the specific post).  Anyways, I tried that, following the instructions very carefully and I was able to complete the iTunes Match process. 

However, what you have to do for this temporary workaround is to clear the cache before each attempt to update iTunes Match.  And it doesn't take that long to do so, once you get the hang of it.

Also, please note that I think resetting Safari if you are on a Mac will accmoplish the same thing as the instructions for clearing the cache.  DO NOTE that resetting Safari may mess up your Play Counts if you have not already synced with iTunes Match lately, so I wouldn't recommend doing this if Play Counts are important to you.

I'm not saying this is a solution by any means, because it has only been working for me in the last 2 hours.  But, before I couldn't even get past the "Sending information to Apple" message, so I'm much more optimistic than I have been since this problem arose for me.

So all I'm really saying is this:  If you haven't cleared the cache, I don't think there will be any way for you to update iTunes Match until this problem is resolved.  Clearing the cache doesn't solve the problem - the servers of the service itself still have to be up and running.  But what I'm thinking is that unless you clear the cache, there will be no way for you to connect to the servers when they do come online in your area, which people are reporting happens intermittently.

Hope that makes sense and hope it wasn't too repetitive.  Good luck.  I hope they resolve this soon.

Congratulations on completing your match 6 times today. Perhaps you could refrain from updating for a few days and let someone else get connected.

Thanks for sharing your experience in such detail, bassresponse.

But I don't think that what you're suggesting is good advice. You said that you were able to connect (once) before clearing the cache. This leads me to believe that the cache was (is) not the problem, and that your ability to connect after clearing it is probably coincidence. I'm open to changing my mind if others come forward  to report the same results, though. (That said, I for one won't be trying this.)

The rare sporadic successful connections we're all experiencing make most sense if the problem is with Apple's servers, in my view. For that reason, I still recommend that people do NOT mess with their iTunes setup at the moment -- but do file complaints with Apple!

Still not working for me... spent about 2 hours waiting yesterday with no luck, and today the same. Wonder what's going on with the servers. Have a bunch of new songs that I'd like to put in the cloud... /sigh

Resetting Safari, logging out / in worked for me after spending several hours trying to update iTunes match.

Thank you!

I've been following this drama since my iTunes Match stopped working several days ago.  I've been trying at various times of the day for the last several days to upload several songs from my desktop and to get my Macbook (which has no music on it) to sync up. 

And now it works.  Here is what I did:

1.  Nothing.

This problem is on Apple's end and there is nothing you can do to fix it but wait.  I did not empty my iTunes cache (whatever that means), I didn't sign Out, I didn't disable Match then reenable it.  I did nothing, other than try several times to Match.

After finally managing to upload the songs from my desktop, my Macbook was able to sync up and stream from the Cloud, but I did have to sign out and back in.  And it was as if I was starting up iTunes for the first time, there was no music there, not even greyed out (which is a change from the last several days where I could see my songs and albums but they were greyed out.

Anyway, my advice for what it's worth is:  Do Nothing.  You are wasting your time.  People who have tried X, Y, Z and then were able to get it to work immediately afterwards simply got lucky, they didn't actually do anything on their end to fix it.

And…This does absolutely nothing for me.

It's pretty clear that this issue is both on Apple's end and sporadic. Just because you tried some random thing and were able to connect afterwards does not establish cause and effect. I really wish people would stop posting these remedies unless they can:

A. Reproduce both the issue and your fix repairing it.

AND

B. Explain logically why your solution would have an effect (Resetting Safari's cache to fix an iTunes issue… ???)

Anyway, still thoroughly broken for me.

Just to be clear, the one time I did get a step beyond the "Sending information to Apple" stage, and it went to the "Waiting for Apple to deliveer Itunes Match results", the end result was that it gave me an error message and ended that attempt.  So basically every single time I attempted iTunes Match without having cleared the iTunes cache first, it failed. 

Every time since then that I tried clearing the cache I successfullly completed iTunes Match.  Now maybe the servers just happend to be available at those time, which is why I'm saying the problem may not be solved.

But, BUT, since clearing the cache those times and connecting to iTunes Match, I also tried completing iTunes Match without having cleared the cache, and it just hung up on me and give me the error message.  After that I went back to clearing the cache, and it worked.

So you decide for yourself whether you want to give this a shot or not.  If you think it's a waste of time, no big deal to me.  Maybe I did get lucky and fluke out, I don't know for sure.  But wow, if I was you and as frustrated as I had been before, I would give it a shot.

And someone said something about how resetting Safari ooesn't have anything to do with iTunes cache.  Well they are connected whether you would like to believe it or not.  iTunes relies on the internet to connect to Apple's servers, and so when I reset Safari it must clear a setting that iTunes looks for when it connects to the iTunes Match servers.

I may try to connect again tomorrow during a peak time so I can confirm whether it continues to work or not.

Good luck.

okay, my bad, so sorry.  I just ran iTunes Match twice consecutively - the first time after clearing the iTunes cache, and it worked.. and the second time without clearing the cache, and it worked again.  So it's just working in general for me.

@ gordon142

Who really cares if you are still having troubles, I don't... my issues are resolved.

This could mean that maybe you have some additional issues contributng to your conectivity problems?

I was simply sharing knowledge regarding what worked for me. I still don't care if yours are resolved (I just checked my sensitivity meter app)

Quit whinning and being a cry baby, you will be able to listen to your "Daft Punk" shortly.

OK, let's cool it down a little. My comment was aimed at the thread in general, not you in particular (although you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise, as I did use the wrong reply button).

My point is that with a sporadic issue like this, everyone has a "solution" that they're just sure fixes everything, but it's usually just coincidence (see the post directly above yours). Resetting the cache was first suggested as a solution 7 pages ago. If this fixed it for most users, the thread would have ended a long time ago.

As for not caring about whether anyone else gets their issue resolved…forums like this only work because people DO care about helping others.

Also, the withering sarcasm and personal insults are thoroughly unnecessary.

It seems as though the powers that be...or at least that be at Apple are working on this (of course without telling us)...I just now got the first what I would call "normal" iTunes Match sync in days.  No delay in step 1, 2, or 3.  This may be totally random, but some people seem to be seeing improving results with Match sync.  This again supports the conclusion that the problem lies with Apple.  Hopefully this trend continues and Match will be back to normal in the near future.  And as for what I tried...even though none of what I tried fixed anything, the library reimport that I did was sorely needed...It cleaned up a lot of unnecessary duplicates and odd entries. 

gordon142 I apologize for my snarky comments, I was simply adding my experience regarding what fixed my issues. I am not an "Apple Genius" and I do not get paid by Apple to fix their issues. I do agree that something is going on. The services that I pay for (iCloud) should be up 100% of the time. This is unnacceptable, I am in IT and would be out of a job if these unesolved issues happened because of me.

An update from me: like others, I've found the service to be much more reliable over the last 10 hours or so.

I didn't carry out any of the 'work-arounds' (cache clearing, signing out, etc.) listed in this thread, so even if they do provide some benefit (which I doubt), they're certainly not necessary to get this service to work.

I'm reluctant to say that the service is 'fixed', but something at Apple's side is definitely working better right now. I guess we should keep an eye on this over the next few days, to see if this improvement is permanent.

It's a shame that there has been such a pronounced silence from Apple about this. It's sad when paying customers have to spend so long figuring out the nature of the problem by themselves, with no hint of acknowledgement from the people who are being paid to provide the service.

I just ran itunes match again & the service seems better & faster than ever now, Only took about 10 minutes for it to complete Vrs 2 hours yesterday. I will no longer post unless the service goes bad again. Thank you everyone for all posts & feed back. Hopefuuly apple did receive all tickets that we submitted & really did fix the issue.