Match process stalling out at end

This just started happening for me too. I've been using iTunes Match for a little over a year just to sync my music library between 3 Macs an iPad and my iPhone. Was working great until I noticed today that any song I added to my library from ANY Mac would not upload to the cloud and sync with the rest of the family. These are tracks from CDs and songs I created on Garageband and saved as AAC. I just paid for my renewal subscription 2 weeks ago. If this had happened a month ago I might not renew. From what I hear from the experts -- Apple is not good at cloud services. iTunes Match is a great idea, but not well executed. I have tried going through Apple support who appear to be clueless. I don't know if a Genius Bar appointment would be in order. I have already contacted the iTunes Store support. It's difficult to know who to contact at Apple about a problem like this.

Hi Ecirb50:

Hmm....I just tested again and I'm seeing something slightly different on my end - but who knows if this is another edge case.

In general you are right, if a track exist in the iTunes Store (that matches probably byte for byte), then yes it succeeds.

However, I have a CD here (Dianne Reeves - New Morning) that I can successfully match via iTunes rip. But if I rip using external program (XLD) to any of WAV / M4A / ALAC and then "drag and drop" into iTunes - it never matches. I assuming that XLD is producing a slightly different resulting file than the native iTunes ripper for whatever reason.

I think its a situation where if it matches byte for byte with what exist in the store, then it goes through. However if there are any differences then it fails. Essentially it seems like the "Match Algorhithm" is broken. Essentially, if the MD5 (or whatever hash they use) doesn't exist in store, then it gets stuck - but if it finds the byte-for-byte match in the store then it succeeds.

To a degree this explains why this bug is affecting such a specific segment of users - namely those who rip their own non-mainstream CD's. Which is funny because I thought it was specific to the number of files in the Match account - but no it just so happens that users that have lots of music will by its their very nature have lots of CD's which don't exist in the iTunes store.

I will be interested in hearing what the Apple tech rep says about these findings. Hopefully our test provide enough info for them to reproduce on their end.

They should give us a free year of match - I get paid for this stuff in the real world. 😉

I am having the same problem. Been using Match for a few months now, and other than the initial very long upload process, it has been very good for me. However, after buying two albums on Amazon that were not on iTunes and uploading them to iTunes, it has stalled out. Stuck on 1883 of 1919 checked on Step 2 of the process. Some of the first album uploaded, but the other tracks are only on my iMac. Really frustrating as I want them on my iPad and iPhone. This thread has been helpful as I can see it is affecting other users too. Hopefully Apple will just fix it in the next few days. Subscribing to get email updates from this thread until the problem is solved.

I also just tried adding a song i knew would match and it did so almost instantaneously and appeared on my phone straight away, i didn't even need to click 'update itunes match' or 'add to icloud'.

Your point about it being unmatchable songs that are causing the problem seems correct and I agree it is not relevant to number of songs in the itunes library. I only have around 4500 songs in my library not upwards of 15K like some others experiencing the problem do.

I often download songs from soundcloud artists who make their work downloadable (obviously these songs are not going to be in the itunes store) and i have done this for quite some time and up until a few days ago, match would work flawlessly and upload them.

I think the issue must be with Apple's iCloud servers or as you say their "Match Algorithm" (perhaps they are fiddling with things for ios8 / OSX 10.10) as we are all experiencing this issue over the same peroid of a few days.

Hopefully Apple fixes it soon.

Hi

No this is happening . Apple obviously once again have no idea. I have been using Amazon for two years with NO problems at all. Apple's I tunes Match who are supposed to be at teh forefront of these things is second rate. I have had Match for over a year and these constant problems are unacceptable. It is a mish-mash but well done Apple for getting the £30.00 off everyone and then running and ignoring the problems. An absolute disgrace. Dick Turpin is alive and well.....

Just to add on the pile here - having the exact same problem - and could add screenshots that match yours. Happening on both my Mac Mini and my aluminum MacBook. Have been really dissatisfied with iTunes Match service of late and have been trying out Google Play - which is syncing all my music fine!

The problem appears to be affecting all iTunes match users.

Report it to Apple. It is a paid service, they should fix this fast.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/icloud.html

Hi,

Use https://getsupport.apple.com/Issues.action to report issues about match as iCloud is a different product.

Jim

I have this problem as well... for a few days.... and i have this service since the start....

Anyone tried this, to rebuild their itunes library ?

1. Delete all songs from Itunes library listing, keeping files in the music folder (ie, do not trash the files)

2. shut off match, quit itunes

3. reset my library according to the instructions here:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451(reseting the library WITHOUT removing and replacing the files in the library listing)

4. After completing step 3, letting iTunes process all the music

5. Turning on itunes Match again.

I'm a little tired of all the iTunes Match problem...

I've read through all the posts in this thread, and can report a similar problem. As of Friday (13th June), I was able to add and sync a couple of albums from CDs to iTunes Match without too much trouble. The next morning, I tried to add a couple more, and it was then I hit my problem. I repeatedly get stuck at step 2 of the 3 stages of matching - "Matching your music with songs in the iTunes store". >Every< time I try, I get to within a fraction of the progress bar reaching the end, and it then sticks. I have tried all the (posted here) remedies for iTunes, ran disk utility, rebooted, reset my router - all several times, but each time, I get to the end of step 2 again, and that's as far as I get.

I too have been with Match since it came out in the UK, and have had my share of problems over the intervening time - but this problem is the most persistant.

I'll have another go at trying to find where in the Support section I can best report the bloody problem - no specific area for Match annoyingly...

Addendum: interestingly, despite Match still getting stuck at the very end of Step 2, the couple of albums I added at the weekend have appeared on my iPhone, albeit greyed out, without cover art and unavailable for download. At least something is getting through.....
Also, attempts to log the problem with Apple support are fruitless as the website is timing out once I have selected the support type I want (my connection is fine, upload and download speeds are fine and all websites and other services like Dropbox seem to work fine on all devices). 😐

I write and record my own music using Apple Logic. I use the built in workflow inside of Logic to share my recordings in iTunes, and then I sync them into the cloud to listen to them on my iPhone. If iTunes indeed has an error where it won't sync anything that wasn't ripped in iTunes, then that also applies to music "ripped" from their own professional music recording software. That is unacceptable!!! Apple must fix this now.

Is there an "Options" key on a PC keyboard? I am not using a Mac.

Hi Ecirb50:

I think you mentioned in a previous post that a support agent had scheduled a call for Sunday (today) with you....were you able to make that call?

Anything worthy to report? Have they accepted that there is a global service issue happening with Match?

Hi, Ryan:

I'm having a similar problem. The CD I added to my library is in the iTunes store, so it should match but it wouldn't. So Match is stuck at stage 2 trying to add the eight songs from the CD. I can still listen to these songs around the house by sharing the library, but until these songs are matched, iTunes won't let me add any other songs to the cloud.

This problem started last week when I added about 10 new CDs. Some of the albums partially matched but most didn't match at all even though they are in the store. To try and isolate the problem, I decided to delete the more obscure old jazz CDs one by one until finally, match became unstuck and finished the final stage. For example, Abbey Road by the Beatles made it out of the queue once less popular CDs were out of the way.

I did not check before adding any of these CDs to see if they were in the store. I checked after though and all of them were indeed listed in the store, so they should have matched unless by some fluke it was me that uploaded them.

So here I am stuck for eight lousy songs. As it stands, to add any more songs to the cloud, I have to delete these songs first.

I've always been impressed by all things Apple, but Google's streaming service is starting to look like a better alternative.