iTunes 11.3 freezing when refreshing podcasts

If you can figure out how to revert to iTunes 11.2.2 using Time Machine, post detailed steps. It's harder than it looks, as best I can tell.

Not very hard at all. Your steps are as follows:

Locate iTunes 11.2.2 on your Time Machine. I chose 7/1/14 for that date.

Drill into the Time Machine backup to the Applications folder

Locate iTunes 11.2.2 by clicking on the app one to select it and verify the version within the window or via "Get Info"

Once you verify that it is iTunes 11.2.2, click and hold and drag to your desktop

App will copy and be on the desktop

Now the fun begins:

First, you cannot trash the current running iTunes nor replace, yet on the active OS

Boot from another bootable OS drive that your system supports. I booted under my internal's Mac OS 9.1 (I use an external Promise RAID as my everyday hard drive)

With the OS now in charge, when you boot up your previous boot drive is now simply another drive. Go into that drive's data going into the Applications folder to iTunes. That will be version 11.3. Delete it and empty the trash.

Now navigate into the user folder of your former boot drive and find the desktop under the User folder and your specific user.

Find the iTunes 11.2.2 application.

Drag that into the Applications folder of your former boot drive. iTunes 11.2.2 will copy into the applications folder.

Once done, re-boot to your primary OS such as doing a restart then holding the option key after the chime and selecting your primary boot drive to boot from.

After you reboot, your main drive should be up.

Go to iTunes in the Applications folder and verify that it is in deed, 11.2.2

If it is, boot

iTunes will now rebuild the library. Once done, all should be fine.

FYI-Apple will still try to force an update to iTunes 11.3. Do not update or update your apps via the update all. iTunes 11.3 worked fine initially then some how got stupid. Until there is an iTunes 11.3.x, I will not update as of yet.

Hope this helps.

Apple does not monitor the support communities as they are user support communities.

Apple support for itunes: http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/

Having looked at both the ITUNES help - online only - have put in a request for ability to at least download in PDF as its not on mac anymore - and at the ITUNES support site -

Realized in downloading the updates - was remiss in not looking at what changed before doing the download.

I do not allow auto checking and/or auto download on any updates - and I do not allow my mac to connect to the internet "as needed". Allowing auto connect and auto update or refresh of podcasts could be your problem as the refresh is trying to refresh before you have time to look at what may be new settings.

Anyway - in the notes on the Podcast you can have multiple libraries, multiple stations, and each podcast can have settings as to when to refresh it or not - which may have been a request by many Podcast users as a way to clean up their podcasts.

You might try asking APPLE Support what changed in the last updates of ITUNES for podcasts and what you should have done at that time to come in line with the latest update.

Hello Folks (and notcloudy .., like your handle name 🙂)

I just spent an hour with Apple support here in Japan with the (top) specialist engineer.

I have always had a wonderful experience with the engineers in Japan and they work so hard to try to solve any issues - and are take very detailed documents (including screenshots) to send to the engineers at Apple HQ.

The specialist engineer was indeed able to confirm that I had issues with iTunes 11.3 (54) for podcasts only when refreshing podcasts in the "list view". Since the same issue occurred when creating a guest account, this was documented also.

However, the same issue did not occur when a new account was created with administrative privileges. A few podcasts were copied (onto a USB stick) from the iTunes folder before creating the new account. Then these podcasts were added to the new account. The instance of there being no problems with a small library was documented.

Also was documented was my spoken explanation that this issue did not occur before the recent update.

The specialist of course also looked up to see if there were any other reports in Japan of the same issue - but there were none.

The specialist also documented the size of all my podcasts, which in total were 1TB.

During the session, I asked the specialist if she would take a look at this thread and document it, and she did. So the report to the engineers at Apple HQ will include the the link to this thread.

I was told it will take about a week for the specialist to get back to me as they have to wait on the engineers from Apple HQ.

However, it seems the problem in my case is occurring when the total podcasts files are large.

Also, the problem seems to mainly occur in "list view".

Since I want to continue listening to podcasts until a solution is found, for the time being, the issue is less prevalent if the podcast is in the "My Podcast" view. So if you are able, click the "My Podcast" view and stay only with this view for podcasts. Since this thread is long rather long, and is in English, the specialist asked me if other users were sharing this workaround. I stated I believed so but I would have to re-read the thread as it has grown rather long.

The specialist also asked if there were any other related issues discussed in this thread and I said I would have to have a proper read.

But anyway, since the report references this thread, could other others kindly report as much in detail the different issues you are face related directly to the title of this thread? (Together with the specifications of your Mac and the file size of your podcast folder). That may speed things up for us all.

Again, the Japan specialists are really wonderful and really try hard to help. If you could add your comments/posts with this spirit it would be a wonderful gesture.

Thank you in advance for your contributions to come! 🙂

Darren

Japan

I'm having the same issue almost exactly. Things work in the My Podcasts view, but clicking the List button will instantly send itunes into a beachball crash. I also have a very large podcast folder (hundreds of gigabytes). This problem only began occurring since I updated to itunes 11.3. My mac is a 17 inch Macbook pro, 2.2GHz i7 and 8GB RAM, running OS X 10.8.5. Everything else works fine.

I don't know when Apple changed from "it just works" to "just WORK, dammit" but I hate that every time I update their software I need to be afraid of what will be broken this time.

Love the line "Apple changed from "it just works" to "just WORK, dammit" but I hate that every time I update their software I need to be afraid of what will be broken this time." and when it comes to iTunes, I agree.

The most interesting problem is if you are already in "LIST" view one you launch you cannot change view mode as it goes into updating. Also, these issues with LIST view started in iTunes 11 and there is no excuse for that. Apple needed to fix this issue as this is not a new feature but a much older feature as back to iTunes since music existed, like V1.x of iTunes. Just amazed that this is in podcasts only.

Many thanks to you for posting this information and to the Apple specialist who helped you to define this problem.

I discovered that I, too, have problems with iTunes 11.3 (54) for podcasts ONLY when refreshing podcasts in the "list view." FYI: I also have almost 1TB of stored podcasts.

Once I switched to the "My Podcasts" view, I was able to do an update that proceeded at the usual rate without any hang-ups.

I hope this thread will help all those folks out there who are experiencing similar problems.

[I am running 10.9.4 on a 2.8 GHz Quad core i5 with 12 GB of memory]

hi ozdazza

Japan sounds like heaven on earth helpdesk wise to me - good for you and congratulations - a help desk that is willing to acknowledge that it is not your ineptitude machine or geek wise that is to blame and promise to inform Apple HQ and hopefully will be listened to - marvellous enviable

Since some of my co-sufferers suspect the amount of podcast episodes stored is to be blamed I disagree - I have only about 120 GB of stored episodes - i.e. I delete a lot and keep only those still unlistened to which still interest me and those listened to on which I want to do some further reading or listening. Since 120 GB sounds so little please note that it amounts to more than 6000 files spread over I'd guess more than a 100 subscriptions.

Yes working with My Podcast View prevents beachballing/crashes but is generous in providing mysterious info-bits. But to select from the what's available is for that many subscriptions so much more time consuming that for the time being I update all but select the to be downloaded/to be deleted only for the BBC where some are available for 7 days only.

I don't know whether it is due to my having complained to the BBC which promotes iTunes on its podcast site or they have found out for themselves, by now their podcast offerings work in MyPodcasts View even though the number summaries they give are unrelated to what is on my hard disk. I operate a humble 13" MacPro which except for the iTunes hitches is perfectly up to satisfying my needs.

PS for ozdazza

what I don't understand - besides no investigative reporter being even remotely willing to speak up when Apple inflicts such pain and nuisance on its end-users - is that all the providers of podcast episodes who get harmed by this - at best - Apple negligence don't speak up. Often they provide preferred links to iTunes i.e. they do free of charge advertising for Apple and then when Apple harms their distribution by keeping the users busy with rescue operations instead of listening to podcast episodes they say "oh never mind Apple will certainly fix it" and the constant deterioration of iTunes Podcasts gets shrugged off by them as none of their business - strange very strange

some say Apple users belong to a cult - when it comes to journalists and podcast providing geeks that certainly rings more than a bit true.

I was having this problem too and had to force quit many times. I switched to "My Podcasts" view and clicked the refresh icon once again and am currently downloading 172 items. Before it was always "itunes not responding."

thanks cdrumm

yes it works but if you have as many subscriptions as I do and want to select which radio interview out of the 20 or so per day offered you really want to listen to the MyPodcastView is a bloody nuisance. With some actions the view decides I have to go back to first subscription. When I click download it doesn't show me that the action has started where I clicked but changes the blue dot to sundial and so on and so on. The nice thing about the list view (besides being much much faster to select) was that I could scroll through all my episodes (downloaded or on offer for download/listen) like I would "scroll" through my book shelves.

And of top of it all why had we to find out about this less than satisfactory bypass by ourselves with Apple keeping mum about it for by now 8 calendar days.

Apple may be wonderful for geeks for just users like myself it has climbed the ladder of "who cares about consumers" to heights I would have never expected.

... and this as far as my podcast listening hobby is concerned for the second time since September last year i.e. less than 10 months. I've come to the conclusion that Apple wants to go back to its "for specialists only" status it had before Steve Jobs made it attractive for members of the masses who aren't interested in playing around with stuff but just want to use the machine as if it were a library.

These "strikes of genius" Apple indulges in with podcasts (and it isn't only the two major ones it is also a lot of small ones since about 3 years) feel to me like I might feel if my appartment had been burglared. All in all I feel that Apple is cheating on me and since I had 6 marvellous everything I wanted self-explaining years with it I am really mad as mad as I would be in real life at a person who'd broken a promise. I have been had by Apple.

I don't like the My Podcasts view either, but it seemed going to it allowed my refresh to work. Well, I spoke too soon...last night I had to pause my podcast downloads before all of them loaded. When I tried to return to list view, iTunes became unresponsive again. And when I tried a re-refresh in My Podcasts it would only get one podcast at a time and I had to keep clicking on iCloud icons to get all of the individual podcasts I'd fell behind on. I have lots and lots of subscriptions too, plus a huge number of podcasts stored on two hard drives. I'd hope that having too many wouldn't be a problem. But Apple sure doesn't seem to want you to keep a podcast after listening or keep getting podcasts you haven't had a chance to listen to. I know I get more podcasts than there are hours in the day and I'll never live to listen to most of the ones I have—but still.

Itunes has had plenty glitchy behavior before that seemed to be fixed after awhile, so I doubt this is a deliberate thumb in the nose at podcast freeloaders. It can't be easy making things work smoothly all the time. Features I don't use or want, aimed at getting into my pocketbook is less than desirable.
I think I must have sent the automatic report after force quitting at least a dozen times last night. Maybe they don't pay attention, but they'll be getting a dozen more today if the thing isn't fixed.

To Everyone,

Thank you for your detailed reports and please keep them coming. The more of those who provide information, even if it is exactly the same, the better.

Also, if you have time, putting in a call to Apple support in your country and asking support to log the issue means that Apple specialists are able to report to you they have users with the same issue. This may involve the specialist having you to do various things so they can get exact information about the issue so they can document it. If you get to a high level engineer they may have you ask to join a screen sharing session which makes you feel you are getting proper attention. 🙂 I actually enjoyed the experience because the specialist was able to actually see first hand what I was trying to describe verbally and confirm that the issue was occurring.

Silkefromdue > Thanks for proving information about how the issue occurs for total podcast files less than 1TB, which is 120GB in your case. When I was working with the specialist, we were only able to test the newly created administrative account with about 20GB of podcasts and there were no issues. So the information you provided should help the engineers.

troy1d > It seems we have the exact same issues. That reinforces that our cases are not limited to any ONE user. That is great information to have.

Mike > Thanks for providing information about a issue that I had not encountered as I did not do not change views when updating. And for pointing out that this was further back than the since the recent update.

cdrumm > Thanks for giving an account of your issue. Yes, the same things happens to me. If I change from the "My Podcast" view to "List" view, iTunes beachballs and becomes unresponsive. Just for your information, the specialist in Japan documented this during the support session. So thank you for confirming this happens to you too. Until there is a fix, it best to just stay in "My Podcast" view. Please do not take this has Apple's official response to the issue - it is just MY suggestion to be able to continue downloading and listening to podcasts while the issue is being looked into. I had never used "My Podcast" view before and I personally prefer not to use it.

Again, thank you and please keep the reports coming … especially to users who have this issue and an internet search brought them to this thread. 🙂

Cheers! 🙂

Darren

Japan

One thing I noticed with ITUNES - is that the header of "Arthur's day" shows under Genre's books and spoken, even though I had deleted it so long ago I don't remember when.

While just looking around itunes did see an option somewhere that allowed option to download 1 podcast at a time - or maybe saw it in a dream and thought - actually this should be number of casts or all.

Problem with people refreshing many podcasts at once - there is a point where it will take a long time based on length of casts and number of them. Has anyone tried just letting the system chug away to see if clears on its own - after an hour or two?