iTunes Match - Unknown Error Occurred (4010)

iTunes Match will DESTROY playlists, your library and will in fact remove content from your library; this content can mean items that you burned into iTunes AND items that you purchased from iTunes (and have receipts for)

Here is an except from their terms and conditions:

iTunes Match is provided on an “AS IS” basis and may contain errors or inaccuracies that could cause failures, corruption or loss of data and/or information, including music, playlist, and play history, from your computer or device and from peripherals (including, without limitation, servers and other computers) connected thereto. You should back up all data and information on your computer or device and any peripherals prior to using iTunes Match. You expressly acknowledge and agree that all use of iTunes Match is at your sole risk. To the extent permitted by law, Apple shall have no liability with respect to your use of iTunes Match, including the inability to access matched or uploaded content.

What is so disturbing is, that depending upon WHICH customer service agent you get, you may or may not get your files replaced! DO NOT USE iTunes MATCH or GENIUS if you have a large library. My library is 34,000+ songs (mostly purchased from Apple) 119 Music Videos (all Purchased from Apple) 504 Movies & 2200+ Television Episodes (movies and TV shows ALL purchased from Apple).... iTunes Matched reeked havoc with my music playlists, it or Genius caused so many duplicates in my Movies and TV shows it was crazy and Apple's customer service has fallen off tremendously in the last couple of years. My problem with Apple iTunes Match goes back to the beginning of iTunes Match, and I spent 4 years asking via email if iTunes Match was the culprit. FINALLY I got a tech that was honest and admitted that they were aware of the problem.

Here are the steps I've taken so far. These first steps are easy ones that will solve the problem most of the time.

1. Sign out, then back in to the iTunes Store

   If this fixes it, then you just had an authentication problems with your Apple Id

2. Hold down Option (Mac) or Shift (Windows) and click on Turn off iTunes Match, then click to turn it back on (no need to hold down Option or Shift to turn it back on)
   

   This will clear the local iTunes Match cache and resend your library information to Apple's servers. This will solve the problem most of the time

3. Turn off iTunes Match, Genius, Sign out of iTunes Store. Then sign into the iTunes Store, Enable Genius and wait for it to complete. Then enable iTunes Match.

   For some reason, iTunes Match and Genius both use the same backend and sometimes Genius can clear up issues with iTunes Match

4. Turn off iTunes Match, then go to Safari and click on Preferences -> Privacy. Make sure either "Always Allow" or "Allow from websites I visit" is selected. You can click on "Remove All Website Data" just to be sure.

   Sometimes you can block iTunes' requests to Apple's servers (or the cookies they use) based on this setting from Safari

5. Update OS X, iTunes, Windows Update.

   I was running iTunes 12.1.2.27 and OS X 10.10.3 (Yosemite) and still had this problem

If you get this far down and it still isn't working, then your problem may be more severe and you may have to try some more complex fixes. Be warned that some of these will delete your iTunes Library, so make sure you have a back up of it.

These steps were provided by someone in engineering while I was on the phone with Apple Support.

1. Close iTunes. Hold down the Option (Mac) or Shift (Windows) key and click on the icon. iTunes will prompt you to Create a new Library. Select a new location (like iTunes 2).
   

   Sometimes the iTunes library becomes corrupted or has bad files in it (like a digital booklet that is listed as audio). This will create a new blank iTunes library. If this doesn't work, then the problem may be more severe.

2. Create a new Administrator on your computer. Then log out from your current user and log in to the new account. This new account will have it's own iTunes library. Open iTunes and enable iTunes Match.

   Using a new account on your computer should fix any caching/authentication/safari/genius issues. If the problem persists, then you can delete the extra user account as it was only needed for this test.

3. Try "purchasing" a free song on iTunes using your account. Then turn off/turn on iTunes Match.

   Buying a new song/album from iTunes may refresh your account in the cloud and fix the problem on Apple's servers.

4. Log into iTunes match from another computer running iTunes. Get a friend to help you with this.
   

   If you still receive the 4010 error, then this is indicative of a problem on Apple's servers. If you can test from 2 separate computers and still receive the same error, you will probably need to contact Apple Support.

If you've made it this far, then congratulations! You have a really messed up account. You will want to contact Apple Support. You can call 1-800-275-2273 or go to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232 for other phone numbers. They can charge $29.95 for a call, but you can get them to waive that fee if you have run through all these tests (which they did for me). They will probably take you through these same steps just to confirm that you have done everything. Be patient and try everything again. If you feel comfortable, they can initiate a screen sharing session with you and you can show them the error. I ended up being transferred to a senior technician - Brandon - who was very thorough and helpful. He and I troubleshooted the issue over the course of 2 weeks and he was very prompt in calling me back with information.

Once you contact Apple, they may have you place your account into "Troubleshooting mode". This entails a lengthy verbal acknowledgement and you will need to change your password so that someone in engineering can look at your account. It will take a few days for someone to get to your account, so bring a radio in the meantime.

There is a final step that can be done by Apple, but be warned that you need a backup of your library.

Apple has a master "kill" switch that they can use to disassociate the iTunes Match partition with your Apple Id. This will effectively delete everything in iTunes Match. Any purchases you have made directly through iTunes (or any purchases your family have made) will be saved. But any music you have ripped from CDs (or acquired from *other* locations) will be lost. This should be used as a last resort. This is the step I had to go through to get iTunes Match back up and running.

Just a follow-up to my other two replies. After waiting for about a week for engineering to reset my Match account, I heard back from Apple Support today. They had "unlinked" the iCloud Match partition from my account (effectively deleting all my songs on the cloud). The only thing left was the songs I had purchased through iTunes. I was able to find an old backup of some songs from before I had uploaded everything to iTunes Match.

Once I had waited 24 hours after engineering had cleared my account, I attempted to enable iTunes Match (this was after 3 weeks of trying with no success). Apparently, this was the magic touch, as iTunes Match started working again! Incredible! My only guess is that there was something in my library that iTunes didn't like and it was causing the 4010 error. Of course, I lost all my online music, so I'll have to go find it again. But it does feel good to be able to stream songs though my Mac and iPhone again.

I should say that I did attempt to enable iTunes Match before the 24 hours were up and I got an error 4001. At that point, I held down the Option key and turned off iTunes Match, then waited out the 24 hour window. When I re-enabled iTunes Match after the 24 hour window (given to me by apple engineering), then iTunes Match came back on and we are back in business.

So, apparently, my case was a very extreme case. If you look at my other posts, I have just about every other step you can take to resolve the 4010 error. But it is nice to know that if all else fails, Apple can re-instate your account. Just make sure you have a backup of your songs somewhere...even if that backup is a computer with iTunes running on it that you have downloaded all the songs from the cloud to the local hard drive.

And a shout-out to Brandon at Apple Support for sticking with me on this one and being very patient.