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iTunes 12.2.0 Extremely Slow When Editing Any mp3 Tags

Is anyone else getting the spinning beach ball for a long time when trying to save any edited "Get Info" changes? When I look at Activity Monitor iTunes throttles CPU to 100%+, then changes to "iTunes (Not Responding) for a bit before it comes back with the saved changes. Also why do I have some Artists out of alpha order in the sidebar on the left side?

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Jul 6, 2015 8:17 AM

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Posted on Jul 6, 2015 8:22 AM

Did you activate the iCloud Music feature? I wonder if it is extra slow because it now has to check everything with your iCloud library version.

35 replies

Jul 13, 2015 6:29 PM in response to mitzell

I think I found the cause of the spinning rainbow. And that is your song library is located on an external drive. If all your song would have been located on the internal this would not happened. Try this:


1. Quit iTunes

2. Hold option and start iTunes, in the pop up window create a new library

3. Save it on your desktop

4. The iTunes will open only library of songs purchased from iTunes

5. Drag any song into the iTunes music window, and try to change the title.


The problem is gone. In my opinion its a bug, which needs to be addressed.

I called Apple and they suggested to leave a suggestion to Apple developers.

Jul 15, 2015 4:37 AM in response to chrisnomad

Well, add me in with this one. Doing anything produces a "wait", edit any ID3 tag or add artwork you get a wait, add a song, a wait, convert an aiff file, yes a wait. I've timed it and it's always 20 seconds and doesn't vary whether you're editing one file or 20. This started with the 12.2 update and persists with 12.2.1. I have a moderately large library at at 40,000 songs and yes it's on an external drive BUT I've been checking clients and friends machines and they all have it, just usually a bit shorter (maybe 8 seconds). Response time prior to this update was instant and I have ALL Apple Music and iCloud Music Library/Match features disabled.


This is REALLY bad.

Sep 18, 2015 7:00 PM in response to Bretanho

Bretanho,


Thanks! This is the only solution I have found to this issue. It's been bugging me for several months and several versions of iTunes. From now on when adding and editing tracks I will be in sorted in songs view. It's weird how we all find a workaround to these bugs. I think your answer will help many frustrated people who keep thinking that the newest version of iTunes will fix this quirk, especially considering a new version of iTunes was just released a few days ago.

Thanks again, this tip saves so much time. I'm sick of seeing the spinning beach ball!


Now, why won't apple let me star in that this tip helped me?

Sep 19, 2015 9:06 AM in response to chrisnomad

Thanks for the idea, still makes it harder to find songs and do changes, but at least no spinning annoying clock.


Most likely Apple development team has no idea what is going on, after the bugs get discovered, otherwise this issue would have been resolved in the next update, which was not. It takes a while for the word to be spread. The issues would get resolved much quicker if the user had a direct contact with their Quality Control department.


There is a way to submit a bug report, but you need to be an Apple developer login.

Sep 19, 2015 8:31 PM in response to Girshon Rutstein

I am glad I found this thread as I searched for this issue but did not come across this post initially, and I received no reponses to mine a couple weeks ago. Same issue, large library, use several libraries on internal and external drives, iTunes uses nearly 100% CPU, stays unresponsive with spinning beachball almost a minute and sometimes more when editing tags or adding song or any type of usage of the Get Info window. Super annoying, clearly a bug, reminds me of the one where you had to hide the status bar to avoid the endless beachball. If you desire an even longer unresponsive iTunes, play a song while editing and the time doubles. It takes a couple of minutes when editing tags for an entire album. And the temporary fix works for me as well. So thanks for the temporary fix, hopefully more than one developer found this bug and submitted a bug report to Apple to get this fixed. I have given plenty of iTunes feedback for this and previous issues, unfortunately, few of them have been fixed. Not a fan of iTunes 12 as I primarily use iTunes to manage my music and care little for Apple Music and iCloud Library.

Oct 9, 2015 8:50 AM in response to chrisnomad

I have the same problem, and it seems to be happening more and more.


Editing metadate through the "Get Info" window often - but not always - leads to Itunes becoming unresponsive and hour-long beachball sessions. The only way to proceed is to force quit itunes. While working on itunes this can mean like 30-50 force quits an hour. Completely unacceptable.


I have a 27 inch imac and a very large library (2tb+) on external drive.

Oct 9, 2015 9:03 AM in response to chrisnomad

PLEASE NOTE:


The real workaround (Not a solution, but a workaround) to this issue was found by Bretanho. Another solution temporarily solved the problem, but it came back immediately following it being marked solved. Look at Bretanho's answer to get around this problem it will save you a lot of time in the long run until Apple fixes this problem. If I could go back and mark this problem as "unsolved" I would.

iTunes 12.2.0 Extremely Slow When Editing Any mp3 Tags

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