Q: Just updated to iTunes 12.2.1 for mac and found that it is extremely slow - is anyone else having this issue?

I might have found a solution:

Start iTunes and before you see the beachball rotating for endless time... sign off from iTunes and close.

Then start iTunes again, sign in. Go through the procedure with verifying your payment method.

After that, I could successfully work with iTunes again, including the sync of all devices.

Strange - but works for me! Hope it helps for others.

Payment information is not the problem here. What's happening on backend is that iTunes 12.2.1 is creating a ton of background threads on the workstation which is causing the application to inevitably hang then crash. These threads are spawned from the following:

11  -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 346 (AppKit + 593496) [0x7fff84007e58] 1-11

Without seeing all the data in these events and threads, my guess is that some variable of the supplied NSDate field "untilDate" is improperly formatted when being passed to this method and this is causing a lot of the issues that we are seeing here in the latest release of iTunes. This is something that Apple is going to need to investigate and fix with a patch, and hopefully soon.

This solved my problem with the spinning ball.

This seems to be a viable solution for the problem I was facing. While I'm not sure how re-verifying the Payment Info plays into the whole scheme of things... I can without a doubt, verify that signing out of iTunes before the beachball of doom appears, does in fact seem to mitigate the freeze that has been occurring.

1.) I signed out of iTunes,

2.) Quit iTunes,

3.) Opened iTunes back up,

4.) And signed back in.

The cloud progress bar icon appeared in the top right corner for a second or two, but iTunes finished syncing to the cloud, and the icon went away without any freezing.

Thanks Zifix!

Wow, this worked for me too.  Yosemite iMac 27 iTunes 12.2.1

Zifix's fix Did NOT work for me, Unfortunately. I can't delete even one song from iTunes since this update this morning. Ball spins forever and gobbles up all CPU. How can I go back to the previous version? Anybody here have the deletion problem? Using 2014 iMac with 8gb RAM and 2.7 GHz intel Core i5 processor. Yosemite 10.10.4

Same BS as everyone else. Guess Apple's more interested in people signing up for its streaming service than spending anything on making iTunes useable.

Every time I close iTunes 12.2.1 or randomly during usage, I see the beach ball of death and iTunes goes unresponsive and uses 99.5% of the processor.

The only way to get out of this is to force quit iTunes and send report to Apple. I alway get a very long error message, part of which I post below.

MacBook Air, OS X 10.10.4

Date/Time:       2015-07-25 21:43:10 +0200

OS Version:      10.10.4 (Build 14E46)

Architecture:    x86_64

Report Version:  21

Command:         iTunes

Path:            /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes

Version:         12.2.1 (12.2.1.16)

Build Version:   2

Project Name:    iTunes

Source Version:  1200012002001016

Parent:          launchd [1]

PID:             7712

Event:           hang

Duration:        11.60s (process was unresponsive for 24 seconds before sampling)

Steps:           117 (100ms sampling interval)

Hardware model:  MacBookAir5,2

Active cpus:     4

Fan speed:       1998 rpm

--------------------------------------------------

Timeline format: stacks are sorted chronologically

Use -i and -heavy to re-report with count sorting

--------------------------------------------------

Heaviest stack for the main thread of the target process:

  117  ??? (iTunes + 9028) [0x10af97344]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 8615238) [0x10b7cc546]

  117  -[NSApplication run] + 594 (AppKit + 551667) [0x7fff8a22baf3]

  117  -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 346 (AppKit + 593496) [0x7fff8a235e58]

  117  _DPSNextEvent + 1828 (AppKit + 596989) [0x7fff8a236bfd]

  117  _NSHandleCarbonMenuEvent + 277 (AppKit + 1420512) [0x7fff8a2ffce0]

  117  _HandleMenuSelection2 + 446 (HIToolbox + 614654) [0x7fff923510fe]

  117  MenuSelectCore(MenuData*, Point, double, unsigned int, OpaqueMenuRef**, unsigned short*) + 702 (HIToolbox + 615553) [0x7fff92351481]

  117  FinishMenuSelection(SelectionData*, MenuResult*, MenuResult*) + 96 (HIToolbox + 612873) [0x7fff92350a09]

  117  SendMenuItemSelectedEvent + 188 (HIToolbox + 613168) [0x7fff92350b30]

  117  SendMenuCommandWithContextAndModifiers + 59 (HIToolbox + 613261) [0x7fff92350b8d]

  117  SendHICommandEvent(unsigned int, HICommand const*, unsigned int, unsigned int, unsigned char, void const*, OpaqueEventTargetRef*, OpaqueEventTargetRef*, OpaqueEventRef**) + 428 (HIToolbox + 360261) [0x7fff92312f45]

  117  SendEventToEventTarget + 40 (HIToolbox + 122038) [0x7fff922d8cb6]

  117  SendEventToEventTargetInternal(OpaqueEventRef*, OpaqueEventTargetRef*, HandlerCallRec*) + 386 (HIToolbox + 32686) [0x7fff922c2fae]

  117  DispatchEventToHandlers(EventTargetRec*, OpaqueEventRef*, HandlerCallRec*) + 1260 (HIToolbox + 35692) [0x7fff922c3b6c]

  117  NSSLMMenuEventHandler + 724 (AppKit + 2346347) [0x7fff8a3e1d6b]

  117  -[NSCarbonMenuImpl _carbonCommandProcessEvent:handlerCallRef:] + 107 (AppKit + 3258546) [0x7fff8a4c08b2]

  117  -[NSMenu _internalPerformActionForItemAtIndex:] + 35 (AppKit + 3258982) [0x7fff8a4c0a66]

  117  -[NSMenu performActionForItemAtIndex:] + 131 (AppKit + 3259136) [0x7fff8a4c0b00]

  117  _os_activity_initiate + 75 (libsystem_trace.dylib + 3287) [0x7fff95873cd7]

  117  -[NSCarbonMenuImpl performActionWithHighlightingForItemAtIndex:] + 114 (AppKit + 2443644) [0x7fff8a3f997c]

  117  -[NSMenuItem _corePerformAction] + 382 (AppKit + 2444366) [0x7fff8a3f9c4e]

  117  -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:] + 452 (AppKit + 2444977) [0x7fff8a3f9eb1]

  117  _os_activity_initiate + 75 (libsystem_trace.dylib + 3287) [0x7fff95873cd7]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 6048936) [0x10b559ca8]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 9738822) [0x10b8dea46]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 9772067) [0x10b8e6c23]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 12566540) [0x10bb9100c]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 12569161) [0x10bb91a49]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 9373053) [0x10b88557d]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 2746601) [0x10b2338e9]

  117  -[NSApplication runModalForWindow:] + 119 (AppKit + 2461302) [0x7fff8a3fde76]

  117  -[NSApplication _realDoModalLoop:peek:] + 666 (AppKit + 2476167) [0x7fff8a401887]

  117  -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 346 (AppKit + 593496) [0x7fff8a235e58]

  117  _DPSNextEvent + 978 (AppKit + 596139) [0x7fff8a2368ab]

  117  _BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInModeWithFilter + 71 (HIToolbox + 205099) [0x7fff922ed12b]

  117  ReceiveNextEventCommon + 431 (HIToolbox + 205546) [0x7fff922ed2ea]

  117  RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 235 (HIToolbox + 206191) [0x7fff922ed56f]

  117  CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 296 (CoreFoundation + 465880) [0x7fff8f65fbd8]

  117  __CFRunLoopRun + 927 (CoreFoundation + 467391) [0x7fff8f6601bf]

  117  __CFRunLoopDoSources0 + 269 (CoreFoundation + 469901) [0x7fff8f660b8d]

  117  __CFRUNLOOP_IS_CALLING_OUT_TO_A_SOURCE0_PERFORM_FUNCTION__ + 17 (CoreFoundation + 526849) [0x7fff8f66ea01]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 9347552) [0x10b87f1e0]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 9347354) [0x10b87f11a]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 9344338) [0x10b87e552]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 8465590) [0x10b7a7cb6]

  117  ??? (iTunes + 6797705) [0x10b610989]

  116  ??? (iTunes + 6796658) [0x10b610572]

  116  ??? (iTunes + 6800151) [0x10b611317]

  116  mach_msg_trap + 10 (libsystem_kernel.dylib + 70878) [0x7fff930c44de]

*116  ipc_mqueue_receive_continue + 0 (kernel + 1148928) [0xffffff8000318800]

This is absolutely pathetic. It does not seem that it has anything do with the store. I have logged out, re-booted, logged in -- same problem.

I am surprised that there are not thousands of posts concerning this. It cannot possibly be an isolated problem.I can't even get an entire CD to copy before it goes into an endless loop to nowhere land.

I've been having the pinwheel come up when deleting an album's worth of music.  Though for some reason it doesn't happen when I'm in SONG or ALBUMS view.  If it's in Artist then it goes into an extended pinwheel based on how much I'm deleting.

It's not just the deleting though.  It's also when trying to edit the individual info for each track.

I really hope they come out with a fix for this soon because I've always been accustomed to listening to stuff in Artist view and in the "Recently Added" playlist.  This last update has made that impossible. Dang you pinwheel beachballs!

To All

At least give bug feedback to apple through the feedback option in Itunes or the feedback site - another option is to do a support call request and reference this thread -

Apple does not monitor this site - but will look at it if referenced in your request.

Apple does not know about user problems unless you tell them.

A problem that occurred in one of the Itune 11 updates was corrected after a person in Japan worked with apple support to debug it --

@NotCloudy

How do we go about the process you're suggesting? I've never done that. Do we need to get in contact over the phone?

Early on, in solving this problem, I tried to contact Apple, but my 3+ years expired AppleCare prevented me from going further. So, I turned to the forums and found the solution that isn't working for everyone, but has helped some.

I'm happy to spend time on hold helping others fix this issue, eeven though I'm not experiencing it any longer. How do I go about helping Apple debug this?

NDanJohnson wrote:

 

@NotCloudy

 

How do we go about the process you're suggesting? I've never done that. Do we need to get in contact over the phone?

 

Early on, in solving this problem, I tried to contact Apple, but my 3+ years expired AppleCare prevented me from going further. So, I turned to the forums and found the solution that isn't working for everyone, but has helped some.

 

I'm happy to spend time on hold helping others fix this issue, eeven though I'm not experiencing it any longer. How do I go about helping Apple debug this?

Apple feedback site is http://www.apple.com/feedback/

On some Apple applications there are also Feedback options on one of the sub menus - does require looking.

Somewhere on the Apple site there is a support call setup (think its under contact us) where it has both the support numbers and the option to setup a request for support to contact you - in that case you can enter a dialog on the problems you are having.

THe problem you had has nothing to do with hardware -- it is a software problem caused by apple releasing an update without giving clear instruction on how to install -- or having it setup so it correctly installs itself.

Other problems can occur because they did not test the fix with your configuration (its not really possible with all the variables).

It didn't work for me.

Before I could even click on my account to sign out, I got the spinning ball.

After I signed out, I got the spinning ball.

Trying to quit, I got the spinning ball.

Opening iTunes again, I got the spinning ball.

Trying to access my account to sign back in, I got the spinning ball.

After signing back in, I got the spinning ball.

When trying to verify my account, I got the spinning ball.

After successfully signing in, I got the spinning ball.

I get that spinning ball every time I click on something and quite often when I don't even do anything.

Signing out and back it made a marked improvement in iTunes performance but I seemed to have lost most of my playlists. Signing out and in to the iTunes store restored the playlists. iTunes still seems to have trouble accepting commands but not as severely as before and all my music's back.