Itunes not responding, running extremely slow

Similar issues. Editing track name, adding artwork, importing, all cause massive hangs with the (new) beachball.

OS X 10.11.1

iTunes 12.3.1.23

Mac mini (Mid 2011)

2.5 GHz Intel Core i5

16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Exactly the same problems. An update designed to "improve stability and performance" has accomplished the opposite. Very frustrating. I have OS 10.11.1, so may well be the new iTunes update, not something in El Capitan.

Hmm...only us? I'm having the same problem. Suddenly itunes is not appearing. Getting the new captain wheel. It's running my pro hot not responding.

Hi ! Same for me :-/

I'm beginning to think this problem is linked to the iTunes store. iTunes seems to work okay until I sign in to the store or do something else that calls up the store. I wonder if the issue is related to some change Apple made in preparation for the new Apple TV coming out next week. Very annoying, whatever the explanation is.

Mine seems to be working better but, yeah, a few months back there was an update that made itunes work worse. It's gone down a path. I think it's about being linked into the store constantly. They can have greater control I suppose. I could sign out. But then I can't access stuff I wan easily. It's a catch 22.

Same here.

Last version was incredibly slow, but faster than the one before. This new up-date is next to impossible to use.

After up-dating OSX and iTunes this morning, it took three launches (and force quits) and a(another) total restart to get the thing to even open properly.

Now, when a song finishes, the progress bar stops at between 8 and 5 seconds from the end, the track changes, but nothing else happens for about a minute or two. You can't do anything in that time, scroll, click elsewhere, anything.

It's like the spinning ball thing is now a part of the iTunes design.

Are Apple TRYING to drive people over to Spotify?

Same problem for me too. I ran the latest 12.3.1 update this morning and ever since iTunes has been ridiculously slow and unresponsive!

I'm going to agree that it could be something linked to the iTunes store. Since the update, I have run into the spinning beachball issue whenever I attempt to do anything with the store (downloading, updating or moving around in the store.) I had no issue prior to the update. Also tried all the usual troubleshooting steps...

OS X 10.11.1

iTunes 12.3.1.23

iMac (Late 2013)

3.5 GHz Intel Core i7

32GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Last night, I tried downgrading to iTunes 12.3. Didn't work very well, certainly not as good as before updating El Capitan. So maybe there's a connection between both updates.

I tried to disable Apple Music & iCloud ... Still slow, I hope Apple will fixe this ...

It was quasi-impossible for me to use the last update 12.3.1. I downgraded to iTunes 12.3.044 from a clone. It works now, not perfect, a bit slow, but far better than the new one.

An update: The beachball/slowness *only* seems to occur when editing/working with music. I can edit titles in movies just like before. Change a single character in a song title? 125% CPU and hung iTunes for what seems like a minute.

As an experiment I turned off Airport and unplugged ethernet and had the same (slow) result. Weirdly my work laptop (new 13" MBP) is not affected by this bug (although admittedly it has almost no music on it compared to a rather large home library).

Also I don't use Apple Music. Straight old-school CD rips, Amazon, and iTunes purchases.

My iTunes has the beach ball etc. regardless of what I'm doing. Even simply moving the cursor will activate the ball.

Oddly, earlier this afternoon, iTunes seemed "normal": I could start/stop songs, move about the menu, etc. I thought Apple had done something on its end. But I tried playing a music video, and iTunes was back to its slow/frozen self. I've had issues before w/ iTunes updates messing w/ songs, playlists, etc., but this is the first time when it has been essentially rendered inoperable. Can't even access videos on my computer from Apple TV. Grr.