Itunes not responding, running extremely slow

I haven't posted an update in a while (no progress, like everyone else!) but it seems I may have made some headway.

All this nonsense with iTunes highlighted a problem with my NAS that I wasn't aware of. One of the drives had failed! Also, the NAS refused to update it's own firmware so I got in touch with QNAP and explained the situation.

To cut a long story short, I installed a new HDD and one of their tech assistants very kindly logged on to my NAS remotely with TeamViewer and fixed the firmware update problem. All the drives got a clean bill of health so I decided to give iTunes another try. Deep intake of breath...

I'm running 12.3.0.44 but at the moment, things seem (emphasis on seem) to be running okay. I'm still getting the beach ball of death but download speeds for music and app updates are massively improved and lag seems to be reduced. So long as I'm patient, I can move around iTunes with minimum frustration compared to a week ago. It's still not absolutely right as it doesn't want to copy new purchases to the phone with the initial connection. I have to sync a second time. It also has a nasty habit of creating a copy of playlists from the device to the computer that it thinks have changed (they haven't, btw) but it was doing that some time ago anyway. It keeps trying to resync artwork as well which is annoying because a lot of artwork seems to be missing from my CD imports since 12. whatever came out. Even though you can paste your own artwork into an album, Apple doesn't seem to like you doing that. iTunes downloads all have perfect artwork images but a lot of my CD imports have nothing at all now or they have completely the wrong artwork.

Anyway, after all the frustration and tearing out of hair, things seem to be back to something resembling normality. I'll steer clear of the latest version of iTunes and hope they get a proper fix sorted out soon but for now, I'm a much happier bunny :-)

It really is so much better since my NAS got fixed. Download speeds for music and apps are pretty much back to normal now. Phew.

After reading the posts, I noticed that the problem takes place when iTunes is displaying the Music library in its main window. Any change will lead to the "beachball" spinning for minutes. If I add a new album when iTunes displays the TV Shows library in its main window, it takes place very quickly. If it is the Music library on display, each track takes a few minutes to be added. iTunes 12.3.1.23 with a Music library of 93 000 tracks.

Hi Russell...

I'm an old skooll MacUser.... with a 1.86TB iTunes music library.... custom playlists built over a 10years plus timeline... how safe is it to revert back to the previous working version of iTunes... as I'm sooo sooo nervous to proceed with this but I also haven'y used iTunes since October and it's becoming increasingly frustrating not being able to play my music that I bought from the iTunes store or play my movies on my AppleTV Gen 3. I have a MacBook Pro laptop that I'm using.... but it's old and not as fast for my movie collection... and none of my music library is on it.

I'm reading success story and success story in this thread when reverting.... but I'm still scared sh•tless that I will be the one to have major issues and lose my playlists. I add a playlist folder for every artist I like.. and then an individual playlists for each of their albums or EPs, so I have an extensive playlist element to my iTunes.

I have a full TimeMachine backup dating back months... prior to my iTunes upgrade problems.

I might wait for the next OSX update.... but I am now very worried unless they update iTunes... this will not fix this issue also... and I am left with no music to access.

Such a mess...!! 😟

Regards,

Anthony

Just make a backup of your iTunes library (copy it and paste it in the same directory and it will get a "copy" designation and then maybe rename it to something more useful and then you don't have to worry about it. Always make copies of that backup to replace the original if needed, though. Don't ever employ the backup itself so it's safe; maybe even put a copy on another drive somewhere).

The problems here don't seem to affect music, just the database (if even that). Based on my own experience and some others on here, I'm more convinced that many of the problems are hard drives starting to fail (see NAS post above or my own media drive starting to act funny. After I switched to a backup drive, the problem 100% disappeared. I've since bought a newer 3TB replacement (nice small USB powered drive) and will put the backup back in the fire safe and use the newer drive as the main media drive). I'm not saying every case is a failing drive, but I've had ZERO problems with the newest iTunes outside of that failing drive thus far (i.e. I've been running the newest iTunes for a week with the backup drive and there's no slowdowns or any other issues here. My library isn't as large as some, but I still have 9000 songs, 600 movies and dozens of TV Shows.) I've seen no indication it was anything but a failing drive here, but then I had the problem when I reverted to and older iTunes as well (i.e. that didn't fix it for any length of time).

The process took me 10-15 minutes, and things have been fine since. As far as I can tell, none of my music playlists or such was affected. As always, you should back up your hard drive first via Time Machine or whatever. The playlists are in different files than the app itself, so they should not be affected. But, of course, each user has different configurations that may lead to unique effects. But, again, you can always restore from a backup.

For some folks, the issue may be a bad external hard drive, but my library is on my main drive. My drive is fine, and I still had the same issue. So the drive issue is not the problem for all of us. Plus, when I reverted to 12.3.0, everything works fine. If it were a bad drive, I should think the same kinds of issues would appear even after I reverted. So that variable is sufficient in some cases but is not necessary to explain the problems w/ iTunes.

I could only put up with the bad iTunes for a few days before I reverted. I can't imagine you dealing with this for weeks/months…

FWIW, I would suggest you do the reversion. With a backup, you can also go back to your current, unhappy state...

(And, not that it matters, I've had Macs since 1984…)

Thank you again Russell for taking the time to respond to my desperate plea.

I don't think it's a hard drive failing issue for me either. My iTunes library is on a top of the range Western Digital 2TB SATA internal drive... my gut feeling it's a software issue for sure and that reverting will work.... but I'm just soo nervous.

I have two apps, Clean My Mac 3 & App Delete that both delete all the associated files with an application... could I use that instead of the Terminal... that's my biggest fear in using that app... that it will cause damage to my system.

My having a TimeMachine backup... would that mean if it didn't work... I would just re-install my full 1.86TB for media..? or just replace the iTunes app....? How easy would it be to revert... I use Time Machine all the time... but only ever to rescue a deleted file or a previous iteration etc...

1984 you say.... sound like you are a bone fide MacPro through and through... 🙂

Regards,

Anthony

I was a bit nervous, too, using Terminal, but for me, anyway, it was painless if you follow the simple steps.

Others have used AppZapper. Your options would probably work, as well. Someone else just changed the permissions on iTunes and then deleted the app. None of this should affect the files associated w/ iTunes, just the app itself.

W/ a backup, if something changed you didn't like, you could replace it w/ the older file(s). But you can always go back to 12.3.1 via a download or from a backup.

I understand your reticence. But all I can report is my own experience. The reversion was painless. Indeed, I did it twice, since after the first reversion, I forgot to change the auto update in the system prefs and the iTunes prefs, and 12.3.1 was reinstalled. After the second reversion, I changed those prefs and everything has been fine since.

I guess you have to decide if doing this and being able to use iTunes again is worth the (I think) very small risk of a problem. Or if you want to wait who knows how long for Apple to fix this.

Best of luck, in either case.

I'd strongly recommend following Russell's original instructions, using the Terminal. It only takes a few minutes and the only thing you are replacing is the iTunes app, not your databases and music files. (If you used a different app that removed all files associated with iTunes, your databases -- all those playlists -- would get wiped out.)

Also would like to add that this is not only a hard drive issue (although of course a bad drive could result in very similar symptoms).

I run my iTunes off new SSD drives that are less than a year old, and the program was unusable with the latest update, but OK after reverting. Also when I created a new user account (allowing me to start from scratch with iTunes), everything worked fine.

I believe strongly that this is a software issue where there are bugs related to reading/writing to large iTunes databases that have been built up over years, using multiple past versions of iTunes.

I have seen this behavior in the past which persisted after the remedies detailed in various posts that followed.

What I have just learned after experimenting is that for my situation it is related to the wireless sync feature. For some reason if a synced enabled device is connected or nearby when iTunes starts up it can get locked up. Rebooting does not help.

I just locked it up and unlocked it by powering down my sync enabled devices and rebooting. Instant wakeup and I have a very big library.

Once iTunes is up turn on 1 device at a time.

This may work for others too.

Anthony,

I was also extremely nervous to use the Terminal but after a few weeks of misery I finally broke down. It only took a few minutes and my iTunes was perfectly usable again. Like Russell I forgot about the auto update preferences and then had to do it a second time, but again it was quick and painless. You are only entering a single, simple command. It worked for me.

Ah that is what happened to me as well. I didn't realize it was the autoupdate that caused the problems to return. Just did the same as you, James, unchecked autoupdate and re-did the terminal process again as well (even before seeing your post). Glad I did! :-)

Hi again James and Russell

I'm still tooo chicken..... I'm gonna wait until the new OSX 10.11.2 update comes out... hopefully with a new iTunes update also.... and try that.... if that all fails... I will give the downgrade a try for sure. My iTunes library is too valuable to gamble with.... just yet that is... I will wait it out another little bit.

Actually.... for my music side of things it hasn't been too bad as I have the OTHER-A-FY app for that... 🙂 It's really just to have it back in the OCD organised way I have built it up over the many years is what I want and to be able to play my movies that I have in it through my Apple TV Gen3..... hopefully Apple is listening and will resolve this before the Xmas Hols... 🙂

Anthony

I'm hopeless when it comes to computer stuff but I followed the instructions for downgrading with Terminal and successfully managed it. I didn't lose any playlists either. I really am useless at this sort of thing so If I can do it, anyone can. It worked perfectly.

Crap, it reverted to the most recent iTunes again. Russell, James, anyone, know how I can keep it at 12.3.0? I have "check for new software updates" unchecked.