iTunes Match is a load of crap, right?

[sagnier]

Im beginning to get rather cheesed of with apple's half-arsed efforts at software. I used to believe all that 'it just works' blather...

Does iTunes Match work perfectly for anyone, ever? It has just spent two hours crawling through step 2, with about 50% to go... only to suddenly leap to step 3 and inform me that of my 10500 songs, 6500 are now in the cloud. And when i study my library i see that not only has it failed to match many songs that are obviously in the iTunes store, but also that songs I've purchased from iTunes haven't even been matched. WTF. And they charge for this!

Good job none of this stuff is important.

anyway... whats the best way to go about getting it to 'try again' on the huge number it's thusfar failed to match?

thanks.

[netdog]

Huh?

Match is a terrific service if you have a large music collection.

[zhenya]

Yes, Match has worked quite well for me for over a year.

[sensorian]

Never had a problem, though I have been prone to overreaction myself on occasion.

[rocknblogger]

Originally Posted by sagnier

Im beginning to get rather cheesed of with apple's half-arsed efforts at software. I used to believe all that 'it just works' blather...

Does iTunes Match work perfectly for anyone, ever? It has just spent two hours crawling through step 2, with about 50% to go... only to suddenly leap to step 3 and inform me that of my 10500 songs, 6500 are now in the cloud. And when i study my library i see that not only has it failed to match many songs that are obviously in the iTunes store, but also that songs I've purchased from iTunes haven't even been matched. WTF. And they charge for this!

Good job none of this stuff is important.

anyway... whats the best way to go about getting it to 'try again' on the huge number it's thusfar failed to match?

thanks.

Just run it again, it will eventually upload all your songs. Match may not be perfect but once you get all your songs uploaded it works very well.

[jadot]

iTunes match has always worked well for me. Really happy with the service, and I can confirm it's not just a piece of crap.
Suggest your connection/isp/attitude is a piece of crap.

[BlackMangoTree]

It simply is rubbish a matching tracks many albums will match only a few tracks and upload the rest. There's no easy way to rescan. Apple agreed with me and refunded me.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by BlackMangoTree

It simply is rubbish a matching tracks many albums will match only a few tracks and upload the rest. There's no easy way to rescan. Apple agreed with me and refunded me.

Why are you so concerned that tracks be matched rather than uploaded?

They did not 'agree' that the service is rubbish. They accepted that you weren't happy. Big difference.

[sagnier]

Originally Posted by netdog

Huh?

Match is a terrific service if you have a large music collection.

thats funny, because i have a large music collection and find that it is not a terrific service. its a terrific idea, but far from a terrific service. However, I am getting terrific (that is im practically being stalked) customer service from itunes support. If only any of the suggestions (delivered, incidentally, in appalling english*) actually had any effect...


*pretty certain after my extended dialogue with support that many of the responses are generated by non-human means.
----------

Originally Posted by jadot

iTunes match has always worked well for me. Really happy with the service, and I can confirm it's not just a piece of crap.
Suggest your connection/isp/attitude is a piece of crap.

thanks for that. If you'll look again, i think you'll see that i already punctured my own ire. suggest your ability to read between the lines is a piece of crap.

And i've also tried to update Match on the wifi in an apple store. Did it make any difference? did it buggery.

Originally Posted by rocknblogger

Just run it again, it will eventually upload all your songs. Match may not be perfect but once you get all your songs uploaded it works very well.

But herein lies the problem. Match loudly claims that it will match songs that are sold in the Store. It may very well quietly explain elsewhere that it just cant do it for all of them, and that it will upload those... but when only half the tracks from an album match, and the rest are marked for upload it's just bizarrely frustrating. And i can discuss it with itunes support, and implement all of their suggestions, and still not improve the ratio of matched tracks.

And yes - i know all about bit rates, duplicates, etc. And what itunes support cant seem able to do is definitively say 'if you do [this] to the track, then it will match'. Which effectively means they dont know why it's happening - they dont know why a track which is available on the itunes store is not being 'matched'.

Anyway, this is dull.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by sagnier

But herein lies the problem. Match loudly claims that it will match songs that are sold in the Store. It may very well quietly explain elsewhere that it just cant do it for all of them, and that it will upload those... but when only half the tracks from an album match, and the rest are marked for upload it's just bizarrely frustrating. And i can discuss it with itunes support, and implement all of their suggestions, and still not improve the ratio of matched tracks.

And yes - i know all about bit rates, duplicates, etc. And what itunes support cant seem able to do is definitively say 'if you do [this] to the track, then it will match'. Which effectively means they dont know why it's happening - they dont know why a track which is available on the itunes store is not being 'matched'.

Anyway, this is dull.

So is it uploading your tracks that it didn't match or not?

I don't particularly care whether it Matches tracks or uploads them - so long as I have access to them, which I do with few hiccups.

[Michael CM1]

The only issue I had with the service was difficulty knowing which tracks were on my device and which ones weren't. This was a huge deal on a 16GB iPhone. So that was one reason I didn't renew.

[myxomatosis]

iTunes Match has been a load of **** for me in the first 7 or 8 months, but I gotta admit it has been pretty solid since iOS 6 was released

Initially, it was a mess… Songs I already had that did not match correctly even if they were available on the music store, broken smart playlists between iTunes and my iPhone, songs buffering forever (iPhone) on Wifi or 3G and never playing, many errors in iTunes when updating iTunes Match, etc.

But all these problems are nowhere to be seen for me since iOS 6 was released. I stopped using iSub and went back to the default music app, and I’m very happy with it.

[Beeplance]

May actually try using it if it didn't cost USD24.99 a year.

On the other hand, heard alot of people using it as per normal and no complains whatsoever.

[sagnier]

Originally Posted by Michael CM1

The only issue I had with the service was difficulty knowing which tracks were on my device and which ones weren't. This was a huge deal on a 16GB iPhone. So that was one reason I didn't renew.

this is certainly another element of the service that I'd like to see improved - the way the music app deals with the library once you've enabled Match. Navigating through hundreds of artists and albums to get to the one i want is a bit twitchy. I dont even bother with the song list! 11000 items? Forget it.

At the least, the option to quickly switch (without delving into Settings) between local tracks and the ones still in the cloud would be handy. Or just a simple search option: type in a word, and have all results presented quickly below, sortable by album, song or artist. I guess spotlight kinda works (although it will only show results in terms of songs), but it would be better if it was available in the music app also. Of course, it's clear why the 'show all music' option is hidden in settings - to have it otherwise would acknowledge the fact that users dont always have access to the internet. Apple wants everyone to become accustomed to the spurious idea that perfect wireless or cellular coverage is available everywhere, and at all times; this being the foundation of all their internet services (and thereby a way in which they can positively market their devices). The elephant in the room of all their mobile products is that access to the internet is frequently expensive, limited and unreliable.

By the way, Im on iOS 5 - and im not about to upgrade as 6 has apparently removed useful functionality! eg single track deletion, 'side-loading' of music... (am i starting to sound like someone who wants an android device?!)

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by sagnier

By the way, Im on iOS 5 - and im not about to upgrade as 6 has apparently removed useful functionality! eg single track deletion, 'side-loading' of music... (am i starting to sound like someone who wants an android device?!)

You can still delete single tracks in iOS6, it is just handled differently. No, you can't sync music from a computer and have iTunes Match - I can't recall but I thought you couldn't do that in iOS5 either? I just download the playlist I want.

Overall, Match is much better in iOS6 than it was in 5, so I wouldn't hold out for that reason.

[Irishman]

Originally Posted by sagnier

Im beginning to get rather cheesed of with apple's half-arsed efforts at software. I used to believe all that 'it just works' blather...

Does iTunes Match work perfectly for anyone, ever? It has just spent two hours crawling through step 2, with about 50% to go... only to suddenly leap to step 3 and inform me that of my 10500 songs, 6500 are now in the cloud. And when i study my library i see that not only has it failed to match many songs that are obviously in the iTunes store, but also that songs I've purchased from iTunes haven't even been matched. WTF. And they charge for this!

Good job none of this stuff is important.

anyway... whats the best way to go about getting it to 'try again' on the huge number it's thusfar failed to match?

thanks.

Your experience, unfortunately, is not unique. I personally won't use iTunes Match until they fix it, and I encourage others to do the same thing.

----------

Originally Posted by jadot

...Suggest your connection/isp/attitude is a piece of crap.

Wow. Blame the user's attitude, eh?

[sagnier]

Originally Posted by zhenya

You can still delete single tracks in iOS6, it is just handled differently. No, you can't sync music from a computer and have iTunes Match - I can't recall but I thought you couldn't do that in iOS5 either? I just download the playlist I want.

Overall, Match is much better in iOS6 than it was in 5, so I wouldn't hold out for that reason.

Dont worry. I have another really solid reason for not upgrading - Maps! Im going to wait a good few months while they get that sorted out I dont want to end up expiring in the outback.

Im not sure about the sideloading in 5 - i just read that its possible via a workaround. As i only have been using Match for a few weeks I've not bothered trying yet.

[Uplift]

Why is everyone bothered about it matching songs? as long as your entire library is available across all devices whats the problem?

[mmomega]

Originally Posted by Uplift

Why is everyone bothered about it matching songs? as long as your entire library is available across all devices whats the problem?

Exactly, my library is fully available everywhere for me, 11,000+ songs and it finished within a few minutes. Not sure what the deal is when it isn't working for some, it is rock solid for my family and others that I know that have it.

$25/yr is completely worth it so I don't have to purchase a larger phone/ipad or use space on multiple computers that I listen to music on.

[bmustaf]

It was pretty spotty & unreliable when it first came out (actually more device related - the iPod/Music software wasn't very happy about unreliable network connections), but it's great now...

I love it, it makes buying a 16 or 32 GB iPhone possible for me (I have more music than I can fit on my device, esp with all the apps), and it works great.

Yeah, if you don't need it/use the "music library on demand" feature, then it's probably useless, but I guess that applies to anything, not just iTunes Match...

[myxomatosis]

Originally Posted by Uplift

Why is everyone bothered about it matching songs? as long as your entire library is available across all devices whats the problem?

Well, and I talk for myself: I have some really old MP3s of CDs I ripped in the 90s, and I don’t have these CDs anymore. Yeah, I should have ripped these CDs at a better quality before throwing them away, but disk space wasn’t cheap in the 90s and 128kbps CBR was what we used. It didn’t matter that much at the time on our crappy PC speakers.


Problem is, I’m using better audio equipment now, and these MP3s aren’t good enough anymore. For example I’m using a WooAudio WA6 SE tube amp with a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 880 cans. 128kbps CBR MP3s are a mess, this equipment isn’t forgiving when it comes to badly encoded lossy audio files.

It’s a deal-breaker when you’re stuck with some old 128kbps CBR you had to upload (and we know it takes a long time!) and then realize those tracks are available on the music store in much better quality but won’t match.

I know it won’t matter for the majority of people, but for me it’s an annoying problem

[Michael CM1]

Originally Posted by mmomega

Exactly, my library is fully available everywhere for me, 11,000+ songs and it finished within a few minutes. Not sure what the deal is when it isn't working for some, it is rock solid for my family and others that I know that have it.

$25/yr is completely worth it so I don't have to purchase a larger phone/ipad or use space on multiple computers that I listen to music on.

I would agree with the $25/year being cheap part if most of our data plans didn't hold us back. If you download 100 songs you're closing in on 1GB. Thus it helps to have a balance of tons of storage and access to all your songs.

[adeedew]

yup, been in a matching songs loop for 4 days, tried everything, this happens every few weeks, this service is by far the WORST smooth working thing apple has ever stood behind

[monkeybagel]

Originally Posted by myxomatosis

Well, and I talk for myself: I have some really old MP3s of CDs I ripped in the 90s, and I don’t have these CDs anymore. Yeah, I should have ripped these CDs at a better quality before throwing them away, but disk space wasn’t cheap in the 90s and 128kbps CBR was what we used. It didn’t matter that much at the time on our crappy PC speakers.

Not to mention how long it took to just encode one song on the hardware back then! An entire CD if I recall correctly could take close to half an hour or more.

[Coltaine]

I joined iTunes Match last year in December, when it became available here in Germany.
My music collection then consisted roughly half of CD rips and half of iTunes purchases. iTunes match worked perfectly for me.
I have been using it since and I've made new purchases solely through the iTunes Store.
I cannot complain about the service, on the other hand my music collection is not that big: around 5500 songs (45 GB).