Okay because that is what I thought was supposed to be the case, but when I look at the actual properties of the file that I download from the cloud, they are m4p, and not m4a, so maybe it still is a bug.
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Apple Releases iTunes 12.2.1 With iTunes Match Fix
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Okay because that is what I thought was supposed to be the case, but when I look at the actual properties of the file that I download from the cloud, they are m4p, and not m4a, so maybe it still is a bug.
If you're getting constant hangs or beachballs after the latest update try starting iTunes and then immediately signing out of your iTunes account. Then sign back in.
Worked for me.
Worked for me.
Apple today released iTunes 12.2.1, a minor update that introduces some much needed bug fixes for iTunes Match and other features introduced with Apple Music. Apple Music was first released two weeks ago, but included several major bugs with iTunes Match that caused the deletion of entire music libraries and other issues, such as an inability to sign up for Apple Music for former iTunes Match subscribers.
The iTunes 12.2.1 update is available immediately from the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store. Today's update fixes the iTunes Match issue that caused iTunes to incorrectly label songs from Matched to Apple Music and it will allow several former iTunes Match subscribers who were unable to sign up for Apple Music to get the service for the first time. In addition, it also includes bug fixes for the Beats 1 radio station, which is built into Apple Music.
iTunes 12.2, first released two weeks ago alongside iOS 8.4 and OS X 10.10.4 Yosemite, is the second major update to iTunes 12 and the version of iTunes that includes support for the Apple Music service. Apple Music lets iTunes listeners get access to on-demand music, create playlists, and more, plus it includes the Beats 1 radio station and Apple Music Connect, Apple's artist-centric social network.
Article Link: Apple Releases iTunes 12.2.1 With iTunes Match Fix
I was on the phone with Apple Care for more than an hour this weekend, asking why typing information into the sort fields was causing the text to disappear in My Music and Playlist views of iTunes when the sort field matched the corresponding field (that is, typing in "U2" in the Sort Artist field when the Artist field contains "U2" causes the Sort Artist field to show as empty). The two techs I spoke with agreed that it did not make sense to cripple the sorting functionality in what is essentially a little spreadsheet, but then today, I received this condescending and mostly incomprehensible email message from Apple:
“There have been changes to iTunes for Apple Music to funtion as we intended. For example we had to change sorting Albums in Alphabetical order has been removed. Since we have iTunes Match as well as Apple Music those changes were nessesary and is now a normal function of iTunes.”
Sorting by alphabetical order has been removed? Wow. This is now a normal function of iTunes? To...not sort alphabetically or show fields?
By the way, this problem persists across Windows and Mac platforms and whether one is subscribed to Apple Music or not.
“There have been changes to iTunes for Apple Music to funtion as we intended. For example we had to change sorting Albums in Alphabetical order has been removed. Since we have iTunes Match as well as Apple Music those changes were nessesary and is now a normal function of iTunes.”
Sorting by alphabetical order has been removed? Wow. This is now a normal function of iTunes? To...not sort alphabetically or show fields?
By the way, this problem persists across Windows and Mac platforms and whether one is subscribed to Apple Music or not.
Did this update fix the well known as widespread issue of iCloud Music Library completely messing up people's (including mine) libraries? To the extent of many many many albums having completely incorrect art (from completely different artists), removing songs from albums and putting them in other albums (sometimes by other artists, etc). Only way I could fix my library was by doing a time machine restore of my iTunes music folder. The bug re-writes the actual music files themselves so the only thing to do is restore.
So yeah, did the update fix that? Or is it still broke as hell?
So yeah, did the update fix that? Or is it still broke as hell?
Awesome. How the hell have they let that happen? Still won't be using iCloud Music Library unfortunately. Even though I love the idea of the feature.
Update: I followed the instructions in Apple KB article 204964, which walks you through the process of a) turning off iCloud Music Library on all devices, b) resetting iCloud Music Library, and c) restoring the local iTunes library. After restarting iTunes and re-enabling iCloud Music, iTunes/iCloud immediately scanned my library and matched the majority of my songs, although for whatever a fair number of songs that are definitely in the Apple Music catalog were not matched. These songs were uploaded to iCloud Music Library (the process is still running, actually).
The downside to this "reset" process:
- All Apple Music playlists and music are erased (you are warned about this multiple times).
- Metadata changes that I had made to local music files were lost after restoring my iTunes music library.
Cannot recommend that one! Tried it, now i have the same problem with duplicate songs and duplicate playlists as in iTunes 12.2 again! This is so annoying...
Yeah, that is annoying. My original problem was not duplicate songs/playlists, but a) deletion of some local music files, and b) 99% of my library was marked as "Removed from iCloud".
Anyone who wants to try this "fix" should have a verified backup before proceeding...
Pfff, it's a pain. I just restored part of my music collection. But now, iTunes does not realize I have changed my files and their metadata. When you go the the Get Info panel, or you start playing a song, iTunes will read the metadata from file and refresh. Great, but I don't want to do this manually for 6500 songs.
Luckily, I found this little free tool: Videodrive-Metadata-Refresher. It will refresh the metadata of your songs and videos so you don't have to do it manually. Try it out first on one more more songs: simply select them in iTunes and launch the tool.
From what I understand: the tool does nothing more than read the metadata and artwork from your videos and music files and update iTunes with it. (the tool is from the makers of VideoDrive, a tool to import all video formats in iTunes)
Luckily, I found this little free tool: Videodrive-Metadata-Refresher. It will refresh the metadata of your songs and videos so you don't have to do it manually. Try it out first on one more more songs: simply select them in iTunes and launch the tool.
From what I understand: the tool does nothing more than read the metadata and artwork from your videos and music files and update iTunes with it. (the tool is from the makers of VideoDrive, a tool to import all video formats in iTunes)
Wha? Removing sorting in alphabetical order was necessary? (Boy there's a lot of typos in this message.) It was necessary for what? Maybe the fact I can't search for artist name and title at the same time is also a new feature that was necessary?
...
Does anybody know an iTunes alternative that can adopt an existing library, not break metadata, not change cover art, not rename songs and allows sorting albums alphabetically and has a functioning search function? It doesn't need to connect to Apple Music since I don't think I'll be using that much.
Search for an artist, and you can listen to a radio station curated with songs like that artist.
Near the bottom of the artist's page are 'Stations' - click one to start playing, and it's now added to your 'Featured Stations'.
(Anything you added previously in the old Apple Match service is there when moving over)
Thanks for the advice. I tried that, and still unfortunately having issues with DRM for my matched songs. Hope there is a resolution for this soon.
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I will try that tool. I was able to fix my Mac iTunes using some of Doug's iTunes Scripts, but could not find a way to patch up the Windows iTunes.
I will try that tool. I was able to fix my Mac iTunes using some of Doug's iTunes Scripts, but could not find a way to patch up the Windows iTunes.
I'm glad to see I'm not alone with this issue. I've been dealing with this since late 2011, when iTunes Match launched.
As you may know, prior to iTunes 12.2, if you inserted new artwork on to an album, the changes would sync across all devices. However, after a certain point, once iTunes Match would automatically update (both on iOS and iTunes), all the artwork would revert to whichever copy was initially uploaded/matched. In fact, if you wanted to instantly reproduce this issue, all you had to do was insert artwork and, right afterwards, update iTunes Match. The artwork would instantly revert in iTunes.
However, the behavior has changed with iTunes 12.2. In iTunes 12.2 (and 12.2.1), as long as the tracks are actually downloaded, it is possible to change artwork and, no matter how many times you refresh iTunes Match, the artwork will stay embedded into the files. Prior to 12.2, this was impossible. Now, though, the changes will stick.
The problem, however, is when albums are not downloaded, and are in the cloud. (Which, at least on iOS, is most of our library, as we're iTunes Match subscribers.) Unfortunately, in this instance, the problem still exists. If I create a new account on my Mac, opened iTunes, turned on iTunes Match and viewed a cloud only version of my iTunes Library, you would start to see the old artwork appear again. Or to give a simpler example: if I simply deleted the downloads of an album in my iTunes library, eventually the artwork will revert. I'm not sure when, because there's no consistency. I might be able to sign in and out of iTunes Match several times and the new copy will stick, but then randomly, it reverts. It's hard to pinpoint when it'll revert, but it eventually will.
I'm glad to see you and @crizzly bring attention to this, because it's beyond overdue that this bug gets fixed. It's the equivalent of one's contact photos reverting to the initial photo one first used. The problem is that since many people either have no interest in modifying artwork, it's a bug that gets overlooked, so if anyone has access to filing bug reports with Apple, I highly encourage anyone to please file a bug report on this. That's the only way Apple will even notice this, much less fix it.
I've got 8 'featured stations' - I don't know how I got them, but ESPN and a few others are on there.
I guess the other method added them to 'recently played'.
I'll try to figure out how to add 'Featured Stations', because mine align fine, as I have at least 8.
I'm not sure if this is related or not but I found a while back that iTunes can not remove embedded artwork. It can embed new artwork but the old artwork also remains and the iTunes software sometimes displays the wrong one.
I ran all of my albums through a 3rd party metadata tagger (I used MP3Tag), embedding the artwork I wanted and removing the rest and now all of my artwork displays properly.
Even artwork that I know to be different in the iTunes store shows up correctly on all of my iTunes Matched devices.
I'm not sure about everyone else, but at least for me, things have been worse after the update. Now an overwhelmingly majority of my music is showing the status as "Apple Music", when before it at least was showing as "Matched". And of course the random missing artwork is still very much present across all devices.