It's pretty obvious that Apple has intentionally crippled the DRM free functionality. Guess they aren't all that excited about it, eh?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPod DRM free but not hassle free :(
- Thread starter joelovesapple
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Put the content on crap servers, or throttled the bandwidth... Anyone's guess. I should have said crippled the DRM free download functionality.
I don't think it's a permanent thing. I don't know how tracks are allocated to servers at the iTMS, but if everyone is attempting to download the same popular artists and tracks at the same time, it's likely that a small number of iTMS servers are going to be completely hammered in the process. By tomorrow it should be settling down, although the next time one of the big five go DRM-free I suspect we'll end up with similar slowdowns.
my downloads went without a problem yesterday when i restarted them all. no errors. i'm still thinking that it was a rush of people slowing things down.
Mine did that yesterday morning (UK time). I restarted iTunes and about 30 of the remaining 39 tracks downloaded within five minutes. Another restart finished the rest.
I've finally been able to get onto the store, but half of the images are "broken".
I assume if I can't see an "Update My Library" link, I have no purchases that are now DRM-free? All I can see when I click on iTunes Plus is a Genre menu, "Top Albums", "What's Hot", "Top Songs" and "Featured Albums"
Edit:
Scrap that - the page has suddenly decided to start loading properly and I can see the button. Although the "Upgrade my Library" page refuses to load because an Unknown Error occurred.
That's absurd. A fair amount of people (maybe more than Apple was expecting even) are upgrading their tracks. There's an actual limit on the amount of files they can send out at a time and their network is probably just taking a beating. You've got a good amount of people downloading more songs that they've probably ever downloaded in one go before. Saying that they are intentionally limiting the amount of DRM free songs one can download is just silly.
The problem is more likely that all the DRM free EMI songs are on a few servers (compared to the whole store) and those few servers are being hammered. I downloaded 294 songs from iTunes Plus and it was only certain songs that wouldn't download (often times songs from the same album too) but the majority of them did download. Yesterday it finally finished up for me.
Servers
I am sure it is the servers not being able to handle the load. A lot of people know about the DRM-free songs and especially when their computer tells them there is an update on iTunes and what it is, they all started to download the new versions.
I remember it was impossible to even access my account for an entire week during Christmas as they were constantly busy.
I am sure it is the servers not being able to handle the load. A lot of people know about the DRM-free songs and especially when their computer tells them there is an update on iTunes and what it is, they all started to download the new versions.
I remember it was impossible to even access my account for an entire week during Christmas as they were constantly busy.
God help us if they ever release Hi-Def movies
They'll probably ramp up their infrastructure for that. For a week of load it's not necessarily worth upgrading it... things will get back to normal soon... plus... by the time you start downloading they already have your money...
They'll probably ramp up their infrastructure for that. For a week of load it's not necessarily worth upgrading it... things will get back to normal soon... plus... by the time you start downloading they already have your money...
Apple use Akamai for the iTS infrastructure and if they can't cope then no one can!
I still have a problem. I haven't upgraded anything, but purchased two new iTunes plus albums. One downloaded as expected. The other kept stalling on most tracks, including dialog boxes with a variety of error numbers. Eventually, stopping/restarting the downloads got me all but one track. That one track STILL won't download.
As test, this afternoon I 'purchased' every free item available in the store (about 4.6 G of TV shows). They all downloaded as expected using the full download bandwidth of my cable modem; completed in 2 hours with no errors or stalling. The stupid 9.6 meg iTunes plus song still won't download. Error 9006 after stalling for anywhere from five minutes to an hour.
I had like 172 songs to upgrade, mine has been running for 24 hours and i still have 162 to go. I keep getting Error 9006, whatever that is.
Yup, mine have all completed now. 
I feel more confident in buying more new DRM free stuff now.
If only Hard-Fi were iTunes plus.
I feel more confident in buying more new DRM free stuff now.
If only Hard-Fi were iTunes plus.
My problematic track finally downloaded today. Store response still seems very slow, though. I think I won't be buying anything for a while . . . . .
I want either Robbie Williams' Hits or a Seth Lakeman album. Thing is, both are in iTunes Plus format and going by what some people are saying here, what is best for me to do? Should I wait? Or go ahead with it?
Stalled downloads
I had 8 songs that I could upgrade to DRM free. All but three downloaded fine. The three would stall and I'd finally get an error message. This morning (day 4) they downloaded fine. It was probably a traffic problem. One thing I did after each failed attempt was to go to user/music/itunes/itunes music and deleted the DOWNLOADS folder. That way, whenever I started up iTunes it would not automatically search for any incomplete downloads. Then I'd select the menu Store/Check For Purchases and a fresh download would start. Don't know if that made a difference but that's the way I did it. So thats my method and I'm sticking to it.
I had 8 songs that I could upgrade to DRM free. All but three downloaded fine. The three would stall and I'd finally get an error message. This morning (day 4) they downloaded fine. It was probably a traffic problem. One thing I did after each failed attempt was to go to user/music/itunes/itunes music and deleted the DOWNLOADS folder. That way, whenever I started up iTunes it would not automatically search for any incomplete downloads. Then I'd select the menu Store/Check For Purchases and a fresh download would start. Don't know if that made a difference but that's the way I did it. So thats my method and I'm sticking to it.
I ended up getting Roxy Musics hits and it downloaded beautifully and sounded good too .
I never stop loving you, Apple.
.I never stop loving you, Apple.
I had contacted customer service about my problem; today I got this in an email:
If by 'temporary' they mean two days, then yeah I guess so.
I'm still leery of buying new items or upgrading existing tracks. I'd like to see a few more success stories here before I bother.
If by 'temporary' they mean two days, then yeah I guess so.
I'm still leery of buying new items or upgrading existing tracks. I'd like to see a few more success stories here before I bother.
Hey scuffy:
Temporary is probably not permanent. If there are issues with the store for the first couple of days, it makes perfect sense. I'm sure there are thousands if not hundreds and thousands of customers upgrading or purchasing for the first time the iTunes Plus media over the last couple of days. Could the complications been forseen? Probably. Maybe they weren't expecting such a response, who knows.
I say go for it. It has certainly cleared up for me. The store seems to be moving quickly for me at this point.
Good luck, dude.
Temporary is probably not permanent. If there are issues with the store for the first couple of days, it makes perfect sense. I'm sure there are thousands if not hundreds and thousands of customers upgrading or purchasing for the first time the iTunes Plus media over the last couple of days. Could the complications been forseen? Probably. Maybe they weren't expecting such a response, who knows.
I say go for it. It has certainly cleared up for me. The store seems to be moving quickly for me at this point.
Good luck, dude.
I had some issues around the pricing of a song - at least that was the warning I got when I attempted to upgrade my existing purchases. A little odd to say the least but I tried again today and all is well.
Whats more interesting that some more of my music seems now to be eligible for upgrade - 100% Columbian by the Fun Lovin' Criminals was able to be upgraded today, wereas on Wednesday it wasn't. I checked to see who was the record label in question, and it came up as Virgin Media... does this mean that iTunes has another label signed up, or are they an arm of EMI?
Whats more interesting that some more of my music seems now to be eligible for upgrade - 100% Columbian by the Fun Lovin' Criminals was able to be upgraded today, wereas on Wednesday it wasn't. I checked to see who was the record label in question, and it came up as Virgin Media... does this mean that iTunes has another label signed up, or are they an arm of EMI?