Year after year, I'm constantly amused by the contrast with how well Apple generally designs UIs and how badly they underperform when it comes to anything related to handling or streaming media (iTunes, Apple Music, Apple TV, Quicktime – all of them). It's not a big issue as such, given that there are great alternatives such as Spotify, VLC etc., and also because the quirks of Apple TV are slightly less disturbing. But surprising nevertheless.
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iTunes Match Users Frustratingly Report Widespread Issues [Updated]
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The easiest method that I'm aware of is to go into List view, sort by download status, drag-click all the music that needs downloading, right-click and download.
If I may offer a suggestion - download the music to your local drive, but after you have done so copy it to an external drive. This is an easy way to backup your music and save ripping it from CDs, if that's been your thing.
iTunes Match has been unreliable for ages now. Using iTunes in 2021 is a struggle.
Why did you not cancel the service and reload from backups?
iTunes Match has always been unreliable garbage. At this point I believe that Apple is actively hostile to customers who do not wish to rent music via Apple Music. I use Match but don't subscribe to Apple Music. My iTunes library is currently my 1Tb digital repository of music which I own - mostly ripped as Apple Lossless from CDs. I also use Spotify for streaming - the idea of letting an Apple Music subscription loose on my carefully curated iTunes library fills me with terror.
As I said, I don't believe that Apple really wants its customers to own their own music any more.
Time to move away from iTunes for my music library I think.
...and don't get me started on what a pile of garbage the original HomePod is - great Airplay speaker, rubbish for iTunes Match content.
As I said, I don't believe that Apple really wants its customers to own their own music any more.
Time to move away from iTunes for my music library I think.
...and don't get me started on what a pile of garbage the original HomePod is - great Airplay speaker, rubbish for iTunes Match content.
Maybe because there is nothing for my songs to “match”, as they are not available in either iTunes or Apple Music. But I’m not having any issues and I just tested it. Also not sure if it’s because I have Apple Music instead of iTunes Match.
Ugh. Just shockingly lame there is no "fix" other than "removing your entire library."
Seems there could have easily been an option for Match to ask if users wanted to replace their original file with one Match found in its catalog, on a per-file basis. A simple pop-up asking that question, where users could manually address at each instance, or toggle the "Always" radial so that whenever Match stumbled across two songs of the same name, it would know to keep the one being uploaded. I'm no developer, but that seems both doable and a way to have respected user's libraries.
Yes, I can imagine the server space needed to store billions of unique, one-off tracks. But how many users, like me, would require the storage of unique, one-off tracks? Exactly. Likely explaining why this feature wasn't implemented - if even considered.
Anyway, for this audiophile, it has been a painful stumbling block I wish I would have never implemented.
I think the general rule of thumb is: Apple doesn't want to make it convenient for users to access content they already own (or "acquired") and instead puts greater focus on their own content subscription services. Although iTunes Match is technically a subscription, it's fairly cheap and falls more-so under that former category.
An extremely large portion of their earnings is in services including more lucrative content subscriptions like Apple TV+ and Apple Music. Anything that doesn't fit that highly profitable business model (or that actually undercuts them) isn't going to ever get the same priority from Apple's engineering.
There was a time when Home Sharing, an option to locally share all your PC's iTunes content with all your iOS devices, was effectively non-functional for well over a year with radio silence from Apple engineering despite lots of complaints. Even today, it's extremely buggy and randomly fails to load content or shows duplicate libraries. I think some of the problems have been fixed, but it created an opportunity for Flex and Infuse to really take off in popularity as a viable alternative.
An extremely large portion of their earnings is in services including more lucrative content subscriptions like Apple TV+ and Apple Music. Anything that doesn't fit that highly profitable business model (or that actually undercuts them) isn't going to ever get the same priority from Apple's engineering.
There was a time when Home Sharing, an option to locally share all your PC's iTunes content with all your iOS devices, was effectively non-functional for well over a year with radio silence from Apple engineering despite lots of complaints. Even today, it's extremely buggy and randomly fails to load content or shows duplicate libraries. I think some of the problems have been fixed, but it created an opportunity for Flex and Infuse to really take off in popularity as a viable alternative.
Great question.
I want to say "it wasn't that simple." But I can't recall the hiccup I was experiencing, at the time, as I tried to do just that. It has been quite a while since I was navigating that one. Maybe I should revisit. Perhaps the PTSD is at a stage where I could tackle agian. 😄
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Thank you for drawing attention to this; some of us have been through hours with Apple Support being told it’s our fault. We’ve tried to bring this to the attention of Tim Cook and Eddie Cue. Support have told some that they have no means to escalate to the Apple development teams, and can only fix client problems. After this and many other issues, I’m not sure I recognise Apple any more.
I think we should be thankful for these user reports, and not criticize their reporting as "frustrating". Why is it frustrating that they are sharing issues?
I did the following: Create a dynamic playlist with a rule that essentially includes everything
Then right-click on the playlist and choose "Download"
All your music should download to the Music folder on your computer (eventually).
What I've been seeing since macOS 11.5 beta 1 is when adding 10 songs, only 1 or 2 will Match initially, and the rest stuck in Waiting. Restart macOS, not just restart the Music app, and then open the Music app and try updating iTunes Library again, and again maybe 1 or 2 of the remaining "Waiting" tracks will Match.. Rinse and repeat. I've been waiting for a few days now on a handful of tracks still.
and if I make default directory for music pointed to an external no reason to believe that wouldn't work right?
thanks I will keep this in mind for when I do it sometime
I must be lucky. My very fragile 10,000 song hybrid Apple-Music/matched/uploaded library has been totally fine. Been going lots of uploading and play listing as well
Wow I thought it was having trouble matching for the past couple weeks! I hope apple fixes this soon.
That‘s not true. If you match a file with Apple Music, no DRM is added This was just the case in the very beginning.
^^^ this IS whats happening. They (Apple) want to remove control of your digital content so they can dictate the term of use (ie pay a fee). they will determine how and what is 'acceptable' and how it will/can be used. The days of building a collection and having the liberty to use it freely on our premium devices is slowly being eroded away.
yes they probably are quietly trying to kill the service —so users will be frustrated enough to move to 'another' one of their higher priced (but more convenient) paid services.
This is what I came here to say. iTunes Match and Apple Music library both can upload songs from your own personal library. The difference is that iTunes Match will keep the original file intact (manually edited, live concert version, etc). Apple Music will upload yours as well, but they will be slapped with some DRM.
You still have your files on your hard drive, but listening to them through Apple Music they’ll have DRM in them (for use with third party programs that sometimes causes issues).
Amen. It has been so frustrating. I thought I was the only one having the problem with my music not matching. I couldn't find any articles on the problem until now. Thanks, MacRumors!!!
All you have to do is mention "iTunes" and "Broken", "Frustrated", "Garbage", "Crap", "Useless", etc, etc, etc goes along with it. I am just shocked after all these years, "updates", "all new", "separated", and on and on and on changes that something so simple as a basic database of artists, albums, and songs can still be such an embarrassment to Apple. I use their FCP & Logic programs and have been amazed at their functionality. But take a "High School app" that iTunes really is and it craps all over itself ALL THE TIME. For years I have been using it since I am Mac exclusive and time and time again it screws up. Rip my LEGALLY PURCHASED CDs and half the time the album splits into two sections. Shows twice with the exact same artist and album name with half the tracks in one and half in the other. No compilation checked either. randomly drops artwork, frequently stops playing, frequently "not responding". I tried Match once and it took several of my studio tracks and replaced with "live" versions as it said there was a match in their Library. I have skipped the last several OS updates cause nothing really there but decided to jump on the newest M1 iMac. Starting from scratch and really liking everything about it. So fired up the "Music" app which is new to me and the replacement for iTunes. Was timidly excited that maybe they stabled this "High School Programming 101" app. Of course I started ripping a few new CDs I got and same old crap. Splitting albums up, locking up (yes have had 3 not responding so far) and had to force quit. Funny though I have bought some Apple Music "albums" and NEVER ever had any issue with those. I just can't believe their own employees use this and do not get frustrated if they dare import a legally purchased CD that isn't on Apple Music.
what version or era of iTunes for Windows are you using? I remember reading a year ago that they were updating the app into the latest Music version (what a terrible name for an app 'Music" ) that is currently used in MacOS. Asking because my brother uses it. It works but just barely, a version that is a couple years old. He does have a problem where it duplicates all his imports to his internal drive even though the library lives on an external.