iTunes Match Users Frustratingly Report Widespread Issues [Updated]

[jayducharme]

They’ll probably discontinue the separate iTunes Match option and force everyone to use Apple Music.

If that happens, I'm going to seriously rethink using Apple devices. I've stayed in the ecosystem because everything has been so seamless. But Photos has gotten really wonky, deleting images and downscaling them. And I lost a collection of CDs I transferred to iTunes Match. I refuse to be held hostage by Apple Music; the price point isn't worth it to me because I already own all the music I want to listen to. And now with this news that Apple's going to be scanning every photo I upload, even though they've been bragging about their obsession with privacy, it's making me rethink the company's claimed values.

 

[SuperCachetes]

I'm also a user since the first day iTunes Match came out: no way I'm going to use Apple Music.
I tried it and it was a disaster ! I have my own compilations and suddenly A.Music was mixing my songs with something I didn't like it! 3 months of nightmares: couldn't stop it or cancel, even if I canceled right away
I have lots of genres : Jazz, pop, classical etc etc. Plus the cost iTunes Match is convenient compared to Music
A big NO to Apple !!

I have a lot of 60-120-minute-long DJ mixes that were ripped from internet radio 15+ years ago, that are definitely NOT in Apple's catalog. I use them for running, but I guess needing them on the cloud is less important since I have them manually loaded on my Watch now anyway.

But yes, maybe it's a generational thing, or just personal peculiarity - but I don't really like Pandora/Spotify/AM where they serve me up "things I might like based on ______." I have a voracious appetite for new music, and those services (free or otherwise) tend to feed me 95% junk that I already have or have heard and discarded. For the 5% of newness I have other more personally-tailored sources and habits.

To Apple's credit, over the years they seem to have mostly resolved issues of getting the sanitized and live-vs-studio versions of songs on Match when you don't want them.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

Well, unfortunately there is rumor that it’s finally being phased out in favor of Apple Music’s match feature, and yes, it will be DRM free for matched music.

 

[lee27]

I've been experiencing the same issues. Very frustrating

 

[BGarza]

As a songwriter, Apple Match & iTunes started to fail me years ago. Historically, I would bounce new my new demo songs and/or backing track files I was writing in Logic. I would bounce these to iTunes to listen to later, show bandmates, literally use later that night as a backing track at a club, etc... They would always bounce to the cloud within minutes, which was super handy. Something happened a while back where these homemade songs stopped pushing to the cloud. It wasn't isolated to just my iMac, it happened on all of my machines. They would just sit in limbo, which really sucked. iTunes went from being my master repository of songs I wrote, to a place that only supported "known songs". I had to switch to using DropBox, which is worlds behind iTunes and nowhere near as user friendly from an iPhone.

 

[telo123]

If iTunes Match does become discontinued, I will still be able to upload local songs to the iCloud Music Library right? I mean songs that are not anywhere in Apple Music catalog, but only I have.

 

[dcdandan]

iTunes Match members, gather round... We are a rare (but distinguished) breed.

Same as .mac oh wait

 

[ErikGrim]

Same here... thought it was just a glitch so I signed out and back in, deleted anything downloaded to my iPhone, and now there are still hundreds of songs in "Error" or "Waiting" status. Music has been "Updating Cloud Music Library" non-stop for... I dunno, a week?

Heh. Try matching uploading a just shy of 100K library. I've been at it for months.

 

[Rizzm]

Chiming in to say that Match has been broken for weeks for me. Extremely frustrating to not be able to have new tracks in iCloud when it's become part of my daily routine.

 

[alissa914g]

Over the past few WEEKS users are frustrated?!?

Back when Match launched, I uploaded my massive, meticulously curated library, with months of live recordings and Match completely hosed my Library. Still hosed today - however many years later (when did Match launch?).

Ex: I’ve recorded a lot of live performances over the years from taper-friendly bands like Phish. With Match, 60% of a show plays the files I recorded. The other 40%, Match decided to replace the live recorded file with a studio version of the same song without any kind of notice or apparent way to fix. Makes for an awful listening experience. Has been the biggest nightmare of my near 30-year Apple journey. Just, forever broken. Been a while since I thought about it. Grrr.


Edit: holy smokes! iTunes Match launched in 2003?!? I'm old.
Edit #2: I didn't even know Match was still a thing.

No it didn't launch in 2003. it was 2011.

It came after iTunes Plus and after the iPod by quite a few years.

Yes, it was rocky at the beginning but now, it does pretty well only messing up a few times for me but not too bad. Always back up your music before removing the matched original.

30 year Apple journey? The iPod came out in 2001. MP3 wasn't really a thing until the mid-to-late 90s.

 

[alissa914g]

For me, I got all the tracks matched that were outstanding... but it did take a few days and longer than it should have. Hopefully they'll fix it soon. At least just acknowledge the issue and saying that you'll fix it.

Now, if they come out with iTunes Match HD in a couple of months, then all is forgiven.

But in terms of HLS music (hi-res), my ratio of files is about 1/3 of all songs that are not just 256kbps AAC. By December, I bet that will only get better. But yes, I still love iTunes Match because I like the Apple Music / uploaded mix that I have. It just works all the time for me.

 

[alissa914g]

If iTunes Match does become discontinued, I will still be able to upload local songs to the iCloud Music Library right? I mean songs that are not anywhere in Apple Music catalog, but only I have.

No because that's what iTunes Match does.

Keep in mind that you can still rent SD videos in the iTunes store for an iPod Classic (this is true), so I would bet it will stick around a little longer.

 

[steve62388]

They’ll probably discontinue the separate iTunes Match option and force everyone to use Apple Music.

I fear you’re right, but I hope not.

 

[steve62388]

is there any easy way to batch download everything from iTunes Match?

I would like to do this sometime to an external, since my original external with music crashed years ago and I've lazily relied on the cloud for my personal collection. I've kicked the can down the curb

but I would like a local copy in case things ever get wonky beyond recognition

In Music for Mac, highlight all your songs, right click and Download. I have a CCC backup task that then regularly copies my music folder in case anything goes wrong (learnt from a prior bad experience).

 

[cmaier]

If that happens, I'm going to seriously rethink using Apple devices. I've stayed in the ecosystem because everything has been so seamless. But Photos has gotten really wonky, deleting images and downscaling them. And I lost a collection of CDs I transferred to iTunes Match. I refuse to be held hostage by Apple Music; the price point isn't worth it to me because I already own all the music I want to listen to. And now with this news that Apple's going to be scanning every photo I upload, even though they've been bragging about their obsession with privacy, it's making me rethink the company's claimed values.

Yeah, if apple disables iTunes Match you should definitely switch to, I dunno, Windows, and use Windows Music Match.

/s

 

[JippaLippa]

The creative cloud library was pretty much the reason I chose Apple Music in the first place...

I'd still be loyal to it if they removed it, as I like the lossless feature and I have build a large library on the service, but still...

Come on...

 

[JippaLippa]

Is that a feature that people are still trying to use? Because iTunes can't even fetch album art when importing CDs.

I hope you're not talking about the old itunes app, as it's pretty much dead and replaced with the music app.

I stopped using itunes last year as I switched to Big Sur and it already worked like crap...
I can't imagine the state of itunes now and in 2022.
To be fair, I don't expect many people still being on Mojave when Monterey comes out.

 

[graham1971]

I've been using iTunes Match for a few years. It works mostly well, but this issue that the article talks about isn't new. Some songs don't upload and I have spent a lot of time trying to get my 52,000 song library properly set up. I don't pay for Apple Music only iTunes Match.

 

[donguevas]

Over the past few WEEKS users are frustrated?!?

Back when Match launched, I uploaded my massive, meticulously curated library, with months of live recordings and Match completely hosed my Library. Still hosed today - however many years later (when did Match launch?).

Ex: I’ve recorded a lot of live performances over the years from taper-friendly bands like Phish. With Match, 60% of a show plays the files I recorded. The other 40%, Match decided to replace the live recorded file with a studio version of the same song without any kind of notice or apparent way to fix. Makes for an awful listening experience. Has been the biggest nightmare of my near 30-year Apple journey. Just, forever broken. Been a while since I thought about it. Grrr.


Edit: holy smokes! iTunes Match launched in 2003?!? I'm old.
Edit #2: I didn't even know Match was still a thing.

Itunes Music Match came out in 2011. I think you might be senile.

 

[ItunesExCustomer?]

I am currently tidying up my YouTube music (works really fast for uploads!) then Apple are going to be history! They treat its users like dirt. They block you from forums if you complain, ask you to do do pointless actions to resolve problems that are of their making.

I was in process of getting a Mac but have dumped that! i am sure many many others will be moving away from Apple to Android over this issue.

let’s hope it costs Apple in the market place. All they want is our money, well let’s see how they feel when they find their customers gone!

 

[steve62388]

I was in process of getting a Mac but have dumped that! i am sure many many others will be moving away from Apple to Android over this issue.

Over this? ‘Many many others’? I doubt it. It’s a glitch that I’m betting will get fixed.

I’ve been a long term Match subscriber since day dot. But when Apple Music launched I saw the writing on the wall, eventually it will be shuttered. I wish it wouldn’t, but streaming music is the way it’s going. When that happens, I’ll adapt. Adapt or get left behind.

 

[ItunesExCustomer?]

Your choice. Personally, I’m not into being treated So badly. The only thing that Apple care about is money.

 

[LeadingHeat]

I think it’s literally just that iTunes Match is $25 a year and if you have Apple Music, it’s built in. I’m not sure there’s any real difference otherwise.

There would have to be. Otherwise they would have shuttered the service back in 2016 when Apple Music also matched un-DRM’d music.

 

[LeadingHeat]

Again, not true since 2016. Many tech podcast also keep saying this and I´m not sure why.

This is not true. They stopped doing that in 2016. DRM-free songs uploaded with Apple Music do NOT get DRM added to them anymore. I'm a DJ and add tracks to my library from DJ pools all the time and they're DRM-free across all devices. If they weren't, I wouldn't be able to use them in DJ software across multiple devices.

Interesting. Yeah just found this article straight from Apple with this quote: “If you have an Apple Music membership, you get all of the benefits of iTunes Match, plus access to the entire Apple Music catalog. You can also get a Family Membership to share the catalog with your family members. Learn more about joining Apple Music.”

Subscribe to iTunes Match - Apple Support

iTunes Match gives you access to all of your music on all of your devices, even songs that you've imported from other sources such as CDs.

support.apple.com

Maybe I will unsubscribe from iTunes Match then. Every year I have to keep reminding myself why I need it. Didn’t know they changed the terms back in 2016 😂

 

[ErikGrim]

There would have to be. Otherwise they would have shuttered the service back in 2016 when Apple Music also matched un-DRM’d music.

What? They didn't?