iTunes Match Users Frustratingly Report Widespread Issues [Updated]

[B/D]

What? They didn't?

@LeadingHeat


No. They didn´t shut it down. There is no difference at all between the Itunes Match standalone subscription and the same functionality built in in Apple Music.

It makes sense. Let me explain.

It is included in Apple Music, yes, but you may not want to subscribe to a streaming music service that cost a minimum of 9,99 a month, just an easy way to upload your curated digital music collection (up to 100.000 tracks now) to the cloud, and easily access it from all your apple devices, with the added benefit of matching your lower quality rips to the AAC 256kbps equivalent from the Itunes Store that you can keep for yourself, forever, if you choose to do so.


For that, Itunes Match is still there for only $25 a year.

 

[B/D]

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 😂

Prior to 2016, Apple Music matched the tracks with the AM catalogue/database. Since July 2016, Apple Music matching works with the Itunes Store database, which has no DRM.


You don´t need to pay for Itunes Match any longer, if you are subscribed to Apple Music.

 

[Colin2012]

Family sharing is broken too. My wife and I can no longer see one another’s shared libraries since Big Sur.

 

[Boris Bronson]

Led Zeppelin album covers clashing with kiddie porn checks = iTunes Match no longer working…

 

[Bazzakuda]

I have had March since day one I havnt noticed any issues as of yet currently 2am here in eastern Australia so in the morning I’ll scope it out and see if I’m suffering from this issue too

 

[katbel]

I'm so tired of Apple, just wrote support asking for a refund. We'll see.

Update: I got an answer from A. support

Most iTunes Match issues can be resolved by following the steps in this article:
https://support.apple.com/HT204406

Tried, still not working. I'm done.

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

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

The standalone service exists for people who don’t want to subscribe to Apple Music though.

 

[jprmercado]

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.

This is kinda what I’ve been doing, except quitting the Music app has worked for me. Seme behavior—1 or 2 will match each time.

I’m running Catalina.

 

[dr.kable]

I'm off EVERY Apple audio service if they discontinue Match. I contacted support about this issue back in April 2021. Their fix was to update to Big Sur. Glad I didn't.

 

[cliffster82]

> iTunes Match is officially part of an Apple Music subscription

Update: The DRM thing is no longer true! Thanks to some replies for correcting me. I just uploaded some music and it downloaded as a mp3 rather than a DRM m4a. That's great news!

Whoa whoa hold on...this has been confusing from the start. Your last bit there, is that a new thing? In other words should I now cancel Match if I have Apple Music?

 

[B/D]

Whoa whoa hold on...this has been confusing from the start. Your last bit there, is that a new thing? In other words should I now cancel Match if I have Apple Music?

Again, one more time. Read the whole thread, people.

Yes, you can cancel Itunes Match if you pay for Apple Music. Its fully included now. This have been true since July 2016.

 

[MozMan68]

Again, one more time. Read the whole thread, people.

Yes, you can cancel Itunes Match if you pay for Apple Music. Its fully included now. This have been true since July 2016.

Nothing upsets me more than this.

 

[Killbynumbers]

It's been a few years since I last used match. I'm still finding tracks that are actually some other band and some other sing then what's it's labeled including the wrong artwork. I've had to download some albums from other places simply because iTunes Match deleted some tracks because it thought they were duplicates. It's always been a mess.

 

[Pow!]

Shouldn't the title be "Frustratedly" rather than "Frustratingly"? Or is this written from Apple's point of view

Thank you, exactly. It reads as “MacRumors is frustrated about the complaining”.

 

[LeadingHeat]

The standalone service exists for people who don’t want to subscribe to Apple Music though.

True, good point.

 

[alissa914g]

...

 

[viettanium]

Update: The DRM thing is no longer true! Thanks to some replies for correcting me. I just uploaded some music and it downloaded as a mp3 rather than a DRM m4a. That's great news!

did you DRM-cheking with download matched song?

 

[alissa914g]

Prior to 2016, Apple Music matched the tracks with the AM catalogue/database. Since July 2016, Apple Music matching works with the Itunes Store database, which has no DRM.


You don´t need to pay for Itunes Match any longer, if you are subscribed to Apple Music.

Not sure where you read that. Both articles don't seem to say that. The Apple one says "Apple Music is not a backup service" (which iTunes Match is)... and the other one says that iTunes Match uses a better algorithm to match and is a backup service. So, yes... iTunes Match still has a purpose... mostly for all those songs which are not available in the iTunes Music Store / Apple Music and need to be uploaded

EDIT: I just saw it later in the article. Yeah, this isn't fully true. If you have uploaded tracks in your iCloud account from iTunes Match, you won't be able to download them on your iOS / iPadOS device (unless they changed this... no idea since I still subscribe to iTunes Match)... Every time I tried to download my library to my device in offline format, it always threw errors on Uploaded cloud items but once I renewed iTunes Match, it stopped doing it. Also keep in mind that Apple themselves said Apple Music isn't a cloud service... they would know that would seem to reason that anything Uploaded wouldn't be in the cloud for you except MAYBE to stream.

 

[alissa914g]

did you DRM-cheking with download matched song?

This DRM thing hasn't been true for many years. iTunes Match converted about 95% of all my purchased DRM songs from many years ago and for the ones that remained as DRM songs, those faded away over time to where I ended up with no DRM songs anymore. It also only downloads AAC 256kbps if matched. I believe if you upload something that's marked as uploaded cloud status, you'll get it in MP3 format or in 320kbps MP3 if you use lossless to upload... but that doesn't sound right either.

But my entire library had all the songs that matched redownloaded later on in all AAC 256kbps DRM free music. Been that way for years.

Now, keep in mind that if you download your matched tracks as HLS, those are encrypted. You'd probably need to set your download type to 256kbps to get it in DRM free AAC now.

 

[cliffster82]

Again, one more time. Read the whole thread, people.

Yes, you can cancel Itunes Match if you pay for Apple Music. Its fully included now. This have been true since July 2016.

Unbelievable. I looked in to this issue for a long time as it was frustrating as can be. I totally missed this. What a relief.

 

[cliffster82]

Not sure where you read that. Both articles don't seem to say that. The Apple one says "Apple Music is not a backup service" (which iTunes Match is)... and the other one says that iTunes Match uses a better algorithm to match and is a backup service. So, yes... iTunes Match still has a purpose... mostly for all those songs which are not available in the iTunes Music Store / Apple Music and need to be uploaded

But won’t the matching feature of Apple Music accomplish the same thing, uploading any music it doesn’t recognize?

 

[alissa914g]

But won’t the matching feature of Apple Music accomplish the same thing, uploading any music it doesn’t recognize?

I would assume not. As Apple said, they're not a cloud service when you have Apple Music. Maybe if you have iCloud?

The only way I could verify is if I cancelled my iTunes Match which expires in April... and I'm not about to.

The story I said about my iPhone was true though a year or so ago. The uploaded tracks would not download to my phone and it would often skip them.... of course the phone doesn't tell you this, but it does throw some cryptic error en masse when you try to download your library if you didn't have iTunes Match.

 

[alissa914g]

"This created some confusion about the way tracks were matched and stored in iCloud Music Library. Now, Apple is changing this, and will use the same matching method for both services. The company said in a briefing that Apple Music now uses acoustic fingerprinting and provides matched files without digital rights management (DRM), or copy protection, just like iTunes Match."

OK, I stand corrected. Now if only it worked....

 

[hlfway2anywhere]

I would assume not. As Apple said, they're not a cloud service when you have Apple Music. Maybe if you have iCloud?

The only way I could verify is if I cancelled my iTunes Match which expires in April... and I'm not about to.

The story I said about my iPhone was true though a year or so ago. The uploaded tracks would not download to my phone and it would often skip them.... of course the phone doesn't tell you this, but it does throw some cryptic error en masse when you try to download your library if you didn't have iTunes Match.

You absolutely 100% do not need to subscribe to both services. If you’re an  music subscriber the same exact service is included. I can confirm as I’ve been using it since day one and was previously an iTunes Match user.

 

[B/D]

You absolutely 100% do not need to subscribe to both services. If you’re an  music subscriber the same exact service is included. I can confirm as I’ve been using it since day one and was previously an iTunes Match user.

This.