Two iTunes Match problems

Today's posting looks at two symptoms that proceed to harass iTunes Match users.

Unknown errors when matching

At the very least three times above the previous couple of weeks, iTunes Match has spontaneously reset itself on my Mac. By this, I signify that the iTunes Match item reappeared in the Store segment listing. Deciding on the item revealed that iTunes was yet again proceeding through the three techniques of matching all of my music (Step one: Gathering details about your iTunes library).

I have no concept what precipitates these resets. It doesn't seem to become as a result of anything at all I've accomplished. I suspect some hiccup occurred on Apple's servers.

When the rematching remains mysterious and irritating (because it can take hrs for that method to complete), it gets worse. Most often, the rematching by no means completes. Both it just hangs, with no message as well as a progress bar that never ever moves, or an "unknown error" message pops up, suggesting that you simply check out once again later.

When this occurred to me, after retrying three or four occasions, I have success: the matching completes and I am back in small business. Having said that, other people haven't been as fortunate. A search of Apple's Help Communities reveals (as noted in this thread) many customers with the exact same symptom that continue to be caught no matter how numerous occasions they "retry."

In this kind of situations, the most-likely-to-be-successful fix has become to select the "Turn Off iTunes Match" item from the iTunes' Retailer menu--while holding down the Choice essential. Supposedly, this forces deletion of old iTunes Match cache data which may be the resource of the challenge. [Note: There may be some confusion, which I've but to kind out, as to regardless of whether to hold down the Solution or the Shift critical. I've observed suggestions for each. In either case, the menu item text isn't going to modify when holding down the modifier keys, so there exists no positive indication that anything at all exclusive is occurring. You have got to cross your fingers and hope.]

Right after this turning off of iTunes Match, the subsequent step is usually to flip it back on yet again. Using a little bit of luck, the matching course of action really should now complete successfully. That is what a lot of people have observed. For a minority, the matching continues to fail. In that case, grab a cup of coffee and wade by an extended Help Communities thread on this matter. Just about every possible lead to and resolve is described someplace inside of it. Hopefully, you are going to discover a nugget that will do the trick.

Duplicate playlists

When you develop a fresh playlist, specifically in case you develop it on an iOS gadget, you could possibly discover that the list gets duplicated--sometimes 1000s of occasions (as described within this Apple Support Communities thread). This looks specifically very likely for those who have Airplane Mode enabled in your iOS gadget at the time. The duplicates are frequently empty, however they nonetheless consider up plenty of listing space and therefore are obviously irritating.

The symptom seems linked to iTunes Match. In fact, in some instances, playlist duplications come about shortly soon after turning iTunes Match on, even when you do not create a fresh playlist. In any scenario, once the duplications pop up, it truly is very likely that they will spread to all your gadgets that have iTunes Match enabled.

The initial stage in resolving this difficulty is to get rid of the duplicate playlists. This may be a time-consuming pain to undertake "manually" deleting playlists one-by-one. To pace issues up, you are able to launch Automator in your Mac and select the Eradicate Empty Playlists action from its Music Library. Alternatively, Doug Adams has posted an AppleScript that may do quite considerably the same point. Even simpler, you'll be able to obtain Mr. Adams' TrackShift utility ($1.99 in the Mac App Retailer) and delete empty playlists with only a click.import avi to final cut pro
In case your duplicates are certainly not empty, you may produce an AppleScript that will delete all copies of the playlist of any name you specify. An example script for doing this can be posted during the above-linked Help Communities thread.

Up coming, to hopefully avert this from taking place once more and to bring back any non-duplicate playlists that may have disappeared at some time, choose "Update iTunes Match" through the Store menu in iTunes. If this does not operate, try the exact same repair noted while in the prior section: Flip off iTunes Match, even though holding down the Shift or Solution critical, after which flip it back on once again. In case you do this, Apple suggests you 1st disable iTunes Match on all of your iOS units then re-enable it on these gadgets following re-enabling Match in your Mac.

If none of this functions, examine the above-cited thread for even more variations on these advised fixes.