HT204406 iTunes Match has deleted thousands of songs from a media server

I just just bought iTunes Match and begun to use it on my Mac Book Pro, mac Mini, iPhone and i Pads.
I had different tracks on each device.
The MacMini is used as a media server + had 000's of tracks installed (ripped from CD's) which were not on each my Mac Book Pro and other devices due to HD / space limitations.
When iTunes Match was added on the Mac Mini all ripped CD tracks disappeared (thousands) and only the tracks purchased from iTunes Store appear.
have tried turning off iTunes Match on the Mac Mini but the tracks are still missing.
Any advice on how to recover the tracks? (without having to do a recovery from Time Machine as it is not up to date).

I think its something related to the iTunes/Apple passwords stored in Keychain Access.
Ive had iTunes Match since it first came out way back when (in 2011 I think?). I had this issue up until a few months ago on two of my Macs when all of a sudden the problems disappeared.
Then yesterday I decided to go through the Keychains on one of my macs and because I am OCD i started deleted saved passwords/logins/etc that I thought I didnt use anymore. I deleted so many logins, local items, system items, and system roots....
I have now gotten this error message three times on this mac.
I dont know which type of stored login or system item I deleted that would cause this. But based on cause and effect Im pretty positive this narrows down where to look for a solution.
Rich

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ITunes Match has deleted my music files. How and Why?

I have used iTunes Match since January 2012 however I have noticed that fewer and fewer of my songs are available on my linked devices (iPhone, iPad). When I go to the iTunes Media Library folder to see the original files, many are missing. Typically there are only 1 or 2 song files in an album folder and the rest are just not there.
On an IOS device the songs still appear in the playlists but if selected it will just jump down the list until it finds a song that it decides it can play.
My iTunes library folder was transferred on to a 2GB network attached Lacie drive as it was too big to put on my MBP Retina in July 2012. Currently I use a 2009 iMac for the main iTunes however it is still pointing to the iTunes folder on the Lacie. MBP and iMac are authorised with iTunes store and Home Sharing is on. MBP is set to use Home Sharing, so is not syncing with Match. Apple TV 2 can also access Match and Home Sharing.
To fix this I am now working my way through a backup from June 2012 and manually checking and synching my 1200 top level iTunes folders. Honestly most album folders have only 1 or 2 tracks so I am copying back all the missing tracks one folder at a time. (iTunes has 14000 songs). I cannot merely replace the corrupt new library with the old library backup as the last 12 mths of acquisitions would disappear.
Further there are tracks that have been renamed and filed incorrectly. I have tracks labelled as Bowie or Daft Punk, in Bowie or Daft Punk playlists that are actually from an album of recordings of bird and animal sounds from sub tropical tropical rainforests. Now that kills the party when Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger crossfades into the sound of the mating call of the green tree frog let me tell you.
I have rematched my library several times over the last 12 months. When moving to the Lacie and MBP, then again when moving to the iMac for iTunes but leaving the files on the Lacie.
It's a big mess that will take me about 12-15 hours of filing to (mostly) fix. I'm up to "J".
Why and how did my original files disappear off my Lacie drive? This software/service should not have those rights.
I am a Mac fan and a college IT Teacher so run a well organised home network and am just at a loss.
Please advise.
MBP Retina 256GB 16GB 10.8.4, iMac 21" 2009 500GB 4GB 10.8.4, iPhone 4s 32GB 6.1.3, iPad2 32GB 6.1.3

iTunes Match does not have the ability to remove local files.
The service operates by comparing the selected iTunes Library with the iTunes Store content and 'matching' or 'uploading' - it is very straightforward a 'match' provides equivalent access to iTunes Store content as a recognised 'purchase'; upload simply copies a 256k AAC variant into the cloud. There are no elements of this activity that can erase the local library content.
Would suggest you explore possible alternative causes of file loss. Given the pattern described of selective deletion, leaving many Songs intact - would suggest making at least 2 secure offline Song file backups and starting the library again from a fresh install of iTunes once a thorough sweep of the system has been completed for virus. It is also worth assessing the physical security of the system - who has access & with what privileges.
To access Songs from the cloud, you would have to manually delete the Song from the library or open an empty library - so even when accessing content, iTunes Match provides no local deletion capability.

ITunes match has deleted a playlist and all my itunes library are showing errors on my mac, it wont update

I have logged into iTunes on my Mac and found that one of my playlists has been wiped and that every single of my 12000 songs has an error saying that it cant be loaded in itunes match when they are all there.

Kind of a similar issue. I have long recordings of a radio show I like to catch up on on my mobile devices. All of this kind of media were greyed out and yet initally played. Then they would not play after a sync but could be seen. Also palyback position was lost despite being set in options. Crudley fixed by turning iTunes Match off on the device and resync. KInd of defeats the object of the subscrition though. :-(
Obviously its a great idea to have everung backed up in the Cloud but there's still a lot of user niggles coming to light it seems. Good luck.

HT204406 iTunes Match has encountered an error. Please choose Sign Out and then Sign In from the Store menu and try again.

I'm on a MBP 10.8.5 with iTunes 11.1. Songs appear with gray iCloud icons so perhaps they are trying to upload but it's been over a day and they haven't made any further progress.

I think its something related to the iTunes/Apple passwords stored in Keychain Access.
Ive had iTunes Match since it first came out way back when (in 2011 I think?). I had this issue up until a few months ago on two of my Macs when all of a sudden the problems disappeared.
Then yesterday I decided to go through the Keychains on one of my macs and because I am OCD i started deleted saved passwords/logins/etc that I thought I didnt use anymore. I deleted so many logins, local items, system items, and system roots....
I have now gotten this error message three times on this mac.
I dont know which type of stored login or system item I deleted that would cause this. But based on cause and effect Im pretty positive this narrows down where to look for a solution.
Rich

Itunes has deleted all my songs from ipod

Hi, I recently tried to update my ipod which had 1,780 tunes on it. My itunes has a library of 2,500 tunes. When I tried to listen to my ipod later it transpired that I had only one tune on it. Itunes had deleted all my songs, my itrip entries, playlists, everything. I have Windows XP and a 4G 40GB ipod.

Sorry I've been offline for a while. I updated iTunes and the new songs were added in the new one. There was a dialogue box that came up saying something like "songs not saved to library you don't have authorization". I clicked on the box. Checked library and all songs are there but not on ipod. Have updated all ipod software too.
Just noticed that I have some songs in C drive and some on D. My main itunes is in D.

Will a song uploaded to iCloud via iTunes Match be deleted if the song is deleted locally?

Is it safe to remove songs from iTunes to free up space on one's hard drive after they have been uploaded to iTunes Match? That is, will the song in iCloud be deleted if the song is deleted locally?
Thanks.

I think iTunes Match is still in beta so I wouldn't do that unless I was sure of my personal backups. I'm not sure I would do that even if iTunes Match wasn't in beta. At least not for several months to let the service shake out problems first.
Edit: I didn't find the words Beta on any Apple documentation so I think that part is wrong. I was taking Chris Breen's word for it from Macworld.com but he might have meant it ironically. But as I said, I still would be hesitant to delete from my library just yet.

HT204406 itunes match sometimes don't play songs

hi,
i use itunes match with all my music and it works well.
but sometimes when i want to play a song i double-click it and nothing happens: i think itunes loads the muscic (the cloud-icon moves:).
someone can tell me how to solve this problem?
thanks
pierre n.

This forum is for questions from those managing sites on iTunes U, Apple's service for colleges and universities to post educational material in the iTunes Store. You'll be most likely to get help with this issue if you ask in the general iTunes for Windows forums.
Regards.

HT204406 iTunes match has stalled on the first step. It was working previously.

Recently iTunes and Genius have stalled at Step 1. I have previously successfully run iTunes match.

Getting the same thing here Jeremy.
Also running Mountain Lion.

ITunes Match isn't Download my Songs From iTunes

So I just bought iTunes Match, and I decided to do a little test. I took a song that I got from a CD (We Found Love by Rihanna) and I changed the name and album and everything so that it matched the song "International Love (feat. Chris Brown)" by Pitbull. I right clicked the song and clicked "Add to iCloud". And after a couple seconds it said that it "matched" the song to iTunes, not uploaded. I deleted the song from iTunes and from my computer and emptied the Trash too. Then I clicked the little cloud beside the song. It downloaded the song, and it had the right artwork for it, but when I played the song, it played "We Found Love". Am I missing something? Because this doesn't make any sense to me!

The matching process uses waveform analysis. I have had songs titled "track o1" get matched.
If it didn't work this way, you could duplicate the same song several times, rename it and basically steal music from the iTunes store, something I don't think Apple would be too happy about.

ITunes match won't download all songs from CD

Im having trouble downloading certain songs with iTunes match. There's a few albums I uploaded to iTunes from a cd that are not able to download one or more songs to my devices. For example, one album has 13 songs, but one song is greyd out. I don't understand why that is. It's the same with a few other albums as well. All albums with this issue are albums that were CDs I uploaded to iTunes.
My computer is authorized, so I'm lost. Any ideas out there? Thanks

Hi Pistol Pete 77,
Thank you for your reply.
Due to the nature of your issue or question you may find more information by using another one of Apple's support resources - https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action.
Sincerely,
Jeremy

I tunes has deleted all the songs from my HDD literally as I watched??!!

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!
I Thought my PC was protected from this kind of invasion??????
All my music/videos and Purchases have literally dissapeared from itunes folder and hard drive. It was there half an hour ago and all that happened is:
I forgot my password. It is even more serious because I was already signed in and downloading a video and was only asked for my password when i wanted to view my account whilst the download was taking place (Itunes must have remembered my password and logged me in automatically because I did not sign in to download the song but it was happening). Anyway...i went through the password reset procedure and returned to itunes to find an empty area where all my music/podcasts/purchases/videos should be.
(I have not plugged my ipod today in at this stage)
So I look in the music files for my music and it has all gone!! everything!!
I then looked at the empty itunes and it said there are two downloads pending. one was a video i had already downloaded successfully into itunes last week and one was the video i was downloading today when the problem ocurred.
so next I went into my account and looked at purchase history and it does not show any purchases other than the one that was downloading today. This is despite me purchasing 3 songs and videos since Christmas??
All my other history and account information is still there.
I tried importing the itunes library file left in the my music folder but was told I had no privilages.
Next I rebooted PC but no change
Next i plugged in my ipod and it came up with the ipod was synced to a different itunes library do i want to sync and replace. I said no
I removed ipod quickly
So I still have all songs/videos and podcasts on my ipod but an empty music folder on my hard drive and an empty itunes library that thinks it does not belong to my ipod.
That is a massive amount of corruption to my PC in a space of 30 mins. could you please explain what you have done to my itunes and more importantly the mechanism that allows your program to enter my hard drive and delete all the music in front of my eyes??. Can i restore the library using the files on my ipod and what has happened to my purchases in the 'my account section of itunes'
This is obviously very serious and VERY urgent as it touches on hacking my PC unless i have missed something???
Couild someone please get back to me ASAP with ideas/help
Thank you
Alan
Home PC Windows XP Athlon XP3200 2gig Ram

I have found a solution that works 100% with my ipod 5th generation 30gig video with the following symptoms:
a). Ipod has all my music on it along with videos podcasts etc etc…
b). the My documents/My music/itunes files library etc are all suddenly empty on the HDD and all music/video in folder has gone. I even ran searches of the whole HDD and all music has gone.
c). When ipod is plugged in you get the message ‘this ipod is synced with another itunes – do you want to – ‘sync and replace’ or ‘copy purchases from this ipod to this itunes’ or ‘CANCEL’
If this is not the problem with your ipod then another solution may be best for you. If it is ….please read on. PLEASE READ ALL TEXT BEFORE ATTEMPTING.
1. go to ‘my computer’ and then to the tabs at the top: tools – folder options – view and in hidden files and folders make sure that show hidden files and folders is checked.
2. leave the my computer window open so it can be viewed.
3. plug in you ipod and it will try to sync and give you the options mentioned in intro
4. Make sure you press cancel and the ipod should try to sync for a couple of seconds then the ‘do not disconnect’ symbol on the ipod should stop flashing and your normal menus should appear on the ipod.
5. The ipod name should now be in the itunes folders on the LH side of itunes as usual. your itunes folders (perhaps purchases may show up)should be empty due to the fault.
6. click on the ipod to get the status and capacity screen and on this screen check the ‘disk use’ button.
7. the ipod should be seen in the ‘my documents’ folder if it is not disconnect and let it try to sync again but make sure you do not let it.
8. Once ipod drive is seen in ‘my computer’ minimise itunes (do not close or drive may disappear)
9. Go to the itunes directory on the Windows machine (My Music/ itunes by default) and delete the XML file and the ITL file which is the library database installed when you hooked up the iPod.
10. With those files deleted the itunes library is now empty as it should be for this process.
11. in ‘my computer, right click over the ipod drive and click ‘explore’ Find the folder called iPod Control it will appear to be transparent as it was a hidden folder
12. Copy that folder to anywhere on the PC which will take a while if you have a lot of songs. you may as well copy it into ‘my music next to the itunes folder for neatness. Even though it appears to be filled with many files with nonsensical names this is in fact the music library on the iPod.
13. When this copy is complete right click on the coppied file and go to ‘properties and uncheck ‘hidden’ and ‘read only’ tabs and the folder should then appear as a normal folder
14. Maximise iTunes and go to the top tabs and go EDIT/PREFERENCES/ADVANCED and make sure that ‘keep itunes music folder organised’ and ‘copy files to itunes music folder when adding to library’ are selected.
15. This is important to get iTunes to organise the songs using the ID3 tags in the song files you just copied over.
16. Go to ‘my music’. If new XML and ITL files have appeared delete them now .
17. Now in itunes go to FILE/ADD folder to library and Next, select the coppied ipod control folder from ‘my music’. That's it- you will now see iPod songs copied to itunes desktop and nicely organised and in the iTunes database as they were before the fault. NOTE this can take a while
18. Once completed restart computer first and check library is stable and all songs etc have restored and are stable). you will notice a new xml and library file have appeared in ‘my music’
19. Connect the ipod once you are happy the scontent you want is back in the library on itunes.
20. This time select ‘sync and erase’ You will see your ipod be emptied (GULP!) but then itunes should start to restore all the songs etc from the library to your ipod. again this will take time.
21. Once complete you should be back to normal and you can decide whether to store the ipod control folder in ‘my music’ somewhere as a backup or delete it
I really hope this helps but It worked for my 5th gen ipod 30 gig video and so should work for you. If it fails for any reason I cannot be held responsible and you do this at your own risk.
AB

HT204406 Hi, my iTunes Match has been stuck on 5490 of 5518 songs checked for the last two days. Any advise on where to go from here?

Hi, my iTunes Match has been stuck on "5490 of 5518 songs checked for the last two days." Have tried stopping and restarting it a few times but it always gets stuck in the same place. Any advise on where to go from here?

ttt

Itunes match has removed my playlists from itunes and my iphone. Not only that, many of the songs 'matched' on itunes do not show up on my iphone. Seriously annoyed, wish I'd never paid for it

Please read the title; itunes match has removed my playlists on itunes and iphone and the songs that are supposedly 'matched' on itunes are not showing up on my iphone.
Any Really annoyed about this

iTunes Match does not have the ability to remove local files.
The service operates by comparing the selected iTunes Library with the iTunes Store content and 'matching' or 'uploading' - it is very straightforward a 'match' provides equivalent access to iTunes Store content as a recognised 'purchase'; upload simply copies a 256k AAC variant into the cloud. There are no elements of this activity that can erase the local library content.
Would suggest you explore possible alternative causes of file loss. Given the pattern described of selective deletion, leaving many Songs intact - would suggest making at least 2 secure offline Song file backups and starting the library again from a fresh install of iTunes once a thorough sweep of the system has been completed for virus. It is also worth assessing the physical security of the system - who has access & with what privileges.
To access Songs from the cloud, you would have to manually delete the Song from the library or open an empty library - so even when accessing content, iTunes Match provides no local deletion capability.

HT204406 Since updating to ios6 on my iPhone 4S iTunes Match has not worked. The app stays open for about five seconds before crashing. With ios5 it was great and worth paying for. Now it is utterly useless. Apple, please listen and fix this problem.

Ever since I updated to ios 6 on my iPhone 4S, iTunes Match has not worked.
I have been through the process of deleting my iTunes control files, and that worked temporarily, but now I cannot listen to music through the service.
It shows my artists and albums, then takes forever to access the songs (often more than 10 minutes - and yes, that's using WiFi), more often than not crashing before it gets to that point, then repeatedly crashing when I try to open the Music App, so I can't even access things I've downloaded.
Has anyone else found a solution?
Apple, please listen up - I am paying you for the iTunes Match service that is utterly useless. Fix it please.

After some troubleshooting, I decided to order a new battery. I replaced the battery and was then able to get it to restore, however--after I restore it and it comes time to restart the phone, it gets stuck and doesn't turn on.
Sorry, your repair ruined the iPhone.
She does not have apple care and even though she loved this device, she isn't going to buy another iPhone because of all the problems shes had with this one (it's just over a year old).
After you ruined the iPhone with DIY, Apple won't touch it anymore. You should have asked before all these had happened.
I'm an android user myself and I love rooting/flashing new ROMS, so if jailbreaking her phone or doing some kind of super-restore with 3rd party programs might help, I'm all for it-
Yeah, all Android user can think of is Jailbreaking, read this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3743

HT204406 iTunes Match random songs are not upconverted to 256

I just signed up to iTunes Match and uploaded my music. Many of the albums were only partially upgraded to 256kb. I am not talking about obscure music either. For example, Andrew Lloyd Weber Evita Broadway. All tracks except 2 were upgraded. I've tried deleting my entire library from the computer and re-downloading on a Windows machine. Then tried the same on my MacBook Pro. Then tried the suggested method of creating a playlist of the low fidelity songs, deleting only those in the playlist, then redownloading. Next, I am going try deleting everything from iCloud and reuploading, then redownloading.
This is ridiculous! ITunes Match has been out for a while now. I expected simple bugs like this to have been worked out. I can't find a fix anywhere and Match doesn't appear to be refundable. I'd like my $25 back. I'd give it to my local foodbank. It was certainly wasted on iTunes Match.

Hi,
I suggest that you read tis user tip Some User Tips (April 2015)
iTunes match scans your iTunes library to determine what can be matched or needs to be uploaded. You can add iCloud status column to song view. This will tell you what has been matched, uploaded, purchased, inelligible, duplicate. Tracks uploaded will be uploaded as is and you won't be able to upgrade them.. those that are matched can be upgraded by deleting the original and downloading the matched version.
Deleting and readding tracks will not solve match problems as match remembers previous matches and uploads.
JIM

HT204406 iTunes Match has deleted thousands of songs from a media server

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