I have a solution (albiet time consuming) to iTunes match step 3 crashing

Question

So I've been a iTunes Match subscriber for about 6 months. At first it took me a few goes of it to get it down to about only 350 songs needing to be uploaded in Step 3.... Then the REAL frustration began.... From that point forward no matter what I tried I could NEVER get past Step 3. As soon as Step 2 finished and step 3 began, iTunes would crash. So for the past 5 months I have been unable to get those 350 songs uploaded. It wouldn't even do just one then crash. I was frustrated but after looking I could do without having access too those 350 songs at all times. But then there WAS a song that I HAD to have access too and the frustration began again. I tried EVERYTHING I could find on the internet. Uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes, turning Match off then on, deleting errored files (I only had 4). Playing with router settings, everything. I noticed a lot of people wondering about having music on external hard drives even which mine is. (I will say from experience if your using a USB hub to connect your external hard drives, try connecting them directly into your computers USB port to speed things up a bit).  Then I started reading about people having success converting one troublesome song or two to ACC, deleting the old version, then "manually" right clicking on them and clicking "add to iCloud" My issue was that this option was NEVER available to me when I right clicked the songs in iTunes! Plus some of the 350 songs were already in ACC format. Tonight, after playing around I've found a round about way (and time consuming if your doing this for 350 songs like me, feel bad to those who have THOUSANDS) to finally get these songs to upload to iTunes Match. Here is what I did, and I REALLY hope this can help someone else.
#1. When you first open iTunes, you notice in the top/middle info window that iTunes attempts to connect to the iTunes store, AND iTunes match tries to do its thing as well. AS SOON AS YOU OPEN ITUNES, click the small little X next to the progress indicator inside that info window until ALL acivities have stopped.
#2. Make sure you have the "iCloud Status" sort turned on
#3. Sort your song list in iTunes by the iCloud Status Look down the list until you get to where all of your "waiting" songs are at
#4. Select a small managable group (10 worked best for me, more than that would sometimes cause errors and I would have to redo them)
#5. Right click on the selected group and then select "convert to ACC"
#6 DO NOT CLICK ON ANYTHING ELSE AFTER 'convert to ACC"
#7 Once this completes you will hear the normal "ding" that iTunes is finished
#8. The original files will still be selected with the new ACC versions below each one, not selected. Hit your delete key.(You only want to keep the newly converted ACC files) Also, EVEN IF A FILE WAS PREVIOUSLY ACC, STILL SELECT IT FOR THIS CONVERT TO ACC PROCESS!!!!! If itunes asks if you want to delete these and move to the recycle bin, do so, as you now have another copy that seems to play well with iTunes.
#9 Now you have the 10 recently converted to ACC songs... Select those ten, right click on them then the "Add to iCloud" option (which for me was the first time I had ever gotten to see it at all)
#10 iTunes Match should now begin the process of trying to match JUST THOSE SELECTED songs, then upload whatever is needed. Using this system, I HAVE YET to run across iTunes or iTunes match, hanging up, or crashing all together.
I know this is a bit time consuming, and you COULD do this just for the songs you REALLY wanted to make sure were in the Cloud if you wish. My thought was if I'm going to do it, I might as well do them all.
I REALLY hope this will help someone as I have read so many forum posts, websites, ect, with people just as frustrated as me. And it even made it more frustrating as I had seen new "solutions" posted online yet said solutions still wouldn't work for me.  If you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I'll try to answer and help!

Answer 1

So I've been a iTunes Match subscriber for about 6 months. At first it took me a few goes of it to get it down to about only 350 songs needing to be uploaded in Step 3.... Then the REAL frustration began.... From that point forward no matter what I tried I could NEVER get past Step 3. As soon as Step 2 finished and step 3 began, iTunes would crash. So for the past 5 months I have been unable to get those 350 songs uploaded. It wouldn't even do just one then crash. I was frustrated but after looking I could do without having access too those 350 songs at all times. But then there WAS a song that I HAD to have access too and the frustration began again. I tried EVERYTHING I could find on the internet. Uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes, turning Match off then on, deleting errored files (I only had 4). Playing with router settings, everything. I noticed a lot of people wondering about having music on external hard drives even which mine is. (I will say from experience if your using a USB hub to connect your external hard drives, try connecting them directly into your computers USB port to speed things up a bit).  Then I started reading about people having success converting one troublesome song or two to ACC, deleting the old version, then "manually" right clicking on them and clicking "add to iCloud" My issue was that this option was NEVER available to me when I right clicked the songs in iTunes! Plus some of the 350 songs were already in ACC format. Tonight, after playing around I've found a round about way (and time consuming if your doing this for 350 songs like me, feel bad to those who have THOUSANDS) to finally get these songs to upload to iTunes Match. Here is what I did, and I REALLY hope this can help someone else.
#1. When you first open iTunes, you notice in the top/middle info window that iTunes attempts to connect to the iTunes store, AND iTunes match tries to do its thing as well. AS SOON AS YOU OPEN ITUNES, click the small little X next to the progress indicator inside that info window until ALL acivities have stopped.
#2. Make sure you have the "iCloud Status" sort turned on
#3. Sort your song list in iTunes by the iCloud Status Look down the list until you get to where all of your "waiting" songs are at
#4. Select a small managable group (10 worked best for me, more than that would sometimes cause errors and I would have to redo them)
#5. Right click on the selected group and then select "convert to ACC"
#6 DO NOT CLICK ON ANYTHING ELSE AFTER 'convert to ACC"
#7 Once this completes you will hear the normal "ding" that iTunes is finished
#8. The original files will still be selected with the new ACC versions below each one, not selected. Hit your delete key.(You only want to keep the newly converted ACC files) Also, EVEN IF A FILE WAS PREVIOUSLY ACC, STILL SELECT IT FOR THIS CONVERT TO ACC PROCESS!!!!! If itunes asks if you want to delete these and move to the recycle bin, do so, as you now have another copy that seems to play well with iTunes.
#9 Now you have the 10 recently converted to ACC songs... Select those ten, right click on them then the "Add to iCloud" option (which for me was the first time I had ever gotten to see it at all)
#10 iTunes Match should now begin the process of trying to match JUST THOSE SELECTED songs, then upload whatever is needed. Using this system, I HAVE YET to run across iTunes or iTunes match, hanging up, or crashing all together.
I know this is a bit time consuming, and you COULD do this just for the songs you REALLY wanted to make sure were in the Cloud if you wish. My thought was if I'm going to do it, I might as well do them all.
I REALLY hope this will help someone as I have read so many forum posts, websites, ect, with people just as frustrated as me. And it even made it more frustrating as I had seen new "solutions" posted online yet said solutions still wouldn't work for me.  If you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I'll try to answer and help!