ITunes download speed
Im experiencing severe fluctuations in download speed from iTunes. One minute its fast and then it slows right down. Is anyone else experiencing this? doing it on my iPhone and PC. I have never had this problem before. Not sure if its iTunes or my ISP, but I can download web pages with no problems.
In the last month or two iTunes Store in the UK has become so slow that it's virtually useless at times, and I think it's probably ISP throttling to blame, but Apple may also have a hand in it.
Virgin Media in the UK openly throttles traffic according to a complex and ever-changing customer disservice policy http://www.virginmedia.com/traffic
However, I've studied the current Virgin throttling policy and it doesn't account for the abysmal iTunes Store download speeds we're experiencing. Specifically:
- It is not unusual for my 100Mbps down Virgin service to actually run at close to rated speed, and it almost always tests (ookla speed test website, or FTP to a server with a gigabit internet connection at my company's UK data centre) at least 40Mbps down.
- Virgin claims that "fair use" of my 100Mbps service is 10GB during the period 4-9pm, and that once I've used that they will throttle my download speeds by 50% for 5 hours.
- It's not that unusual for me to exceed the 10 GB limit.
- If Virgin's policy is to throttle me 50% from 100 to 50 I should be seeing something like 50 down. But actually I NEVER see that (even if I'm on a gigabit fibre connection at the office, so I think Apple DOES have some sort of throttling), but I do frequently see iTunes running at 18-20 down. So being throttled by Virgin from 100 to 50 should make no real difference.
- HOWEVER, on my Virgin connection, evenings in the last 2 months I'm FREQUENTLY getting 2 Mbps OR SLOWER itunes downloads.
- Now here's the rub: at the same time I'm being effectively prevented from using iTunes or Apple TV, I can run a speed test (or download a file from my data centre OR pull streaming video from a server at my data centre) at 20-60 Mbps.
SO... It appears that Virgin may be SELECTIVELY throttling iTunes and/or Apple is throttling us.
Anyone have any further input on this? Or corroboration?
Similar Messages
-
We recently switched from using the mobile phone network (dongle) for our internet to satellite internet with a wireless router. Everything else has gotten faster except itunes and apple downloads which have become impossible. A song takes over an hour and software updates take days. Does anyone have any thoughts on why this would be and a solution? Our itunes library is on an external drive and all the software was up to date until we changed internet service.
Also experiencing slow iTunes download tonight - have not had this issue previously.
I am also staring at a "Waiting..." badge for an iPad app to update, so perhaps there are performance issues ith AppStore also.
My Internet speed/connection is great ATM, except for iTunes/AppStore.
I'm located in Texas fwiw. -
Very slow iTunes download speeds
I've been having slow download speeds in iTunes for a while now. Downloading a 1 hour TV Show used to take 1 hour or so. Now it's taking 11 hours. Xfinity speed tests say I'm getting 28 mb/s downloads.
Some info:
iTunes 10.6 for Windows
Apple Air Extreme - the pc is hard wired to the router
Comcast as ISP
Using my ISP's DNS serversI have a 50x5 Mbit cable business class modem, from Time Warner, in my house (doing that give me priority bandwidth over other residences).... Also as a business class there's no data caps or port blockings. The most I EVER get from the iTunes Store is 4-5MBytes/sec (about 35 Mbits)... Usually I get 1-2 MBytes/sec to iTunes or any device
My guesses are
1) Apple just doesn't have the bandwidth during certain times
2) I notice they throttle accounts. If I download an entire hd season, I start out fast, then it slows after a few hrs... Im guessing apple has a max data cap per day then slows you down.
3) I also don't think Apple is capable of handling all the new 35-50Mbit connections that are now readily available from the big cable companies.
Im in Charlotte, NC, USA -
I have 20mb/sec download service, and can download from 'anywhere' at that speed, except iTunes. iTunes runs about 1mb/sec. Are the iTunes servers that slow?
Also experiencing slow iTunes download tonight - have not had this issue previously.
I am also staring at a "Waiting..." badge for an iPad app to update, so perhaps there are performance issues ith AppStore also.
My Internet speed/connection is great ATM, except for iTunes/AppStore.
I'm located in Texas fwiw. -
ITunes downloads fast on old Mac mini but slow on brand new Macbook Pro on the same WiFi network?
Hi all,
I have an old Mac mini that's from around 2008 and runs on Snow Leopard. I also have a brand new Macbook Pro with retina display that's running Mountain Lion. Both running iTunes 10.6.3.
I never noticed anything wrong with my MBP's connection speed until last night when I downloaded a free TV episode from iTunes. The download speed varied between 20KB/s and 40KB/s and it took me 7 to 8 hours to download a single episode. I checked my internet connection but there was nothing wrong with it, SpeedTest.net told me I had a download speed of 94MB/s and upload speed of 80MB/s, it was only iTunes that was unbearably slow.
Today I was browsing iTunes again and was planning to buy some movies, but again it took forever for the trailers to download. So I fired up my Mac mini just to see if it would be just as slow. Turned out my Mac mini could download the same trailers from iTunes at a much higher speed than my MBP (around 3MB/s on the ones I tested).
So what gives? They are on the same Wifi network provided by an Airport Extreme, and although my iPhone and iPad are also connected to it, no one else is doing any heavy duty downloading.
Thanks in advance!
Keywords: iTunes download speed, slow iTunes downloads, different connection speeds on different Macs, slow iTunes connection, iTunes takes a long time to downloadIt's possible the DNS setting your ISP is using are interfering. Although your PC works OK Macs can be sensitive to DNS settings. Here is a MacWorld DNS Troubleshooting article that explains the issue and below is how to fix it.
1. System preferences
2. Network
3. Click Advanced
4. Click DNS tab
5. Click + sign
6. Add 208.67.222.222
7. Click + sign
8. Add 208.67.220.220
9. Click OK.
10. Exit System Preferences
11. Try out your MBP and report what happened.
Roger -
ITunes downloads at full connection-speed but pushing my harddrive (which makes disconcerting noise)
HI,
I run windows7 and iTunes 10 and started to download an e-book of 499 MB on my desktop PC.
Within iTunes it downloads at full speed my internet connection can handle (1.2MB/s). However I hear my harddisk making disconcerning burst/readwrite noises..Lots of small files are read-written in bursts continuously during download. What is this and why does iTunes behave this way?
I know it must be small chunks of the e-book written to disk because my AV realtime-scanner shows it is scanning away 100-200 files each second while iTunes is downloading the e-book. Until I stop the download ofcourse.
Surely this is not acceptable?
It worries me if I were to download larger and more files this way it could shorten my harddisk life. This is only my first download on my desktop pc using iTunes. Because iPhone doesnt allow larger downloads than 50MB unless I use wi-fi. I don't know if I should continue. Only 175 MB has been downloaded.BDAqua,
Thanks for your response, and sorry for the huge delay in getting back here. Not enough hours in the day, for sure.
I also wanted to use the machine for awhile after making your suggested changes. The good thing is that the problem of losing the connection to the router after waking from sleep seems to generally be gone. The connection is still lost upon waking, but recaptured after a few seconds. This computer worked fine for a couple of years with no changes, and things are different now, though I didn't change them. It's still a problem, but livable.
As far as the speeds go, I ran four DSL speed tests from different websites. They showed what I suspected: download speeds less than dial-up, about 6 to 12kbps. Interestingly, the upload seems to be about right, running in the range of 250 kbps.
To insure that this was a G4 problem, and not router or modem, I ran the same speed tests on the Macbooks, connected to the router by ethernet. (#1: 2.0Ghz, 1.5 GB, 10.4.11 #2: 2.4GHz, 4 GB, 10.5.4). The tests showed download speeds of 1250-1270 kbps, and upload about 300 kbps. So, this is certainly a G4 issue on download only.
Any more thoughts, BD, or anyone else? Thank you!! -
Any ideas on how to speed up iTunes downloads??
I've been attempting to purchase episodes of TV shows and have noticed that the download times are often quite a bit longer than the actual shows. A 44 minute TV episode recently took nearly 2 hours to download. The problem is not due to my ISP or modem because I've had no problems quickly downloading content from Amazon on the same PC, content via my Xbox 360 or large files from services like Dropbox. I was even able to download the 3.3 GB consumer preview of Windows 8 10 minutes faster than I could download a 1.29 GB TV show from iTunes. The ONLY place I encounter slow download speeds is iTunes which tells me the problem is on their end.
I attemped to contact Apple support but their utterly useless response was that I should fill out a feedback comment with a cheery note saying "Apple takes suggestions from customers very seriously". Yeah, right. Apparently they don't read their own support forums because it turns out this is an ongoing problem. Short of switching entirely to Amazon for my TV, movie and music needs does anyone have any ideas on what can be done to improve download speeds for iTunes? Call me crazy, but I think it would be kind of cool to be able to watch a TV show the same evening I purchase it. Are there any settings that can be adjusted either in iTunes or Windows?Do you normally leave iTunes running in the background at all times? I do and I run into the same slow downloads from time to time. When I experience this, I simply close and relaunch iTunes, then the download speeds return to normal.
It is also possible that the slowness is the result of whomever is hosting the data having a slow or bogged down Internet connection. Not entirely certain that would apply to purchases from iTunes but it certaily can with podcasts. -
How many thousands of Apple TV users have to scream their complaints before Apple will respond to the fury over the impossibly slow download speeds of movies bought through iTunes?
As jules says, your rate (currently at least) may be slow.
If it used to be good I wonder is your ISP is slowing ('throttling') your speed after you've used so many GB of a quota each day or month - check what they think you should be getting as a download speed.
While Apple's servers do occasionally play up, it's generally the ISP being slow not Apple.
If you're using Google's DNS servers that has caused issues for some.
Recommended speeds for near instant playback:
SD 2.5Mbps
720p 6 Mbps
1080p 8 Mbps
Is your speed test from somewhere like speedtest.net?
It might be helpful to post Mbps to ensure we/you are not confusing speeds by using different units to those measured.
AC -
Rented Ronal the Barbarian 1 hour ago and it take ages to download. My internett speed is more than 35Mb down and up. The download speed from Itunes is about 150kb/sec. This has never happened before. Can anyone tell me if this is a local problem on my side or if itunes are not able to deliver?
LommelomMy daughter has had her Razr for about 9 months now. About two weeks ago she picked up her phone in the morning on her way to school when she noticed two cracks, both starting at the camera lens. One goes completely to the bottom and the other goes sharply to the side. She has never dropped it and me and my husband went over it with a fine tooth comb. We looked under a magnifying glass and could no find any reason for the glass to crack. Not one ding, scratch or bang. Our daughter really takes good care of her stuff, but we still wanted to make sure before we sent it in for repairs. Well we did and we got a reply from Motorola with a picture of the cracks saying this was customer abuse and that it is not covered under warranty. Even though they did not find any physical damage to back it up. Well I e-mailed them back and told them I did a little research and found pages of people having the same problems. Well I did not hear from them until I received a notice from Fed Ex that they were sending the phone back. NOT FIXED!!! I went to look up why and guess what there is no case open any more for the phone. It has been wiped clean. I put in the RMA # it comes back not found, I put in the ID #, the SN# and all comes back not found. Yet a day earlier all the info was there. I know there is a lot more people like me and all of you, but they just don't want to be bothered so they pay to have it fix, just to have it do it again. Unless they have found the problem and only fixing it on a customer pay only set up. I am furious and will not be recommending this phone to anyone. And to think I was considering this phone for my next up grade! NOT!!!!
-
My itunes radio rebuffers every 8 seconds - is there any fix or help for this problem. I am running the latest itunes on a new Mac with 4MB download speed.
You need to update your Mac OS to at least 10.5.8.
Itunes 10+ requires Mac OS 10.5.8+ -
Download speed equals upload speed from iTunes store
When downloading a movie bundle from the iTunes store the download speed I attain is being equaled by the upload speed that data appears to be going to the iTunes store. Why is this? Is there a way to dedicate bandwidth to the download instead of, what appears to be a waste of bandwidth, going right back to the iTunes store?
ThanksI have a menu bar app that shows me sends and receives, and I can see - in Activity Monitor - iTunes incrementing bytes out and in at about the same rate.
-
Problem with downloading speed on itunes and app store.
i have problem with downloading speed on itunes and app store.ihave 6mb/ps plan.whene i download on xperia z downloading speed is about 3mb/ps.but when i download on apple app store or any apple server it giving only 150kb/ps.im doing everything. i change my ip dynamic to static.but nothing is change on speed.plz help me and give me some use full static ip and dns.
Hi JM_7,
If you are having a space issue when trying to sync your iPhone, you may find the following article helpful:
iOS: "Not enough free space" alert when trying to sync
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1503
Regards,
- Brenden -
Crawling Wifi Download Speeds from iTunes Store
Ever since upgrading to iTunes 10.7, my download speeds from the iTunes store have slowed to a crawl. Prior to upgrading, I was able to download video podcasts and other media @ over 10 mbps over wifi. I have tried this on several other networks, and am experiencing the same speed issues. This does not appear to be a router issue or a FiOS issue; I have done all of the usual troubleshooting and do not seem to have any issues with download speeds outside of the iTunes store.
I am running the iTunes 10.7, and have updated OSX to the latest release of ML.
Is anyone else experiencing ridiculously slow download speeds through the iTunes store using iTunes for Mac or iOS 6 devices?I have a 50x5 Mbit cable business class modem, from Time Warner, in my house (doing that give me priority bandwidth over other residences).... Also as a business class there's no data caps or port blockings. The most I EVER get from the iTunes Store is 4-5MBytes/sec (about 35 Mbits)... Usually I get 1-2 MBytes/sec to iTunes or any device
My guesses are
1) Apple just doesn't have the bandwidth during certain times
2) I notice they throttle accounts. If I download an entire hd season, I start out fast, then it slows after a few hrs... Im guessing apple has a max data cap per day then slows you down.
3) I also don't think Apple is capable of handling all the new 35-50Mbit connections that are now readily available from the big cable companies.
Im in Charlotte, NC, USA -
Upload and download speed is horrible. it takes hours to download a movie from iTunes.
upload and download speed is horrible. it takes hours to download a movie from iTunes.
VangieChuck the problem is definitely not iTunes it is your ISP download provision. Either your ISP needs to make a service call and solve your bandwidth issues or you need a better service, granted it all depends where in the world you are located. In Kappy's and my neck of the woods we are use to 5 - 250 Mbps download rates with an average of about 25 mbps for most city dewellers. Upload will vary depending on your service.
-
Dramatic fall in the download speed from iTune
Hey all,
Recently,I have seen a dramatic fall in the download speed from iTunes.
I have a 100/4mb line, which runs absolutely fine for everything else.
Currently, I am downloading an App on 42mb, which currently says it will take 26 mins to download.
Up until a few weeks ago the same file took 15 seconds!!! This problem is with my 2009 27" iMac.
If I do the upgrade of the same application on my iPhone 5 connected to the same router and Wi-Fi the download takes 15 seconds !!!At that distance from exchange your max sync should be around the 2K you started with it may well increase again if left on 24/7
SN margin is not bad but may be worth checking for noise problems 6 Db is the target figure
Sn margin quoted by most routers is the figure that the system thinks your line needs for stable operation so higher is not better
Have you tried a quite line test
dial 17070 option 2 and listen - should hear nothing
best done with old type analogue phone digital will do but may have slight hiss
do not use home hub phone
If any post helps tick the star box on the left
Just cause Im paranoid dont mean they are not out to get me
Maybe you are looking for
-
Constant panic attacks. How can I get it fix?
Hi I have an iPhone 4s legally unblocked. My phone was working properly until couple of weeks ago. Now I have to reinstall everything every 24 hrs or so. I have tried everything and still my phone continue to crash. I don't know what the problem is.
-
Can I use the charger from my T61 on my T400? T61 charger is also 90W 20V. Are these compatible with both 110V and 220V? Just plug it in?
-
Hi I have seen apex have some webservices support, I have a application there have a API based on XML-RPC, could I "talk" to this application using apex webservices? Best Regards Jesper Vels
-
I was trying to remove unnecessary Gnome clutter, having made the permanent switch to Openbox and with the one other user of my computer on XFCE. I thought I'd not removed anything I needed, and certainly didn't do anything to break any dependencies
-
I just upgraded OS from 10.4.1 to Snow Leopard 10.6.8. Now when I tried to open Reason 4 it asks for me to insert a disc and prompts me to enter my ID for permission. What can I do?