ITunes + Ping extremely slow with Library on external HD

Hi,
My Library is on an external HD connected to an Airport Extreme base station. My MacBook is connected wired to Airport, so there are no possible wifi connection issues.
iTunes is extremely slow since version 10. If I select a song and want to select another one, I've got a spinning beach ball for at least 20s. Change a rating: 20s delay. Every move I make: at least 20s delay...
My guess: every time I select a song, iTunes connects to Ping to fill up the dropdown menu next to the song title. Disabling Ping doesn't help. I tried in Terminal "defaults write com.apple.iTunes hide-ping-dropdown -bool TRUE", but this merely hides the dropdown menu, it doesn't stop the functionality.
iTunes is basically not usable anymore.
Any suggestions?

talie wrote:
I am running iTunes 11 with the media files stored on an external hard-drive. This setup works great except for one thing:
If I am currently downloading something from the iTunes Store and I quit iTunes
Don't quit iTunes.
How can I make iTunes see the interrupted download and not have to restart the download from the beginning?
You cannot.

Similar Messages

ITunes 7.6 running slow with library on external drive

Ever since upgrading to version 7.6, iTunes freezes for about 30 seconds to a minute, every 2 minutes or so. Essentially, half the time i'm using it, I'm waiting for the "pinwheel of death" to stop spinning. My library resides on an external drive, when I open iTunes without having the drive connected, it doesn't freeze at all. Also, I noticed that when this freezing occurs, the light on my other external drive, and even my 4GB USB-key drive flash repeatedly, as if iTunes is searching for something.
I work for a music company and this is occuring on our two other Mac's as well: one is an iMac G5, and the other a duel-processor PowerMac G5. The iMac G5 actually has it the worst: when first opening iTunes, it is unusable for about 20 - 30 minutes while it seems to be scanning the external drive.
This did not happen with version 7.5.
I tried deleting iTunes preferences and reinstalling 7.6. I'm hesitant to roll-back to 7.5 as we have a ton of information in the library that I'm afraid to lose. But, if no other solution is available, that's what I might have to do.

Two suggestions:
1- Have you looked at this announcement? http://discussions.apple.com/ann.jspa?annID=552
2- Are you certain it's not the external drive? If it is happening every time you plug the external drive into another computer (you mentioned an iMac and a PowerMac), then my inclination is to think the problem is with the external drive, and perhaps not iTunes. If the light is flashing on the HD, that doesn't necessarily mean that iTunes is searching for something; it means your HD is trying to complete a process.

Installing iTunes on new computer with library on external HD

I have my library on an external HD and have been using it with my laptop. Well the laptop is dead and I'm wanting to start using my mini. I downloaded iTunes, authorized the computer, signed in, plugged in the external HD and changed the pathway of the media folder location to the folder where the library is on the external HD (under the advanced tab of preferences). iTunes still does not "see" the library. What else do I need to do? I really do not want to copy it over to the computer's HD, I'd like to continue using the external HD since it has 1TB.
Thanks so much for the help.

Launch iTunes with the Shift key held down, click on Choose Library, and point it there. If only the iTunes media was stored on the drive, open the Advanced section of its preferences, ensure it's not going to copy the media to the internal drive, and drag the iTunes media folder into the open iTunes application window.
(57458)

Linking itunes on new computer with library on external drive

I have just purchased a new PC and want to run Itunes on it. I had moved my library to an external hard drive which I want to use with the new computer. I have downloaded iTunes to the new computer but I don't know how to get it to find the library on the external drive. Is this an easy procedure even for someone with limited computer skills?

Thanks for responding Chris. I followed the instructions from Apple and moved the music files over to the external drive. I'm not sure what that left of itunes on the old computer. Now I've downloaded itunes to the new computer and even though the external drive is connected itunes library is empty. I can see that all the music files are actually on the external drive, I just don't know how to get the two linked. I'd like to keep all the music on the external drive to conserve space.

PC running extremly slow with iTunes

Hello all,
Question is why my laptop would be running extremly slow with cover flow when it has more than enough horsepower to run almost any application (2.33 dual core, 512 graphics card, 2gig ram). iTunes runs just fine on my work laptop with cover flow, and its specs arent on par with my personal laptop. The only difference i can think of is that the work laptop (the good one) is running xp pro and the home is running vista 32bit. the other difference i can think of is that at home, all the music is stored via external HD while on the work laptop the files are stored locally on the laptops hard drive.
any advice would be greatly appreciated
Cheers!

Vista has been reported to be a bit more buggy/laggy/unstable with iTunes. Music running of an external will also be noticeably slower and more jumpy than running off an internal. You answered your own question.

My computer is extremely slow, with the rainbow wheel appearing with every click. It is one year old, and has all the most recent updates. Why is it so painfully slow?

My computer is extremely slow, with the rainbow wheel appearing with every click. It is one year old, and has all the most recent updates. Why is it so painfully slow?

That sounds horrible. There are a number of reasons it could occur.
The first thing to do is ensure you have adequate backups, because what you describe can be a symptom of impending disk failure.
To help determine the possible causes of this behaviour read the following. None of what follows is intended to fix anything, but it will provide the additional information required to advance troubleshooting. There are four separate parts to it; read everything first.
Boot OS X Recovery by holding ⌘ and r (two fingers) while you start your Mac. At the Mac OS X Utilities screen, select Disk Utility. Select your startup volume (usually named "Macintosh HD") and click the Repair Disk button. Describe any errors it reports in red. If Disk Utility reports "The volume Macintosh HD appears to be OK" in green then you can be reasonably (though not completely) assured your hard disk is in good working order.
When it finishes restart your Mac and test again for operation. If it's still not behaving as you expect it should, please post the results of EtreCheck in accordance with the following instructions:
Apple Support Communities contributor etresoft wrote a very useful app to quickly gather certain system information that may help point to a cause of this problem. Read about it here. It contains a link to download EtreCheck. Don't download it from anywhere else (such as may be found by following the results of an Internet search).
Click Open - etresoft contributes to this forum frequently and can be considered a trustworthy developer.
It will take a moment to run as it collects its data.
Copy and paste its output in a reply.
Do not be concerned about anything that says "Problem" or “failed” or anything else that may appear in red.
EtreCheck was designed to remove any personal information (such as your computer's name and serial numbers) but if you see anything that looks like an email address or any other personal information that should not be divulged to others, please delete or obscure that information when you post the reply.
When you are finished with EtreCheck, quit the program. It occupies very little space, and you can keep it or drag it to the Trash as you wish.
After completing the above please determine if the problems also occur in "Safe Mode":
Safe Mode or "Safe Boot" is a troubleshooting mode that bypasses all third party system extensions and loads only required system components. Read about it: Starting up in Safe Mode
You must disable FileVault before you can start your Mac in Safe Mode.
Starting your Mac in Safe Mode will take longer than usual, graphics will not render smoothly, audio is disabled on some Macs, and some programs (iTunes for example) may not work at all.
Merely starting your Mac in Safe Mode is not intended to resolve the problem, it's to observe its performance without certain additional components.
To end Safe Mode restart your Mac normally. Shutdown will take longer as well.
System performance problems for reasons that cannot be isolated to any other cause justify an SMC reset. Be sure to read the procedure carefully and follow all the steps exactly as written, even if they seem inapplicable or trivial.

Itunes starts extremely slow after an update of windows 8.1.

Itunes starts extremely slow after an update of windows 8.1.
It takes up to 10 minutus.
If I see the appliction log in event viewer then I see the following errors on the Bonjour service.
For instance:
Client application bug: DNSServiceResolve(a8:fa:d8:3a:1e:8f@fe80::aafa:d8ff:fe3a:1e8f._apple-mobdev2._t cp.local.) active for over two minutes. This places considerable burden on the network.
followed by
SendWakeupPacket error: sent -1 bytes: 10065
What can this be?
Already thanks,
John

I did all the step with save mode and that didn't gave the same result.
Then I created a new account and there itunes started up normally.
So I contued with the user section.
I removed the itunes directory from
c:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apple Computer\iTunes
This gave the same result in not starting up.
Then I removed the itunes directory from
c:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes
The a popup appears that the Bonjour Service has been disabled.
I looked in services and saw that is was still running.
But I tried to restart this service and it took a long time to stop this service.
Even if I selected restart the Bonjour Service didn't start.
Manually starting was not a problem.
Clicking OK on the popup let itunes start quickly. And closing and starting it again was also quickly.
So Matt thanks for your answer.
If it happens again I have to see if it was the removing of the itunes directory from roaming or restarting the Bonjour Service.

Since the latest update, my iTunes is EXTREMELY slow. I'm about to turn to Windows. Can it go back to previous versions?

Since the latest update, my iTunes is EXTREMELY slow. I'm about to turn to Windows. Can it go back to previous versions?

Slow in what respect? Please be specific.
ClarkeJM wrote:
Since the latest update, my iTunes is EXTREMELY slow. I'm about to turn to Windows.
Ummmm, could you ellaborate on how you plan to turn to Windows because iTunes (an application that runs on Windows) is running slow?

My phone doesnt show incoming call and it doesnt ring. Further the iphone4 is extremely slow with opening whats app, camera and photos or while in the program it just closets. Who can advice me what to do??? Otherwise this phone will be changed soon

My phone doest ring with incoming calls, but it also doesnt show someone is calling. I only see it, when i get the txt of missed calls.
Further the phone is extremely slow with opening whats app, emails, photos, camera and it closets the programs while using it.
I have many people around me with iPhone having the same complaints, but nothing has changed yet.
Please Apple solve this quickly otherwise the iPhone i enjoyed so much will be remplaceren with a Samsung

esme43 wrote:
... the phone is extremely slow with opening whats app, emails, photos, camera and it closets the programs while using it.
See this discussion...
https://discussions.apple.com/message/23731048#23731048

Dreamweaver has been running extremely slow with reflow.css.

Dreamweaver has been running extremely slow with reflow.css. Wondering if anyone else is encountering this issue? If so, any fixes or known variable that causes this to happen?

I haven't see this. Can you describe a little more about what you are doing and what parts are slow? If there are specifc steps you can also file a bug with the Dreamweaver team:
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=12

ITunes Extremely Slow with large library

I recently inherited a huge amount of music (36,000 tracks/211 gigs) which I keep on a Time Capsule as an external drive connect to an Airport Express which I use as a bridge to my home stereo. iTunes is pointed to the TC as the music source and there is no music content on my Macbook's HD, only the iTunes library itself and the cover art. I believe I have the standard RAM (black Macbook, purchased June 2007, which I think is 1gig).
iTunes is not extremely slow in cover flow, I get constant spinning balls and it takes quite a while for the program to close. Do I need more RAM (I think there is a 2gig max for my Macbook)? Is 36,000 tracks more than iTunes was designed to handle? Any chance storing the content on an external drive via WiFi affects the iTunes library response?

I haven't had experience with newer Intel macs with this issue, so I'm a bit hesitant to try to answer, but here goes. This may not at ALL apply to what you're dealing with.
The problem of incredibly slow behavior with large libraries in iTunes has been an issue since at LEAST 7.0 if not much earlier. I have over 130,000 tracks in my library, stored on a WD 1TB studio drive connected to my "home media server - a G4 Cube" via firewire and shared over ethernet to 3 macs. Do a search for "slow large library" in these forums and you will see NUMEROUS threads all complaining about various issues people seem to have when the number of tracks gets into the tens of thousands, much less over 100k.
In any case, there are some things I've found that seem to help:
1. Keep the actual library (database) files on boot drive. IF you have the music files on a separate drive, it helps to keep the iTunes Library folder on the internal drive with the coverart where it can be accessed faster. This is the database (xml) file that iTunes loads and saves when changes are made to the tags or tracks.
2. Also, if you've not got a lot of playlists to worry about saving (i don't use playlists much, just play cds out of the browser mostly, or have some smart playlists).. it helps to rebuild the iTunes library from scratch at some point. I have no reason to believe this, but I assume it creates a new optimized database this way. (maybe someone can correct me on this... after say months of retagging tracks, playing music, creating and deleting playlists etc... does the database end up 'messier' OR does it correctly rewrite everything and optimize constantly or when you quit itunes?) What I DO know is that if you shorten the path to the music, it will be a smaller file. So don't make it "My Firewire Drive/Music Files/iTunes Files/CDs and MP3s/By Artists/*" this gets written as the path for EACH track in the library file that it then needs to load. Make it "Music/Artists/*" or something as short as you can. Then, what I did was to set iTunes to NOT copy music to the library folder, and starting with a blank iTunes dragged the icon of my shared music folder containing all the mp3 files into the iTunes window. It took overnight and the better part of the next day to read in all 130k files, copy the embedded coverart to the local folder, and the longest part, "determining gapless playback" --which i wish they'd give us a way to disable, takes forever! and i dont' use it (if anyone knows how to stop gapless scanning on a mac, let us know)... but fortunately you only have to do this once.
3. More RAM. My main computer is an MDD Dual 1ghz G4. Until about a month ago I had a gig of ram, then I finally got around to upgrading to 2 gigs. It DEFINATELY made a big difference. Where before I'd see the rainbow ball for 30 seconds whenever I made playlists or changes to tags.. now I often don't see it at all, or certainly much less.
I read not long ago an article talking about WHY iTunes was so bad at scaling up for larger libraries. The author suggested it was due to the library being saved out in an XML database and that unless Apple changes its backend to iTunes, it will not be possible to squeeze much more performance out of it. This probably makes it useless for DJs, radio stations, classical music lovers or anyone with large collections of music with many tracks. I assumed that at some point we'd see Apple rewrite iTunes to take advantage of the SQL database in the OS level, but who knows. I really don't think I understand database stuff at this level.
**Finally... I HAVE noticed that recently it has seemed to be getting more responsive. On one of my other machines (an iMac 800mhz g4!) running iTunes used to be a frustrating proposition with constant spinning beachballs and hangs before it let you pick music or change tracks. Now its actually usable. I don't know when this got 'better' but I think with either 7.6, 7.6.1 or 7.6.2 they have done something to make it more responsive. At least in my experience. So thats a good development.
But seriously.. do a search thru the forums and you'll find a lot more about this problem with large libraries.
Goodluck.

Extremely Slow Disk Access from External Drives (USB & Firewire)

Following the upgrade to 10.6.2 (from 10.6.1), my computer is communicating extremely slowly with all external drives (both Firewire 400 and USB). File transfers which used to take less than a minute now take 5-10 minutes (less than 1 GB). Peering into the Console, I see messages for each aspect of a file reading: Nov 13 12:30:12 Nautilus /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder[152]: Possible unresolved transaction race -105/filename
(Nautilus is the name of the computer)
By "each aspect", I mean that for Pages files, it provides a message for Quicklook,(null) , Contents,(null) , and filename,(null).
All disks are in good health, formatted as FAT32 for ease of use with all OS types, and are SATA.
Again, this occurred immediately following the installation of 10.6.2 (both Software Update and Combo). I've seen similar errors online with iTunes libraries on network drives, but this is on directly connected drives.
I normally wouldn't ask this, but, is there a way to reinstall 10.6.1 over .2? At this point, Time Machine would likely cause me to lose other data as well in a full revert, since it has been more than a few days.

I have various personal files backed up on these drives (not system data): music, pictures, documents, etc.
FAT32 should not be an issue, as I have used these drives for over 2 years with Tiger, Leopard, and then Snow Leopard with nay an issue, until now. Additionally, while the Time Machine backup may be an archive, it is the sole occupier of an HFS-formatted partition which is not exhibiting the issue. I only included that information since it is physically on the same drive as a partition (FAT32) which is being troublesome to rule out driver/hardware problems.
Bottom line: All of my drives worked perfectly on 10.6.1 (and continue to do so on my other Macs (10.5.8), but do not on 10.6.2. I was only looking for a potential solution to my computer's specific issue, not a statement that my "compromise" is the cause of my problems.
Actually, since Apple fully supports read/write access on FAT32 partitions, I should, indeed, be able to "have all things all ways...", no offense intended.

Itunes 8 extremely slow and feezes Vista

Oh my god,
This is getting worse. If you tought that Itunes 7 and Vista weren't ment for eachother, Itunes 8 and Vista just hate eachother. Itunes 8 is just extremely slow on my fresh installed Vista. It keeps freezing up and sometimes my system won't respond to a thing I am doing thanks to the wonderfull crappy software from Apple...
If this is really all you guys can write then I guess I will have to look for a better software to synch my ipod.

I've definitely noticed that switching between library sections (music, movies, etc.) is much slower in iTunes 8 than it was with ver. 7. So far, it's a teeth gritting annoyance at worst. It improved somewhat when I set all areas to List View, but only somewhat. The program also takes longer to load than version 7 did (sort of unbelievable in itself!), and there WAS one heart stopper of a moment where I thought it had locked up and taken my HP laptop with it, but it came back after 15-20 seconds on its own. I don't have a novice-level PC by any means; it's one of the newest and nicest of the direct-to-retail models, with a Core 2 Duo (P8400), discrete Nvidia 9600M GT w/512MB RAM, and 4GB of system RAM, running Vista HP 64 bit. (Yep, I installed the 64-bit iTunes.) I did notice one other poster mentioned having an HP laptop. Doesn't seem like hardware limitations should be a factor, at least in my case; I hope, whatever the issue turns out to be, that it isn't some total incompatibility with something HP loads on its machines. I'm sure Apple will come up with a bug fix at some point, but since the iPhone 3G became part of my life, it sure seems like a large chunk of that life is spent waiting for Apple to fix bugs and putting up with subpar performance in the meantime. I'm pretty new to things Apple, and I can say quite honestly that all the problems I've had with various iPods, the iPhone 3G, and here and there with iTunes were the reason I chose my current laptop over a MBP. I couldn't stand the idea of spending all that money and getting a lemon. Apple isn't the huge performer I'd always heard it was, not in my experience!

Zoom (Accessibility feature) is extremely slow with multiple monitors [OSX 10.10]

When connecting an external display to my Laptop and using the "Ctrl + Scroll" functionality for accessibility zooming, the display/graphics are extremely slow.
An estimate of FPS would be sub 1FPS. The machine becomes unresponsive and is unusable for a minute or so, until I can get it zoomed back out, and it begins responding normally.
This is very disruptive, as its a feature I use often.
The same laptop on OSX 10.9 did not exhibit this issue.
Hardware: MacBook Pro 13" Retina Mid 2014, 16GB Ram
Software: OSX Yosemite 10.10
System Information: http://cl.ly/image/0H1p032w0M0w
Reproduction steps:
1. Enable CTRL+SCROLL zoom functionality in System Preferences > Accessibility
2. Connect external monitor (Display port cable)
3. Hold CTRL and Scroll to zoom
4. System becomes slow, graphics slow, showing < 1 FPS without any other applications running

Just to note, I have the same problem....
When you use Thunderbolt display with 15" MB Pro late 2013, it zooms unreasonably slow.
But when you close the laptop display and only have the Thunderbolt display on, it zooms a bit faster, but still too slow for such a new laptop.
I think it could be optimised a bit better, something somewhere can be improved here.
Regards,
Ned

ITunes is extremely slow and I cannot make a secure connection

When I connect to iTunes my computer is extremely slow, and when I try to connect to the iTunes store I get the error message cannot make a secure connection. I have internet access and I have ran the iTunes diagnostics test and all the tests passed except making a secure connection. I have disabled all of my security systems including my firewall and Norton. I am not running any proxy settings. This has been an ongoing problem for over a month and I am at a loss.

Check out this Apple article -> iTunes: Advanced iTunes Store troubleshooting
Blocked by configuration: (Mac OS X/Windows)
Configure Internet Options (for Windows computers only):
Run iTunes Diagnostics. If the "Secure link to iTunes Store" section does not pass, do the following.
Open Internet Explorer.
From the Tools menu, choose Internet Options.
Click Connections.
Under "Dial-up and Virtual Private Networking," choose "Never dial a connection." It may not be possible to choose this if you’ve never used dial-up Internet; if this is the case, skip to the next step.
Click LAN Settings.
In the window that opens, enable the option to "Automatically detect settings" if it is not enabled.
iTunes uses Internet Options proxy settings. Apple recommends removing proxy settings that interfere with access to the iTunes Store if needed.
Click OK.
Click the Advanced tab.
Scroll down to the Security section and look for the option to "Check for server certificate revocation." If it is enabled, disable it.
Look for Use SSL 3.0 and Use TLS 1.0. Make sure at least one of those two checkboxes is selected and click OK (You can select both checkboxes).
Apply any changes, and restart your computer if you modified the option to "Check for server certificate revocation" (step #11).

ITunes + Ping extremely slow with Library on external HD

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for