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Apple deleting beta iTunes Match libraries today

By , Saturday, Nov 12, 2011 at 11:34 am
14

Apple deleting beta iTunes Match libraries today

Make of this what you will, either the impending public launch of iTunes Match or just another step along the beta test path, but Apple has informed developers they'll be deleting all current iTunes Match libraries today.

Apple previously said they'd be launching iTunes Match, their paid iCloud music locker service, in October, which has since come and gone decidedly launch-less. Under the theory of better done right than done right now, let's just hope if it's arriving soon, it's arriving in good working order.

Anyone already have their $24.99 set aside for it?

Rene Ritchie

Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.

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  1. Guest says:

    I've been testing ITunes match beta all last week. Was never able to fully match all my songs. The service would freeze up while matching songs in iTunes. Also the streaming my songs that did match would take a few seconds to buffer where spotify streams almost instantly.

    I hope these issues have been resolved and we see a relase this

    • Brad Roekle says:

      I agree with @Guest. I only have like 3500-4000 songs in my library and it would always freeze up while matching in iTunes and cause my to have to abort my iTunes program. And also like they said it would take a few seconds to buffer and spotify plays instantly.

    • Neal says:

      I was having the troubles that you described with the first beta, but this most recent one was working great for me. I have about 3500 songs if that means anything. As for the taking a few seconds to stream, that was happening for me as well.

    • reba4bob says:

      for anyone losing all of their playlists using iTunes match, there is the fix. It worked for me. Follow the instructions and you will be very happy. It will refresh your iTunes playlist accounts to the way is was before letting iTunes match messing everything up.

      ran into a similar problem. Playlists weren't deleted but they were emptied. Essentially the same effect. Years of playlists gone!

      This method, with a bit of effort, recovered all my playlists and their content.

      Restore Old iTunes Library

      Close iTunes Navigate to %User%/Music/iTunes/ Rename iTunes Library.itl to iTunes LibraryOLD.itl Navigate to %User%/Music/iTunes/Previous iTunes Libraries/ Copy newest iTunes Library file (e.g. iTunes Library 2011-11-01.itl) Paste copied file into %User%/Music/iTunes/ (where you renamed file in step 3) Rename file you just copied (e.g. iTunes Library 2011-11-01.itl) to iTunes Library.itl Restart iTunes

      Export Playlists

      Select Playlist Click File > Library > Export Playlist Save file (I created a folder called Playlist Backup here: %User%/Music/iTunes/ ) Repeat for every Playlist you want.

      ** If the Previous iTunes Library you selected is recent enough and contains everything you want, you do not have to do the following. However, if you have added any new media to iTunes, you will want to continue on because the Library does not know they exist.

      Restore Newest iTunes Library

      Close iTunes Navigate to %User%/Music/iTunes/ Delete iTunes Library.itl (this was a copy of a file that still exists so it's okay to just delete it) Rename iTunes LibraryOLD.itl to iTunes Library.itl Restart iTunes

      Import Playlists & Backup iTunes Library

      Click File > Library > Import Playlist Select Playlist to import Repeat for each playlist. Click File > Library > Export Library Save somewhere so if this happens again you can simply restore this one file.

      Done! I really hope this helps solve your problem!!

      Cheers, Ryan

  2. Karl Marsh says:

    I have $24.95 set aside for one main reason which is the fact that I have about 1000 songs that were ripped from vinyl with a USB turntable. Unfortunately at the time the software could only do 128 kbps mp3's. Having all of those converted to 256 kbps AAC files will be more than worth $24.95 a year to me. I can hardly wait!!

    • Anonymous says:

      It will only give you the better quality if itunes identifys it as something in their library. Otherwise it just uploads the file that's on your hard drive to the icloud.

  3. I paid for it back in July, being told I'd get an extra three months. Well, I've been billed, I still can't use the service, and apparently my time started during the beta, so my subscription will expire in September of next year. I got ripped off.

  4. Msf6637 says:

    Paid for my music once not paying for apple to let me use it in the cloud

  5. Anonymous says:

    My Twenty-Five Dollars is Ready! C'mon, Apple. My grandfathered unlimited data plan for iPhone is jonesing for some on the spot music downloading.

  6. Andrew12 says:

    Check this out iphone 4s users : http://j.mp/tfNUMY

  7. BBLONGY says:

    7,000 songs ready and waiting !

  8. Ted Holshue says:

    You completed a number of fine points there. I did a search on the topic and found most folks will go along with with your blog.

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