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iTunes Match - Shuffle Songs over 3G REALLY slow to load tracks...

S

Spooky73

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 20, 2011
77
7
Raleigh, NC
Anyone else experiencing this?

I had a bad feeling this would be the case. I have loaded my stuff into iTunes Match (well - it's like 85% complete) and have activated the service on my iPhone. I tried using it this morning on my way to work and wanted to test out my usual listening approach of shuffling my entire library. Well...it took so long to load each track that I basically got to listen to 2 song in 30 minutes.

I had decent 3G coverage and was still not able to load a song or go from one track to the next without a 1-2 minute loading pause.

Anyone else have this issue? Do you think it's just because their service is getting hammered right now or is this what I should expect over 3G? I'm worried...
 
Really slow!!!

I've also experienced a SLOW time trying to stream music from the cloud! I have over 8,000 songs and have been waiting for iTunes Match for a long time, so that I can have access to my entire library on all my devices. HOWEVER, IT is IMPOSSIBLE to listen to music using the streaming option as it takes a LONG time to load every song. It takes about 8-10 seconds to load a song, then it usually stops after about 2 seconds of music to load some more. And if your like me that likes to skip to the Perfect song, it's extremely frustrating! And don't get me started if you have a weak signal!

Seriously considering asking for a refund!
 
Really?, I have had nothing but stellar results and I don't live in the strongest AT&T 3G area, we are still on plain old normal 3G no HSPA+. I mean it is obvious that its not playing locally if I change tracks quickly but it takes at a maximum of 2 seconds before the next song starts playing.

I also have noticed that when I let the current song finish and it moves to the next one in the rotation it plays instantly. I am guessing based on this that the device is doing some sort of pre caching of the next song.
 
I'm still having a hell of a time trying to shuffle my entire library over Match (even on Wi-Fi).

I'm sitting at work right now with 3 bars on AT&T 3g. I just hit shuffle on my song library (24,000 songs) and it's been sitting here for 4 minutes not doing anything. WTF?!?! Seriously.

Even just trying to play an album is not working now. It just sits there with the spinning/load icon by the 3G.
 
Spooky73 said:
I'm still having a hell of a time trying to shuffle my entire library over Match (even on Wi-Fi).

I'm sitting at work right now with 3 bars on AT&T 3g. I just hit shuffle on my song library (24,000 songs) and it's been sitting here for 4 minutes not doing anything. WTF?!?! Seriously.

Even just trying to play an album is not working now. It just sits there with the spinning/load icon by the 3G.
Click to expand...

Ugh, this is really disappointing. It's taking me about 5-10minutes per song on my iphone to download over wifi ditto for 3g. Contrastingly, it takes 4-5 seconds to download from match on my macbook. What the hell is going on Apple? Is Apple prioritizing their network for iTunes and leaving the music app out to dry? No other explanation since speedtest confirm a fast connection on my iPhone.
 
Same problem here.

Things are fine on WiFi as expected, but 3G playback is really disappointing. 2-3 minutes to start playback, which then stalls after about 10 seconds for another 2-3 minutes. This is for each new song played.

Shuffling my library has unfortunately become pointless because of this. I've resorted to either listening to entire albums/playlists only (appears when you play an album the next song in play order is also cached/downloaded) or downloading what I plan to listen to throughout the day over WiFi in the morning, which of course defeats the purpose of the whole thing.

Battery drain during these long downloads is another issue as well, but I think I anticipated this given the amount of data being downloaded (2-4% a song).
 
TheCheapGeek said:
Really?, I have had nothing but stellar results and I don't live in the strongest AT&T 3G area, we are still on plain old normal 3G no HSPA+. I mean it is obvious that its not playing locally if I change tracks quickly but it takes at a maximum of 2 seconds before the next song starts playing.

I also have noticed that when I let the current song finish and it moves to the next one in the rotation it plays instantly. I am guessing based on this that the device is doing some sort of pre caching of the next song.
Click to expand...

Same here. Other than it playing a different song that I tapped sometimes, the streaming has been pretty great for me. It'll take a max of 4 seconds to play a song on 3G and like you said, the next song on an album will play immediately next. It definitely initiates a download for the next song.
 
The iTunes Match servers must be experiencing some growing pains, because not only is 3G streaming/downloading slow, but simply downloading a 256kbps album of 10 songs is slow, via my fast home connection (30mbps)...it just took me 10+ minutes to download one 170mb album to my Macbook from the cloud. I could blaze through a download like that from another server.
 
same issue. The itunes server seem to be rather slow in general. I have a 100mbit connection and i can download a movie elsewhere faster than a 12 track album of itunes
 
ruchti said:
Same problem here.

Things are fine on WiFi as expected, but 3G playback is really disappointing. 2-3 minutes to start playback, which then stalls after about 10 seconds for another 2-3 minutes. This is for each new song played.

Shuffling my library has unfortunately become pointless because of this. I've resorted to either listening to entire albums/playlists only (appears when you play an album the next song in play order is also cached/downloaded) or downloading what I plan to listen to throughout the day over WiFi in the morning, which of course defeats the purpose of the whole thing.

Battery drain during these long downloads is another issue as well, but I think I anticipated this given the amount of data being downloaded (2-4% a song).
Click to expand...

This! ^

Still happening for me. Not getting any better. Very frustrating...
 
Same issue

I was about to start a new thread until i found this one. Over the At&T 3G it is really hit or miss with me. Sometimes the songs will start within 15 seconds, other times it could take a minute or two. That is very frustrating. Sometimes the songs will stop mid way through. :(

Over wifi, it is pretty fast, so no real complaints.

Is there a solution to the 3g issue? Maybe for 4g? :) Not sure but using itunes match with my iphone is a big mess.
 
It'd be nice...

My work's WiFi blocks pretty much any kind of streaming service and even the AppStore.

I was hoping to use iTunes Match to supplement my music library while at work but it just can't stream over 3G well enough to be usable. It's a shame :/

I had iPhone 4 and now an iPhone 4S both on AT&T and there's been virtually no perceivable difference in iTunes Match performance.
 
its extremly slow!!!

what i do when i shuffle is turn off "show all music" and then enter the music area and then shuffle that way it only plays what i have on my iphone 4s or you will wait like a mother!!! to listen to A song lol
 
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