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baryon

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 3, 2009
3,906
2,979
I keep getting this message from iTunes for the past few months:

Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 9.00.53 pm.png

"We could not complete your iTunes Store request. The network connection timed out. Make sure your network settings are correct and your network connection is active, then try again."

iTunes is just running in the background, I'm not even using it, and the dock icon will randomly bounce with this stupid message. I click OK and an hour or so later it comes up again. It's really annoying. I'm not doing anything in iTunes at all, especially not related to the iTunes Store.

What things could I try to solve this? Google revealed mostly that it can be iTunes Match related, except I don't have iTunes Match, nor am I using any iTunes service that requires a connection - I'm only ever just listening to music from my computer. I'm not using the iTunes store.

OS X El Crapitan 10.11.2 - 10.11.5
iTunes 12.3.2.35 - 12.4.1.6
Retina MacBook Pro, 15 inch, late 2013

Any ideas are appreciated! Thanks!
 
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Huh. Can you access the iTunes store when iTunes is open? Seems like the application is working in the background, but on what....... I would check the Console application as well, see if there are any hints there.
 
Last edited:
Huh. Can you access the iTunes store when iTunes is open? Seems like the application is working in the background, but on what....... I would check the Console app as well, see if there are any hints there.
I can access the iTunes store fine, but there is one thing that was always unusable which is WiFi sync. I should try disabling that actually.

The console seems to have lots of this over and over:
Code:
10/01/16 10:52:51,248 pm iTunes[22259]: Entered:__thr_AMMuxedDeviceDisconnected, mux-device:1101
10/01/16 10:52:51,248 pm iTunes[22259]: tid:221cf - Mux ID not found in mapping dictionary
10/01/16 10:52:51,249 pm iTunes[22259]: tid:221cf - Can't handle disconnect with invalid ecid

Don't know if that helps...
 
Hi Baryon,

Can I ask if you ever solved this problem? I'm getting it too and I agree, it's an annoyance.

Nope, I never solved it, I just stopped using iTunes altogether. I'll open it once a month or so to sync my iPhone, then promptly quit it and that's about it!
 
I may have a workaround: signing out of the iTunes store. Go to Account > Sign Out, and stay signed out whenever possible. This should block all connections between iTunes and the internet, so it should fix the error message.
 
I've also had this problem happening for a few months now (if I had to guess). I've done everything suggested above on my own but to no avail. Signing out of iTunes doesn't seem like much of a solution, but I guess it's a good temporary fix until Apple fixes whatever the issue is.
 
So nobody still knows what's going on with these stupid notices?? Mine pops up from the background randomly when I'm not even using it (I leave it open as I route my media stuff through it for the AppleTV). I think my biggest concern is wondering what it's even doing when I get that as I've had to get pretty protective of our internet usage sometimes since our caps are so low…

(I'm on the latest El Capitan, don't synch anything wirelessly and don't have Match)
 
I have a similar issue under Windows. Mine started in late 2014 and has persisted since. I'll sign out and sign back in and still get the message. Signed out, I'll get that and asked to sign in when I'm not evening perusing the iTunes store. Even if I sign in and keep the session active, I'll be asked to sign in once more every 10-15 minutes. It happens in a VM environment, too, so I'm not sure what's wrong with iTunes in general, apart from being iTunes.
 
I have a similar issue under Windows. Mine started in late 2014 and has persisted since. I'll sign out and sign back in and still get the message. Signed out, I'll get that and asked to sign in when I'm not evening perusing the iTunes store. Even if I sign in and keep the session active, I'll be asked to sign in once more every 10-15 minutes. It happens in a VM environment, too, so I'm not sure what's wrong with iTunes in general, apart from being iTunes.

I know you said you're on Windows, so this may not be relevant to you, but upgrading to Sierra fixed the issue for me. Maybe it wasn't Sierra but rather the new version of iTunes, so make sure you have that and see if it helps.
 
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I know you said you're on Windows, so this may not be relevant to you, but upgrading to Sierra fixed the issue for me. Maybe it wasn't Sierra but rather the new version of iTunes, so make sure you have that and see if it helps.
It's funny you say that, because a new update was available for me. I went ahead and updated to the newest version earlier this morning. For about an hour, I thought it helped but the problem began again. Per Apple's recommendation, I've deleted temporary files that iTunes sets in its folders and cleaned out my cache. It goes without saying that iTunes quality has suffered in recent years. As the player has become more complex and offered more features, it's become more problematic. The problem is so annoying that I play my library through other means, such as Spotify. It's a damn shame because I really did like iTunes. Prior to this, it wasn't uncommon for me to spend a few hundred in a given month on music or video rental.
 
It's funny you say that, because a new update was available for me. I went ahead and updated to the newest version earlier this morning. For about an hour, I thought it helped but the problem began again. Per Apple's recommendation, I've deleted temporary files that iTunes sets in its folders and cleaned out my cache. It goes without saying that iTunes quality has suffered in recent years. As the player has become more complex and offered more features, it's become more problematic. The problem is so annoying that I play my library through other means, such as Spotify. It's a damn shame because I really did like iTunes. Prior to this, it wasn't uncommon for me to spend a few hundred in a given month on music or video rental.
[doublepost=1476830304][/doublepost]I'm on Sierra 10.12 and this has been a constant annoyance for months before I upgraded, and continues to be after. Every time my WiFi reconnects (at least), the iTunes icon bounces and I have to clear the alert...sometimes, I have to click OK several times before the message goes away. I want to say, "Dear iTunes, my computer is regularly disconnected form a network, I don't need you to selfishly alert me each time you don't get what you want."

Since upgrading, my WiFi will no longer connect automatically (I have to manually select the network) and a few times my computer has gotten very hot in my bag. These last two problems are new and probably unrelated, but...
 
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