Very Slow iTunes 12.2.1

[Jeffrey R.]

I am "using" iTunes 12.2.1 on a Mac Book Pro. Upon opening, or doing practically anything at all, I get the long-spinning rainbow beach ball.

 

Want to edit a file? Beach ball.

 

Update iCloud Music Library? Beach ball?

 

Delete a track? Beach ball.

 

Click on a track? Beach ball.

 

There is a thread about this in the Apple Support Communities:

 

https://discussions.apple.com/message/28665032?ac_cid=tw123456#28665032

 

I have twice attempted the proposed solution of logging out of the iTunes store, and logging back in. Does not work. Someone suggested deleting and reinstalling iTunes. Subsequent reports are that this does not work, either. This does not seem to be a universal problem, or maybe it is.

 

Any better suggestions? Its practically unusable.

[Galley]

If I edit tags on a single track, I get beachballed for two minutes. If it's multiple tracks, plan on running errands in the meantime. The same applies for deleting files.

Editing the Grouping field is fine, however.

[kirkmc]

Hmm... First I've heard of it, though I see a number of people are seeing this issue, based on the forum thread you link to.

 

Try turning off wifi while doing something in iTunes.

 

I'd also look for any third-party tools that interact with iTunes.

 

Try launching iTunes in safe mode: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203395

[Jeffrey R.]

I thought that "safe" mode might work, but it did not. Still getting the spinning beach ball doing practically anything.

 

I've never previously had this problem using iTunes on a Mac. It was endemic back in the day when I ran iTunes on a Windows 7 machine.

[kirkmc]

How big is your library?

[Jeffrey R.]

21,000 plus.

[kirkmc]

That's not very big.

 

You might want to consider doing this:

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201561

[Jeffrey R.]

Downloaded 12.2.2, and then recreated the library as per the Apple Support page. It seemed to be working correctly until I re-enabled iCloud Music. It is painfully slow without the spinning beach ball. Then the spinning beach ball takes over, and I need to force quit.

[kirkmc]

How fast is your network connection? Is iTunes trying to match a lot of tracks?

[Jeffrey R.]

Its 50 mps, and the computer is about 5 feet from the router. Match took a while, but its completed.

 

The problem seems to be isolated at this point to adding tracks to the library, and deleting tracks. Other actions where it happened previously -- editing tracks, scrolling, searching -- seem to be rectified.

[kirkmc]

You didn't say how many tracks you have in the library. If it's a very large library, then iTunes can slow down.

[Jeffrey R.]

Its 21,000 plus tracks.

[kirkmc]

That's not very large. Did you install the latest update, 12.2.2?

[Jeffrey R.]

Yep. Tried that first, then recreated the library.

 

In fact, its practically unusable tonight. Scrolling generates a spinning beach ball. Searching generates a beach ball. Tons of tracks are listed multiple times.

 

I've used iTunes for more than a decade. Even the darkest days of wrangling it on a Windows machine were not this bad.

[kirkmc]

Do you have lots of smart playlists? That's often one thing that slows iTunes down, if they are all set to live updating at least.

[Jeffrey R.]

I have no smart playlists.

[Jeffrey R.]

Well, this was odd. Most of the regular playlists had been duplicated -- or worse -- with random tracks thrown in from the library without any rhyme or reason whatsoever. I deleted all of the duplicate, triplicate and quadrupled playlists (it took 45 minutes). Seems to be running better, although not optimal. We'll see what happens over the next couple of days.

[kirkmc]

iCloud Music Library often duplicates playlists. If there are a lot, that could slow up iTunes, though smart playlists have more of an effect, at least if they're set to auto-update.

[Slydude]

Perhaps I missed it but have you checked the health o9f the hard drive? Ia Disk Utility or a similar utility showing any problems? If your library files are on something other than the main drive check that one as well.

[Jeffrey R.]

Hard drive is fine. Library files are on the main drive.

[Jeffrey R.]

Now this is shocking. All of the duplicate playlists made their unwelcome return, and then some. One was duplicated 7 times, with random tracks strewn about. There is a playlist called "Top 100." ITunes created one called "Top 101" and another one called "Top 102." Very nice.

 

I turned off iCloud Music Library on my phone, turned it back on, and re-loaded the library. The duplicate playlists showed up, even after they were deleted on the Mac.

 

Although the spinning beach ball appears much less often with wi-fi turned off, it still pops up from time-t0-time in that mode, so it is not just a problem connecting to the iTunes store. All of the other supposed solutions mentioned elsewhere, particularly on the Apple Support forums -- turn off "store" "podcasts" etc. in parental controls -- do not work.

 

Is this going to be a constant game of whack-a-mole? I have to be constantly vigilant while attempting to use this.

[kirkmc]

Yes, but this isn't specific to iCloud Music Library. I saw this with iTunes Match in the past, many times.

[Jeffrey R.]

I have found that if it is in the simple "songs" spreadsheet view, the spinning beach ball is kept mostly at bay. Its tough to keep it in this view, however. ITunes reverts to the "artist" view whenever a search is attempted.