[NewsPoster]

[Update -- not all problems are fixed] A problem in the new iTunes 12.2 update -- which including a substantial behind-the-scenes change to the database part of the program to accommodate the new Apple Music features, and which caused confusion in metadata and album art in song files -- has allegedly been fixed in a new update, bringing the program to version 12.2.1. The update, now available through the Mac App Store, is also said to correct a problem where uploaded DRM-free music in users' iCloud Music Libraries had been replaced with DRM-enabled Apple Music versions.

The company explains the problem as having affected users who were currently or had ever subscribed to iTunes Match, a $25-per-year cloud storage service that predates the feature in Apple Music where subscribers get their music uploaded to the cloud. The iTunes Match program normally matches music subscribers have with entries in the DRM-free iTunes Store, and makes it available for streaming or re-downloading.

By comparison, Apple Music's version of the service uses DRM'd copies of the songs, since the matched library will no longer be available to users if they unsubscribe to the paid portion of the service. Users keep the songs they downloaded from Apple Music in their libraries, but can't play them on other devices without renewing the subscription.

In addition to correcting the confused song statuses of matched song files, the update is also said to fix the mixup of album art and other metadata for song files in the local iTunes libraries of current or former iTunes Match users. The song files and their properties themselves were unaltered, but iTunes 12.2 would incorrectly report database characteristics such as album name or even title, among other issues.

Update: the problems with a confused music database do not appear to be corrected in the update, according to testing by MacNN staff. Further testing, involving replacing the ITL file with an old copy, may yield a permanent result. We'll update readers on what we find.

The 12.2.1 update also includes "minor bug fixes and improvements for Beats 1," likely to do with adjusting the cache size of the high-quality stream (which broadcasts at 256kbps AAC) or allowing the quality to be degraded somewhat when on cellular to save bandwidth.

[panjandrum]

This appears to be focused on correcting issues that occur when a user subscribes to Apple Music. This is (AFAIK) a different issue than the one which MacNN is trying to track down. (Oh, and in case I haven't mentioned it, it's great that MacNN is doing more of this problem/solution type of article.)

[Mike Wuerthele]

XLRyourmac still does this kind of thing in a crowdsourced kind of way, but I think I've got an opportunity to maintain the scientific method, and minimize variables.

The testing won't ever be the be-all-end-all of Mac troubleshooting, but I'm just not sure that anybody else is doing it. It's important -- somebody's got to keep Apple on its toes.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Yeah, the network share testing went about as you'd expect. Trying a few more things overnight, more in the morning.

I bet some people at Apple are sarcastically joking, "Hey we give consumers 3 months of MUSIC free to beta-test and report all our bugs..."

[aroxnicadi]

Another miserable attempt by Apple to undo and try to fix a major screwup that the over sized out of date iTunes app has become, not only screwing up songs but also movies and apps for the iPhone. These millionaires at Apple that think they are god remind me of Microsoft millionaires that totally screwed up the Windows platform and is the reason I moved to the Mac, but Apple didn't take a hint and they are in the process of totally screwing up the Mac plat form.

[jsnowbordr47]

Yeah, the iTunes 12 update was horrible, not so much from an app standpoint but from the upgrade experience standpoint.

The app itself works fine, just as sluggish as it always was. But I have I keep my library on an external HD. iTunes 12 disassociated itself from that hard drive. I was able to reassociate the library to iTunes 12, but any changes I made to the categorizations of files has been reset.

Although I have plenty of purchased songs, iTunes says I have none now. The music is all there, it just won't show up in the purchased folder anymore. Also, since I had to basically re-add my entire library, I can't sort by most recently added like I always do, as everything in the library was added back to iTunes on the same day.

I have thousands of movie and tv show ripped from my DVDs that had been categorized as such, now they are all categorized as home movies.

Basically it's gonna take a few good days to get my iTunes library back in order. Question is, will this happen again with the next update?

Then their was my iPod sync. It screwed it up so that I couldn't move files to my iPhone anymore, I had to re-check the manage music/movies manually checkbox again, but of course with the way iTunes handles stuff, it deleted all the music off of my iPhone. Not cool.

iTunes 12 has been a big fail so far.