Network Connection Failure when downloading iTunes Plus

[AngryCherub]

I upgraded 72 songs (all from one album actually). The first one downloaded fine, and every subsequent one stops between 40k-500k with a "There was a problem downloading [song]. Network connection timed out."

Sure glad I paid to upgrade.

[Galley]

Most likely their servers are getting hammered.

[honeybee1236]

I'm having the same problem with one song I purchased at the new bit rate. The other songs were available at 99 cents so they downloaded just fine. I'll wait until tomorrow to see if it downloads since I have some shows that haven't finished yet. If that song doesn't download then I'll send an email to customer service.

[kornchild2002]

Originally Posted by AngryCherub

I upgraded 72 songs (all from one album actually). The first one downloaded fine, and every subsequent one stops between 40k-500k with a "There was a problem downloading [song]. Network connection timed out."

Sure glad I paid to upgrade.

Please be aware that today is the first day Apple is putting these downloads out. The servers are probably getting too bombarded with people trying to download these 256kbps rips. Wait until later tonight or tomorrow to start your downloads again. I purchased a 256kbps album and it isn't downloading either, only two tracks started downloading but failed and the rest wouldn't even start to download.

This always happens to the iTunes Store. The same thing happened whenever Apple added videos to the store, it happened again whenever they added high resolution/high bitrate videos, and now it is happening when they added higher bitrate songs. Give it 24 hours and the majority of the traffic should clear up.

[AngryCherub]

It shouldn't matter what day it is if they are charging my credit card.

[bobb-mini]

Originally Posted by AngryCherub

It shouldn't matter what day it is if they are charging my credit card.

I'd bet they won't charge u until the "download completed normally" flag is set.

First day premier... it's to be expected.

[kornchild2002]

Originally Posted by AngryCherub

It shouldn't matter what day it is if they are charging my credit card.

That is the same as going to Pirates 3 opening night, you pay for a ticket but you have to wait 1-2 hours to get a good seat then complaining about how long you have to wait. Don't read too much into this though.

This is nothing new, Apple has done this before with the iTunes Store. As I previously stated, the iTunes Store went through the same high traffic when it first opened up, when it first added videos, when it added high resolution/bitrate videos, and when it added movies. Apple doesn't charge your credit card until the downloads go completely through. You don't pay for a product that you don't have.

[toothpaste]

Offensive? Profanity? I believe that word is in the dictionary. number 4 slang.


Care to explain why? According to the english/american language that is used in everyday speech.

Edit: Post edited to remove offensive comments and profanity.

[ambipod]

Frankly, those arguing bandwidth limitations as a justification for a download not going through, it is a crock of [edit]. The iTunes plus launch has been a disaster. Half of my upgradeable songs have not downloaded. iTunes songs purchased in 2004 that should be eligible for the upgrade are not being flagged properly. For ex., I bought the Rolling Stones "Black and Blue" in 2004. It was not flagged for upgrade so I went to download it again, thinking iTunes would see it as being purchased (it is definitely in my purchase history file) and instead of being charged $3.00 I was charged $9.99. To make matters worst, it is still not downloading. I have sent a number of emails to Apple with no response (OK they say to wait 24 hrs). No telephone customer support which means I will be playing email tag forever. If I am lucky this one will be resolved without me having to get my credit card company involved.

If Apple was so ill-prepared for this launch, they should have waited until they had additional bandwidth available. This is a very shoddy launch for iTunes plus, it goes against everything that Apple and iTunes are supposed to stand for - a friendly, easy end user experience. This must be what it feels like to buy a Creative Zen and try to sync songs from Rhapsody, etc.

[AngryCherub]

I agree with ambipod. To everyone saying inoperable downloads should be expected on the first day, I don't agree. In fact, I say quite the opposite: YOU should expect more. It is kind of a sad comment on Apple when you expect that it will not work on the first day.

I am not so concerned or impatient about getting my music. I am generally a fan of Apple products and am hugely supportive of their push to get DRM-free music. But this launch is a total and indefensible catastrophe. It is the second day now and I too have no response from customer service and 3 of my 72 songs. That is not acceptable.

And yes, my card has already been charged.

[AngryCherub]

Huh? Why is it my responsibility to consider bandwidth and load-balancing?

As far as patience is concerned, I would have been more than happy to wait another two weeks for the store to launch in working order. While it remains broken, the least they could do is post a notice to that effect and stop taking people's money until it is sorted out. That is what a company with good customer service does--something you apparently do not take into consideration.

Originally Posted by toothpaste

Bandwidth and load balancing for the amount of people that connect to the itunes servers is something apparently you didn't take into consideration.

You will get your music, patience.[/b]

[toothpaste]

Originally Posted by AngryCherub

Huh? Why is it my responsibility to consider bandwidth and load-balancing?

As far as patience is concerned, I would have been more than happy to wait another two weeks for the store to launch in working order. While it remains broken, the least they could do is post a notice to that effect and stop taking people's money until it is sorted out. That is what a company with good customer service does--something you apparently do not take into consideration.

Read my post again. I didn't say anything about responsibility. Considering that you are not the only person that needs their download now, your complaint is juvenile. Coming here crying about it juvenile.

Second, Apple has good customer service? Since when? Hahahaha. I took everything into consideration. Now, if you need for me to explain to you about bandwidth and load balancing when you have x amount of users hammering the itunes store trying to download massive amount of music, I will gladly explain to you.

[ambipod]

Originally Posted by toothpaste

Read my post again. I didn't say anything about responsibility. Considering that you are not the only person that needs their download now, your complaint is juvenile. Coming here crying about it juvenile.

Second, Apple has good customer service? Since when? Hahahaha. I took everything into consideration. Now, if you need for me to explain to you about bandwidth and load balancing when you have x amount of users hammering the itunes store trying to download massive amount of music, I will gladly explain to you.

Toothpaste - your explanation makes sense. But there's is no need to justify apple. They are joining the S&P 100 at the close of trading today. Their entire business model is based on providing a value-added end user experience - that's why the iPod has 70% of the market share - it is easy to use, integrates flawlessly with iTunes, it sync's, it WORKS. iTunes Plus doesn't work!

Based on my first, BS response from Apple Customer service this is going to be a long and painful process. They only suggested the obvious and essentially denied any responsibility. At least I have a person to email to...

AngryCherub - I'm there with you bro, thx for the support!

[AngryCherub]

Toothpaste, it is not juvenile to expect a company to deliver what they promise when you pay for it. I am not freaking out. I am just expressing my disappointment in Apple specifically because they stake their whole reputation on a good user experience and generally to see if anyone was having the same problem as I. I am also well aware of how failure to plan for high traffic and failure to properly load balance effect a web application like the iTunes store can bring it down; but knowing what the problem is does not make it any less frustrating. And considering that many people are probably trying out iTunes for the first time to support this DRM-free effort, it is not a good first impression.

On a technical note, I have observed what others seem to corroborate: the problem only happens on certain albums. I just bought another album, LCD Soundsystem's Introns, and it downloaded instantaneously. The jazz album I have been trying to get since yesterday though is still stuck. It would seem that part of their catalog is simply not available for whatever reason.

[ambipod]

Interesting AngryCherub - maybe it's the Stones catalogue which has the problems, not the overall iTunes Plus service. We'll see.