iTunes 7.2 Special Report: Errors when connecting to/purchasing from store; busy servers

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 1:34 a.m. PT

3 min read

Users have experienced all sorts of errors (504, -9813, etc.) when attempting to connect to or purchase music from the iTunes store under iTunes 7.2.

Many of these errors were due to overwhelming traffic to the store in the first hours/days after iTunes 7.2's release. This manifested in a number of ways, including the aforementioned cryptic error messages, and problems with iTunes Plus.

One reader wrote:

"Of the 130 tunes I chose to update only 30 downloaded and for the past 45 minutes continue to have iTunes Store 504 errors."

Andy Driscoll describes failed or erroneously empty searches:

"Attempting to search artists and songs in iTunes 7.2, even those previously accessed in 7.1.5 is yielding a 'no match' message, including for such artists as Chuck berry and Elvis Presley. Only successful return thus far has been McCartney. Clicking on link to Apple's request website indicates that v. 7.2 I not yet listed as a version. If I get a recent addition, but nothing earlier, is this a traffic issue ? or a supply matter?"

Another reader describes issues with iTunes Plus purchases:

"After installing iTunes 7.2, I clicked on the button to 'upgrade my library' in which you pay to upgrade all the EMI music I purchased before. I have 25 albums that are eligible (it actually lists them all automatically). I click on the buy button and I get an error message saying 'The item you tried to buy is no longer available.' I can't 'upgrade' after all."

Meanwhile, the Apple TV has succumbed to heavy store volume as well, with continual rebooting ("looping") and other symptoms manifest. Generally these issues are resolving themselves as traffic to the servers, which Apple TV relies upon, dies down.

Issues unrelated to server activity However, we've now received some reports from users indicating the store access works fine with iTunes 7.1.1, but fails on the same connection and in the same time-frame with iTunes 7.2.

As described by one reader:

"After upgrading to iTunes 7.2, I could no longer connect to the store (error -9813). Everyone says it's swamped and to wait until it dies down. This is not valid because I can access the store, download, and do everything I've always been able to do with iTunes 7.1.1 which is on my MacBook. Needless to say, I'm not going to update iTunes on my MacBook and I'm going to old software to get an older copy of iTunes so I can exorcise this demon 7.2 from my iMac."

There are two potential theories behind this discrepancy:

Apple has designated different servers for iTunes 7.1.1, which are automatically accessed by the older version and not subject to the same transfer/access problems
iTunes 7.2 performs a different (perhaps more extensive) data check with the iTunes Music Store, resulting in the error messages.

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