If you are experiencing slow downloads from the App Store or iTunes Store (movies, music, etc.) to your Mac, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Apple TV a simple setting may be to blame.
Switching your DNS servers to those offered by Google or OpenDNS can significantly boost the speed at which iOS devices can access YouTube, but may cause slowness when downloading files from the iTunes Store or App Store. As theorized by Joe Maller:
“iTunes’ video content is delivered by Akamai who has distributed massive datastores around the world so those large files originate from nearby servers and spend less time getting switched around the network. Akamai somehow uses our DNS routing to determine our location. If Google DNS or OpenDNS routes everyone to Akamai the same way, then those Akamai nodes and the pipes leading to them get overwhelmed.”
However, some users have reported the opposite to be true; i.e. using Google’s DNS servers or OpenDNS servers results in faster access to the App Store, iTunes, YouTube, Netflix, etc. As such, it’s best to play with your DNS servers and find an option that works in your location and with your ISP.
You can usually find your ISPs DNS settings by going to your ISP’s website and locating a “DNS help” section, or typing the name of your ISP and the term “DNS” into Google, e.g. “comcast DNS.” For Comcast, use this page; many other ISPs’ DNS servers are listed here.
Google’s DNS servers are listed here, and OpenDNS’ here.
To change DNS servers, follow these instructions for iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad):
- Tap Settings
- Tap Wi-Fi on the left-hand side
- Tap the blue arrow next to your current Wi-Fi network
- Tap the “DNS” field and enter the DNS servers
For the Mac:
- Go to System Preferences -> Network
- Click on the connection you are using now.
- Click Advanced
- Switch to DNS tab.
- Click the + sign under DNS servers and add the DNS servers
For Apple TV:
Navigate to Settings > General > Network > Configure Wi-Fi and find the DNS setting.
February 25, 2011 at 9:18 PM
Hi There;
I am having the same problems for the last month and a half with iTunes and it is depressing when you have a 25M download speed. The suggestion that it is cause by Google DNS Servers seems a bit odd as I am having extreemly slow speeds and am not using the Google DNS servers or anyones other those of my ISP (Rogers). I dont know if others have noticed it also but Microsoft Updates have also slowed to a crawl if you watch them download as they install.
Wishing for a fast fix to this whole issue and sure hope ISP’s are not upto massive traffic shaping again with out owning up to it.
AJ
August 28, 2011 at 2:24 PM
İ have been living this problem and the instructions here didnt work. What else can i do?
November 27, 2011 at 6:38 PM
I pad 2 is slow when buffering YouTube videos . I tried to change the DNS number with no luck. Then I opened safari to watch LQ it was fast but I like HQ. Is there a download fix.?
December 9, 2011 at 1:20 PM
U save my life!!!! I love u!!!!
May 20, 2012 at 9:05 PM
I’m done using iTunes to watch movies . They stop in the middle of the movie and start spooling for an hour or more. The result is: I never get to see the end of the movie. You only have 24 hours once it starts and my schedule often times does not permit me to go back to it he next day. What a frigging rip this is. Netflix has none of the same problems. Good buy apple
July 30, 2012 at 9:56 AM
this worked for me, from a few kb/sec to several mb/sec
However I also tried clearing the cache.. No difference for me
And setting the keychain access certificate (CRL) to off which was another fix found else where. Didn’t work for me in this instance.
I use the opendns addresses. So setting it back to my default ISP sped the whole thing up.
Thanks!
August 2, 2012 at 4:16 AM
I recently had this problem and you made me realise that I added openDNS to my router. iPhone was originally using my ISP DNA whilst PC was set to openDNS. Changing it my router made the iPhone use openDNS and the app store crawled when downloading. Removed the openDNS from my router and everything is back to normal and fast again. Thanks for the information!
September 26, 2012 at 11:52 AM
The advice here might work for some people, but it does not go to the root of the problem.
I am currently developing a video podcast service that bypasses the iTunes store – in this arrangement, the video file is NOT provided by Apple, the service just uses the iTunes desktop application as the client.
I have seen exactly the same problem, even though I’m serving the video file from an extremely fast server environment.
There seems to be something wrong with the iTunes client application – it’s very bad downloads. Many people have experienced this.
September 30, 2012 at 11:56 AM
I’m currently trying to download the latest Apple iOS for my iPad 3… used to take (if I recall correctly) about an hour. Now says 8 hours
December 29, 2012 at 1:52 PM
U are a genius! It worked like a charm!