I have the same problem. I am using an Apple MacBookPro connected to internet via Virgin 100Mbs service. I rarely get my full 100Mbs, but various speedtests show I am getting about 20Mbs, wilst my Apple iTunes download is clocking in at a limp 3Mbs a tenth of the what you say Apple advertise.
How to fix Itunes slow movie downloads. For awhile I’ve known of the problem of slow Itunes (specially) movie download speeds. The problem is really well explained by Joe Maller in this post. Voting is now open on new trophies to add to the forum, so swing by and cast your vote in the New Community Trophy Contest Poll here! Any idea why my iTunes podcast downloads are unbearably slow? Thread starter TYTSoldier. I hate iTunes its so fucking slow. It takes like 10 seconds to start up! I can open up google chrome and google up: iTunes is so fucking slow faster than its start up (literally because i just did it! And found this article.) and look at my notebook what the fuck.
I do not knwo where the restriction is, perhaps Virgin throttle access to certain sites to sustain overall performance. Whatever the reason, the download speeds are now so slow as to frequently deter me from bothering.
May 27, 2012 12:50 PM
Itunes Download Speed Slow
Slow Performances/Lags on iTunes 12.2.1? Here's a fix.
I've been running iTunes 12.2.1 on my Windows computer for a while now. Aside from being practically identical to the version on my Macbook Pro, iTunes 12.2.1 lags like crazy on my gaming PC. I'm running the 64bit version on the same computer that can run Witcher 3 and after an extended period of being opened in the background, iTunes would be slowed to switch to, lag during music selection, and slow to play the track. This is also affects the keyboard keys used for music control. I never had this issue before iTunes 12.2.1.
In any case, I've found a fix. It seems that iTunes get stucked on syncing playback information and podcasts. Go into preferences > Store and unselect Sync playback information and Sync podcast subscription. That should fix most of the performance issues. There are still some lag but overall, the useability should improve.