iTunes Store issue - cannot connect

Question

I am having difficulties accessing the iTunes store. It attempts to connect for a while, then it times out I think because it remains blank. I suspect that the issue is with connection to the iTunes store, because although I have internet access, when I go to iTunes Help in the program it tells me that it cannot connect to the internet.

I have tried several fixes which I read online. These include disabling my anti-virus, firewall, and anti-malware programs (plus restart); updating iTunes (plus restart); uninstalling then re-installing iTunes (plus restart); using command prompt as administrator and entering: "netsh winsock reset", "ipconfig /release", "ipconfig /flushdns", "netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt", then restarting computer; going into Internet Options, Connection tab, LAN settings to confirm that "Use a proxy server for your LAN" was unchecked and "Automatically detect settings" was checked; setting IE as default browser and resetting IE settings (plus restarting); in iTunes, changing Parental options to disable iTunes store but allow iTunes U. After most of these attempts failed, I restored the previous settings.

I have checked the apple website and it said iTunes is not currently down.

I am using Windows 8.1, 64 bit; and have the latest version of iTunes (v 12.2.2).

I used the iTunes Store about 1-2 weeks ago without this issue (although for the past month or more I could not search song titles as well as before, I'm not sure if this is a related issue or not).

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I looked around a bit more and found https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT203361 in the question of Problems connecting to iTunes store . For the last few months, my computer has been having an issue with date & time (when I restart it moves the clock ahead). Recently, I stopped changing it back, which is probably why iTunes Store stopped working . Once I changed the time, iTunes Store worked again.