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iTunes Problems

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Please keep in mind that this is not Apple's iTunes support site. Even though you may have been led here by a search engine when looking for 'iTunes Problems', it is unlikely that the problems described here are related to the problems you are seeing now – a few years later. It is equally unlikely that you will receive a helpful hint for questions you ask on your current problem.

While I generally like iTunes, there have always been problems with the program which keep sticking around. I'd much prefer them to work on those than spending their time to make hell freeze over. However much business sense that makes, my personal gain of it is zero.

One thing about iTunes is that, while it has AppleScript support, that support hasn't seen significant updates since iTunes 2. Most notably, a couple of the scripts Apple provides are broken, particularly on non-English systems, and you still can't run a script across your complete library in a simple way – a simple way being something along the lines of repeat with song in tracks of myLibrary or so. If your library is sufficiently large this will do nothing but hog your processor for ages.

Other AppleScript annoyances are that you need to write item 1 of library playlists to access the library (except if you're Apple of course, in which case you are using source "Library" to begin with which will fail miserably on non-English systems). Why can't I simply refer to the main library as library?

The other problem is one that's sometimes hard to observe but that I finally filed a bug report on today: iTunes has amnesia. It will simply 'forget' the location of some files. Those files will still be in the playlist and still exist on the hard drive in exactly the same location – but iTunes forgot about their connection and will display that little exclamation mark icon if you come near them. I have seen this happen to other people's libraries as well and this seems to occur irregularly and unpredictably – random songs will lose their connection.

By now I have more songs that are disconnected in that way than I care about to re-wire manually. OK, that would be any number greater than two, considering the non-speed of Apple's select file dialogues, but it is actually quite a bit larger. I can't tell the exact number, which apparently can only be found out by writing your own loop to go through all the library, checking every single track. I tried to do so but after a few minutes (sic!), iTunes simply crashed...

Also, iTunes' AppleScript support nannies you a lot by making the location property of file tracks read only, i.e. preventing you from re-associating library entries with their files in a script automatically. This means that doing so manually remains the only way to go.

Other quirks: Why exactly are there two distinct, yet adjacent, menu items to edit smart playlists? Why is there no way to remove a file from the library completely when seeing it in a playlist that's not the library? This is particularly pressing with the 'New' smart playlist. Wouldn't it be smart if iTunes un-minimised its window immediately when opening an itms-URL rather than waiting for it to be loaded first?

On the good side: New music in the store includes Hefner, more Pixies and Six by Seven. A 'browse by label' feature would be neat.

October 21, 2003, 19:33

Tagged as iTunes.

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iTunes reaction roundup

October 22, 2003, 10:42

Comments

Comment by Tony Dymoke-Bradshaw: User icon

I also have seen these lost links to files. A real pain. I can’t play songs without a break between them. If I set the cross fade to I get funny cross fade effects, I really want zero gap. If I play a CD of an opera I get no gaps but once imported the tracks always have a gap. Also cross fade works on everything being played not just on specific files. On my iPod it will not work at all. There are many CDs with track marks not quite in the right place, one ends up with the echo of the previous track at the begining of the next after a fraction of a second of pause. I just imported both CDs of Das Rheingold as joined tracks in AIFF, joined the two big files together with Amadeus and now have an MP3 with no gaps but no simple way of moving through the recording (~131 minutes) and knowing where I am up to.

There are many entries in the CDDB with the Artist and Song swapped; a better way of allocating the fields during import would help.

There is no browse of Composers unless I make the artist field the composer field, this doesn’t work for music where the artist is more important than the composer.

There is still some way to go on iTunes. In the UK we can’t use the shop. This is taking too long to sort out. I expect my iPod battery wil die before this is all sorted.

January 13, 2004, 2:02

Comment by Randy: User icon

After Loading about 20 Gigs over a year period all of a sudden. Boom I load ITunes up and all my albums are gone I try to find what happened with no avail. All I could find was something to the effect that ITunes Library had crashed. It seems the space that took up the albums is still gone so wheres the music?

October 28, 2004, 16:59

Comment by Ralph Iannotti: User icon

HOw do I uninstall and reinstall Itunes without losing everthing on my ipod. There has to be a contingency built into the software in the event of a hard drive crash which is inevitible. I want to give my son his own hard drive and reinstall itunes for him but we are afraid of losing everything on the ipod. we get these fears from other people who know as little about the program as us. Can this be done? I would like to completely unistall it and put it on a new drive I have formatted so he has his own drive to fill up..He has since loaded approx 1000 songs and would not like to lose them at this time. when the software is installed it wants to look at the ipod and configure it and we are afraid this is where we might lose it all. We are assuming you can skip this step and continue on while it looks at your serial number which is already registered. There has to be away. I can’t imagine having to reload your cds every time you have a computer crash, hard drive crash or have to reimage your disk. These are a fact of life in computing and they happen. I reimaged my drive 4 time this year. Please advise me via email and give me advice. I hope there is a way, because my drive is filling up and we need to install on another drive. Thank You Ralph Iannotti

December 27, 2004, 15:50

Comment by ssp: User icon

Ralph,

I haven’t done this myself, so my experience is very limited.

Indeed, it seems that iTunes - when set up to synchronise automatically with the iPod – will delete stuff from the iPod when it is attached to another computer that is set up to sync with the iPod then.

If your iPod is set up in that way, you should have all the songs on the hard drive of the old computer anyway. Those shouldn’t be deleted anyway (or you could make a backup copy of them to be on the safe side). In your place I’d do the following: (1) Copy all the songs from the hard drive of the old computer to that of the new one. (It’s probably best to use the ‘Consolidate Library’ command of iTunes and copy the Music folder in the Finder afterwards.) (2) Add all the songs to iTunes’ library on the new computer. (3) Check that the total number of songs in iTunes is the same on both computers (it should be). (4) Set the iPod up to be synchronised with the new computer. It could happen that everything from the iPod is deleted and then immediately replaced with a new copy in that situation.

That’s how I think it should work. As I said at the beginning, I haven’t actually tried it out.

January 5, 2005, 19:02

Comment by INeedHelpNOW!!!!!: User icon

I have an iPod that is hooked up to a dell computer, and so far the iTunes have been working fine for the last year or so, but recently, i am able to play the music, but i cannot hear it. can someone pleas help me 2DAY!!!! thax

January 9, 2005, 20:55

Comment by Luddite: User icon

I know nothing about computers. I have an old banger of a PC, made in about 1750 AD or something, and I have just been bought an ipod for Christmas. My PC has Windows 2000 on it, but whenever I put a CD into the drive, iTunes (or mediaplayer, for that matter)doesn’t list it or save it or recognise it, meaning that I can’t transfer my tunes onto my iPod. This makes my iPod an expensive and useless waste of space and time. Do I need to upgrade my Windows, or get a better P.C. (surely not!) or what?? Someone please help this poor technophobe.

January 18, 2005, 11:51

Comment by d.w.: User icon

Luddite: iTunes (and MediaPlayer) both try to download track titles from cddb.com, so you need to be connected to the internet already for this to work,

January 18, 2005, 21:31

Comment by steve: User icon

i hate i-tunes, my i-pod wont detect any new songs and wont update, i tried to uninstall but that doesnt work, now my situation is a complete mess. its very frustrating, and i dont understand why it would be made so. all i hear is people with problems. I want to uninstall itunes, and i am willing to start over, but that does not even seem an option, give me a break apple, your names on it, you think they could do a little more to help out

January 26, 2005, 16:06

Comment by david: User icon

i can’t get itunes loaded or running… i can’t make it to do anything! i double cliick the icon the shortcut, everything, and it still doesn’t start! i can’t load any music to my ipod because i can’t start itunes, and my ipod is now doing nothing but to get dusty… i have already uninstalled and reinstalled everything twice, done everything i could think of but it still won’t work! i have already thought it might be because of some other software in my pc but i’m not sure and even if it it is i can’t now which program is causing the itunes’ problems. please help!!!

May 10, 2005, 23:39

Comment by Marlene: User icon

I just erased all my downloaded songs and I can’t seem to get them back…they are not in my recyle bin or anywhere else for that matter. Please help! Also I just paid to download a song and it says I’m not authorized? Help again!

May 24, 2005, 3:51

Comment by Amy: User icon

Please help i have had my i pod for nearly a year now and everything was running smoothly until i decided to install the updated i tunes. the process continued as it normally did until it said deleting all of your files and then the desktop icon dissapeared and a erroer messgae occured and said “error connecting to servie manager =0”. The instillation process was then incomplete, and this continously happens whenever i try to re instal. I am running on windows xp and many say turn the windows fire wall off and run a virus scan which i have done many times but i am still in the same situation as before. Does anyone know what to do?

May 31, 2005, 21:26

Comment by MelE: User icon

Been having a problem with itunes - but something different altogether than those previously mentioned. Had itunes installed and running smoothly for a couple of months. For various reasons decided to do a clean install of windows so reformatted hard drive and started again.
Everything is fine except itunes. Ever since reformatting, when I try to import a song itunes only seems to register the name/artist etc and then skips to the next line and so on, without actually importing any music. Apple support for the ipod advised that I load all my songs through windows media player and then onto itunes. Though this method works, in that it imports the songs and they can be played, the sound quality is very patchy. My thinking is that itunes should work - I shouldn’t have to go through another program to use it (and I still find it hard to believe Apple offered this as serious advice). Anyone had similar issues?

June 6, 2005, 1:18

Comment by alex jones: User icon

i used itunes on mi sisters computer before it worked fine so i tried it at mi grandmas and it deleted all my songs any advice

…………………………………alex jones

July 28, 2005, 23:28

Comment by ssp: User icon

While reading the original text should make this clear, people seem to miss this. So I’ll be explicit about it:

Please don’t expect any iTunes help on this site. Particularly if you’re running Windows. It’s not related to what I discuss in the text above.

Instead, go to Apple’s web site. Find their iTunes support section, and look around there. If iTunes is causing you problems, Apple are the people to ask about it.

July 29, 2005, 0:28

Comment by Anonymous: User icon

Tried to uninstall i tunes several times, and it keeps on running. How do I FINALLY get rid of it? Thanks!

August 21, 2005, 16:05

Comment by Sianiflewog: User icon

I have a BIG problem in that my previosly well-behaved itunes is now refusing to import music. It was working fine until I plugged a friends mini ipod into my PC. Now, when I try to import music from a disc, itunes will only copy the first few seconds of each song. Have tried reinstalling etc. Am very stuck. Any help would be much appreciated.

August 22, 2005, 17:24

Comment by Sarah: User icon

I have the same problem! Any fixes?

September 23, 2005, 21:34

Comment by pmcclain: User icon

I cannot burn a cd…it gives me a message “disc recorder not found”…. what to do?!?

October 2, 2005, 2:14

Comment by Don Pilon: User icon

im havin a problem installing my itunes, it will install up the the last few seconds, then just completely stop, the installation disapears AND the icons that were created on the desktop disapear. I had this problem when i installed itunes 4.9, the only way i was able to isntall it was to unistall service pack 2 and then install itunes. But for some reason my service pack 2 wont uniestall now. and error comes up when its on the “restoring catalogs” stage then ends.. any help with either of these problems would be great.. email me at thevolta@hotmail.com

October 10, 2005, 6:57

Comment by eliot: User icon

crazy itunes, i cant even uninstall . someone plz tell me how

October 13, 2005, 11:58

Comment by mickey: User icon

Itunes has this horible habit of not getting all the albums and files right. Or complete either. I am starting to think winamp was the way to go. Nullsoft has done a good job with the workings of the program. to bad it’s really not as fun to use. well, it is free, so hard to complain.

October 18, 2005, 23:43

Comment by Matt Sharp: User icon

Is it possible to install two iTunes onto the same PC? Me and my partner both have iPods but her iTunes won’t install while mine does. Is there any way around this? Any help would be much appreciated

October 24, 2005, 7:54

Comment by Anthony: User icon

Why arent there songs that I want on ITUNES?>>?

‘Believer’ Christina Milian

‘Broken’ Seether feat. Amy Lee

(this is justa rare few, but it’s not fair that I am expecting good service and instead end up at a dead end) : (

October 27, 2005, 22:16

Comment by DAN: User icon

HEY, I KNOW THE FEELINGS LISTED ABOVE. WAS HAVING DECENT LUCK TRANSFERRING SONGS FROM ITUNES TO IPOD-SOMETIMES NOT SO-(FIGURED ALL THE REGULAR PROBLEMS)-SO WHEN I GOT A AN INTERNET NOTE SAYING UPGRADE 6.1.3 OR SOMETHING OF THE SORT I DID- DURING THE PROCESS THE DOWNLOAD (MUST HAVE IMPLODED) & NOW I CAN’T EVEN OPEN ITUNES AT ALL . I CAN USE WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER BUT SOME SONGS THAT ARE ALREADY LISTED WONT PLAY -APPARENTLY BECAUSE THEY’RE TAGGED UNDER THE ITUNES FORMAT.I DOWNLOADED REINSTALL, SENT ABOUT A ZILLION ERROR REPORTS WITHOUT ANY RESPONSE FROM WHO EVER THE HELL IS SUPPOSED TO RESPOND, REINSTALLED THE DOWNLOAD (SAID-OK-SUCCESSFUL!) TRIED TO USE & GOT SAME REPORT-BUMMER -I GUESS I WOULD EXPECT A LITTLE MORE PERSONAL TOUCH—-A FREAKIN HUMAN ANSWER PERSON THATS SAYS SORRY WE CAN’T FIX YOUR PROBLEM—-AT LEAST THEY COULD TELL ME TO STOP WASTING MY TIME——SAME PROBLEM TRING TO CALL THE APPLE STORE-NO ONE’S HOME! HAVE A NICE DAY APPLE!-NOW GET BACK TO WORK AND MAKE ME PROUD!

October 31, 2005, 20:02

Comment by rubberdob: User icon

My i-tunes have been working perfectly without a hitch for the last 9 months, suddenly I go to open i-tunes and it tells me unable to open i-tunes as some files are incomplete or missing, reinstall i-tunes.Have tried over and over to reinstall using disc and in the process wiped all 956 tunes off my pod,so frustrating ,why wont it reinstall properly using the original disc it just keeps repeating the error listed above?

November 1, 2005, 13:36

Comment by DAN: User icon

I WROTE A NOTE HERE THE OTHER DAY SO I FEEL COMPELLED TO WRITE AGAIN-I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEBODY-I COULD NOT OPEN ITUNES-TODAY I CALLED MY SUPPORT FOR MY COMPUTER TO TALK ABOUT OTHER SLOW & FREEZE UP PROBLIMS I HAD- MENTIONED ITUNE PROBLEM-GOOD MAN! HE TOLD ME TO REMOVE ITUNES WITH THE ADD & REMOVE PROGRAM-THEN GO TO APPLE.COM & DOWNLOAD JUST QUICKTIME PLAYER. AFTER THAT WAS INSTALLED———DOWNLOAD ITUNES INSTALLER——IT WORKED!!!! I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEBODY. GOOD LUCK!

November 3, 2005, 20:10

Comment by Tom: User icon

Like Sarah and Sianiflewog, above, I have the same (BIG) problem: “my previosly well-behaved itunes is now refusing to import music. When I try to import music from a disc, itunes will only copy the FIRST FEW SECONDS of each song.” I also have tried reinstalling etc. and am very stuck. Any help would be much appreciated. (Any advice can be Emailed to my “extra” address: bidnitman@juno.com, & thnx for any tips at all!) Also - IS there any online Help or Customer Support for iTunes? /Tom

November 13, 2005, 17:20

Comment by Frankie: User icon

Is is possible to have two iTunes on one computer? i recently got an iPod Nano but used my brothers existing iTunes that he used for his Mini. If i install my nano iTunes will i lose all my songs on teh other iTunes?! i know this all sounds v.confusing!

Any help would be appreciated!

November 20, 2005, 21:24

Comment by brett: User icon

ahhh when ever i try to get i tunes up it just says error send report and close so i cant even update my ipod nor listen to my music om my computer and music is life ahh please reply ppl and u luv u for ever im deperate….. ahh <3 bret

November 30, 2005, 3:14

Comment by elias: User icon

i can’t get itunes loaded or running… i can’t make it to do anything! i double cliick the icon the shortcut, everything, and it still doesn’t start! i can’t load any music to my ipod because i can’t start itunes, and my ipod is now doing nothing but to get dusty… i have already uninstalled and reinstalled everything twice, done everything i could think of but it still won’t work! i have already thought it might be because of some other software in my pc but i’m not sure and even if it it is i can’t now which program is causing the itunes’ problems. please help!!!

November 30, 2005, 9:28

Comment by Andrew: User icon

Ok, like many of you i have had problems with my ipod. I purchased it less then a week ago and have already spend most of 3 hours on the phone with apple, not to mention the hours spend transfering files to my laptop from a pc, and then setting up itunes with playlists and such, which, i ended up having to do TWICE. My mistake… rebooting my computer! I rebooted and lost EVERYTHING, itunes just crashed and everything was gone. So i called apple, and after talking to them, im informed there is nothing i can do except reload itunes,ipod,and quicktime, start over from scratch!!! Apples support was pathetic, and im still having problems with it. I have version 6.0.1.3, which is the very newest. One thing i noticed that was differet with this version, is that once your ipod updates, itunes says its ok to disconnect it, which previously, it would just hang on the “do not disconnect” screen until i told it to disconnect, now, once the update completes, i get the “ok to disconnect” message. . i think many people were just pulling the ipod off the USB without hitting the disconnect button, which is causing the crashing of itunes…

Basically itunes is a POS!! It is not well written and is very buggy… everyone says get an apple, i say, stay away!! My PC does all a mac can do, and then some…

www.mac-sucks.com

December 1, 2005, 18:35

Comment by Andrew: User icon

Ive now spent two days solid playing with itunes, so anyone with questions can email me at smokeadoob@hotmail.com, i might be able to help.

NOTE - in preferences>ipod>music , if you choose to “automatically update all songs and playlists” and then change to “automatically update selected playlists only” it will delete all your songs not in the playlists OFF THE IPOD. I mistakenly wanted to only update the playlist i had, why update anything else, all the music i own is (or was)on the ipod. Watch out!!

December 1, 2005, 19:55

Comment by gus: User icon

If your’e all bloody sick of iTunes, i suggest you try Musicmatch Jukebox, it supports iPods, its way better!!!!

December 6, 2005, 3:39

Comment by mat: User icon

Does anyone know of any freeware programs that provide a way of importing your songs from your ipod to PC? I’ve tried the demo versions of Copypod and Anapod but you can only import 100 songs, and im a bit reluctant to pay extra for a service that should have been built into iTunes. My harddrive had to be formatted and I lost about 3000 of my mp3’s, so I don’t really want to have to import them all from CD again, plus my computer sometimes restarts when im in the middle of importing tracks!

May 7, 2006, 20:17

Comment by Tobias: User icon

Looking at the comments above I can’t help thinking that it’s not just an unjustified prejudice that most Windows users don’t know the right place to look for help or their shift keys ;-)

As for iTunes, my issues are mostly with the interface. Never lost songs, iPod works great.

I used AppleScript a little, and I think the language designers made some pretty bad decisions which make it very hard for developers to write usable dictionaries. Apple probably lost that ability, or at least interest, so I wouldn’t bet on the problems ssp pointed out going away soon :-(

May 8, 2006, 0:07

Comment by Aly Candy: User icon

I have spent over $300.00 within the past 3 months on music downloads and I let a so called friend use my laptop for a few days and I am now having so major issues. My quick time was deleted and my itunes is unavalible because of that. I am worried that my music is all going to be deleted and then when i plug in my ipod will the music on it all be deleted also. Please help..

October 8, 2006, 1:23

Comment by Alex: User icon

Hope someone can help, have looked everywhere for help on my problem. The video files I have in iTunes no longer play. The sound is ok but there is just a white screen (no picture). The saved artwork for the video files just turns to white when I try to play them, & stays that way. However, the video file that I have saved in the ‘TV shows’ tab plays fine, its just the video files under the ‘movies’ tab. Bizarre. When I transfer the files to iPod there is no problem so it is something with iTunes. I tried to repair itunes with the installer but no change. Please help!!

December 16, 2006, 17:21

Comment by noelle: User icon

Im having problems updating the itunes on my computer. I’ve just gotten a new nano ipod and it didnt come with software. So I figured I would upgrade my old itunes that i used for my old ipod but everytime i try to reinstall/upgrade it comes to a point in the installation where it says “stopping services” and after a few minutes an alert comes up and says “error. ipod service (ipodservice)could not be stopped. verify that you have sufficient privelages to stop system services”. I have no idea what that means. Does anyone know a way to get around this problem? help would be greatly appreciated. please!

December 27, 2006, 4:21

Comment by caitlin: User icon

i downloaded a tv show from the itunes store. i transferred it to my ipod then watched it on my ipod then after that it wont show up anymore on my ipod. the tv show is checked on my library and no matter how many times i update my ipod, the tv show will not show up. can anyone help me?

January 5, 2007, 19:55

Comment by chris: User icon

I have the same exact problem as you noelle and i have no clue how to fix it and it’s really agravating. let me know if you figure it out

January 13, 2007, 5:16

Comment by Lost & Confussed: User icon

Whenever i plug my Ipod into my computer Itunes opens, and the it earses the songs. what do i do?

January 16, 2007, 1:01

Comment by Jordan: User icon

My Itunes keep poping back up after I close it and I can seem to end it lol what todo?

January 21, 2007, 1:29

Comment by suze: User icon

when i try to connect to the itunes music store to get song data from cds that i have put into my itunes library, nothing comes up, it jsut says no result… why is this,?? is it because am in qatar or what, how can i solve this problem?

April 7, 2007, 9:23

Comment by Michelle: User icon

I just bought an ipod and downloaded itunes.The download itself took me a long while but after i figured it out i was enjoying my music but then i wanted to start over by organizing my music better on itunes and delete everything from my ipod cuz all my music was scattered like crazy so i was able to delete everything on the ipod and save all my stuff on my comp but now nothing will download onto my ipod…i’ve been trying everything to my knowledge to make it work again.I’ve even reinstalled itunes many times and nothing all my ipod does now is charge up.

May 27, 2007, 22:36

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