iPod: Certain tracks skip on playback, but don't skip in iTunes
I've had this symptom before on my iPod, and have solved it by taking rather drastic action. Please pay close attention to the advice I will give now and proceed only if you understand the implications.
I firmly believe that many iPods suffer from disk fragmentation and errors, in just the same way any any hard disk or hard disk-based device, which can cause or contribute to this problem. Syncing iPods with continually changing content in one's iTunes library can eventually take a toll on the health of an iPod, even though it's extremely handy. Also, even though the process of restoring an iPod is usually considered to be a last-resort option, it actually does nothing to check for or correct possible disk problems on an iPod, whereas the procedure I describe below does.
The first thing to do is to take a careful inventory of what's on your iPod and what's on your computer. As long as you're certain that you won't lose any irreplaceable data by temporarily deleting the contents of your iPod, you should be safely able to follow these steps and restore your iPod, hopefully solving the playback problem in the process.
1. Connect your iPod to your computer.
2. Quit iTunes if it was open or opens automatically at this point.
Steps 3-13 apply to Mac OS X only. Windows instructions, once documented, to follow separately.
3. Open Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility).
4. Select your iPod from the sidebar in the Disk Utility window, taking care to select the device itself rather than just the logical volume appearing below it.
5. Click the Erase tab.
6. Enter a name for your iPod in the Name field.
7. From the Volume Format drop-down list, select Mac OS Extended.
8. Uncheck the Install Mac OS 9 Drivers option.
9. Click the Security Options button.
10. Check the Zero Out Data radio button.
11. Click the Erase button.
12. Give your consent to the ensuing deletion of the contents of the volume/disk when prompted.
13. When Disk Utility is finished erasing your iPod, quit Disk Utility. Your iPod should now appear as a generic-looking white removable disk icon on your Desktop.
14. Launch iTunes.
15. Follow the prompts to set up your iPod for use with iTunes on your computer, name it (even though you already gave it a name in Disk Utility), and sync it with your iTunes library after setting the various iPod preferences to your liking.
Please note that I have performed the preceeding actions with my own 5G 30 GB iPod Video more than once with only positive effects. Your results may vary, and these troubleshooting steps should only be followed in situations where using the iPod Restore function via iTunes has failed to resolve the audio playback problems.
Sometimes the skipping happens because the encoder used to encode the file somehow is playable in iTunes but does not work well on the iPod touch.
I have a few Japanese songs encoded by WinAMP that played well in iTunes but would skip in iPod touch. What I ended up doing was re-encoding those songs using iTunes as the encoder and that worked.
I firmly believe that many iPods suffer from disk fragmentation and errors, in just the same way any any hard disk or hard disk-based device, which can cause or contribute to this problem. Syncing iPods with continually changing content in one's iTunes library can eventually take a toll on the health of an iPod, even though it's extremely handy. Also, even though the process of restoring an iPod is usually considered to be a last-resort option, it actually does nothing to check for or correct possible disk problems on an iPod, whereas the procedure I describe below does.
The first thing to do is to take a careful inventory of what's on your iPod and what's on your computer. As long as you're certain that you won't lose any irreplaceable data by temporarily deleting the contents of your iPod, you should be safely able to follow these steps and restore your iPod, hopefully solving the playback problem in the process.
1. Connect your iPod to your computer.
2. Quit iTunes if it was open or opens automatically at this point.
Steps 3-13 apply to Mac OS X only. Windows instructions, once documented, to follow separately.
3. Open Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility).
4. Select your iPod from the sidebar in the Disk Utility window, taking care to select the device itself rather than just the logical volume appearing below it.
5. Click the Erase tab.
6. Enter a name for your iPod in the Name field.
7. From the Volume Format drop-down list, select Mac OS Extended.
8. Uncheck the Install Mac OS 9 Drivers option.
9. Click the Security Options button.
10. Check the Zero Out Data radio button.
11. Click the Erase button.
12. Give your consent to the ensuing deletion of the contents of the volume/disk when prompted.
13. When Disk Utility is finished erasing your iPod, quit Disk Utility. Your iPod should now appear as a generic-looking white removable disk icon on your Desktop.
14. Launch iTunes.
15. Follow the prompts to set up your iPod for use with iTunes on your computer, name it (even though you already gave it a name in Disk Utility), and sync it with your iTunes library after setting the various iPod preferences to your liking.
Please note that I have performed the preceeding actions with my own 5G 30 GB iPod Video more than once with only positive effects. Your results may vary, and these troubleshooting steps should only be followed in situations where using the iPod Restore function via iTunes has failed to resolve the audio playback problems.
Sometimes the skipping happens because the encoder used to encode the file somehow is playable in iTunes but does not work well on the iPod touch.
I have a few Japanese songs encoded by WinAMP that played well in iTunes but would skip in iPod touch. What I ended up doing was re-encoding those songs using iTunes as the encoder and that worked.