iTunes 7.6 problems

I have been struggling for the last few days with iTunes, have read umpteen posts on lots of forums (Apple and NON-apple)... it's not just 50 people or so, but a minimum of several 100's WHO HAVE POSTED, so, we can be fairly sure, a minimum of many 1.000's are experiencing problems, since most are too apathetic to register and post...

After reading all this stuff, and spending some hours to try to get to the bottom of it: I do not believe it is an iTunes ERROR as such, but a 'function' which is having bad effects (hence no iTunes update as yet)... BUT I need some help from other iTunes users to verify this.

So, to make sure you have a clean install (although this is only a problem in some cases, but almost certainly Mike_Fuji's - along with, perhaps, a bad alias!):
1. trash iTunes and all aliases, as well as the following files in System/Library/Receipts:
a) AppleMobileDeviceSupport.pkg
b) iTunesAccess.pkg
c) iTunesX.pkg
(these are just 'receipts' that tell the system which items are already stored, and whether only updates are needed - when deleted, the iTunes installer will overwrite any already installed SYSTEM (not user) components. This is good, because any out-of-date or corrupted components will be replaced. Your library will NOT be affected!)
2. Empty the trash can and restart (just to be sure ;-)!!);
3. Re-install iTunes.

Fire up iTunes, and ALSO fire up Activity Monitor (System/Applications/Utilities). This is a little Apple-own "Task Manager" (for those of you out of the Windows world) that tells you what programs are running, and what kind of proccessor and memory usage they are using. IN ADDITION, you can examine a particular program/proces, and see exactly what it is doing... SOOOO, select iTunes in the list, and then 'inspect' (the blue 'i' icon up top); up pops a window... then select 'open files and ports' - scroll down to the bottom, and then...

Go into iTunes, but organise the windows so that you can see the Activity Monitor window at the same time as iTunes, and as soon as you get the "beach ball of death", have a look at the BOTTOM of the 'open files and ports' window... you should see at least one (and probably only one) line that is changing - on my computer, iTunes seems to be updating the resource forks on my video files (podcasts or films), which take some time to be read, before SOMETHING is written.... (see large amounts of data being read from the hard disk).

The GOOD NEWS is: it seems that whatever iTunes is updating/correcting, probably requires a certain amount of time, and then it should be done... but I could be wrong, and I'm not holding my breath :-)!!!

If you reply, PLEASE let me/us know what kind of iTunes library you have, since I think this plays a part...

Same sad story here....
Itunes freeze-up!!! BRUTAL !!!!
Occurs mostly when 1 cd import to itunes is completed
1 cd in....1 tedious hard reboot is only cure for arctic froozen pc
Also, notice accessing ituens store seems to be a big culprit as well
talk about killing enthusiasm for the new ipod touch...
getting to the point where I am thinking I should have thought more about a Zune!!!
This is horrible and I hope Apple is working on "fixing" the itunes downgrade of 7.6 !!!

Steve O and frustrated !!!!!

it's a week since the problem started, and apple still didn't fix it, it's so simple! just take the 7.5, call it 7.7, ang give it to me! i don't care about iphone or movie rentals ('cause in italian store it isn't avaiable yet, not even music videos -.-" ).
I'm really angry, why the **** apple isn't thinking any ****** solution? never had such "windowsian" problem, i'm really disappointed.

So, a bit more experimenting, and I think/hope I have one of the main reasons for one of the biggest problems (periodic freezing) - make a backup of your Library file (NOT the entire library, just the few MB file that is in your iTunes home directory), and then trash your MPGs (not all movies, just those with an MPG extension).

For more of an explanation, see my other recent posts:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6466583#6466583

If it works, post a response - maybe this will help Apple to wake up, smell the coffee, and get an update out!

Fo all those of yoy pi**ed off with itunes 7.6..

Download 7.5 here

http://www.itnews.com.au/Downloads/Download.aspx?dl=19567

Over the past year I have been hesitant to upgrade most any Apple software on my Powerbook. Past upgrades of various programs have given me trouble but were somewhat easily corrected.

Last month I began seeing complaints on 7.6 and said to myself that I wasn't going to upgrade. Boy, was I just an idiot. I gave in and "attempted" an upgrade.

I started up Software Updated and let it do it's thing. As soon as it finished I knew something was amiss as it went back into update without prompting me to restart. Well, I was already there, so I restarted my Powerbook. Everything seemed to boot up OK and I went on to start the upgraded iTunes 7.6. I clicked on the icon and waited....and waited....and waited. I went back to the icon and it was lying there dormant. Perhaps I didn't properly "click" on it? So I tried again. It bounced merrily for a few seconds, the active arrow came on and faded away within a few seconds. Nothing, dead....useless.

I remained calm. I smacked myself in the head. What an idiot! I actually thought that 7.6 would be OK with MY computer. I MEAN IT IS A MAC! DOH!

I went into applications, dragged 7.6 to the trash, trashed the icon and went to empty the trash. BUT NO-O-O-O-O-O! I couldn't because iTunes help system was still in use! Bah! Restart. Emptied the trash and 7.6 was HISTORY!!!

Fortunately I saved 7.2, reinstalled it and everything is back to normal.

I pay dung-loads of money for Mac stuff and I constantly tell people about how great Macs are.

I am ashamed of you Apple! I shouldn't have to worry about whether or not Apple supplied upgrades are going to work or not.

Please fix this. How can I use the newer functions of your iTunes store when your software is defective and you seem to ignore the cries of your faithful customers?

At least have the decency to come out and say "Yes, we're sorry, there are some issues with 7.6 and we're working quickly to correct them".

What gives guys?

p.s. - nope, I have absolutely ZERO third party plug-ins on my iTunes. It's clean.

My Itunes had an error report pop up today then I got it to work okay for awhile. Now when I play music, it sounds like one song is playing at the sametime as another or one song echoing the same song like an overlap. It's frustrating. I just got the upgrade to 7.6 and bought some music from the store that I've only heard a few times. I'm a new customer. It may be partially my speakers, because I've noticed that they have acted funny with windows media before I had an Ipod. Maybe there's a bug that needs to be fixed somewhere 🙂.

Seagull70,

Thanks for this suggestion.
My iTunes was dieing just like everyone's elses, but I didn't have any straight MPGs. So as a first step I removed all videos. I know it is a bit of an overkill, but iTunes is working again. Over time I plan on adding things back to see what does and doesn't work.

I turns out I had quite a mix of video from my podcasts (16 gigs worth). I did delete, keep files for all my videos (with huge waits between each step).

The file types I removed were: M4V, M4A, MP4 and MOV.

I assume I can add back the MP4s and the MOVs and they are iTune and Quicktime Docs. I don't know about the M4Vs and the M4As though.

What I wonder is if this is a bad interaction between ITunes and Quicktime?

Wow what a load of poo. I had a chat with an Itunes tech for about 4 hours a couple of weekends ago on what they believed had a corrupted file somewhere in Itunes which has caused my problem. They did mention that their people knew that this update had caused problems with those running on a Dell computer, which I have. Thanks to those out there trying to give a few helpful answers as Apple has yet to look at this seriously. I would love to try a few of them out but I get the 5 second window to do one thing and then the program becomes non-responsive. My collection of music and videos is on the bigger side (Over 500gb worth) and in task manager I have seen Itunes running at levels at 500,000 - 700,000k I had never seen it even remotely trying to run at these levels. It really makes it useless to run even one more open program. I just wish they would make things such as movie downloads optional. Just stick with a music program and don't break it with other applications. I'm sure I have others out there who feel the same. Seems every music program out there is broken. Good luck to everyone and try to keep the frustration level managable.

Here is a possible workaround for the iTunes-freeze problem when sync'ing the iPod:
1. Move the folder Users/Your_Name/Music/Movies out of the Music folder
2. Open iTunes
3. Go to Preferences/Synchronization
4. Check "deactivate automatic synchronization"
5. Connect your iPod
6. Deactivate synchronization of Movies
7. Sync the iPod manually. It should sync o.k.
8. Move the folder "Movies" back to the Music-folder.
9. Leave Movie-sync turned off until Apple comes up with a solution

i dl 7.6 yesterday and now whenever I watch a movie, music video or TV show there is no audio. even when i go to preview a video from the itunes store. but all my songs work ok.

any1 else having problems like mine?

Hundreds of users with the same problem, dozens of threads and work-arounds - you just have to read them ...

This release is a disaster! I tried reinstalling, etc. Ultimately, I had to search the net for a copy of 7.5, install that and replace the iTunes Library.itl file with the one from my Previous ITunes Libraries directory.

Is Apple too pleased with itself to have such pedestrian things as QA departments?

You mean QA like in "post a Windows XP problem in the iTunes for Mac forum"?

Removing all movies/videos from my iTunes library seems to have solved the beachballing problem for me... -- D.