Syncing Issues: album art, cut-off songs

I'm experiencing songs getting cut off while being played back on my iTouch as well (synch'd from a MS Vista machine). It's very, very frustrating to have bought this expensive music player and not being able to enjoy over half the music I download to it because of this problem.

Same here on Vista 64 bit. I thought the songs that were cutting off were just at the tail end of albums, but I've noticed some songs in album middles cutting off as well (not on my computer but on my 16GB Touch). To fix one of them i just changed some info in the info tab which flags the ipod to reimport the song. After reimport the song plays fine. So yes, there definitly is a problem here and I hope they resolve it because I care not to go through all of my 2000 songs to see which ones work and which don't. :S

Is it me or does this seem to be a Vista related problem? My wife had originally synched her's to a laptop running XP without any problems. After replacing that laptop with a Vista based machine she's started to have the "cut off" song problem. I've restored her Touch but seeing as how I had to use the original XP laptop top to do this it didn't solve the problem. Anyone else have more luck? Is Apple aware of this problem?

It may not be just a Vista problem - I'm experiencing the same thing with my MacBook and an 8GB iPod nano. I've restored the iPod to factory settings, which didn't help. Only certain songs seem to be affected, apparently all by the same artist (Cake) as far as I can tell. Very weird.

Thank god it's not only my Ipod touch that's got this problem.

I have the 16GB model and untill recently have had no problem, however during the last month I have noticed that lots of songs have now become short clips. Anything from 5 sec to almost full songs.

I have tried everything to stop it but it just keeps doing it. I manage to fix one song only to have it affect more. My last resort is to restore it back, however I have paid for the January update and fear I would loose this and would have to pay another £12.50 to get it back!

How frustrating is this!!!! I paid a lot to have this ipod, and now it's causing me nothing but grief. My son's new nano has no problem.

So come on Apple get this sorted.

There are a couple of other threads on the music cutting off issue. Same exact thing is happening to me since I got a new PC. And believe me I have tried everything, reinstalling everything, recreating my library, changing usb ports, cables, etc. One thread has pinpointed the problem to dual core processors on new machines. So its been reported to Apple, we are now all just waiting for some kind of help.

I too am experiencing the cut off songs as well as video stopping randomly, Vista, Dual-Core

I have a 16g and sync it with dual and quad-core Dells, 2 running Win XP and the other Vista. Same issues with song cut-offs. I restored twice with no relief. The third time worked - I made sure the *wireless was turned off* during restore. Using the PC that I purchased the January update from allowed me to get that back without paying again - just had to make sure my Touch had the same device name as before. Hope this helps.

I have a Touch that I was going to return for a replacement until I started reading all the threads and posts on other people experiencing the same symptoms I have with songs stopping in the middle somewhere and skipping to the next song. I also am using Windows Vista with a dual core processor. My Ipod Shuffle is not having any issues, it is just the Touch. I have tried the restore option only to have the problem move to different songs. I came here today after 2 weeks hoping to see a posting with a solution. Apparently I have to continue to wait. I just returned from a 10 day trip with my Touch and there are quite a few songs on it that stop playing. Also videos that I purchased through Itunes will also start to pixelate and then either continue to play or stop.

I also am using my 16gb ipod touch with vista, and noticed when I first got it about 5 songs that would always skip in the middle to the next song. They had all been ones ripped from their cds. However I just synched it again over the wknd, and now I can barely get through one song without it skipping, even on songs purchased through itunes!! I don't know what to do with it, it's not even listenable at this point! I've updated the firmware and everything and tried re-synching again. I am at a loss for what to do next!

Apple, are you going to create a Fix for this? It's very annoying having all of my songs cut-off when I'm using the Shuffle feature on my iPhone.

It happens to everyone!

Has anyone tried 7.6.2 to see if it resolves anything? They only had "bug fixes" in the patch notes without telling what they fixed. Braaaavvvvo.

I finally have the fix for this issue after a month of extensive debugging, experimentation, etc. on Windows Vista. I've reinstalled my whole **** computer twice, and Apple's phone support is a (bad) joke. They should just send me the script they use so I can read it myself.

First off, let's establish the symptoms of this problem:

* Data sync'ed to my iPod Touch would corrupt at random points. Sometimes songs would go through intact. Other times they would "glitch" partway through and the device would advance to the next song. Video files of a sufficient size -- like movies and T.V. episodes -- ALWAYS glitch at some point, which crashes the video playback and brings the device back to the video menu.

* Periodically, the iPod Touch would corrupt completely, which required a total firmware restoration. Rarely, these firmware restorations would also fail.

Now for the solution. It's a two-part deal:

1) Stop "Windows Search." It's not the major cause of sync problems, but it is a contributor, which is unsurprising given the amount of resources it hogs. Open the "Services" control panel item (Control Panel->System and Maintenance->Administrative Tools->Services, or just type "services.msc" into the "search" box on the Start Menu) and double-click "Windows Search." Click "stop" and set the startup type to "disabled," then click "OK."

2) This next part is going to be a bitter pill to swallow. When Microsoft launched Vista, it created a new "security feature" called PatchGuard which disallows direct kernel access to third-party applications. Antivirus vendors like McAfee, Symantec, Avast, etc. all have to use a kernel API rather than direct kernel access. However, Microsoft's own antivirus product -- Windows Live OneCare -- has complete access to the kernel without an API.

This appears to have created a weird situation with iTunes. I have reinstalled my system twice, both with 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista, and it seems that merely having a third-party antivirus product installed is sufficient to cause this problem. I've tried Avast, McAfee, Symantec and TrendMicro's products. The problem will not go away even if you turn off scanning, put in exceptions, etc. With Avast, I even terminated all of its processes and stopped its services. No dice. Just having a third-party antivirus product installed -- EVEN IF IT IS NOT RUNNING -- will cause this issue.

However, the second you UNINSTALL your third-party antivirus software, the problem goes away -- every time. I've sync'ed movies over and over again to test this, and it's definitely the primary source of the problem.

Obviously, running without antivirus software in this day and age is unacceptable, but there is one product that's free from this problem; in fact, it's the only product that still has direct kernel access. I'm running Windows Live OneCare on a 90-day trial right now, and after running more tests, I've confirmed my hypothesis. Any antivirus product with direct kernel access is fine. The problem is that Windows Live OneCare is the ONLY antivirus product right now with direct kernel access.

If you're running Windows Vista 32-bit, there may possibly be a second antivirus option. My Windows Vista-based gaming laptop uses Computer Associates' AV product, and it's never had a problem syncing with my iPod. I haven't really tested other products on it, though, so your mileage may vary. I can't say for certain that it's a safe bet.

So there you have it: one month of my nights and weekends down the toilet to fix an issue Apple and Microsoft should be handling. I feel like I've paid $500 for the privilege of being an unpaid Apple Q.A. tester. At this point, they should pay ME for the time I've wasted on this issue.

Wow. Thanks for doing all the debugging and posting it up. Well this sounds like something we are going to be waiting for a fix for awhile. Hopefully its something apple can handle via itunes. It will suck if there is something we have to wait for from norton or other 3rd party antivirus programs to fix. Another interesting little fact, I purchased an album from my ipod touch yesteday. Plugged it into my computer to copy the album over, now from what you see in the progress bar songs are being copied from my TOUCH to my COMPUTER, however upon listening to that album on my touch today, songs are cutting off, even though none were copied from my computer to my touch (according to the progress bar). Interesting huh?

Thanks for all of your work on this.....I am having the same problems now. However, for the first 4 months or so that I owned my Touch I had no problems whatsoever. I have 32 bit Vista and a AMD dual core processor.

I wonder how mine worked for so long and then stopped working?