iTunes freezes MY ENTIRE MAC

Question

Level 1

82 points

iTunes freezes MY ENTIRE MAC

This just started happening a while ago and it didn't bother me much until I had just lost a bunch of data due to this problem

Basically, everytime I play a song in iTunes, it might seem to go well after a couple songs, but then at random points that happen very often now, iTunes freezes and I just see the song length stuck at 0:00

The weird part is taht the song actually plays ALL the way through without any problems, but my entire mac is frozen now...

I can only move my mouse, which is useless because the dock, background, iTunes, EVERYTHING is now frozen

The only solution I have is to hold down the power button and do a hard restart

Repairing Disk Permissions doesn't do anything and scanning my Mac says its fine...

So can someone tell me what's wrong?

17" 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Apr 29, 2008 1:42 PM

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Answer 1

BlueX Author

Level 1

82 points

Apr 29, 2008 6:29 PM in response to BlueX

Is anyone experiencing this problem?

Or is it just me?

Now anytime I want to play music using iTunes, I have to be extra cautious I'm not doing anything important like making a text document or editing videos...

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Answer 2

BlueX Author

Level 1

82 points

May 10, 2008 12:38 PM in response to BlueX

Just happened again when I tried making a Time Machine backup and then resuming play in iTunes.

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Answer 3

ensoreli

Level 1

4 points

May 10, 2008 3:22 PM in response to BlueX

do you have lastfm or a scrobbling program?

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Answer 4

BlueX Author

Level 1

82 points

May 12, 2008 12:16 PM in response to ensoreli

I don't do any of those things

All I do is try to play a song and it'll freeze everything.

Just happened to me again when iTunes was the only thing running

Right when I went to play the song, iTunes froze, then my entire mac froze forcing me to force shut down my computer

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Answer 5

gouns

Level 1

4 points

May 12, 2008 10:19 PM in response to BlueX

Hey,
I've got exactly the same problem on a MBPro with Leopard 10.5.2
It started to happen with iTunes 7.6 or 7.6.1 and to me it happens almost only when I use Cover Flow so I switched back to the list view mode and I'm fine for now.
Waiting for Apple to fix this, can't see my covers anymore 😟

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Answer 6

BlueX Author

Level 1

82 points

May 13, 2008 6:31 PM in response to gouns

Hmm, it does seem likely that the problem comes from cover flow since I use it all the time

But I've gotten so accustomed to using cover flow that I really can't choose my music without seeing it lol

Well I'll try switching it off for now and see how that works out

IT froze on me once more today when I tried to switch back to the Spaces window I put it in

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Answer 7

May 14, 2008 9:40 AM in response to BlueX

Are you using Shape Shifter - it is a known bad actor with iTunes.

Did you repair permissions with Disk Utility?

MJ

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Answer 8

BlueX Author

Level 1

82 points

May 14, 2008 12:29 PM in response to Mike Johnson12

yep, I did everything and I don't use any iTunes apps that would interfere with it

Not sure exactly what's causing the problem but Mac OS X 10.5.2 has been very unstable with me lately

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Answer 9

May 14, 2008 7:31 PM in response to BlueX

Hi there, I hope this will help to solve your problem. Restart your Mac. in safe mode by pressing shift after the start-up tone until the gear starts spinning and the apple logo appears. After that, start running iTunes and test out with a couple of songs. If your Mac. continues to hang, it's probably a software problem and you might have to reinstall iTunes. Just a reminder to back-up your music if you want to reinstall iTunes.

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Answer 10

akumaryu

Level 1

0 points

May 16, 2008 8:08 AM in response to BlueX

Hi,
I'm getting the sam problem with itunes 7.6.2 (leopard 10.5.2) started about 3-4 days ago. Thought it because of synching my ipod at the time, but it happens without it.
In fact about 4 freeze ago it damaged my itunes library, but all data was retrieved from my music folder, lost a whole bunch of custom artwork. and some still doesn't display properly.
I know the feeling of having to be cautious using itunes, I'm almost constantly running it when I'm on my MBP.
I'm also running in cover art view. I'm not running any extra itunes apps.
Gonna keep a look out for a solution out there, post if anyone finds an answer.
Until then might have to wait till 7.6.3

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Answer 11

BlueX Author

Level 1

82 points

May 16, 2008 8:01 PM in response to BlueX

Jeez, just had this thing freeze on me for about 5 or more times in a row in only an hour

Looks like the problem lies in the cover flow so I just turned it off for now...

Another curious thing is that at random log ins, my video graphics would lag and not run as smooth as it should

It only returns back to normal after I've returned it from sleep

This might be connected, although it's hard to tell with macs now...

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Answer 12

May 17, 2008 2:25 AM in response to BlueX

So....did starting up in safe mode help?

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Answer 13

mkummer

Level 2

297 points

May 17, 2008 8:55 AM in response to I-love-my-macbook

I think the newest iTunes is a bit buggy. I have those complete system freezes if I start some movies one after another for testing purposes. All goes well unti film 3 or 4 and then the whole MBP stalls. Only help - reboot.

Another thing: every movie or TV show stalls after a certain time for some moments and jumps forward some seconds. After that stall, all runs OK, only some seconds later a short stuttering is noticeable.

I have a very large audio library on a external drive as primary drive. I leave the movies on another external drive w(o copying to the primary drive. So I just think, iTunes is stretched to its limit and has memory problems. The iPod classic 160 had those in the first weeks after its appearance, too. Lots of people with large libraries exchanged their iPods w/o effect. I was patient and now at least that works fine.

mk

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Answer 14

BlueX Author

Level 1

82 points

May 17, 2008 11:03 AM in response to I-love-my-macbook

Booting in safe mode took over 5 minutes to fully load the desktop and everything

And once iTunes was open, the songs wouldn't even play because I guess safe mode won't let you

It didn't freeze at all so I'm assuming something might be wrong with the cover flow option

Right now I've set it to list view mode and it seems to be working.

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Answer 15

DDDave

Level 1

0 points

May 17, 2008 1:51 PM in response to BlueX

Similar if not exact same problem. You should see my thread,"iTunes completely locks up my MBP". No fixes but a lot of other people with the same problem so you know it's not just you.

Interesting that the only people having this problem own a MBP and the majority of them are using cover flow mode. It has to be something with cover flow.

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