New iPod randomly skipping songs

Been watching this forum for over a year now and decided to add to the list. Bought my ipod 120gb classic and songs were skipping like everyone else (but worked absoultey fine on 60gb photo... wish my friend didnt drop the 60gb on the floor) . Not the same song ever, and sometimes it would lock up. I returend the first ipod and got a completely new one and it did the same thing. I figured it was something that would be fixed with updates but I was very wrong. Been using the backlight trick thanks to this forum, and ipod has had zero problems. Was thinking i wanted to turn the backlight off to preserve battery since its getting older so I came back to find a solution.

Will look to defrag soon... Definitely not happy with apple after all this. How hard is it to sell us a harddrive to play audio?

But anyway, not sure if anyone notices but it sounds like the ipod makes a harddrive disc noise when its skipping on songs.

Off to the defragger...

i have the same issues with my ipod 120gb. random skipping and reboot (sometimes with ugly logo).
i noticed if ipod rebooting when playing song that the better way to KILL your ipod's hard drive cuz reboot lead to INCREASE the RETRACKS on your ipod's hard drive. think about it. i hope apple do something with this.

Message was edited by: sherilyn hope

Also add me to the ever-growing list.

I had a 20gb iPod that worked flawlessly until it finally gave up the ghost and the harddrive ground to a raspy halt.

I bought a 120gb iPod Classic and was initially impressed.

That was shortlived. I listen to mostly podcasts and audiobooks. I travel frequently and most of my original cd's are in storage or long since given away/sold. Well, every 13 to 20 minutes, it skips. Frustrating as all ****.

The store was no help at all. They sent me (just like they've sent you) off with bad advice and failed directions to cure the problem.

I've been wanting to buy an iPhone for some time, but I wanted the option to use a bluetooth keyboard without jailbreaking it. I guess the next OS version will allow it, but I'm going to go Android after this lack of customer service.

Thought I'd also put my name down; I've got a randomly skipping 120GB model. Tried pretty much everything listed here, and the backlight 'fix' seems to be working for now, so fingers crossed. Still, not exactly great for battery life.

Mine didn't start showing this problem 'til it was out of warranty (had it since around the time this thread was started). At first it would just skip to the next track, very occasionally, and after a seemingly random amount of time through the current track. Just recently, however, it's got to the point that it's unusable. I couldn't play more than 3 songs without getting the ugly, 3-colour Apple logo, and then having to hold menu + select to reboot. Sort of glad to know it's not just me, but since it's been about 1-and-a-half years and Apple have done squat about it, I'm basically pretty irate. Shame I can't do anything because of the pitiful, 1-year warranty. Going to try and get in touch with Apple, anyway. It's clearly a widespread problem, not just an individual, faulty device.

Guess I'll have to wait 'til we see the Zune in the UK...

I'm having the same problem.
The iPod was working fine one day,
and now it refuses to play most songs.
It tends to skip through many of them when I've got it on shuffle.
If I try to reset the ipod sometimes it "deletes" all of the files from the device, but under settings, I can see that the files are still there, as they are still taking up room. iTunes will freeze whenever I plug the iPod in. I've restored the ipod at least 10 times..

All I want to do is listen to my music apple!
Is that so hard? :/

The problem is with our machines and not the ipod itself. I have an ipod classic 120gb and ever since i bought it, i have been having the same issue. I went to the Apple store and they couldn't fix it. I have had it replaced 3 times and the problem persisted. I found a site that explained that it has to do with the Dual Core processor in our machines. I bought a netbook that didn't have a dual core processor and i haven't had a problem since. As of today, I still cannot get anyone from Apple to acknowledge this is a problem.
Good luck to anyone who can find a fix.

Okay, I have a few gripes about the Ipod and sometimes regret buying it, but I have to say, I really think a lot of you are wrong in regards to this topic.

Now listen before you get all wound up. I too suffered the random skipping, though it was mild compared to everyone else, considering I have nearly 17,000 songs on my Ipod. So far, only two albums have skipped, and only about half of each album did this. The Ipod would skip the songs right away without playing even a second. So I got around to doing some research the other day.

I highly doubt, in most of these cases, that it is the fault of the Ipod. I think a lot of you have corrupted music files, no matter how much you want to deny it. Most of the time, wma or Itunes or zune or the Ipod won't even notice the file is corrupted and you most certainly will not get a warning from your player. Trust me, most likely your file is corrupted, not your ipod. In fact, *you need to be careful of what you download*. Now I am sure most of you download at least some of your music, and download any old file, but there is a lot of junk out there. Also, it might be an issue of your cd burner, if you are using ripped music. Sometimes there are various errors that can occur during this stage, even minor ones. But even minor errors can come back to haunt you.

So what you can do, Before putting any music on the Ipod, is download mp3val and it will check all your files to see if they are corrupt. You can than fix them and than put them on your ipod. For the two albums that were giving me trouble, I put them through mp3val, found they were corrupt, fixed them and than on the ipod again and had NO issue.

So use this for your problem files. Because I HIGHLY doubt it is Apples fault for the majority of you. You most likely have garbage files. I did too.

http://www.gromkov.com/faq/repair/mp3_validator.html

Short synopsis (from the site):

-MP3 Validator is a small, high-speed tool for MPEG audio files validation and for *fixing problems*. It can be *useful for finding corrupted files*

-_Most players even don't report to user about stream errors. So, as a rule, user doesn't know whether his files are valid or broken._ But using broken files can eventually lead to problems during playback on certain software/hardware.

-although MP3val can repair even files with MPEG stream errors, *it is recommended that you find a "good" copy of this file* (which some of you, I am SURE probably do not do. Hey, we are all guilty of d/ling poor quality files without knowing it, but again, be more careful of what you d/l, okay? It is better for music lovers and Ipod users alike.)

This program fixed my two problem albums and they now work on my ipod after re syncing it. I will try it in the future if I discover any more problem files.

Remember, the ipod might play corrupted files at first, even for a while. But eventually, I think the ipod will start to act funky with corrupted files and files with errors.

Try mp3val before blaming apple.

Message was edited by: Carl2IndieRockFan

It's nice to find a large community of people who are experiencing the same awful service and support that I am. I just got a replacement for my 120 GB classic ipod (black) for the 4TH TIME. That's right, number 4. It worked for a few hours (total) and then this morning, the same old thing:

Skip. Silence. Skipskipskipskipskip. Nothing.

Now it wants me to restore the Ipod using Itunes. This has been extremely unsuccessful the last few times this happened (on the other ipods). I am extremely dissatisfied. I plan to try the defragmentation tonight, and if that works I'll probably try the backlight trick too, just in case, but I'm not holding my breath.

A note to the apologists: I have checked my MP3s, most of which I ripped myself from my own collection. It's not the files. It's the device. Come on, Apple, support your customers! You're making me want to buy a different brand, and that's just not good business, as it looks like I'm not alone, here.

I am so fed up with this problem. I live two hours from an Apple store so my only easy option has been sending it to Apple. Comes back - no problems found. (Bought AppleCare within my first year as it was obvious this was going to be a long fight.) I have to restore the iPod about every three weeks - then it is good for a while, then the skipping/restarting comes back and just gets worse and worse until I restore again. I listen to my iPod at work through speakers on my desk. This morning (been at work just over 2 hours) it has restarted 4 times. As a long time, frequent upgrader from Apple - I can't be more disappointed about their apathy to this. Look at the number of views on this forum - 47,000 and counting. Apple - shouldn't that tell you something?

Ripping your music means nothing, errors can still occur. Like I said, thick head, I am not an "apologist." How did you go about "checking" your mp3s anyways?

Simple, use http://www.gromkov.com/faq/repair/mp3_validator.html to check your mp3s. I am sure you did not. Your mp3s are probably corrupt, even if you rip them, errors can occur. Did you ever think that it could be your burner?

Message was edited by: Carl2IndieRockFan

Also, Defragment your ipod, the drive could be (badly) fragmented, which could lead to slower performance and problems such as the ones you guys are experiencing. Especially if you are adding and deleting songs often. You would defrag your hard drive, yes? So why treat the ipod any differently?

So,
-Check mp3s with mp3val, replace damaged tracks on ipod
-Defrag the ipod

Then see what happens.

@Carl2IndieRockFan:

The input is appreciated, and I'm sure what you're saying will help a few people, but I don't think you've read through much of this thread - or, at best, you have misunderstood the problem.

When we say random skipping, the emphasis is on random. For you, it was specific tracks from specific albums, which would lead me to believe it probably was corrupted file(s). You also say it skips without even starting the track, again suggesting a bad encode. The problem we are dealing with can be from (it seems) any part of any track.

On top of that, I don't think that everyone here could just be suffering from bad rips. It does happen, but it's not exactly common. I have, personally, never had anything rip or encode incorrectly and my CD collection is quite large (imo, anyway - but either way, if it was widespread I am sure I would have seen it by now).

This isn't a personal attack, but I felt some clarification was needed; if you have specific tracks or albums that skip, then by all means try mp3val because your files are probably corrupted. However, if like most of us you are having the problem with any track/album you play, with the iPod cutting out during playback and going to the next song, and possibly leading to the iPod crashing giving you a horrible looking Apple logo, it won't help.

(I did actually try mp3val on a few albums containing tracks I know have skipped, and it didn't find anything wrong with them).

Also, the backlight fix is still working fine, which means it must be a software issue (the iPod can play back fine, it just doesn't like to). I wish Apple would try and work on a fix.

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention, most people have tried wiping and restoring their iPods, which is better than any defrag, and it hasn't helped (me included).

Message was edited by: UnWeave

I just bought 160GB classic, and have been experiencing the same issues of skipping songs, but songs played perfectly when device connected to iTunes, very frustrated. Went back to the store for an exchange the next day after my purchase, but the new set comes with the same problem!!

Tried setting brightness to 0, leaving backlight on, and not syncing album artwork, but nothing has worked. Today is the 4th day after my purchase, I am asking for another replacement set, but apple told me that its policy is exchange within 7 days' of purchase, and each customer is only allowed to get one replacement set. Totally disappointed with apple...going to lodge a complaint with the consumers association in Singapore to get my money back!

Has anyone tried to use some other program to load music into your ipod classic? I suspect iTunes may be causing the skipping problem. Try programs like Mediamonkey or Floola; maybe that would solve this extremely irritating skipping problem.

Thanks nave aihc, for your suggestiion, but no one has access to my device or laptop. I got a refund from the store yesterday, and am now considering other brands of MP3.....not sure if other brands of MP3s with more than 100GB are available in Singapore...