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New iPod randomly skipping songs

I got a new iPod classic 120GB, replacing my old 60gb. I loaded it up with my songs and stuff, and started using it, but after a while it skipped to next song halfway through a song. This happened a few times, and once the ipod even restarted itself (after displaying a low quality 8bit colour apple logo image). I then restored my iPod, and checked for latest software, and it seemed to be better for a while, but it just skipped a song again.

I'm pretty sure all the song files are mp3, but maybe some AACs. Songs that skipped played fine other times. iPod hasn't been dropped since I got it... I guess I have to take it to an apple center for warranty... Does anyone elses new 120GB skip songs?

Thanks
Rodger

New 120GB Classic, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Sep 16, 2008 8:05 AM

Reply
258 replies

Oct 19, 2011 11:35 PM in response to MarkWH

I tried using MP3 Validator as suggested by the previous post. After processing all of my mp3's (about 5000), many of them showed errors, almost all were fixed. I reset my iPod to factory settings and re-synced it. The problem with skipping and rebooting was greatly reduced but not eliminated. I set it to shuffle all of my U2 songs--all of which I knew reported good via MP3 Validator---and it skipped on 2 in about 2 hours time. It did not crash/reboot as before and did not skip as often but I'm not certain that this was not due to resetting and resynching.


In summary, something is still wrong with my iPod. After Apple kills the iPod Classic, I hope other such issues don't show up in the newer products (Touch, Nano, iPhone, etc).


I'd be interested to hear others' results after processing their library with MP3 Validator.

Oct 20, 2011 5:37 AM in response to CoreyScogin

I'd rather not wipe my ipod again as I dont use the library feature so I have songs on there from a few pcs of mine.


I have 8000+ songs so you can imagine this will take a while.


I tried running mpe3val directly on the iopod but it would just sit there. Im copying the music folder to my workstatio nand everytime it finds a file it cannot copy (cant read error) I skip it and make a note and continue. I will run the validator on the folder once done and hopefully there aren't too many I need to copy back over again.


If this works i'll post back.

Oct 26, 2011 8:06 AM in response to Rodger Sutherland

My ipod Classic 120 only began skipping songs within the last couple of months, which happens to have been around the time I updated it for the first time in a long time. It is becoming useless to me. There's nothing quite like hearing a great tune only to have it rudely interupted with a skip to another song just when you're getting into it! I've got 15,000 tunes on there, and it seems to want to skip about 1 out of 5 songs. It did not always do this.


Has anyone tried to revert to an older version of the software? It seems that this issue doesn't appear to be worthy of a formal response from Apple. I, as a customer, want to matter enough to them that they'd issue a fix. Am I expecting too much?

Jan 18, 2012 9:06 PM in response to Rodger Sutherland

Ive had the same issue on 120gb classic.........skips at any point in a song- but then on another day thay same song will play no problem....vice versa- go figure.....i have the exact same music library on an iphone and all songs work no problem. has anyone had a resolution on this- cos i cannot be stuffed readding 4000song back into itunes....itunes is a pain enough as is.

Feb 4, 2012 1:13 PM in response to Rodger Sutherland

Not sure if this is the same thing but I will describe it. I have an iPod Classic 160GB, just recently I started noticing that when I played a specific album let's say Michael Jackson's Bad (Special Edition) I hit the first song which is the song Bad, it will skip and I have it on Shuffle, so it shuffled to a random song at the end of the album which was a Quincy Jones interview, and so I hit next track and it would go from track 2 of 18 to 6 of 18, skipping the songs on the album like Speed Demon or The Way You Make Me Feel. So i was getting a bit upset and so I decided to try to a different album of MJ's. Dangerous, I hit play on the first track and then it would skip every single track on the album, the album would pretty much just not play any kind of song. It would get to the last track and stay at 0:00 and so I hit play again and now instead of skipping it will go to the song but it will be at 0:00. So now every time I go to a different album it stays at 0:00 then I would have to restart my iPod using both Menu and Center button.


Does anyone else have this issue? I know it sort of relates to the skipping issue but I think that maybe a recent firmware update screwed it up, or maybe the new update to iTunes ruined all iPods out there. I know this is like several years ago but my iPod never use to do this. The songs can't be corrupted because they play fine on iTunes without any kind of issues. The dude at my local Mac / Apple Store said that I need to back up my music and do a system restore.


That's fine and dandy but my laptop only has 40GB left on the hard drive and my external hard drive doesn't want to seem to work with my Macbook Pro. So I am either SOL or Apple come out and address this issue. It's so messed up how they just abandoned people who have iPod Classics and only focus on those who have the iPod Touch.

Feb 5, 2012 10:50 AM in response to BrandonCali

Hi - to all of you with Skipping issues. I have had the same problem, but Bilbo from Cheshire solved it on a different thread. The problem seems to be corrupted MPEG headers (whatever they are!), and the Firmware with the latest iTunes is less tolerant of errors in the headers. Apparently. Anyway, I downloaded MP3Validator (just googled it and there was a helpful tutorial from another tech guy) it is free. You find any tracks or whole albums that are skipping and ask it to check them - it does, then solves the problems. Delete the tracks from your iPod and then re-install them using "find folder" option, re-sync the ipod and they work.


or at least they do for me! Hope this helps.

Feb 5, 2012 12:05 PM in response to simonfromcorsham

I just downloaded MP3 validator aka MP3 Scan+Repair for Mac users and this method actually worked. I did it on Michael Jackson's Dangerous cause it was skipping for me on every single song, I used the songs on my iTunes, put them into the program they all reported an error with the MPEG, I selected them all and I had clicked on the little Fix button and it told me about how it will put the original files in the trash bin and replace them with fixed files. So after that process I had deleted the songs from my iTunes but didn't put them in the trash I made sure I had the folder opened then put them back into my iTunes, I deleted the album from my iPod and put the files from my iTunes to my iPod.


From that point I ejected my iPod and went to the album and to my surprise the songs started playing the bad part is I will not know what artists or songs will have this issue, but I mainly cared to fix my MJ songs cause they wouldn't play in my car. Thank you so much for the MP3 Validator solution it worked perfectly, now just gotta see if it works on that Bad album.

Feb 8, 2012 2:26 AM in response to BrandonCali

So I downloaded MP3 scan repair- and just ran this on my whole itunes folder- but to only scan mp3''s

can i say i LOVE Mp3 scan repair- saved my life- from what i saw over half of my library had either corrupt headers or end files- not entirely sure what this means but- i know this.......the iphone 4 onwards (ios5+) can handle corrupt files better and the old OS cannot


hope this helps anyone that is still having issues

New iPod randomly skipping songs

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