IPOD Mini and Itunes freezes?

Oren,

I noticed the same thing, that transferring song by song, individually, appears to work fine... I also noticed that when I transfer a particularly large song file (I record NPR shows each day that automatically get tossed in my iTunes Library) the transfer rate slows down, but it still finishes the transfer...

Still, I mostly agree with you, but I believe it has something to do with the latest firmware upgrade and the combination of iTunes 4.7. I believe I was running 4.7 without a hitch until I upgraded the firmware... Are you running the latest firmware?

Brad

Hi Brad,
Yes, the firmware was updated. Doing the reinstall didn't fix the problem - transferred songs one by one, but groups still crashed, and reallly stubborn crashes, couldn't even shut down without holding the power button. Other times iTunes shuts down. This is tough, obviously can't sync or even delete files from mini.
I could transfer my music to the Ti - my wife's actually, which seems to have no problem, but you know how it is -too much fun trying to figure out the fix. I got an error saying the mini had files that were being used even after tunes seemed to shut down, but force quit showed it really hadn't fully quit. I actually had a freeze transferring one file at a time - so surprised no solution's been posted. Tough one.

Oren,

Yup, I've experience everything you've described so far. Like you, I'm still surprised this isn't a bigger issue (are we only handful of people experiencing this problem?), and if it is a bigger issue, is Apple listening to us?

On a related side note... I tested this bug out by using my USB cable with my flat panel iMac. Whattya know!!! The syncing issues with multiple files is gone. It works like a charm. Looks like it must have connected at USB 2.0 bandwidth, because the syncing of my files was rather quick. I don't know if Firewire and my mini ever worked at that speed, but...

Looks like it must be a bug with iTunes, the firmware, and firewire... More specifically, it seems to be an issue with firewire, as people with iSight cameras were having issues as well. For the people with iSights, it appears that a quick reload of the firmware fixes their issues... Haven't tried this with mine yet...

Brad

OK Brad, Try this:connect mini, open iTunes preferences: change buffer size from medium to large. I also selected the share all music option, even though I don't network my macs. It worked! First time I've been able to transfer new complete playlists, including a three movement Mozart quintet! Let me know how it works for you.
Oren

Are you referring to the "Streaming Buffer Size" under "Advanced"? I'm trying it right now.

Yeah, that's correct. Keeping my fingers crossed!

So Brad,
What happened? Any luck? I haven't needed to sync my mini but I was hoping you'ld be able to do that. (This feels like one of those games we played as kids where the whoever figured out the answer kept quiet and joined the kids watching the next one get frustrated.) Any earlier posters figure this out?

Wow. You figured it out. I tried it a few minutes ago and it worked! My buffer was set to medium, so I bumped it up to "large". Woohoo! I hope someone at Apple was reading our posts and gets this addressed in the next version of iTunes or the firmware, or whatever is causing this issue.

Hate to say it, but changing my buffer to "large" didn't seem to do anything. It's still getting stuck and hanging. Annoying, to say the least!

Awww, and I was feeling so macho! Did you also set the preference under the sharing tab to share all my music? I did both and haven't experimented further to eliminate one - but so far I'm OK. Really hope it works for you.

Yup, I have "Share entire library" set. Oh well. Guess maybe I'll have to wait for Apple to fix this one 😟. No Mini any more for me, for now. When I was trying to figure out what the problem was, I restored it to factory conditions, thus wiping out all the songs, and now I can't copy any significant number over any more.

Hmmmm... A temporary work around would be to use the USB cable.

Are you like us, in that you do not have an iSight?

Yup, I don't have an iSight. I'm using the USB cable now, which seems to be working, though rather slowly as expected 😉. Thanks for the suggestion!

There is a definite conflict between iPod mini, iTunes and iSight.

I experienced a 'freeze' when when copying a playlist from iTunes to the Ipod mini on the Firewire connection. (the USB connection works OK though).

By disconnecting the iSight camera, the Firwire conencton works as normal.

FYI my system is a G4 on 10.3.7 with iTunes 4.7 and latest iPode mini updater as at 11/15/05

Is there a way to alert Apple to our thread so they can read about this bug... I know about the "feedback" webpage, but I want to give them a link to our discussion, and the links expire...

Anyway, I just got an iSight for Christmas, and I was having problems before the iSight. This bug needs to be squashed.