Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >

Newsroom Update

Apple Music today announced the release of its 100 Best Albums of all time, a list crafted by Apple Music’s experts alongside industry professionals. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Determining Gapless Playback Information

One of the many issues I'm having with iTunes, Time Capsule (where the music is stored) and AirTunes.
Does anyone know how to terminate the 'determining gapless playback information' function? That is to say, keep it from even happening/starting?
Everytime I start iTunes, it does this. I have over 14,000 songs and I get the spinning beach ball and cannot use iTunes. If I let it run for awhile (2 hours?), I can eventually X out of it in the iTunes window.
I've dumped preferences and re-launched. I've unchecked the preferences that seem like they could be related (cross-fade, etc.).
When I DO get it to work, it plays one song and goes silent- although it shows the music as playing in the iTunes window. Separate issue, likely...
Thanks in advance for input.

iMac G5 1.8GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Mar 8, 2009 12:06 PM

Best reply

arlo2342432432432432

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Aug 18, 2017 7:34 PM

OSX 10.12.6

Itunes 12.6.2.20

Still having this problem. Here's what I did, which will mess up tones and podcasts (a little), as well as requiring that you re-sync any ios devices and transfer the songs from scratch.

However, you won't have to do any mp3->aac converting, and you can keep your playlists, file locations, play count, etc.

1. Open the Itunes folder. It should contain a file called 'iTunes Library.itl'.

2. Start up Itunes.

3. The Itunes folder should now contain a file called 'iTunes Library.xml'. Copy this file to another directory, such as the desktop.

4. Shut down itunes.

5. Move the 'iTunes Library.itl' file to another directory, such as the desktop.

6. Open itunes.

7. In the itunes menu bar, select File -> Library -> Import playlist, and select the xml file from step 3.

8. Wait. This took about 30-40 seconds for me, with <4000 songs on a 2014 macbook pro.

And you should have your library back!

To add back tones, and any other lost files, locate them in the 'iTunes Media' folder and drag-and-drop them back into itunes.

To avoid this problem in the future, try adding songs (especially mp3 320kbps and ALAC files) to itunes only by adding the files themselves, (not in subfolders), to the file 'Automatically Add to iTunes' in 'iTunes Media' in 'iTunes' folder. (this is untested, since the problem is so sporadic).

View in context

119 replies

Jan 20, 2014 3:10 PM in response to mrtew

@mrtew. Glad to hear its working out for you.

Another method is to change to mp3 tag to v2.4 from iTunes.

It's not 100% but some do work. Maybe that will reduce the number to convert to AAC

Of course, just convert the labrum with the problem.

It will take time but it's better than waiting for a solution from apple.

mrtew

Level 1

8 points

Jan 20, 2014 3:29 PM in response to Marcus Ong

"Another method is to change to mp3 tag to v2.4 from iTunes."??? What does that mean? Explain?

Jan 20, 2014 4:15 PM in response to mrtew

Right click on the song and under the options you should see mp3 id tag or something like that.

Choose v2.4. Sometimes that helps but it's not 100%.

Means it works for some but not others. Don't know why...

But it MAY reduce the number of files to convert to AAC

Chris CA

Level 10

82,440 points

Jan 20, 2014 6:20 PM in response to br0w3r

br0w3r wrote:

brilliant, Mr Ong. would you be willing to come over and do that for all 30,000 tracks in my library?

Because it's difficult to select all and let it run?

br0w3r

Level 1

8 points

Jan 20, 2014 6:49 PM in response to mrtew

ID3 tags contain information about the file - album, artist, genre, e.g. there is no conceivable way in which the ID3 tag version itself could have an effect on gapfulness, or gaplessness. i suppose that when itunes writes the file after updating the ID3 tags, it could also set some other bit, but this sounds like throwing snowflakes in the air and hoping they land as a snowball.

br0w3r

Level 1

8 points

Jan 20, 2014 7:02 PM in response to Chris CA

how long do you suppose it might take to convert 2TB of files? where will the 2TB of new data be written? please.

in any case, i have tried every known file conversion on two files for which "gapless playback information" must always be "determined" to no avail, so the experiment has already failed the reproducibility test. the punchline? both were purchased at the itunes store!

the gapless condundrum is merely one of many proofs that, for the management of a real-world library, itunes is a crappy tool. it's like trying to make paper dolls with a pair of pliers. but since itunes costs nothing and is intended not as a library management tool but as a funnel to the itunes store cash machine, this is not unexpected. what is puzzling is that no other tool has filled the empty market niche. i would happily fork over 49.95 for the tool if anybody had it to sell. plex almost works, sometimes, partially.

Chris CA

Level 10

82,440 points

Jan 20, 2014 7:10 PM in response to br0w3r

br0w3r wrote:

how long do you suppose it might take to convert 2TB of files? where will the 2TB of new data be written? please.

Dunno, but your previous post indicated it would be very difficult to do and take a lot time with you actaully doing a bunch of work.

DnDulle

Level 1

0 points

Feb 8, 2014 1:56 PM in response to Chris CA

Guys this worked for me,

If you have an album with, for instance 20 tracks. Go to each track en fill in the track numbers like; Track 1 of 20 .... and so on!

Switch off the fade in/fade out function from the optionmenu.

Try it ..!

Let me know if it works

ten4

Level 1

0 points

Feb 9, 2014 3:09 AM in response to DnDulle

Determining Gapless Playback Information

Interesting idea

but I have way too many tracks to be able to attempt in this lifetime.

but thanks for sharing

Chris CA

Level 10

82,440 points

Feb 9, 2014 9:05 AM in response to ten4

ten4 wrote:

Determining Gapless Playback Information

Interesting idea

Tagging your songs correctly is an "interesting idea"?

Would it be common sense?

but I have way too many tracks to be able to attempt in this lifetime.

So you do not have your tracks tagged correctly?

Yet you expect iTunes to know the correct order of the songs on a gapless album?

ten4

Level 1

0 points

Feb 9, 2014 11:42 AM in response to Chris CA

I've used itunes for ten years (at least), over that time I've imported music in any number of ways, some of which has not always contained the track numbers.

itunes had no problem with dealing with that, up until that is a few years ago when all of a sudden the 'determin gapless playback' bar appeared.

I've stated in this discussion previously that I am more than happy to simply hit the 'x' button to stop the gapless' playback action until such a time someone finds a better solution.

So with reference to my previous comment regarding 'intersting idea' I was simply thanking DnDulle for sharing his 'solution' but I would not be able to attempt it myself as I have too many tracks to determin.

Hopefully other people might find it the perfect solution, but in my eyes its a problem Apple need to solve as not everyone will be willing to go thru their entire library looking for missing track numbers.

May 23, 2014 8:13 AM in response to Darren.McMurtrie

With my library now verging on 100,000 selections, this is becomming truly bothersome.

APPLE - PLEASE FIX THIS WITH A SIMPLE OPTION TO DISABLE THE FEATURE. THAT SHOULDN'T BE TOO DIFFICULT TO DO.

Chris CA

Level 10

82,440 points

May 23, 2014 11:33 AM in response to columbray

columbray wrote:

APPLE - PLEASE FIX THIS WITH A SIMPLE OPTION TO DISABLE THE FEATURE. THAT SHOULDN'T BE TOO DIFFICULT TO DO.

This is a user-to-user forum.

Suggestion here -> http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Limnos

Level 10

411,319 points

May 23, 2014 3:11 PM in response to ten4

itunes had no problem with dealing with that, up until that is a few years ago when all of a sudden the 'determin gapless playback' bar appeared.

I know I'm a bit late in responding to this one...

I still use iTunes 7.5 and it determines gapless playback. I still have iTunes 2 on this computer in my System 9 stuff but I don't want to fire it up just to check when it first started.

I have the solution!!! Go and get a good night's sleep. Come on, it doesn't take that long to determine gapless playback unless you are really, really adding 200,000 tracks (boy, I wish I had a good fraction of a million dollars to spend on music...). Even if you absolutely have to do so at 8 in the morning before using iTunes all day, click the x then let it finish determining at some later stage, like before you stop using the computer overnight. If it's 10,000 tracks having supper should suffice.

With me it determines gapless playback once, when I first add a file. After that it doesn't happen again unless I canceled the determination for the file.

mrtew

Level 1

8 points

May 24, 2014 4:29 AM in response to Limnos

Why reply to a thread if you haven't read any of it? If iTunes only determined gapless playback once like you say yours does for some reason then this thread wouldn't exist, but for the posters here including myself it does it every day. If we were using Windows we'd expect everything to be doing non-sense all the time but Mac people still kind of expect things to work right.

Maybe we can somehow get a clue from you since you don't have the problem, how we can fix ours! Why do you think yours only determines gapless playback once?

Determining Gapless Playback Information