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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

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Question marked as Best reply

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).

119 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Aug 18, 2017 7:34 PM in response to Darren.McMurtrie

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).

Apr 22, 2009 3:02 PM in response to Darren.McMurtrie

I have the same problem as well. We have about 50GB of songs and had to reformat our computer. Now we cannot use iTunes due to the gapless playback problem. Our music is stored on an external hard drive and we never had this problem until now. I have research this problems for hours and have not found a solution, just people commenting on how this is a bug that Apple cannot be bothered to fix.

I have given up trying to fix it and I'm going to try alternatives to iTunes. There are some good reviews about alternatives. Good luck and hopefully they fix it soon.

Nov 19, 2009 1:37 AM in response to Darren.McMurtrie

Have you tried letting it finish "determining"?

BTW, all CD's are gapless if you think about it. I've set all of mine to gapless. Play an album in iTunes that is not gapless and try to synch it up to the actual CD in another player. iTunes adds a gap between every song unless you tell it not to. When songs fade to silence between tracks you don't notice the extra fraction of a second.

Dec 20, 2009 9:21 AM in response to Tracy Reynolds

Some people claim "Gapless playback is the best feature of iTunes since the hard drive!" and that those of us who hate it checking are missing the point.

...the point is, I migrated a library to another drive and it's doing this now everytime I add so much as one file to the library, or make a meta-change, it picks 20-26 tracks and starts this "gap check" .. and practically locks up iTunes.

.. letting it finish "determining".. I wish, according to my calculations it's going to take until rapture and the next coming of Noah to finish and then it won't matter.

There needs to be a clear and concise way to SHUT THIS OFF. Period. If I want to designate Dark Side of the Moon as an item that needs gapless playback, I can do that. Since less than 1% of the average individuals collection requires this, it makes no sense to do it on all.

Dec 20, 2009 9:35 AM in response to Tony Diaz1

If I want to designate Dark Side of the Moon as an item that needs gapless playback, I can do that.

No you can't. iTunes determines gapless automatically.
Checking *Part of gapless album* on an album does one thing.
If Cross Fade is turned on in iTunes prefs -> Playback and it is a gapless album, then the songs will not cross fade. see this -> What is Gapless Playback?
But iTunes first needs to determine if it is a gapless album.

Send suggestions here -> http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

Dec 21, 2009 1:49 PM in response to Chris CA

By "I can do that" I really meant, "I can do that quite easily myself" by instructing iTunes to do whatever sniff test it needs to check this stuff to see if it's gapless.

I've read the "what is gapless playback".

I've sent feedback multiple times.

I'm not the only one with issues of crap performance associated with gapless playback and the whole thing is ludicrous as it's a big waste of time and source of frustration over something that effects the ear candy/experience on less than 1% of what I can imagine the typical music library is. Even if it's 10% it's still stupid.

"Gapless playback is always on", fine. Let us shut it off. Again, I say, if I want Dark Side of the Moon to play without gaps I can do the crossfade on/not part of a gapless album on everything else. It's easier and quicker to select those FEW items that need it vs. all the peoples time wasted on when it's not needed.

Dec 23, 2009 3:57 AM in response to Tony Diaz1

Actually, ALL albums are gapless. Don't believe me? Grab a CD you have ripped and play it synched up with the album in iTunes. iTunes adds a split second second between songs and the CD will finish first. You don't notice the gaps on studio albums because there is already silence between the tracks.

How long have you left iTunes alone while "determining gapless"? It takes a while to go through several thousand songs. My iTunes will finish if I leave it alone.

I have my entire library set to gapless.

I have a lot of concert albums (319 so far out of 1124=28%) and I had to use crossfade until gapless came to iTunes. That was OK but it wasn't gapless and it really made my day when the feature finally appeared (after several messages to iTunes feedback).

Oh, by the way, turning gapless on DOES NOT stop crossfading. I just checked on my new Mac mini with iTunes 9.0.2.

Dec 28, 2009 12:00 PM in response to Darren.McMurtrie

I've been building my library for five years or so and only just recently have run into the "Determining Gapless Playback Information" problem. Replaced an old iBook G4 with a new MacBook and transferred all 27,000 songs/2725 albums/120 gigs from an outboard hard drive onto the new laptop. While synching the 160 gig iPod for the first time with the new laptop's iTunes I noticed that some 7300 songs got run through this routine. I let it run. Then added three albums and it immediately went back into the routine starting again with some 7300 songs. This is only an issue when the iPod is connected... haven't ever seen it happen while playing iTunes from the laptop to AirTunes. But every time I update the iPod's library I get the same slow routine with the same 7300 songs. Luckily it happens at the end of the update/synch process and I have determined that simply clicking the "x" button on the right side in the "lozenge" window at the top of iTunes gets me out without having to force quit. Not a perfect solution but one that is acceptable for now.

The question I have is whether this is source material based or if it is playlist based... or iTunes... or the iPod. I can't seem to find anything in common among the 7300 songs that keep requiring the same determination.

Feb 2, 2010 3:38 AM in response to Darren.McMurtrie

I really like Apple - and I really like iTunes. But this just *****! I was hoping that this maybe got fixed with 9.0.3 ... but I'm still getting 72 of my MP3s do that stupid thing every time I start iTunes. Those are not songs but actually recordings from a seminar, so each is between around 45 minutes up to 2 1/2 hours. And this "gapless crap" takes about 2 or 3 minutes each time I start iTunes, and during that time, I can't use iTunes at all.

I noticed there's a checkbox "Gapless album". I've tried switching this off for my complete library. No change. I've tried switching it on for my complete library. No change. I have crossfade songs disabled.

What's so difficult about implementing an option "stop iTunes doing stupid stuff I don't need"??? Ok, sorry for being a bit upset but that's just annoying. Give me that "Disable Gapless Playback Check" and I'll be a all happy again 😉

Mar 4, 2010 4:15 AM in response to holtsch

I have the same pb since I switched from Win to Mac and fully agree with holtsch! On Win I ran this procedure once over night, and never saw it again.

My music is on an external drive, the described problem appears sooner or later after the iTunes start. Currently I have to stop this 'service' (takes some time), but it restarts automatically after some time.

I'm also thinking about alternatives to iTunes. It's frustrating and surprising that iTunes works better on 'second class' hardware and OS than in a full Apple environment. Should have known before...

Most frustrating: No option to turn this 'service' off!

Determining Gapless Playback Information

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