iPod cuts off songs

I am having what appears to be the same issue. I have not tracked a solution.

I am using MP3 VBR 256 format and not sure if thats the cause yet.

Its happens mostly on short tracks. I have a CD I ripped yesterday where all tracks cut off 16 secs from the end when play in in Gen 5 80 gig ipod

I have the exact same problem, it's really annoying... Does anyone have any idea what this is????

I own an Ipod classic 120 Gb. I listen to music through my Bose docking. It (the Ipod? the docking?) cuts off songs randomly. When I go immediately back with the remote and select the song again, it plays the song completely, so I don´t think the problem is with the file (normally mp3).
My Ipod is loaded with the latest firmware according to Itunes.
Need help or correction quickly. It really annoys me and my friends when it cuts off any song. I want to buy a new Ipod Nano for my travels, but now I am having second thoughts if I cannot listen to a complete song!!!

Hello All,

This is an old problem (dating to start of iTunes v.8) that Apple did not addressed in any of the updates... so sad...
It affects all kinds of iPods, and it really does not matter one uses 128 or Lossless, etc. quality - in spite of various theories - the end result is the same across the board: The songs are being cut off at their ends, they skip, etc.

The ONLY working solution (more like a work around) I found is to IMPORT THE SAME TRACK OR ALBUM TWICE: literary - as soon as your music lands on your iPod - delete it and import it again;
It works for me since I discovered it, so since the "skipping issue" appeared, I was usually importing, unplugging and checking, only to discover that every other (or more so) album skips, and then I was plugging in, deleting the skippers, and importing the same music, which would not skip anymore.
Now I just do it twice without unplugging the iPod to save time, etc.

Good luck, and please share more tricks or workarounds, and perhaps one sunny day Apple will recognize the need and will fix this issue...

Message was edited by: marekn

In all likelihood, your problem is not your iPod, but iTunes.

[Probable solution here|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9333313#9333313].

Let me caution you, though, that this only applies to those who have songs end early at the same location consistently. If you can press the repeat button and the song will play from beginning to end, what I'm talking about doesn't apply to you. If a song ends at the same point EVERY time you try to play it, if it plays fine from your hard drive, and if you can press the select button and advance about 60 seconds (usually somewhat less) past the premature break and have the rest of the song play, then what I'm saying should work for you.

I'm having the exact same problem with the Nano 16G (new for me). Seems to happen when docked in the Bose or listening through headphones. It doesn't seem to work to try to re-play the song, still cuts it off in the same place. It also does seem to be album related from what I can tell. I'll try the work around of immeadiatly deleting and uploading again but what a Pain in the ***! Seems this issue really needs to be addressed, quite annoying~

There's a pretty good article on problems like this at http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26488. It doesn't describe every case in particular, but for those it doesn't, the Apple Experts might recommend what they did for me: restore the iPod. That article links to http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1339?viewlocale=en_US which describes how to restore the iPod. As an Apple Expert explained it to me, the main benefit of "restoring" was to reinstall the software on the iPod. It also deletes all of the songs, etc.; which must be replaced by synchronizing with iTunes.

This is all nice and sounds good, but I read dozens of posts where people restored the iPod, hoping for this to help, and upon loading the iPods back with music - they experienced exactely the same skipping issue.. so I'm little hesitant to do si, since most of my 80GB of music plays fine....

If you can help it, avoid restoring your iPod. Read my post higher up in the thread.

You basically need to identify the broken files on your iPod and replace them. It's not really difficult. It's time consuming, depending on how much music you have, but there's really no other way until Apple fixes iTunes.

yes-exactly - I do not want to restore for just this reason... I it's only a small percentage of songs that need to be reimported. BTW; all of those cut off (on iPod) songs are completely fine on my HD - no corruption there... The sad thing though is that Apple seems to be in denial on this one.. so I'm not o sure if they will fix it - did not with already 2 updates to iTunes 8...

This is not related to iTunes. I load all my MP3's - many of which are podcasts of an hour length - via a third party app. I still have this problem. It's something related to the iPod alone and it's systems, and how it interacts with certain MP3 files.

So you don't use iTunes to put the material on your iPod? If you don't, then you're correct. I suspect, though, that you just don't realize that iTunes is mucking up a small portion of the data stream when it transfers the files to the device. If there's nothing wrong with the file on the computer but it doesn't behave properly on the iPod, then the problem is either the iPod or the mechanism which transferred the files to the iPod. If the song behaves in the same manner every time, then the problem was the transfer -- the iPod is doing its job and can't help it that iTunes corrupted a file.

Not one song on my iPod ends early anymore, but I went through them one at a time and fixed them. But I won't let iTunes transfer them all at one time (i.e., restore), because then I'll have to go through them all one at a time again. With over 3,000 songs, it took me two months. Some people have 10 times as much music, in which case it would take them two years to make sure they could enjoy their music.

I have the same exact problem, and maybe the solution?
I have a brand new 120 GB, 6G iPod Classic, (fully updated) less than a month old I put all my music on it (I have about 22 gigs worth) and I started using it. I mostly play music via playlist and shuffle. In the MIDDLE (or end, the point is, the song would be playing fine) of a playing a song in a playlist it would decided to skip to the next song (no pattern to when or which song it would skip, it was just random) The first time it happened, I was like okay, weird, skipped back, and it played the same song all the way through with no problems. Then a few songs later it would do the same thing. Again, completely random.
I started researching like crazy over the past week, and discovered it was a pretty common problem. I read a number of possible explanations, it was a hardware defect, it was a software defect, there was a problem with the new iTunes transferring songs. I decided to pursue the latter. I read into it some, a lot of people seemed to be convinced there is a problem with the new iTunes and transferring a large quantity of music. I read someone recommend a program called Mp3 Validator that scans music files and fixes and problems that may cause them to skip. (presumably why the songs worked fine in iTunes but skip randomly once transferred to the iPod)
Anyway, to make a long story longer, I tried the program, scanned the music files directly off my iPod music directory--it fixed a couple hundred problem files. I had it going today, just playing through the playlist, got through 10-12 songs without any skipping. Granted, it wasn't an extended listening session, but I'm holding on to hope.
I can't say for sure that this fixed the problem, or if it even WAS the problem (for all I know it COULD be a hardware defect). But if you are getting REALLY frustrated by the random skipping, you could give it a try.
I'll definitely be having an extended play session with it this weekend, so I can give you an update on whether it is a surefire solution or not.

Hello, I have the latest 120GB iPod Classic - which I purchased, last Monday and mine also skips some of the songs, but then when you go back and replay it, it plays the song fully, all the way through - and as of yet, i've played the song again and it doesnt seem to skip. I've read all the discussions on skipping songs and stuffs with the Classic, and as it seems to have been a recent problem with all iPod's, I think Apple needs to try and find a solution to this problem. I dont see the point in trying to restore it all, and that if the problem is going to still be there.

Do you think its worth taking the iPod into an Apple shop to see if the problem can be fixed (as its still under warranty), or if anyone can give any advice on this problem, as no one seems to fully know why this problem persists.

Okay, no dice on the MP3Validator. I was listening to a playlist earlier and about 3 songs in, it skipped the song I had playing (it was right in the middle) and it went ahead to the next song. I skipped back and it played the song it skipped all the way through fine.
This is an infuriating problem. I've read tons and tons of other people who have been having the same problem, so don't tell me it's just a defect in my iPod. (unless there's millions of other iPods with the same defect, which would be pretty inexcusable manufacturing standards)
I'm out of ideas. I don't know whether its the iPod hardware, the iPod software, iTunes, what? I really hope Apple isn't sitting on their hands on this one, and is actually working on some kind of fix for this bug.
I'm going to give it a week or two more (I'll continue to research online), if nothing happens, that's that. I'll just take mine, and my sister's who bought her's at the same time, back to the store. (there's 500 dollars gone) I'll then proceed to buy a Zune and tell everyone I meet about my irritating Apple experience, and encourage them never to buy another Apple product, because Apple simply doesn't seem to care. It's a shame too, up until now I always held Apple in the highest regard, I guess this problem really has me at my wits end.