iTunes randomly freezes while playing songs

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iTunes randomly freezes while playing songs

I have iTunes v. 8.2.1 (latest version). I'm playing songs from my internal hard drive.

My Problem: I'll be listening to my music for a while, and all of a sudden, the song freezes. It's still in play mode, but it's not running. I have to hit pause and wait for the color wheel to stop spinning in order to play it again. This has happened at least 3 times today, so it's very frustrating.

I hope this is just a problem with the latest update of iTunes, and it will be fixed soon.

Macbook Pro 13" 2.26 Ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.7), Mid 2009 model

Posted on Jul 31, 2009 1:44 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 1, 2009 2:46 PM in response to newmacuserx

I just noticed this for the first time today though it may have started earlier. I'm also running iTunes 8.2.1 and my problem is exactly as you described, including the frustration. Please let know if you come across any solutions.

Thanks!

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Answer 2

Aug 2, 2009 9:54 AM in response to newmacuserx

I opened up Activity Monitor app the last time this happened and noticed that SyncServer was taking up the entire CPU. The problem may have nothing to do with iTunes?

See a related discussion here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9818178&#9818178

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Answer 3

Shogun9

Level 1

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Aug 3, 2009 8:13 PM in response to newmacuserx

Another user on this forum identified a cause and solution to this problem. iTunes freezes when playing songs which have channels encoded in "joint stereo" format. If these songs are re-encoded in "stereo" format, they play instantly without any freezing issues. However, it seems tedious for users with large libraries to go through thousands of songs and re-encode them to address this problem.

iTunes updates are notorious for bugs, which is part of the reason why I am still at 8.0.2. I updated to 8.2.1 when it was released, but had to revert back when I encountered this same problem. Apple needs to address the many issues with iTunes 8.2.1. It's also delaying my purchase of an iPhone 3Gs because the 3.0 firmware is only compatible with iTunes 8.2 or higher.

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