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How do I stop Determining Gapless Playback?

Yet again, another iTunes upgrade has caused the horrible gapless playback scan to occur on my iTunes library. As a result, iTunes is totally unresponsive until this action completes. In my case, it's really slow as I'm accessing my files wirelessly from a network drive. I have to keep canceling the rescan to use iTunes. For the most part it keeps track of where it left off, however some files keep getting rescanned.

Here's what I've observed so far (not that it solves anything)
- it appears that rescans are triggered whenever an upgrade rebuilds the library. After going through this once for iTunes 7 upgrade, I remember it occurring again for 8 (and probably a point release in between) and version 9.
- The gapless playback mp3 tag doesn't seem to stop the rescan from occurring. I tested this for files that kept getting rescanned. I first set them to No and they still got scanned. Next I set them to Yes and still no luck...
- The number of files being scanned are less than the total number of files currently in my library, which leads me to believe the rescan trigger has to do with either when the file was added (i.e. before iTunes 7 release) or based on what version of iTunes the file was created.

Based on the above, I think this is a bug as it should only go through this once and if needed when new files are added to iTunes. Better yet, there should be an option to shut this off completely!

Any info on what causes this to occur or how to make it stop would be greatly appreciated!!!

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8), iTunes 9

Posted on Sep 11, 2009 9:01 PM

66 replies

Area.41

Level 1

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Nov 7, 2009 2:47 PM in response to Brian Thull

No one has a fix for this yet? I upgraded to Itunes 9. And moved all my music to an external hard-drive. I cannot even access Itunes as it does the Determining Gapless Playback. It just gives me the spinning cursor and I have to force quit. The Determining Gapless Playback never finishes. Haven't been able to access my Itunes for 3 days. All I can do i open it, then the Determining Gapless Playback starts and then I have to force quit. Help.

omgbbq

Level 1

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Nov 8, 2009 7:35 PM in response to Area.41

Upgraded iTunes and it wouldn't even start, but re-installing fixed the crashes and no more "determining gapless playback" on run.

Followed these instructions to fix: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1224

Jan 15, 2010 11:04 AM in response to omgbbq

I've just done the above, but no help. After answering all of iTunes' setup questions yet again, iTunes popped up and immediately threw up a prompt saying "Reorganizing Library", although nothing seemed to be happening. No spinning cursor and no not "not responding". However, it didn't seem to do anything, so it was "force quit" again.

Opened it up again and it went right back to Determining Gapless Playback. Specifically, it started to and then stalled out on the 9th tune out of 20,397.

Jan 19, 2010 12:00 PM in response to Rex Broome

Very disappointing response (lack of) from Apple on this topic. I've been following this for over a year (I know some have followed it longer) with not a useful blip from them.

I have been a die-hard apple supporter my whole life, and ALWAYS have recommended iPods/iTunes to people as a good system for managing their digital music. As this issue has festered, I no longer give my verbal support to apple. In fact, I'm starting to feel like one of those people who is "stuck" with iTunes because of various tendrils apple has put into my workflow/iphone, etc. At this point I either want to see them address this problem (and make my library usable again), or I'm looking for a way out.

Then I will be one of those people who says "stay away from apple - they are moving in a direction which takes control away from the user, oversimplifying their systems, making it way too easy to fall through the cracks. Buy into a system where you can actually configure your experience".

(NOTE: Music is my profession, so not being able to use my music library, despite having tried every "fix" suggested here stings worse for me than the average user, perhaps.)

Feb 7, 2010 8:29 AM in response to Brian Thull

I got more than 30 000 songs in my library...
I cannot believe there is no way to avoid this stupid Gapless Playback thing.

Can I get an hourly salary from Apple for all this time their dumb ideas cost me?

hookahg

Level 1

0 points

Mar 8, 2010 1:47 PM in response to janne salovaara

this is a bunch of useless info

amedia

Level 1

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Sep 6, 2010 9:15 PM in response to Brian Thull

Apple, stop that gapless nonsense or I'll never buy your next hardware.

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Sep 6, 2010 10:58 PM in response to amedia

Way to call up a 6 month old thread.

LDenson

Level 1

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Sep 10, 2010 11:31 AM in response to Brian Thull

The bug still exists; in fact it's even worse in iTunes 10. What used to take 20 seconds in version 9 now takes 5 minutes in version 10. Ridiculous that Apple has allowed this problem to fester for so long.

I may have found a solution... it fixed my "determining gapless playback" issue, at any rate.

I have my iTunes library stored on a Windows Home Server box; the iTunes client is on my MBP. I downloaded MP3 Validator (Windows only) - http://www.gromkov.com/faq/repair/mp3_validator.html - and let it scan & fix my entire collection. Seems to have done the trick.

Of course, if you're in a pure Mac environment, this program won't work. A quick google search for "Mac MP3 Validator" turned up this: http://www.brothersoft.com/mp3-validator-249877.html , as well as several other programs, but I can't speak to the efficacy of any of them.

Hopefully this will help someone out.

Sep 15, 2010 4:37 PM in response to LDenson

For any OS you can make your iTunes Library read only. Then iTunes can't check it. Kind of drastic but at least you can use your library and iTunes once again.

Oct 9, 2010 3:34 PM in response to gbiolchini

Read only isn't a bad idea. Ill give that a go.

This is getting stupid now though, this problem has been around since itunes 7 and is getting worse.

I only wish I had the money to get something to replace my ipod. itunes is by an absolute mile the worst piece of software on my machine... and I'm running Vista. It is utterly shocking.

If I load up foobar I can be playing a track in seconds. If I do it in Itunes, after a new install I waited over a day?!?! That isn't an exaggeration.

Itunes updated earlier today, I'm using it for the first time since. I've been trying for 20mins to put an album on. In fact, now the **** thing wont start at all...

ARGH!!!!!! Even WMP is more reliable than this hunk of crap.

Oct 23, 2010 7:40 PM in response to Brian Thull

I finally found a fix! Turns out MP3s can get messed up and need scrubbing. Found this app and it worked!! Finally!!!

http://triq.net/mac

Chech

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2010 7:01 AM in response to Paul Salzman

Same problem here.
I have my iTunes Library on a NAS.
Since I've updated to iTunes 10, the spinning wheel is spinning, spinning ...

I've checked and repaired all my mp3s with "MP3 Scan+Repair", but this did not solved my issue.

Is it necessary to rebuild the whole library from scratch ?
any ideas ?

thanks

Nov 1, 2010 11:19 AM in response to Brian Thull

It would just be nice if iTunes asked me first!

Nov 10, 2010 6:23 PM in response to Brian Thull

I have a lame workaround for Apple's lame lack of multithreading skills.

Launch iTunes with the music volume unmounted. The gapless scan still runs (with no status) but it should complete in a few minutes instead of a few weeks. Mount the volume.

If the iTunes locks up as soon as the music volume mounts, the scan hadn't finished yet. Force-Quit, unmount, relaunch, and wait longer before mounting. The import directory is reset to the default and you can't fix it without triggering another scan.

How do I stop Determining Gapless Playback?