iPod randomly skips songs, resets itself mid-play

Temperature is not it.

If you are getting lots of skipping, the fist thing you should check is your source material. Just because it plays fine in iTunes does NOT mean it should play normally on any iPod. iTunes is very forgiving of tracks that are in bad shape.

If your library is full of tracks that were created with ancient CD ripping tools, downloaded from the internet or just generally not encoded from a CD using iTunes or bought via iTunes, you should re-import that material.

In my case, I had a DVD drive that was on the edge of dying. I brought in a bunch of CD using it and they played fine in iTunes, but always seemed to cause problems on my iPod - skipping, just not playing, restarting the iPod. However, all of them played fine in iTunes. I finally figured out my DVD drive was bad, got a new one and after re-importing the offending tracks, everything worked fine.

Now this does not mean your DVD drive is bad. Some of the music I have been dragging around since the '90s and imported with tools from those days did the same thing.

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Same problem here, i read somewhere that it could have something to do with album covers. In a previous version of iTunes there was an option to disable them, but Apple removed it. Why?!

I've had my ipod just over a year and its doing this. Just barely started to do this and is a huge annoyance. I haven't found any solutions for this problem and now im out a brand new ipod pretty much. I've had numerous other ipods before this. apple blows.

Add me to the list. I've had my iPod 120 GB Classic since June and this problem started a couple of months ago and keeps getting worse. Currently, I can listen to maybe 2 or 3 songs before it resets. Ridiculous. This is my first experience with an Apple product and it will be my last. If I do a complete restore, the problem is mitigated temporarily, but always returns. No idea what is causing it. At first I thought it might be because I listen to it on "shuffle" almost exclusively, but I stopped doing that and it doesn't make a bit of difference. I suppose my next stop is the Apple Store, but my hopes are low considering the experiences I've read about in this thread. Any updates from those who have taken theirs in lately?

I had exactly the same problem, and they sent mine back too saying nothing is wrong. I called again and insisted that my iPod was defective. The agent finally agreed to exchange my iPod for a new one (he said it sounded like a hard drive defect). You need to INSIST that Apple replace your defective iPod!

What you are describing sounds more like a computer issue than an iPod issue. Did you do anything around the time the issue started? Did you add another USB device? Install new software?

Make sure you are connecting the iPod directly to the computer via a USB plug on the back of the computer - not through a hub.

If that does not do it, you could try re-installing iTunes and all the other Apple software.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1925

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My 80 GB iPod had stopped in the middle of certain MP3 formatted songs when it was not connected to my computer (using headphones or connected to the audio input in my car). The bit rate of the problematic songs was either 160 or 256 bits. So far, I haven't noticed any problems with MP3s at 128 bits.
Note: The same (problem) files play correctly when the Ipod is connected to my computer via the iPod USB cable, and using the "iTunes" software. Therefore, it appears that the problem is with the iPod software (version 1.3). To fix the problem, I re-saved the problem files at a lower (128) bit rate. I hope this helps.

I have a 120 gb ipod classic and its just over a year old. My ipod started skipping in the middle of songs. About a month later, I went to sync my ipod, and it erased everything on my ipod. Then i re-synced it and nothing showed up even though my ipod settings thing showed that about 30 gb were used up. I cant figure out what is is going on.

same here, i downlaoded my newly favorite song Eminem - im not afraid on 5.10.2010 and it will not go past 5 seconds into the song it itune could fix that or give me back my 1.29........ id greatly appreciate it