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flipsix3 Author

Level 1

9 points

iPhone playback - skipping/blank spots

Hi folks, I have a horrible feeling that my iPhone (the iPod element, at least) may be suffering some form of 'terminal' issue but I'm hoping someone may be able to prove me wrong.

I've had the phone for 14 months, running fine and using the iPod on a regular basis - but in the last 2 weeks I've encountered what I can best describe as 'glitches' in the audio playback.

These glitches involve either:

(1) The sound suddenly cutting out, but the time bar continues to progress and the sound will then come back in later in the track.

or

(2) The sound 'skips' and jumps forward several times in quick succession - like someone using the FF button on a CD - this will happen a few times, then playback will be fine.

In both cases the following should be noted:

- If I skip back to the start of the track the same result happens at the same point each time
- The corresponding tracks play without a problem in iTunes on my PC, and if loaded onto my Shuffle or old Classic
- This happens both on tracks burned from my own CD collection, and on podcasts/tracks downloaded from iTunes
- If I clear my phone's audio content, then resync it with a bunch of stuff including the same track, then that track will be ok, but otehrs may experience issues.

All of this leads me to believe that there's some sort of hardware issue (best comparison I can think of is damaged blocks/sectors on a hard drive?)

Other interesting/relevant(?) notes:

- On one occasion album artwork for the track in question was also corrupted (artwork appeared to be made up of two different artwork files, 'tiled' in quarters)
- The issue began not long after I upgraded (clean install) from Win XP to Win 7 on my PC, but I suspect this is coincidence. The music library is stored on a separate drive, and was not touched during the process.
- I have carried out a full factory reset and backup restore on the phone since encountering the issue

So, does anyone have any rays of hope for me in resolving this, or am I looking at mothballing the iPod function on my phone until/unless I can replace it?

Message was edited by: flipsix3

PC, Windows 7, iPhone 3G - firmware 3.1.3 (7E18)

Posted on Apr 20, 2010 1:25 AM

82 replies

Jun 7, 2010 9:06 AM in response to Tony 13579

I would agree that this is not likely a hardware problem... Too many things point to the problem appearing with the latest upgrade of iTunes and O/S. In another post in this string, I "rebuilt" my iTunes libraries from scratch, using the latest release of iTunes and the iPhone O/S. I have had no playback or syncing issues since I did that at the end of May... My sense is that the issue is somewhere in the iTunes library conversion routine (if you watch the 9.1.x upgrade, it tells you it is converting the library)... And it's probably something obscure and only appears if a variety of prerequisites are present, like, you have over 12g of Audio and over 500meg of Apps, and it's Tuesday... And the Moon is in retrograde...

flipsix3 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 9, 2010 10:45 AM in response to flipsix3

Gave the 'old iTunes and use an old library file" a try - still getting problems, although possibly less frequent than before. Going to stick with that for a day or two, then onto the 'new iTunes and and new library file from scratch'

Grrrr

Jun 10, 2010 2:29 AM in response to flipsix3

I've the same problem of you guys.

Apple has not said anything about it, right?

I hope iTunes 9.2 fixes this problem. As far as I know iTunes convert all the songs before transfering them to the iPhone, so it seems a conversion problem to me.

Jun 10, 2010 9:08 AM in response to mervyngroan

I have not heard anything about this issue other than what is on the discussion boards... I would assume that Apple will be releasing updated versions of the O/S and iTunes to support iPhone 4... Perhaps it will be fixed then... The problem does appear to be somewhere in the handshake between iTunes and the iPhone... Jus to keep everyone posted, I "rebuilt" my iTunes library (using the current versions of both the iPhone O/S and iTunes), removed all Music and Apps from iPhone and then resync'd to the iPhone using the "rebuilt" libraries... I did this on the weekend of May 29th and have had no syncing or playback issues since...

I did have a weird experience with a playlist for the Alarm Tunes app that I use, but after re-establishing the playlist within the app, I have not had any further issues...

flipsix3 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 20, 2010 12:17 PM in response to flipsix3

Well I looked at doing a fresh library, but when I did I had around 200 trcks with almost no data on them (just "Track 02" etc) - lot of work to achieve a solution so, before I go down that route, I've updated iTunes to 9.2 today so will see if that has any impact first...

Jun 20, 2010 12:31 PM in response to flipsix3

Good luck on the 9.2 upgrade and see if that resolves the issue... Just to refresh, I rebuilt my iTunes Library (deleting the entries, but not the files, and then having iTunes rebuilt the library)... Had no more playback or sync issues... I have subsequently upgraded to iTunes 9.2 and still have had no issues... However, I can't comment on if the problem was fixed in 9.2 or my library rebuild resolved it. I'm guessing that the library conversion function that was part of the 9.1 upgrade was the culprit...

flipsix3 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 1, 2010 11:23 AM in response to flipsix3

Well the problem persists despite 9.2 (and iPhone OS4) - and it seems (although I could be imagining things) to get worse over time (each successie sync maybe?)

So biting the bullet and going for the from-scratch library rebuild :-/

Jul 1, 2010 4:03 PM in response to flipsix3

Good luck on your library rebuild... I am pleased to report that I have had no playback or sync problems since I performed the library rebuild... I have also upgraded to iOS4 and have had no issues... To summarize for those who didn't see my other post, I believe that the problem lies in the iTunes 9.x->9.1 library conversion and the resulting conversion on the iPhone side... To resolve, I did the following:

1) Backed up my entire iTunes library
2) Exported any playlists (including the Purchased list)
3) Unchecked all music to be synced with my iPhone, which results in all music being removed from the iPhone
4) Deleted all music from my iTunes library -- I deleted from the library only -- I did NOT delete the music from the file system
5) Rebuilt the iTunes music library by importing the music file system (File/Add folder to library...)
6) Imported my playlists into iTunes
7) Selected and synced music back to my iPhone

Hope it works for you!

flipsix3 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 2, 2010 11:58 AM in response to Mike Donscheski

iTunes 9.2, iPhone os4, deleted Library folder from iTunes, re-imported all music - synced music to phone (which had been cleared out of all audio/video files) - stuck 'shuffle' on this morning......

....fifth track jumped like a *&$($%£)£"&*!

Looks like, with my contract up in 2 months, it might be a case of replace the hardware.

Jul 4, 2010 9:35 AM in response to flipsix3

I have the same problems too: skipping tracks, mysterious blank sections part-way through tracks... The same tracks play fine in iTunes on my computer and on my old 40GB i Pod, but there is some problem specific to the i Phone. I am suspecting some issue with the way windows is talking to the iPhone.

I have done a clean re-install of iTunes and iPhone USB drivers, restored, re-synched and I still get jumping tracks and blank sections.

Is nobody from Apple reading this? It seems to be that forums are just a graveyard for frustrated users to scream in vain for help at each other without ever finding a solution.

Jul 4, 2010 11:54 AM in response to rmcmorran

I've just spent an entire day re-installing of iTunes, and all sorts of convoluted re-synching, restoring, synching with other computers, synching my computer with other iPods... I'll spare you the tortuous details but I think I managed to rule out hardware faults, corrupt MP3s and faulty cables.

However, then I tried *disabling my Avira antivirus* and it has made a sudden difference - previously unplayable tracks now work OK on my iPhone.

Could you try doing the following:
turn off your antivirus
re-synch your iPhone

Then let us know if this makes any difference to your problem files?
Thanks!

Jul 4, 2010 12:13 PM in response to rmcmorran

To add to the data gathering, I am one who had success removing all music from my iPhone, rebuilding my 9.2 iTunes library and then resyncing back to the iPhone. But to respond to the question above, I am using Norton Internet Security for both Antivirus and Firewall (V17, which I believe is Norton 2010)...

Jul 4, 2010 4:38 PM in response to Mike Donscheski

I did remove and restore music to the iPhone (to no effect), even removed all iTunes-related software (iTunes, bonjour, quicktime, apple drivers) and did clean reinstall (to no effect). I mentioned the antivirus thing because it's the only thing that made any difference.
Avira 10.0
Windows Vista Home Premium SP2
iTunes 9.2.0
iPod 3GS iOS4

flipsix3 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 5, 2010 2:29 AM in response to rmcmorran

Antivirus isn't something I'd tried - I'll give it a go and see what happens (AVG Antivirus for me)

flipsix3 Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 6, 2010 12:54 AM in response to Tony 13579

OK, last night I 'desynced' (removed all video and audio content) the phone, close iTunes, stopped AVG Antivirus, restarted iTunes and resynced the phone.

This morning, second song, jump-skip-glitch

Hair torn out, back to the drawing board.

iPhone playback - skipping/blank spots