iTunes won't play next song without being the active window

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pamandgreg Author

Level 1

5 points

iTunes won't play next song without being the active window

I've been trouble shooting why I can't play all

songs on an entire album or playlist. I've uninstalled/reinstalled iTunes

several times and I've seen lots of recommendations on making sure all songs

are "checked" and that is the case of all the songs I'm trying to

play. Today I started an album playing, and then began checking e-mail on a

different monitor. When I glanced back at iTunes, I noticed the playback status

bar was frozen at the 11 seconds into the song, even though the song was

playing. For grins, I right clicked on the status bar and the playback status

immediately jumped to 2:43 seconds into the song. I let iTunes remain active

(status bar dark gray) and waited to see what was going to happen when the end

of the song arrived. Like magic, the next song began to play. I then made the

e-mail program the active window and waited to see what would happen. The

iTunes status bar was not updating and when the end of the song arrived, it did

not begin playing the next song. I had to manually start it like I've been

doing the last several days. I again let iTunes remain the active window and

sure enough the next song played automatically. Do I need to make a

configuration change on my end? i'm running 12.9.3.3 of iTunes on Win 10 home - version 1803.

Windows, 10

Posted on Feb 11, 2019 9:15 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

pamandgreg Author

Level 1

5 points

Feb 11, 2019 11:34 AM in response to turingtest2

I also noticed the queue button was not opening the pop-up window... I recalled seeing a notice a few days back that Java needed to be updated so I did that, then began to work through the above points:

not applicable
not applicable
completed no impact
completed no impact
ran the repair function under apps in control panel
disconnected internet

At this point the queue window began working and the play next function worked without the window being active. I shut down iTunes, rebooted, reconnected to internet, relaunched iTunes and everything is work as expected. I suspect the repair function was the silver bullet. I appreciate the tips and more importantly the quick response!

Thanks... Greg

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

272,795 points

Feb 11, 2019 10:01 AM in response to pamandgreg

If iTunes is apparently installed correctly try the following in turn until iTunes opens/closes/reopens/behaves normally:

Remove any SD card that might be in a card reader.
Exit the BTTray.exe Bluetooth utility if installed.
Locate the shortcut for iTunes, right-click on it, and select Run as administrator. Doing this once may fix certain launch issues. Some users were finding that with the 12.6.1.25 build, for example, they had to use this method every time and modified the shortcut accordingly.
Try holding ctrl+shift as you launch iTunes so it opens in safe-mode. Again doing this once may sometimes help.
Try disconnecting your computer from the Internet before running iTunes.
Delete the iTunes shortcuts from the start menu, desktop, task bar, or similar, then repair iTunes from the programs and features control panel.
Try Fix unexpected quits or launch issues in iTunes for Windows - Apple Support and test the behaviour in a different user profile or with a different library. If the problem only exists in your profile it may be possible to delete some of the iTunes preference files which it would seem that iTunes may be choking on. We can go into details later if the issue is limited to your own profile.
Temporarily disable any non-Microsoft anti-virus and see if that has any impact on the behaviour.
See the second box in Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates for detailed tear down and rebuild advice. Disable any non-Microsoft anti-virus software when reinstalling and run the installer as the administrator.
Or see the iTunes installers section of the troubleshooting tip and reinstall the last version that worked correctly for you. Note that iTunes 12.6.5.3 is the minimum version required for devices running iOS 12.

tt2

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,795 points

Feb 11, 2019 9:32 AM in response to pamandgreg

Did you download iTunes from the Microsoft Store or from apple.com? The old style installer might work better for you than the sandboxed version from the MS Store.

tt2

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