Hi all,
I'm new to the post, but like many of you, I have been experiencing my songs being cut off. In a few cases, if I scroll into the last third of song (no where near the actual end), iTunes will skip to the next song. In most cases iTunes will simply "cut off" the end. It seems to vary by song and duration clipped. The duration also increases with time and with attempts to set/reset the gapless and compilation flags in the Get Info dialog.
I am running native 64bit, Win7 OS. I do not use the cloud, I have all my songs locally stored. I have songs I have purchased through the iTunes store and not. I do not know why when adding songs to my library itunes automatically "calculates gapless playback information"...leave my songs alone until I tell you to clobber them...and if you're not clobbering them, just calculating something? Again, do it when I ask you to please.
The only way I have been successful to fix both the clipping and the odd behavior of the slider is this:
1) download the latest iTunes and install.
2) for 64 bit install this "update": http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1427 (thank you MSSheridan!) I'm not sure if does anything really, but it's what i did.
3) store all my music locally
4) wipe out my entire iTunes folder (database and all)
5) start iTunes
6) add my music folder back to my library (File->Add Folder to Library...)
voila.
In my case, the problem DEFINATELY DOES lie within Apple code and not the music files...they play fine with other players. It involves the xml library, gapless playback, perhaps even compilation grouping.
Locally store your music. You paid for it...in my case, over the years, four times over. Vinyl, cassette, CD, and now digital download. IMHO the player shouldn't get "too cute" with the duration of playback.
Hope this helps those that have enough local storage.
I'm wired and plan to stay that way.