Q: itunes chopping off end of songs now that i signed up for match

Thanks, Rubber Ducky! I followed the directions you shared, and now my iTunes runs fine. No more chopped off songs! Looks like I'll hold off on signing up for match.

Try this. Try playing the song again and if it does it in the same spot then you have a corrupted file. You need to re-download the song. Don't worry, this is free. First, verify that you did buy the song on iTunes and not anywhere else. Go to the iTunes store. On the right hand side of the window there is a column named quick links. Look for "Purchased" about 2/3 of the way down. Click on it. The next window that shows up should show you all the tunes you have bought. Find your tune and you'll see that is says "downloaded." Now you know you have the tune.

Now go back to your music library on the left hand column of the window. Click on Music. Find that tune that is giving you the problem. Delete the song.

Now go back to the iTunes store like before and go back to your "purchased" list. The page needs to be reloaded Press the back button and then click "purchased" again on iTunes so the list reloads. Find your tune again. Now instead of it saying "Downloaded," it has a picture of a cloud with an arrow pointing down. Click on it and the tune will download again with, I hope, no problems. I hope this helps.

I too can confirm that Ducky's solution works. Brilliant. No more song being randomly cut off.

This is a great workaround for iTunes, however I still have the same issue on the new iPad and two iPhone 4 devices.. all accessing the same "matched" songs... should have never subscribed to match. What a headache.

I thought maybe fixing and re-matching the iTunes library would update the cloud id3 tags and fix the issue if it was an issue.  The problem still persists after deleting and redownloading from the cloud on the iOS devices.

I used Ducky's solution-- and it worked-- but when I plugged in any of my devices, it did not recognize the device in the new library. So I chose the erase and re-sync option on all my devices. It took a couple of hours to transfer, but since then there have been no problems. A bit of a hassle, but worth it.

Same problem as described by xxChosen1xx. I haven't read further down the thread so pardon me if this behaviour/fix has been mentioned.

I have some tracks which play perfectly on itunes and other media players, and have Matched status in itunes.

Matched downloads in iPhone cut off abruptly usually two thirds into the song. If the next song is not downloaded yet, it will be blank for the remainder of the track.

If the next song has already been downloaded, the next song starts playing immediately on this same track. Thus the cut and splice behaviour some reported.

However the key behaviour I haven't seen anyone mention is that if the song is 4:00min and gets cut off at 3:00 and the next spliced song starts playing, pressing Next Track at, say 3:30 the track will jump direct to 0:30 of the next song and the playback is GAPLESS.

Which leads me to think there is some problem with the way the iPhone deciphers gapless playback from songs downloaded from Match.

If you delete your album from itunes and re-add wholesale, the problem will still be there even if you have replaced your version with matched copies. To fix this I had to add each song one after another only after each status has changed to Matched. Total pain.

Another way I did not try is to change the Gapless information on the album info in itunes BEFORE deleting and re-adding these same files. I would try it if I come across another album with this problem.

Thank you AaaaaaaaaaaRubberDucky for you solution, this had been bugging me for a while.  Your re-importing of the xml file forced everything back to normal.  I write software for a living and am honestly shocked at the amount and frequency of the 'features' (not bugs) that Apple introduce with their periodic iTunes 'updates' - I'd be fired very quickly for work like that!

Please, everyone, just follow Rubber Ducky's instructions that are posted above. This problem had been bugging me for months ever since signing up for iMatch. No solutions worked and it was discouraging to listen to the songs you love only to have them cut short. It definitely ruined the joy of why we love to listen to our favorite music. After following Rubber Ducky's instructions my iTunes library came back to life. I synced my iPod, iPad, and iPhone with my laptop and all my devices were put right. No truncated songs. Just a note, after Rubber Ducky's fix your devices upon syncing will recognize your music library as one that the device has not synced with before. Go ahead and let 'er rip so the songs will be made pure again.

How does one accomplish this using a Mac? I've yet to find the files described...

D'oh! Nevermind. Found 'em.

Instead of upgrading to Match and paying money for something it should ALREADY do...try this:

I've been having this same issue for MONTHS. Today I decided I would win. So I started to do reserach and discovered that our songs are now 'cloud ready'. You need to download the cloud software prior to doing the following:

You can redownload your songs and this will fix the issue. What I had to do (and please, do experiment, I don't want you to lose your library) was delete all the effected songs from my library. I did just one or two at first, and it worked, so I took the leap. After you delete the effected songs, go to the Itunes Store. On the right hand side there is a quick link called "purchased". Click that. Veiw "Songs not on this computer" and you'll see the songs you deleted. Re-download them from the cloud and tadah, your music is back.

This is tiresome, and irksome, but it's better than having a bunch of corrupted halfway playing files on your Ipod or desktop. WHY they let it get this bad and that it took such a long time to figure a fix, I have no idea.

Good luck!

That's like putting a bandaid on a bullet hole ....try my solution ^ .... It fixes the solution once and for all...and it seems to have solved the issue for everybody on this forum (except one person who probably didn't do it right)....heck your method works...I was doing that for months...but again all it does is fix symptoms not the cause...

Are you 100% sure you followed my method as i said it? I would try it again and be anal in following the directions...also...if you are 100% sure my method didnt fix your issue (even though its worked for everybody else) before you reopen iTunes...open iTunes in iTunes safemode...which is achieved diffrently for mac vs PC. If that doesnt work for you then maybe you have a different issue with similar symptoms...either way I hope it helps you fix the issue..i know how annoying it can be..especially if you are at a party and your iphone is the one being used for the speakers......

Boy I sure hope this Rubber Ducky solution works for me.  It's been 18 hours now that iTunes has been "Determining Audio Volume" for the 24,000 songs in my library after the "re-build" of the Library file.  It's done with over 22,000 of them, so only an hour more to go maybe?

Here's hoping for the best...

Well, I am extremely sad to report that Ducky's solution did not work for me.

In addition, most of my artwork is now missing - every album where artwork was d/led from iTunes.  That'll take awhile to fix.

To refresh your memories, I have only one album I have identified where all songs are stopping around 30 seconds early.  I have not identified any other albums this is happening to even though I have a total of 24,000+ songs.  The songs were ripped from a CD but all of them "matched" to iTunes.  I have deleted them and redownloaded them from iTunes.  And among other things, have tried Ducky's solution.  But alas, the problem is still happening.

By the way, the songs play fine on my computer, but cut off on my iPhone.

Oh well.  Maybe I'll figure this out someday...