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

Well I'm pleased to see that this thread has taken on some new life.  Paul, I don't have any playlists.  Just 1050 songs which I shuffel.  I just played one of my problem songs Moody Blues "Question" and timed when it cut off.  It prematurely ended at 3:45 not 4:10, followed by silence till 4:56 when it was supposed to end..  It cannot be overstated that the same song is fine as it exists on my home computer in Itunes as is every single song existing there.  It's when they are synced to the device(s) the problem shows up.  My Ipad terminated the Moody Blues song at 3:45 just like my Iphone5s did.  So the problem whatever it is is consistent across devices.  So what can we rule out, and what can we rule in?                                                                  Since I ripped in marathon sessions I don't know that date is salient.  I think the device reading the data interprets some cue artifact as a message to stop playing audio.  Note that the next song doesn't begin till the true time of the cut off song arrives.  So not Match, not p                         urchased and not playlist in my case.  -Plasmodium Vivax                                                                     

Yes, I've been using the wrong word all along. It's not a playlist issue... it's probably some kind of corrupted metadata that Itunes creates when it imports a song file. The metadata is not in the song file itself or my CRC checks between my active song files and my backup song files would not have matched.

On the surface, the problem you're experiencing seems different from mine and at least one other poster. That poster indicated that his files are cutting off after 4:10 of play in Itunes, just as mine were. Also, when my songs cut off, there was no silence, as is happening with you. Itunes immediately moved on to the next song.

But, you're not experiencing any playback issues with Itunes, but with your synched devices. So that changes things a bit.

"It cannot be overstated that the same song is fine as it exists on my home computer in Itunes as is every single song existing there."

Okay. So, Itunes is playing the songs correctly. Since it's happening across multiple devices, though, and since the common denominator between all the devices is that they're being synched by Itunes on your computer, it's pretty safe to say that the problem is with Itunes, not with each individual device.

My next question would have been to ask if the songs are cutting off at exactly the same time on all devices, but you've already answered that question. You said your Iphone is cutting the Moody Blues song off at the same time as your Ipad. This is now a powerful indicator that the problem is with Itunes.

It all keeps coming back to Itunes.

Proposed solution: Do what I did to resolve the issue, then re-synch the devices. Delete one of the problem songs from your Itunes library, choose to keep the file, then re-import it from its original location on the hard drive into Itunes, then re-synch your device. Let us know what happens.

-Paul

Hi paulfonco, I have different devices having different versions of IOS and they are all affected the same way where the songs would cutt off prematurely and start playing the next selection. It eliminates IOS7.03. It must be iTunes 11.1.2.32 and the way it syncs to iPhone, iPad...etc.

If i played the playlist and songs on Win7 itunes, all is well and the songs don't cut off. Maybe if I reinstall iTunes? Don't know, i'm trying other stuff.

I tried erasing the songs with problems but reinstalling them did not fix the problem. It still cuts off at the same point.

Thanks to everyones reply. I appreciate the input.

MechEngrng...

Definitely no playlists for me. Definitely only since I had iTunes Match and strictly iTunes purchases, not my own rips.  I am not too happy.

FYI: I tried downloading the latest iTunes 11.1.2.12 and using the repair option to see if this will fix the problem. It did not.

So far I have done the following with no success:

Erased all music files from my iphone and reinstalled all using itunes

Clean installed IOS7.03 & restore my iphone 4S

Erased all songs cutting off and download a fresh copy from itunes (from iphone & pc win 7)

Repaired the iTunes in the pc

I fixed this problem on my itunes by deleting all special characters occuring in my playlist names. For example, I changed my playlist called 80's to 80s.

OK, thanks, Paulronco. I"m going to have to start keeping track more carefully of all the songs that have this problem. There are quite a few (of my total tracks of about 18,000), but I just started keeping a record of them and so far, it's only two songs out of a full album I bought from the iTunes store in 2007, which played just fine on my iPod quite a few years. Again, they cut off now only when played on my iPod and not from iTunes on my computer. Interestingly, they both cut off at exactly 3:00 into the song. Unlike Plasmodium's issue where the same problem exists across multiple devices but not on iTunes, these same cuts exist on my iPad and they play on it with no problem.

However, I should note that I've never actually downloaded these songs (or any songs) to my iPad, at least not intentionally. I've never enabled Wi-Fi syncing with iTunes on it, or physically connected the iPad to my iMac. However, in the iTunes and App Store section under Settings, I do have Music turned on under "Show All", which indicates that it will "Show all store purchases and iTunes Match uploads in your music and video libraries, eve if they have not been downloaded to this iPad". I don't really understand how my iPad accesses the songs that it plays, which apparently are only ones I've bought from the iTunes store at some point. So, maybe the files for these problem songs that my iPad is playing properly is somehow different from the song file my iPod is having trouble with. Does that info make you think any differently about it being an iTunes problem versus a device one?

                              OK Paul, I did exactly as you recommended.  That is, deleted the problem song, Moody Blues "question" from the Itunes library, but importantly selected "keep the file".  I actually chose to close out, reboot my home computer, re-open Itunes and re-import the song back into the library.  Low and behold it worked.  the song plays to end now.  So apparently I didn't need to be re-ripping everything, just deleting the problem songs and re-introducing them to the library.  This will obviously save valuable time.  Having said that, what the h_ll is wrong here and why can't Apple fix it?  And if they can't, there's no reason why we shouldn't keep trying to identify the actual culprit, code re-writing excepted I suppose.  -Plasmodium Vivax

Hi Paul,

Yea, I fixed mine too.  It is a real pain as you solution and others points out.  What I am saying is that Apple doen't know how to fix the problem so that it doesen't happen again to you or me or others. They admitted it to me that from their end they are aware of it but can't resolve it.  Bottom line:  People like you and I will have to continue to put the bandade on and hope it doesn't happen again...or go elsewhere!  It has made me reluctant to do updates which is where I first encountered the problem two years ago.

Pete

So  all, did the latest  Itunes  update, V11.1.3 fix anything for anyone?  I noticed it said "fixed performance problems for large libraries." Not sure what that means.  I have to wait  to see if I run across a problem song in my library as I have chased so many  out that I  don't have one I can go to and test  or fix as per the remedy  already established in this thread  until I  stumble across one I missed.  My hope is I  never find one meaning Apple  finally  fixed the issue once and for all.                                          -Plasmodium Vivax

Paul, your solution seemed to have worked. All is well right now.

I also downloaded the newest version of iTunes and sync all my other devices and that fixed the problem too.

Thanks Paul...

Deleting the offending songs, but keeping the files, and the reimporting them into iTunes and resynching the iPod worked. Good call, Paulronco, and thanks. But now it's a matter of finding how many other songs in the library are screwed up. It's a bloody shame there's no Apple guidance on this.

I must be missing something because i have no idea how to identify all the bad songs out of thousands of songs...if i just download the new itunes and then re sync will it work? or do you really have to individually pull out those bad songs and if so how do you know which they are until they play or not play?? Tks

Well the jury is still out on whether the most recent Itunes 11.1.3 fixed the problem or not.  It did say it addressed "performance issues with large libraries."  I don't know what that means.  Unfortunately (I think we are relegated to finding broken songs as they show up and fixing them one by one.  Perhaps making a list as you come across them and then devoting time to fix them en masse?  I'm just fixing them as they come.  Haven't had time to do any extensive listening since the latest update came out..  Wish I had something more           brilliant to offer.  -Plasmodium Vivax

I'm glad to hear that my solution is solving the problem for many people. If you go back to my original post (a few pages back), I describe a method for how you can manually error check about twenty songs per minute. So, for a library of a thousand songs, that would take about an hour to go through.

Backing up your music, uninstalling Itunes, and then reinstalling Itunes probably will not work. Others have said it doesn't work. What MIGHT work is if you uninstall Itunes and then rename the Itunes folder in both the Program Files folder (if it is still there after uninstall) as well as from the My Documents Folder (it is definitely left there after uninstall as this is the folder that contains your playlists and music files) to something like "Itunes_old" and then reinstall Itunes, then reimport all of your music. By renaming the original folders to "Itunes_old," you make them invisible to both Windows and the new installation of Itunes, while avoiding having to permanently delete anything. So, any corruption that is still contained within these folders will not carry over to the new installation of Itunes. Version 11.1.3 may have fixed this issue, but apparently Apple has decided to remain vague by saying only that the new version has addressed "performance issues with large libraries."

The method I've just described should give you a good clean installation of Itunes with no artifacts left over from the previous installation. Keep in mind that you will lose all of your playlists. You can try to back them up and then re-import them using this thread, but I am not personally familiar with the procedure:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/7282478#7282478

-Paul