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

I have the same problem — random songs cutting off right in the middle — and it annoys the **** out of me. I have resynced and refreshed the library several times and it does not seem to work. I have an iPod Classic, a MacBook Air, up-to-date software and a jazz collection that has taken me DECADES to assemble. I have detected NOT ONE **** NOTE OF REPLY froim Apple concerning what is apparently an acute problem.

I have used Macs for over 25 years, and this is the only major issue I have had,  BUT IT'S A **** BIG ONE! I can quite easily go with alternatives and not think twice about it. Is that what you want, Apple? ADDRESS AND FIX THE **** PROBLEM, THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!

Said it perfectly and today I started looking at the Samsung and other phones. I left android for apple and I think I made a mistake.

I fixed it. I purchased a new samsung galaxy note 3 last week and haven't looked back. I love it!

Of course I still have an iPad for work, but for the next 2 years I'm with Samsung.

But it will unexpectedly happen again. It always does.

For what it's worth. I've had the same issue. I just deleted one of the affected songs, then immedialtely re-imported, but this time just by itself instead of with the original other 17 songs from the same album. That song now plays just fine. I wonder if my older model Mac (about 2007) with 4GB of RAM can't quite keep up with a more arduous import task.

Less Ram should just mean a longer slower queue for the task, it should not change how the task is performed.

"For what it's worth. I've had the same issue. I just deleted one of the affected songs, then immedialtely re-imported, but this time just by itself instead of with the original other 17 songs from the same album. That song now plays just fine. I wonder if my older model Mac (about 2007) with 4GB of RAM can't quite keep up with a more arduous import task."

This is in line with my solution of October 10. We have concluded that the problem is due to a bug in Itunes that causes metadata to be corrupted when a song is imported into the library. It's not a RAM issue nor is it caused by file corruption. The newest version of Itunes may have resolved the issue, but affected songs may not be repaired by an upgrade. As far as we know, the only way to resolve it is to delete and re-import the affected songs one by one, or do a clean upgrade of Itunes after renaming the old Itunes folders after uninstalling, then re-importing everything. The remnant Itunes folders will be lefted behind in Program Files as well as in the Users profile directory. Both should be renamed before performing the clean upgrade. You will lose your playlists unless you manage to re-import them from the renamed folder in the Users directory.

The problem also affects songs on synched devices. There was a long discussion regarding this issue after my published fix on October 10. Enjoy.

-Paul Ronco, Computer Technician

Add me to the list of iTunes users who're encountering the truncated song issue (11.1.3 on OSX 10.6).

In my case, the complete songs are in the iTunes library, but they always skip ahead at exactly the same point.

I tried converting the songs to AIFF, but even as AIFF files, they continued to skip at the same point

Next, I trashed the offending songs and re-downloaded them, with the same result. The songs skip ahead at precisely as they did before. The same for ACC convervisions from AIFF.

However, when I re-purchased some of the problem songs from a different source, they played fine.

So far, the problem has only occurred in fairly high quality (256kbs mp3) files. From scanning this discussion, I wouldn't be surprised if this is a multi-factor, perhaps even a multi-cause problem. But until a better explanation comes along, I'll cast my vote with the "corrupt source file" theory.

Anyway, it boggles the mind that Apple remains unable to solve such a fundamental problem with their flagship software app.

I recently purchased Fidelia, a high-end iTunes alternative that works with the iTunes Library and Playlists. It will be interesting to see if the problem persists in Fidelia as well.

I've had this problem since "upgrading" to Match.  I'm not sure how your solution would work for me, though, Paul, since I do not sync my iPhone, iPad, or iPod to my iTunes library now that I have Match.  My iOS gadgets all update directly from the Match cloud, as near as I can tell. 

Here is a summary of my situation:

- I have about 8300 songs in my library. They all play fine in iTunes on my MacBook Pro.

- About 6 months or so ago, when I signed up for Match, I replaced all the songs in my library with the Match versions. Everything continued to work fine on iTunes on the MacBook.

- I then deleted all the music from my iOS gadgets and turned on Match on each one.  That's when the problems started.

Now *many* of my songs are truncated. Some cut off and give me silence; others cut off and run immediately into the next one. (This is more common.) Again, this is only on the iOS peripherals.

I can't use Paul's method of going through my songs on iTunes to find the problem ones, because they all play fine there.  And since I don't sync to iTunes anymore, I don't see how deleting and re-downloading a song there will affect my iPhone, etc. 

This is very frustrating. I'm hoping it'll be fixed when I dump Match when my subscription runs out and go back to synching with iTunes directly.

Meanwhile, solutions welcome.

Replying to myself ... I went ahead and picked one song that was having problems and followed the steps you outlined, Paul (and which I've seen others mention in other threads here). 

I deleted the song from my iTunes library on my MacBook Pro and from the cloud. Then I re-uploaded it from my hard drive. Played it in iTunes; it sounds great. I watched as Match sucked it back into the cloud, and then I saw it reappear on my iPhone in the Music app.  I played the song on my iPhone, and ...

No dice.  Still truncated.  Beyond frustrating.

You're experiencing different symptoms from the Itunes+computer problem. As far as I've been able to deduce, the Itunes+computer problem cuts off songs after a consistent amount of playtime and then goes immediately to the next song. It does not play silence. However, others have said that they experience silence when their songs cut off, and I still don't have enough information to conclude that they are not the same issue. They may be.

Based on the history that you describe, I doubt that Itunes on your macbook could be the problem. Still, it could be, if the relationship between the earlier Itunes synch and the update from the Match cloud caused a conflict. I believe that Match can contribute to the problem, especially if it shares some of the same defective code that Itunes does/did. I've suspected there's a connection with Match since someone else mentioned in a previous post that their problems did not start until they turned on Match. On the other hand, it is known for a fact that the problem can exist without Match being involved.

Try to determine how much playtime you get before the songs cut off. Try to determine if the cutoff playtime is constant, or generally constant, and let me know what you find.

Try reloading the newest OS on one of your devices and re-downloading everything from the Match cloud, clean. This will eliminate the Match update of all the songs that were put there by the earlier Itunes synch. If the problem persists, we can almost completely rule out your installation of Itunes as having been part of the problem, and we will have identified that Match is causing the problem. If the problem is resolved, then it was likely caused by a conflict between the Match update of the older Itunes synch.

-Paul

The only songs I have issues with are ones I downloaded from the iTunes Store. What can I do about that?  It is apples copy that is making it happen. Anything I rip is fine. I use PC with iTunes on it and use match on my iPhone so there is not syncing or storing locally on that device.

What do I do?  If I delete the downloaded song then I lose it since it is like 10 years ago that I downloaded it from apple.

"What do I do?  If I delete the downloaded song then I lose it since it is like 10 years ago that I downloaded it from apple."

Well, first, you should make a backup of your music. Generally Itunes stores your music files in the My Music Folder of My Documents. Copy that folder to an external hard drive and that's your backup.

Deleting the song from your library will not delete the song from your hard drive. When you try to delete a song from within Itunes, Itunes will ask you if you want to delete it from your computer as well. Say no. Then, re-import it into the Itunes library from its location on the hard drive and see if the error goes away. This solution has worked for me and others on this site.

-Paul

Paul, I gave your suggestion a whirl last night (reinstalled OS on iPhone, etc); no luck.

Interestingly, I also have all my music in the Google cloud and used to play it via various apps. I resurrected one of those apps today (Melodies), and all my music plays fine. So the Google cloud service and associated apps work fine; iTunes on my laptop works fine; Match is screwed up.

I am going to give Apple a call but without much optimism. Then it looks like I'll go back to using Google's cloud service and figure out how to unsubscribe from Match. It's a pity, because I like the idea behind Match on all my Apple devices, but life is too short for this.

By all means, switch to Google. I think it's a great idea. Apple hasn't made a single comment on this thread.

You know another thing life's too short for? Making calls to outsourced technical support when you already know they're not going to have a solution.

Reinstall the OS on your Iphone, turn off Match, and then synch from your Itunes library. Let me know what happens then.

-Paul Ronco, Computer Technician