Songs being cut off

4/19/2012 - I have recently been having this problem as well. I've found posts going back to 2009 regarding this same issue and I have not yet seen anyone post an answer that actually fixed the problem. I would contact support but I need a serial number to put in and I don't have a serial number for the itunes application just my ipod and my ipod is too old to get any questions answered without purchasing a help ticket. It seems to only be songs that I downloaded from itunes a long time ago so I don't know if those songs are no longer fully compatible with the latest itunes upgrades or what? It's always cuts off with the last 30 or so seconds left in the song and then after about 10 seconds of silence it jumps to the next song. I am having the problem on itunes and on my ipod.

I've also encountered this bug recently in iTunes 10.6 and have been trying a few different fixes listed by others with varying success.

I had a recently downloaded album which had about 5 of 20 songs cutting off short. It wasn't that the whole file wasn't downloaded, but seemed to be that iTunes had a discrepancy with the length of the song. (Opening the file with another media player allowed the songs to be played to the end) As suggested by many, deleting the album from the library and the hard disk, then re-downloading didn't fix my problem.

However, what DID fix the problem for me was un-checking the option to "allow simultaneous downloads" in the Downloads window. ie. Delete the album from iTunes and the HDD, then re-download the files one-at-a-time.

I hope that someone else can try this and let me know if this fixes their problem too.

I figured out how to fix this problem for some of the songs. I'm still trying to figure it out for a few others. The ones that are currently fixable, I went to my last backup which was a portable harddrive that was holding a copy of my entire library and found the song that I was having problems with, I dragged it into itunes and itunes will now play the full song of the one I dragged over, so I deleted the one that wasn't working. For the songs I don't have on my backup portable harddrive I am still working on trying to fix. I will post if I can get those fixed too.

crumpethead, I'm trying to fix the problem without re-purchasing the songs. WhenMy last computer died, I had to install itunes on my laptop so I lost my purchase history and I cannot re-download a song without a new purchase. This is only happening to my older song I purchased from itunes like in 2008. Thanks for posting a reponse though.

4/30/12. itunes support emailed me back and these were their suggestions:

I understand your past purchases songs does not play completely and would like to have this resolved. I will be glad to assist you in resolving the issue.

Thank you for your patience while the issue you reported was investigated.

After thoroughly examining the purchases you mentioned, Apple has determined that it is free of defects and should play correctly on any iOS device, or computer that meets the minimum system requirements for video playback. Here are some ideas that should help:

1) Quit other open applications before playing purchases in iTunes.

2) Visit http://www.apple.com/itunes/download to update to the latest version of iTunes. This update is free of charge. You can also see if your computer meets the Windows or Macintosh requirements.

Jessi, you can download many of your previous iTunes Store purchases through iTunes in the Cloud. You may be able to download this particular purchase using this feature.

To learn what previously purchased content is available for download in your country, visit this article:

iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match Availability

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5085

Some movies you’ve previously purchased may not be available for download. In addition, for some movies, you will see the message "When purchased, this movie will not be available from iTunes in the Cloud” if the movie can't be downloaded again. This message appears under the Buy button on the iTunes store product page.

Downloading the latest version of iTunes will not affect your library or any items in your account.

To learn how to download past purchases, visit this article:

Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519

None of these suggestions help me, but I hope they are able to help some people so I posted them. Thanks.

~Anouke

I noticed many of my protected songs were cutting off too. I discovered that if I delete the file, send the file to the trash, and then restore the file to iTunes again it plays in its entirety. VERY time consuming and annoying, but better than buying the songs all over again.

I've also noticed that the hundreds of individual song purchases that were previously available for upgrade to iTunes Plus are no longer showing up on the iTunes Plus page. I hope this is just a glitch and Apple fixes it ASAP. Very disheartening...

if you go to your music section in the itunes library, and delete the problem causing songs, then go to the new "purchased" section on the side of your home page, you can download the songs "not on this computer" warning you can only do one at a time and even then it may not work... if you repeatedly do it, they will all eventually work.