Q: iTunes song preview time is cutting off.

Received an email this morning from Apple and just thought I'd share with everyone:

I have looked into this matter and all I can tell you at this time is that iTunes is actively investigating this matter for you and all the other customers that have experienced the same issue here over the past few weeks.

Apple is currently working as fast as they can toward a resolution for the issue you and others have reported.

You will receive an email after the matter has been investigated and further information is available.

Thank you for your patience and understanding and I hope you have a great day.

Thanks to all of you who have pursued this so doggedly, refuted the boilerplate fixes, and persisted in trying to squeeze some sort of intelligent response out of support staff!

But, *** Apple? This issue is more than two weeks old at the least, clearly affecting iTunes sales... How critical does the mass have to get before it lights a fire under someone?

To follow up: the new iTunes update released today does not resolve this problem. Pathetic.

Unbelievable but thanks for saving me from the frustration of installing and finding it still doesn't work. I've given up and am looking at Amazon now but not 100% how I get those songs to my Ipod. Am I just adding to my music folder? (Don't want to hijak the thread but figured everyone here is now using Amazon so you'd have an easy answer .

Hi barbpf,

There might be other ways now, but the way I have always got non-itunes music into my itunes library is as follows:

- you need a media player. I have Windows Media Player (WMP).

- purchase and download your music

- open your media player and move the downloaded files into it

- open both your media player and itunes so you can see both on the same screen (resize their windows if neccessary)

- go to the media player and highlight the music you wish to put into itunes

- drag and drop that highlighted selection into the "Music" Library in itunes (near the top left)

- itunes will automatically convert the music format to mp4

After that you can right click on the individual songs that were transferred and click on Get Info to make any changes you may want.

There may be other ways to accomplish this but this is the way that has worked for me for years. You can also do this if you have downloaded music to your computer from your CD's.

Hope this helps.

to barbpf,

p.s.  once the music is in your itunes library you treat them the same as a direct download to your itunes, then go ahead and sync to your ipod.

A heads up: if you ever move or remove those songs from your computer's files or the media player, itunes will not be able to locate those files and will give a warning and "usually" will ask if you want to locate them. It uses the path you copied them from. I have had this happen in the early days when I wasn't sure how it all worked. iTunes was very good at finding the moved files. Obviously, it cannot restore a deleted file unless it is still in your recycle bin and you restore it from there first.

Someone here may have a more up-to-date way of doing things and it also depends (I think?) if you have a desktop computer or simply an ipod to download your music.

~S

To everyone who is still facing this problem... I think this is happening because they want you to pay for tech support - I just received a follow-up email which encouraged me to contact the paid support.  BTW, Windows just came out with a massive update (14 important) that included W7, net frame work update, I9 updates, etc.  I also downloaded the new iTunes update.  Then I turned off the Firewall for a few minutes.  Still doesn't play more that a few seconds, though I do occasionally get a song for 15 sec.

So, like the masochist I am I keep hoping there will be a fix ... especially since I just received a mega iTunes gift card for my birthday.  I am hoping to use my iPhone to preview, which seems to be working so far.

I just don't understand why Apple won't listen. Sigh.

I don' tthink it's the money. They are just pointing you there because where ever you are now doesn't have an answer so they're passing the buck. If tech support had an answer -- we'd all have it. I  am also guessing it's not a priortiy because they can just point to Windows (which they've already done with me a few times -- call Microsoft).  I would pay if I thought for a second it wouldn't just be an extended call with them telling me do everything I've already done. I seriously don't want to do even on more uninstall of all the Apple components.

And I'm with you -- I'm not sure why they're not listening. OR if they are -- then maybe they want to post here to let us know what they are doing.....

So I held off updating Windows thinking that might cause an issue but since this isn't getting fixed either way -- I might as well do it. 

It is now working fine for me.  Unfortunately, I am no closer to tracking down why it is now working when it didn't work before.  The only change that I made was the latest update to iTunes but I understand that hasn't worked for some other people.

Glad someone can hear tunes.  Didn't work for me ... someone else on another discussion said try updating JAVA ... I did that, but still not working.

I suffer from the same issue. After tinkering around I found that uninstalling/re-installing does not yeild results. Updating Quicktime did nothing. However, after I changed the location settings from USA to Canada the previews played all the way through. Downside, not all songs from the USA iTunes are available in the Canada version. Enjoy this temporary fix!

Trouble with changing to Canada, my Credit Card info won't work and I have to set up a new account.

Thats why you change it to canada for preview purposes only. After you're sure you want the song, switch it back to USA and make your purchase.

Thanks, but aargh ... too much trouble to delete my info, etc. and then re enter. 

I live in Canada and as stated in my earlier posts, have the preview cut-off issues also. Not sure why switching countries would work.