Q: iTunes song preview time is cutting off.

I noticed a couple days ago since I first thought the problem was resolved the problem has reoccured for me.  Sometimes the previews cut off at the 4-5 second mark!  I installed the latest version of iTunes that was released last week, but that has not solved the problem.  Sometimes the preview will play the full 1:30, so for me, the problem doesn't occur everytime.  It's so frustrating.  C'mon, Apple!

I have been having this same problem intermittently for a few weeks now.  All of the solutions proposed here that people say have worked are coincidence I think.  My experience has been that I will have the song preview problem one day, then the next day it will be fine, only to have the problem crop back up again the day after.  I have even had where I will have a problem with song previews on one album, but in switching to another album the previews will play.  This after doing nothing to attempt to fix the problem by uninstalling, reinstalling, etc...  What this tells me is that the problem is on iTunes end, not with my computer.  I had already been using iTunes less and less due to being able to find music cheaper at Amazon or eMusic, but one big advantage iTunes had over either of those services for me were the 90 second previews.  That is now gone.

So I've been keeping up on this thread even though mine started working and then saw jascook's post and said -- hmmm -- let me try it again. Well there you go -- it doesn't work AGAIN.

APPLE -- ARE YOU OUT THERE? ARE YOU LISTENING? We've pointed you to this thread MANY times. How about some insight into what the problem is and what the ETA is for a fix. It's only the ease of use that keeps me here but if I have to preview somewhere else and come back here for a download I might as well just purchase elsewhere.

I'm with barbpf and jascook.  Like you I reported it working only to discover it's an on again/off again thing.  Sometimes it would work if I kept hitting the preview button.  Other times, it played all the way thru without an issue.  What bugs me is that Apple kept saying to me in their support email that the iTunes Store works perfectly fine and that it is my computer issue.  What a mess.

I contacted iTunes customer support a couple weeks ago, and like many here received canned responses that had absolutely nothing to do with the issue.  I don't think their customer service reps are equipped to handle a problem like this.  Based on my interactions they don't seem like trained technicians, but rather drones who sit at a computer and fire stock answers back at the emailed questions they receive until something accidentally works or the customer gets frustrated and goes away.  Anyone know of an alternate way to contact Apple?  To me, this issue seems widespread enough that it is extremely unlikely that this number of people are suddenly and simultaneously having the exact same issue on their computer to "cause" this problem.

My sentiments, exactly.  I have spent two days trying to find a way to talk to a person, and I have had a representative communicate by email, but, none of the suggestions have solved my problem.  My Itunes library is extensive, and if this problem does not resolve itself quickly, I will seek another music service.  I am not a tech wizard, and dread starting with another music service and trying to merge my libraries.

The shortened music preview issue really impacts my purchase decisions.

There are now 80 posts regarding this issue which Apple continues to ignore.  I am sure their Customer Service is outsourced and the reps are not trained to provide helpful information on Technical issues.  That said it is applalling that there is no escalation process in place and Apple continues to provide this abysmal level of service.

It may be inconvenient but I suggest boycotting ITunes after sending an email noting your decison.  Once it affects their bottom line perhaps they will act.

If iTunes 10.6 is the possible culprit, has anyone tried to reinstall iTunes 10.5 to see if that solves the problem?  Don't remember if I saw this mentioned in this thread.  There are old versions of iTunes available on the internet.

<Edited By Host>

On another thread about the preview cutoff, using an older version doesn't help. 

"It is applalling that there is no escalation process in place." anna298 hit the nail on the head. Mulitple posters report directing support staff to this thread, the comments make it clear that the iTunes store is hemorrhaging customers... Isn't there even one Apple employee whose job it is to notice something like this and initiate a timely response? I would understand if they didn't feel like providing free tech support for a product that had already been sold, but surely this is costing them money in download sales? Seems kind of dumb for a company that fancies themselves the smartest guys in the room.

I'm still experiencing the same problems as earlier stated, but like others have said, occasionally the "song previews" do play in full. Then it's back to anywhere between 2 - 30 sec. previews and more often than not 7 secs. Downloaded purchases that I've made since the "song preview" issue began are fraught with errors that sometimes aren't obvious until I play a purchased album only to discover that some songs are incomplete. Fortunately, the songs can be recovered using "My Purchases" but it's a nuisance that I've never experienced before.

As others have already stated, my efforts with iTunes / Apple support have proven useless. Although I didn't expect a response, I did mention the issue in the comment section of an Apple Customer Survey. Thought that it might alert someone of consequence, but that was about a week ago.

Prior to this I've been an extremely satisfied iTunes customer for years. I'm disappointed. Eventually I suspect that this will hurt sales. In the interim maybe the volume of complaints here will get some attention.

Best of luck folks.

Just figured I'd chime in here just to add more people to this thread so that hopefully apple takes notice.   I have the same problem as everyone else states.  It's very frustrating and hopefully they come up with a solution soon.

Maybe we should try contacting a few Apple shareholders. That might get results.

I'm grasping, but this has been extremely frustrating.

Maybe we need a "why doesn't Apple talk to its customers" facebook page or something

So after several exchanges of e-mail with customer support, I still have no solution to this.  They gave me the usual uninstall, re-install, reboot crap... none of which helped.  She recommended calling Apple support, but of course they want you to charge you a "pay per incident" fee.  I think it is like $30.  F-that!  They want me to pay them to help me fix their "free" software?  Makes NO sense.  Of course they say the problem is my computer not iTunes, so I guess all 80+ of us just have messed up computers. 

They are losing money by the day because most people are not going to pay for songs they can't preview, and no one at Apple seems to care.  I'm actually afraid to buy songs now, because people are saying they are having troubles with recent purchases playing correctly.

Not sure if any Mac users are seeing this problem, but my wife has a Macbook pro, and is having none of these issues. 

Maybe it is just a sales tactic to get people to by Macs.  I always found it funny that iTunes runs about 10 times slower on a Windows computer than a Mac, even with identical processors.  It is probably designed that way on purpose to punish us Windows users.  :-)

On a side note, this same version of ITunes also screwed up my ability to sync TV shows from the iTunes store to my iPad, but that is a separate discussion!