iTunes gives incorrect song length

Question

Level 4

1,203 points

iTunes gives incorrect song length

I have one MP3 that iTunes, on a couple computers and versions of iTunes, reads as 11:32 in song length. That is wrong as the song is only about 4 minutes in duration.

Quicktime player, Audion, and every other MP3 program read the same file as the correct length.

iTunes on the other hand starts to play it and when it gets to the real end of the song it quickly stutters through the rest of the imaginary remaining part. I do not want to load this onto my iPod or burn it to CD unless I can fix it first.

So is there a solution on how to repair this file. It doesn't seem corrupt since all the other programs read it fine.

G3 8500, B&W 400Mhz G3, 1Ghz iBook, 1.8Ghz Quicksilver, Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on May 8, 2006 3:08 AM

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Answer 1

rickyd

Level 1

60 points

May 8, 2006 3:44 AM in response to Langdon

Hi there!

I'm here to help mate. Listen to the song and remember what time the real song ending is.

Then, simply hold "Apple" + "I" to pull up the song Info. When opened, click on the 'Options' tab at the top and then select the "Stop Time" and enter what time you want the song to stop.

Hope this helps! Cheers, Ricky.

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Answer 2

NoName

Level 6

12,831 points

May 8, 2006 5:09 AM in response to Langdon

I will guess that you encoded the MP3s with Audion. It is famous for creating files with incorrectly reported track lengths when played back in iTunes. There's really no way to fix the problem, except for workarounds like mentioned already such as fudging the stop times of the tracks.

If I still had Audion installed on one of my Macs I'd do some experimenting, but I really don't want that software (even though it's free). As far as I recall, the same problem occurs with ALL MP3 files encoded with Audion, whether you use the stock MP3 encoder (Coding Technologies) or LAME, as long as VBR is used. I don't think CBR files suffer the same problem.

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Answer 3

Langdon Author

Level 4

1,203 points

May 8, 2006 3:01 PM in response to NoName

Well the MP3 was downloaded from the artist's website so I do not know what was used to encode it.

And as for the iTunes pref changes, I was aware of that but that is a work around not a fix. And that is what I am looking for since iTunes reporting back the wrong song length causes problems on playlists and with burning that is not fixed by just telling it to play it and stop at certain points.

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Answer 4

NoName

Level 6

12,831 points

May 8, 2006 11:05 PM in response to Langdon

Well the MP3 was downloaded from the artist's website so I do not know what was used to encode it.

If you can direct me to the MP3 download, I will test the file and attempt to repair it here. I'm pretty sure I can manage it 😉

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