Brand new shuffle (2013) that stops playing songs randomly?

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Brand new shuffle (2013) that stops playing songs randomly?

Just bought a shuffle (May 2013). Charged for over 3 hours, registered, set it up, loaded only 88 songs to test. Listened to it for the first time, and it stops playing at random times, turns off, and I have to physically turn it off, then wait (random times) to turn it back on to work. When I do, it has reset to the first song all over again. Happens every time I listen to it. Software is up to date. It's not the cords or the headphones, tried different ones already. It's not the software, and it's not the iPod (already swapped it out, still happening). Now that I think about it...my other iPods have all done this to me at some point, but never right out of the box, and usually several years (3-5) after I've had them (have owned 7 now, (don't get new ones b/c they break, but b/c run out of GB space) starting with original iPod mini, but my mini has NEVER done this and I still use it). What's up with the brand new shuffles doing this right out of the box? I've noticed I'm not the first person to have this problem, but I've yet to find a solution beyond what's already been done. Would greatly appreciate input regarding what to do after checking the charge, registration, software, cords, headphones, computer system, swapping out for new shuffle, resetting to factory, removing specific songs iTunes couldn't find b/c don't have external drive right now, et al!

iPod shuffle, iOS 5.1.1, Shuffle 4th Generation

Posted on May 13, 2013 7:21 PM

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Answer 1

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Kenichi Watanabe

Level 8

41,572 points

May 13, 2013 8:40 PM in response to Celticcow

You've done quite a bit of troubleshooting and described it nicely...

On the iPod's Summary tab in iTunes, do you have the setting for Convert higher bit rate songs to [option] AAC enabled? If you do, try unchecking it, then re-loading the shuffle.

If your source of songs was largely not from the iTunes Store nor ripped from music CD using iTunes, to test if there is something unusual about parts of your collection of song files, try downloading a free song from the iTunes Store. Go to Music in the iTunes Store. Under MUSIC QUICK LINKS, there is a link for Free on iTunes (I guess there is only one free song at the moment). Also, if you still have any music CDs around, rip one or two into your iTunes library using iTunes. Set iTunes to use the AAC format, which is in iTunes Preferences General tab, Import Settings. If you have previously purchased songs from the iTunes Store, you can use some of those songs for this test.

With this collection of songs that were either downloaded from the iTunes Store, or ripped from music CD using iTunes, load ONLY those songs on the shuffle. You can put them all on a new "Test" playlist, and set the shuffle's Music tab to sync just that one playlist, and Apply. Does this problem still occur with this set of songs?

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Answer 2

Celticcow Author

Level 1

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May 14, 2013 4:45 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

I'll try this today and let you know how it goes! Thank you for the help!

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Answer 3

Celticcow Author

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May 15, 2013 8:35 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Ok, the "convert higher bit rate" wasn't originally checked, so I went ahead and checked it, loaded up the shuffle, tested it (just in case), didn't work (not surprised), so reset again to factory, unchecked "covert higher bit rate", loaded again, no good. All the music I was loading onto the shuffle came from iTunes already, so I just tried it with CDs I had copied over on a playlist and a separate one with only songs that had been taken from another external source. No dice again for either of the playlists. The problem still happens regardless of where the music came from. Also have MacKeeper, ran scans of all music, hard drive, software, external drives, etc...no corruption and/or viruses.

What I've yet to do, but will be doing right now, is going for a long run (about an hour), and using the shuffle to see if it will do it again without my interfering with the playout, i.e. not pushing the "next track" button at all...been thinking maybe iPods in general don't like to have their next button pushed a billion times, maybe not.

Also, just to see what would happen, I left the shuffle on after it stopped playing music on me last evening, picked it up today (about 14 hours later) and noticed about half the battery life gone. So obviously when it stops playing music, it's not turning off but more like it's freezing or something like that...a common problem I actually found with the iPods original color screen from back in 2006.

Will reply with outcome of hour-long test run!

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Answer 4

Celticcow Author

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May 15, 2013 8:38 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Ok, the "convert higher bit rate" wasn't originally checked, so I went ahead and checked it, loaded up the shuffle, tested it (just in case), didn't work (not surprised), so reset again to factory, unchecked "covert higher bit rate", loaded again, no good. All the music I was loading onto the shuffle came from iTunes already, so I just tried it with CDs I had copied over on a playlist and a separate one with only songs that had been taken from another external source. No dice again for either of the playlists. The problem still happens regardless of where the music came from. Also have MacKeeper, ran scans of all music, hard drive, software, external drives, etc...no corruption and/or viruses. (Side question...what is "enable disk use" on "summary" screen? It's factory set to be checked.)

What I've yet to do, but will be doing right now, is going for a long run (about an hour), and using the shuffle to see if it will do it again without my interfering with the playout, i.e. not pushing the "next track" button at all...been thinking maybe iPods in general don't like to have their next button pushed a billion times, maybe not.

Also, just to see what would happen, I left the shuffle on after it stopped playing music on me last evening, picked it up today (about 14 hours later) and noticed about half the battery life gone. So obviously when it stops playing music, it's not turning off but more like it's freezing or something like that...a common problem I actually found with the iPods original color screen from back in 2006.

Will reply with outcome of hour-long test run!

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Answer 5

Celticcow Author

Level 1

0 points

May 15, 2013 11:05 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

Ok, the "convert higher bit rate" wasn't originally checked, so I went ahead and checked it, loaded up the shuffle, tested it (just in case), didn't work (not surprised), so reset again to factory, unchecked "covert higher bit rate", loaded again, no good. All the music I was loading onto the shuffle came from iTunes already, so I just tried it with CDs I had copied over on a playlist and a separate one with only songs that had been taken from another external source. No dice again for either of the playlists. The problem still happens regardless of where the music came from. Also have MacKeeper, ran scans of all music, hard drive, software, external drives, etc...no corruption and/or viruses. (Side question...what is "enable disk use" on "summary" screen? It's factory set to be checked.)

What I've yet to do, but will be doing right now, is going for a long run (about an hour), and using the shuffle to see if it will do it again without my interfering with the playout, i.e. not pushing the "next track" button at all...been thinking maybe iPods in general don't like to have their next button pushed a billion times, maybe not.

Also, just to see what would happen, I left the shuffle on after it stopped playing music on me last evening, picked it up today (about 14 hours later) and noticed about half the battery life gone. So obviously when it stops playing music, it's not turning off but more like it's freezing or something like that...a common problem I actually found with the iPods original color screen from back in 2006.

....just got back from the run, no issues with it stopping...interesting!

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