Shuffle won't play purchased music

Just got off the phone with AppleCare. They're sending me a new Shuffle. I'll return the current one via the shipping material they'll send. Not sure if I'll get a 1st of 2nd gen model.

The info that convinced him that it needed replacing was in the USB info in the System Profiler. In Hardware under USB, the high speed USB bus was showing the Shuffle connected. The Product ID listed there for the iPod (0x1300) indicated that something was wrong. He didn't give me details of why that was a bad ID. Either way, Apple is taking care of it.

I gave the iPod technical specialist I was transferred to the details of this thread so hopefully the word of this issue will get out.

My advice is to politely call AppleCare and have all of your technical info at hand. I hope they do the same for all of you.

Best of Luck!

Just wanted to let people know that my son got his 1st gen Shuffle to work again.
He was having the issue of not being able to get his iTune bought songs on it. After talking to him he came to the conclution that it was after the last update that the trouble started.

He was able to re-install iPod Updater 1.1.2 and it is working fine.

Please let us all know if your replacement shuffle plays the music your current shuffle won't. I'm curious to see if this is all 1st gen shuffles having problems with certain new song files or if it's only some shuffles...seems widespread to me but maybe it is only certain shuffles.

I have one purchased album and two individual songs that will play, and another album and two individual songs that do not play. (No problems observed with songs imported from CD.) Can not see any pattern in file size or sampling rate or copyright date of songs. The songs that work were all purchased one day later than the ones that do not.

Behaviour identical on two different first generation shuffles, and tried downgrading from 1.1.4 to 1.1.3 but did not help. (Can not find 1.1.2!)

Songs play fine on Intel MacBook, PPC G4, and 40 GB iPod.

Whatever the problem is, it's fairly inconsistent. I just got my laptop back after a logic board issue, and downloaded Shabach by The Procussions and God vs. One Time (a smash up album) and they both work fine on my 1st gen shuffle. However, my songs from Pac's Life still do not work. I have no idea what's going on.

I recieved my 1GB replacement 1st gen Shuffle today. All of my iTunes purchased music play fine on it. Problem solved at no charge.

That's a good news. But now I am a bit confused: I was 100% sure it was a firmware problem with the constantly-changing-devil-blessed DRMs.
Is there a new firmware on your 'new' 1st gen shuffle sent by Apple, or the last one available on line?

So I guess maybe I will call Apple back (never heard back from the tech support person who was supposed to call me in the middle of this week) and accept the replacement if it's offered.

I wonder how Apple is going to feel about having to replace so many 1st generation shuffles...

I've been looking for other discussions boards outside of Apple's and have been posting that people should call or e-mail Apple about this in the hopes that enough bugging will cause a large scale recall or firmware solution.

I recieved my 1GB replacement 1st gen Shuffle today.
All of my iTunes purchased music play fine on it.
Problem solved at no charge.

WHICH firmware version is on it????

So I guess maybe I will call Apple back (never heard
back from the tech support person who was supposed to
call me in the middle of this week) and accept the
replacement if it's offered.

I wonder how Apple is going to feel about having to
replace so many 1st generation shuffles...

WHY would Apple be replacing them? They haven't been manufactured for some time now...

I've been looking for other discussions boards
outside of Apple's and have been posting that people
should call or e-mail Apple about this in the hopes
that enough bugging will cause a large scale recall
or firmware solution.

IF replacement 1st Gen Shuffles are NOW capable of playing music that previous ones couldn't, that probably means a firmware fix.

I would assume the "replacements" are refurbished 1st gen shuffles as Basenji Owner did get a replacement. I was also told if the tech person I spoke with didn't have any new answers when he called me back, I would be able to return my shuffle for a replacement (I have my case number that I could use to call back to tech support - just don't know if it's worth it to fight for a replacement, especially since mine is engraved and I still don't believe there's anything wrong with it but rather the song files themselves).

I do wonder about the firmware on the refurbs now that that's been mentioned. I wonder if the refurbs have the oldest shuffle firmware and if they are updated, if they will have the same problems we are all having...

Basenji Owner - pleae let us all know about the firmware on your refurbished replacement 🙂

Thomas,

Your confusion is understandable, and results from a lot of folks passing the same unfounded and out of context 'urban legend' back and forth. There hasn't been any change to the DRM schemas, and the Shuffle firmware isn't doing a thing differently than it did before.

The problems with some (not all) ITMS purchased tracks/albums and play problems on the Shuffle (less so on the Nano, but also present there) go back at least a year, probably longer.

I have an April '05 Shuffle, which has been routinely updated as new releases came out and were validated. I think my experience is pretty typical:

a) Those purchased tracks which ever did play correctly continue to play correctly on all subsequent firmware versions, and

b) Those few tracks and albums which never did play continue to not play, in exactly the same way that they have always failed to play, through all subsequent updates.

c) The two fixes I know of for the wonky tracks have worked, and I assume continue to do so. I haven't had any of my recent purchases fail to play (knock on wood). Those are

i) Work with ITMS Support to get a fresh download of the damaged track. This can be done, but never quickly or easily, i.e., you have to chip at them a bit before they agree to a second bite at their apple (and they have never, to my knowledge, admitted to any sort of a problem).

ii) Burn those offending tracks off to a CD and then re-import them into iTunes. This has always worked as advertised, and the loss of audio quality which I've been assured does happen in this process just doesn't seem to be a big issue for me.

I did find on the internet that this has been a continuing problem (I found articles I thought were recent only to see that they were describing the same problem happening back in the summer of 2005) - it just seems like there's been quite a few more problems as of November of this year.

Everything you say it's true.
I know the problem it's old, but now things are a bit different: it's not a matter of 1 or 2 songs not working on my Shuffle. I bought 6-7 songs recently, they were all encoded/encrypted in late November/December (i.e.: they were new releases), and they ALL failed to play on the Shuffle. It's not a pleasure to download a song and wondering if it's gonna play or not; the 'burning and then ripping' solution would be acceptable for a temporary work-around, for a couple of files, but it CAN'T be the default way to fill up the shuffle...
I didn't get any refund for the non-working tracks, and now I am quite sure that EVERY new tracks on the iTunes store it's not working on the Shuffle and, of course, I am tired of 'testing' new tracks to see if they work on the 'small white wonder'. It's a funny game but it's not free...

Maybe there's some hope...on another thread, user synesthesian just got off the phone with tech support and posted:

"i finally spoke to someone at apple who ended up talking to a apple engineer. they seem to know whats going on, everyone else don't know much when it comes to this type of stuff. i wish they would tell the rest of tech support so it would save alot of wasted time on our behalf. anyway there is a problem with older shuffles being able to play recent added songs on itunes store. they don't know when there will be a update to fix."

So hopefully that's true and the engineers are aware and are working on it even if there's no estimated time of when we'll get a fix...