itunes playback skips. since updating to 12.1

Hi kathleen11848,

To help resolve this audio playback issue in iTunes on your Mac, please follow the directions in the article below.

iTunes and QuickTime for Windows: Audio does not play or plays incorrectly - Apple Support

Have a great weekend,

Alex H.

Uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes should have no impact on your library though, as always, backing up your complete library (by default, the C:Users\user_name\Music\iTunes folder and all its contents) is wise precaution before proceeding. As the previous response indicated, these symptoms may be indicative of an issue with QuickTime which may be resolved by reinstallation.

Hi Kathy,

Thank you for using the Apple Support Community. Due to the nature of your issue or question you may find more information by using another one of Apple's support resources - https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action

Take care,

Alex H.

I reinstalled iTunes and mine cleared up, I don't know why yours did not.😕

I'm also having the same problems too. Before 12.1 music played fine, but now after the update all my music started skipping and breaking up as well. I've tried uninstalling and re-installing iTunes already, but the problem is still the same, nothing changed.

Same here - I've completely uninstalled and cleaned up the install afterwards (registry and the various file locations where iTunes stores files) and re-installed. This had little effect, if anything the problem seems worse.

Rebooting my machine seemed to have an effect. I was listening to a podcast and changed to a track in my library to check something quick and then went back to the podcast and it started it's skippy nonsense again. I haven't restarted again to see if this has any bearing - I'll try again later but need to do my actual work for now.

Hopefully someone, if not Apple, finds resolution to this. Pretty sure though that it's going to require a program fix of some sort...or someone figures out a decent workaround. At a minimum I can report that restarting the audio subsystem in Windows doesn't help any.

There is an alternative downloader for 64-bit editions of Windows here:

iTunes 12.1 for Windows (64-bit — for older video cards)

that seems to address the playback issues that some users have been reporting with the full 64-bit version (the alternative installer here is the same architecture as most previous "64-bit" versions of iTunes, i.e., a 32-bit application with a 64-bit installer). The "for older video cards" label appears to be something of a misnomer as some people have reported that this corrects problems found on current / high-spec systems.

Some users have reported that after installing this alternative version it is necessary to adjust the "Play audio using:" selection in Edit > Preferences > Playback to restore glitch-free audio.

Having the same issue since the update. I'll try to reinstall to see if it fixes the problem.

I had the same problem with audio playback, downloaded and installed this version and it solved my problem thank you

This worked somewhat for me. The playback runs smoothly but after maybe like an hour or so it'll slowly become worse and worse, but can be easily fixed when I close and restart iTunes. Hopefully there'll be a more permanent solution, but for now this is so much better than before. Thanks!

Hi Kathleen,

Sometimes, this issue happens when the latest iTunes was not installed properly or was interrupted during the installation process. Don't worry, all you have to do as you are using a Windows computer is to uninstall iTunes and all its components. Meaning, not only iTunes but the quicktime player and others as well. Then install the latest version of iTunes. Your music will not be deleted since they are on your hard drive but it is still okay to have a backup of them, in that way double prevention is already done.

To uninstall completely iTunes (including its components), please read these articles:

iTunes 11.1.4 for Windows: Unable to install or open

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5376

Removing and reinstalling iTunes, QuickTime, and other software components for Windows Vista or Windows 7

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1923

Removing and reinstalling iTunes, QuickTime, and other software components for Windows XP

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1925

Note: Titles you purchased from the iTunes Store or imported from CDs are saved in your iTunes folder by default and are not deleted by uninstalling iTunes. Backing up your iTunes library regularly is recommended.

After successfully uninstalling iTunes, please ensure you have upgraded to the latest Service Pack for Windows by installing all updates available to you on Microsoft Windows Update:

http://update.microsoft.com

Once you have the latest Service Pack for Windows installed, download and install iTunes for Windows:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download

I trust all will be okay. Take care.

If the advice you've already had in this thread doesn't resolve things you could try this alternate version:

iTunes 12.1.0.71 for Windows (64-bit - for older video cards) - itunes64setup.exe (2015-01-28)

which is a 64-bit installer for the 32-bit version of the core application, similar to previous 64-bit releases. This appears to have helped other users with the same symptoms.

Or roll back to the previous build:

• iTunes 12.0.1.26 for Windows (32-bit) - iTunesSetup.exe (2014-10-16)
• iTunes 12.0.1.26 for Windows (64-bit) - iTunes64Setup.exe (2014-10-16)

tt2