itunes playback skips. since updating to 12.1

I tried that alternate download - didn't help. After playing about 6 or 7 songs, they start pausing during playback. Wish I could go back to the previous version.

"Wish I could go back to the previous version."

You can - see Turingtest2's notes on Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates for steps needed to completely remove all installed iTunes components, and for links to the 12.0 installers.

I was having exact same problem. It played fine before latest update, then always glitching - especially when on internet at same time. rebooting would help for a bit but it would eventually return. I tried a complete reinstall - didnt help. What's weird is that video will play in itunes just fine, but even for films the audio is glitchy while the picture is fine.

I just now tried the *rollback* version listed above (NOT the alternate 64-bit download for older video cards) after uninstalling everything apple itunes related (bonjour, etc). It seems to work perfectly now. No issues yet.

There seems to be a lot of people having this problem with the last update.

hhgttg27: No, no, no. Not 12.0. More like 10.0 or 11.0, but definitely not 12. It wiped out a third of my album art, many of which cannot be found on GraceNotes because they're foreign. And that's in addition to the playback problems.

Just got off the phone with "Mark" - a senior technician at Apple Support. We spent about an hour deleting all of my Apple products and reloading the 64-bit version of iTunes 12.1 on my Windows 7 platform. I'm currently running a test to see if the music still skips and pauses during play. If so, I'll either have to roll back to a pre-12 version or find another way to play my 22,000+ song library other than via iTunes.

BTW, I spent the last 45 years developing and testing software for the U.S. government, so I'm not new to any of this. But I would have been terribly embarrassed if any of the software apps I developed was as buggy as this thing.

Do you backup your library? An iTunes update might corrupt the database, or artwork cache, but these could be restored from a backup. If the artwork was embedded in the tags of your files, likely since you said they weren't fetched automatically, then deleting the Album Artwork folder and scrolling through the library in Albums view should rebuild it.

tt2

OK, just hit song #7 since reloading iTunes 12.1 and, as has been the case for a week now, it pauses and skips. Calling "Mark" at Apple Support back now....

My library isn't the problem. Besides, it take up more than half of my 1.5-terabyte hard drive, so what would I back it up to? The Cloud? Guess again. I was a senior IT tech for 45 years, and I can guarantee you two things: I'll never have a wireless LAN in my house (hard-wired only) and I'll never put anything in the Cloud. Now, excuse me while I call Apple Support.

As a matter of interest are you using Chrome when the stuttering happens? Some of the reports of this problem also mention it occurs when accessing the web which might be salient when it comes to debugging this issue.

And in answer to the recent question, another drive just as big or larger than the source. I have 3 copies of my library in two different locations, home and work. One drive shuttles between the other two to keep them in sync with each other.

tt2

Nope, just good-ole' IE 11. I left a message for the Apple tech regarding this issue. Hopefully, he'll find a way for me to roll back to version 10 or 11. I never should have upgraded to 12.

I just replayed song #7 ("White Bird" by It's a Wonderful Day) by itself and it didn't skip at all, so the library isn't corrupted - it's iTunes itself. But if I let more than 6 songs play in a row, not only does the seventh song skip, it will lock up my PC if I don't kill iTunes.

As for backups, I still have all of the CDs, and 100% of my library consists of uploads from the original CDs so I guess that's my backup.

BTW, love your handle. After I watched a movie during my sophomore year in high school (in 1968) called "2001: A Space Odyssey", I knew that my career would be in IT, and hopefully in AI. And it was. I used the IBM product Expert Systems Environment (ESE) to develop AI for the government. Fun stuff.

There are roll back instructions in the Further Information area of the user tip.

If you are unable to get the current version of iTunes to work on your computer you may wish to try reinstalling the previous version from the links below, or an older version from OldApps.com after going through the removal steps once more. In order to roll back to an older version of iTunes you may also need to restore the pre-upgrade library as described inEmpty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash. Having rolled back to an older build on the first run it is likely to tell you there is a new version of iTunes, tick "Do not ask me again" and then click "Don't Download" to avoid reminders until you choose to upgrade again. In a similar vein some users have had success with using System Restore to revert to a pre-upgrade snapshot of their system.

• 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)

See also http://support.apple.com/downloads/#itunes for selected older versions of iTunes.

tt2

THAT'S THE INFORMATION I NEEDED!!! Thank you!!!

I have deleted all traces of version 12.1 and am currently downloading version 10.7... the last good version of iTunes that ran on my PC.

Thanks again!

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

For anyone rolling back their iTunes to a previous version from 12.1, you will no doubt encounter the message "The file 'iTunes Library.itl' cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes." This file contains the song metadata for all of your music (number of times played, rating, etc.), and must agree with the version of iTunes you've rolled back to.

The fix for this is covered by "turingtest2" in Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash

Once the .itl file agrees with your iTunes version, you may notice that songs you've most recently added to your library don't show up in your song listing, even though they are in your library folder. There's a suggested fix for this in the above-referenced link as well.

The webpage is 404ing, Alex. What gives?

crog62 wrote:

The webpage is 404ing, Alex. What gives?

Here is a link: TS1362: iTunes and QuickTime for Windows: Audio does not play or plays incorrectly (Document retired, archive version)

For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.

The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down the page in case one of them applies.

Your library should be unaffected by these steps but there is backup and recovery advice elsewhere in the user tip.

If the advice above 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.

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