Choppy audio music playback after Itunes 12.1 update on Windows 8.1

Maybe Apple will finally fire the guy who never told his boss that compatibility with Vista has been broken for 9 months?

iTunes 12.1.1.4 Win 7. I switched playback preference to "windows audio" and it did the trick for 10 minutes. Now cutting out again. Oh well ..

Note that when you change the Play Audio Using setting in Edit > Preferences > Playback you must restart iTunes for the change to take effect. Assuming you've done that:

• Check that you have the latest version of QuickTime installed (7.7.6) - that's been cited as a possible fix, though in most cases related to playback problems with Bluetooth devices.
• As with the 12.1.0.71 release, there is an alternative installer here: iTunes 12.1.1 for Windows (64-bit — for older video cards) which may address playback issues that are not addressed by the full 64-bit version of 12.1.1.4

iTunes 12.1.1.4 full 64bit fixes the issue and provides DirectX support which is what I am using. Thanks Apple!

I installed the link provided (win 7) however, its not installing 12.1.1 but rather 12.1.1.4. And still have the problem obviously. any suggestions how to back up to 12.1.1 ?

There is no other "12.1.1". All Apple releases include a build number as part of their identification, so the three releases of iTunes 12 (so far) are:

• iTunes 12.0 - build 12.0.1.26 - 32- and 64-bit versions - dated Oct 16, 2014 (there were various 12.0.0.x builds but these were limited beta-test distributions)
• iTunes 12.1 - build 12.1.0.71 - 32-, full 64-bit, and "for older video cards" 64-bit versions - dated Jan 28, 2015
• iTunes 12.1.1 - build 12.1.1.4 - 32-, full 64-bit, and "for older video cards" 64-bit versions - dated Feb 17 (full 64-bit) or Feb 18, 2015

If none of the 12.1 variants are working for you the only short-term solution may be to roll back to 12.0. See turingtest2's user tip on Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates for details on how to do a complete uninstall of all iTunes components, and for links to the 12.0.1.26 installers. The good news is that there has been no database change between 12.0 and 12.1, so your library will be fine if you do roll back (this is more problematic if you go back to an even older version such as 11.4). Although updates / rollbacks shouldn't affect the content of your library, its always a good idea to make sure that you have a current backup of it before starting,

Thank you hh for all your assistance. For now I have found an easier quick fix ... I'm using Windows Media Player. Working just fine. I listen to music most of the time using my iPhone so I'm good for now. Thanks again.

If anyone reading this is still running the full 64-bit version of 12.1.0, it's possible that Apple Software Update is crashing when it tries to run automatically, and running it manually might give incorrect results: Apple Software Update for Windows crashes or returns incorrect/incompatible updates.

I also installed the suggested "iTunes 12.1.1 for Windows (64-bit — for older video cards)" in my 1 year-old Dell laptop. I also tried different bitrate playback settings. Didn't help.

The last thing I tried was switching FROM 'Direct Sound' TO 'Windows Audio Session' - the opposite of what worked for most people. So far it seems to be working.

TDLR: Updating the bios on my motherboard fixed the issue

Took me forever to fix this so I figured I would share and hopefully help someone else out. Choppy audio began after I upgraded to Windows 8.1 64bit from Windows 7 64bit and installed iTunes 12.1.1.4. Music would pause 2-3 times per song. Sooooo frustrating. I tried to install the alternate version of iTunes and perform the various troubleshooting I found on the web but nothing worked. I tried Windows Media Player thinking it was an iTunes issue, but WMP had the same audio issue. So I figured it had to be a hardware/driver issue. I updated audio and video drivers, optimized my disk drive, tried different speakers/headphones, messed with various settings, etc. Finally, I updated the bios on my motherboard (ASUS P8Z68-V GEN3) to the latest version. This solved my issue! Also solved a similar issue I was having with video playback. Thank goodness.

I have also tried everything and nothing worked until I read bojang32's post. I also have an Asus motherboard, a Z-97 Deluxe. I updated the BIOS and no more choppy audio!

Thank you so much, this have finally solved the problem!

I have tried all above to no avail. There are over 11K reads to this issue. Dear apple.... Please have your engineers fix this bug> i should not have to reload drivers and play Bios games to play iTunes..

The sooner the better.

BIOS update worked for about a day, choppy audio is back. Nothing has worked at all.

Please sort this out.

I had been trying everything else BUT this. Thank you! Worked and my mood just went up a million levels. Thank you!