Why won't my iPod play these particular tracks?

February 15, 2009 1:14 PM

Why won't my iPod play these particular tracks?

I torrented an mp3 audiobook, added it to my WinAmp library, made extensive changes to the tags, then sent the tracks to my iPod Classic. I know the tracks were successfully sent because I can play those tracks from the iPod with WinAmp - even after deleting those tracks from the WinAmp library. But if I eject the iPod and try to play the tracks from the iPod itself, the playback remains stuck at 0:00 and won't progress.

I've tried deleting those tracks from the iPod and then reloading them. I've also tried resetting the iPod. Neither helped.

The problem seems to affect only those tracks. I have since added other mp3s to Winamp, sent them to the iPod, and played them from the iPod with no problem.

posted by Joe Beese to technology (6 comments total)

Are you 100% positive they're an MP3? I had this issue a few years ago... a file which was clearly marked with an mp3 extension simply refused to play on my iPod. Eventually I somehow got it into my head that perhaps the file, which I had downloaded off the internet, might not actually be an mp3 file. I changed the extension to a few different file types and eventually discovered it was actually a wma file, which of course iPod don't support.

In short, your file might have an mp3 extension, but are you sure it's actually an mp3?
posted by Effigy2000 at 2:24 PM on February 15

Also, if the torrent site you downloaded the audiobook from has comments for each torrent (like Mininova does), read through the comments to see if anyone else has experienced the problems you're having with the file.
posted by Effigy2000 at 2:28 PM on February 15

If I right-click on the file and select "Properties", it's shown as an MPEG Layer 3 audio file. And to make things even more baffling, the files come from a torrent that I downloaded previously and listened to on this same iPod with no problem.

It's this one. There is one comment there about tracks not playing through to the end. But in my case they don't even start. And to repeat: They worked for me before - and continue to do so if I play the iPod tracks from WinAmp rather than from the iPod directly.
posted by Joe Beese at 2:41 PM on February 15

Joe Beese: "If I right-click on the file and select "Properties", it's shown as an MPEG Layer 3 audio file. And to make things even more baffling, the files come from a torrent that I downloaded previously and listened to on this same iPod with no problem."

That means nothing. Observe.

This picture from my computer shows you a WAV file named onering.wav. It is actually a wav file, and the open properties window even says it's a WAV file. But what if I change the file extension to mp3 and check its properties afterwards?

Then this happens. The file is still a wav in reality.... no conversion process has taken place. All I've done is change its file extension to mp3. And now the Properties window says it's an MPEG Layer 3 file. It's essentially a WAV in MP3 clothing.

Joe Beese: "And to repeat: They worked for me before - and continue to do so if I play the iPod tracks from WinAmp rather than from the iPod directly."

Assuming I'm right, this also means nothing. WinAmp has native support for lots of files and even if it's playing a non-MP3 file direct from the iPod, as long as WinAmp has the codecs required to play the file, it will play it. This is different from the iPod, which can only play a few select file formats by itself, which your audiobook may in reality not actually be, despite what its file extension says it is.

Perhaps the easiest thing to do would be to download a program like Goldwave or some other audio conversion program, and physically convert the file to an mp3 file. This might mean you'll need to download the LAME codec, since I think Goldwave dosen't have native MP3 support either. Anyway, I'm willing to bet after you convert this file to an actual mp3 from whatever format it might actually be, your audiobook will start working on your iPod (unassisted by WinAmp), one way or the other.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:34 PM on February 15

Right-click the file in the Winamp playlist or your library and pick "View file info" (or highlight and hit alt+3). If it says "MPEG-1 Layer 3" under "Format info" about halfway down, it's MP3. If it says "Vendor: Xiph.Org" etc., it's Ogg Vorbis. If it says "Compression ratio: xx%" it's probably FLAC. Ogg and FLAC are the two main suspects here, since a stock iPod won't play either.

Better way: Get Mr. Questionman and point it at the offending files.

(Short version of what Effigy2000 said: Explorer thinks it's an MP3 file because the extension is .MP3. It isn't smart enough to know otherwise.)
posted by neckro23 at 6:59 PM on February 15

WinAmp confirms it's an MP3. But there appears to be something stank in the layer information - as CDex gagged on it. But Goldwave is successfully destankifying it. Thank you for your help!
posted by Joe Beese at 8:09 PM on February 15