Why does iTunes stop playing my CD?

August 12, 2007 7:57 AM

Why does iTunes stop playing my CD when I re-focus on the program? Win XP, iTunes 7

I have Autorun turned off. I feed my disc drive a lot of CDs, not all of which are DRM/malware-free, so I keep Autorun off. This means I have to put a CD into the drive, focus away from iTunes, and then focus back on it before it'll recognize the new album in the drive. This I am OK with.

However, if I am already playing a CD in iTunes while using another program, and if I move from that program back to iTunes, iTunes stops playing the CD and no longer even recognizes that a CD is in the drive. The CD disappears from the program. What's going on? How can I fix/prevent this phenomenon?

If it's worth mentioning, I think I'm 1 iTunes update behind. I've been putting it off because I'm scared the beast is gonna be even more of a resources hog on my already-struggling pc.

posted by carsonb to computers & internet (7 comments total)

How is you're moving back to iTunes from another program having focus? Alt+Tab?
posted by dance at 8:11 AM on August 12, 2007

*how is it
posted by dance at 8:11 AM on August 12, 2007

This is a recent issue, by the way. I can't pinpoint a time or action that would have caused this to start happening.
posted by carsonb at 8:13 AM on August 12, 2007

Doesn't matter how I move back to iTunes. Alt+Tab, via the Taskbar, or just by clicking on the program window. Same thing happens every time.
posted by carsonb at 8:15 AM on August 12, 2007

This happens to me all the time, too. I think it is related to autorun. Updating iTunes did not solve this issue. Does you iTunes at least recognize you ejected a CD? I have to restart iTunes every time I put in a new CD. (Windows version)
posted by gaelenh at 8:18 AM on August 12, 2007

Does you iTunes at least recognize you ejected a CD?

My problem is that iTunes is recognizing that I've ejected a CD without me actually ejecting a CD—or doing anything at all aside from putting focus on the iTunes program window.
posted by carsonb at 8:32 AM on August 12, 2007

From Apple's support site: Here is something you could try.

I would go ahead and get the newest version of iTunes. Apple tends to (emphasis on "tends to") tighten their code a little with each update, rather than bloat it.

A search through Apple's support forums did not yield any similar problems. If neither the above-linked article nor updating iTunes fixes the problem, I'd strongly recommend uninstalling iTunes and QuickTime, then downloading and reinstalling them. Your library should be left intact.

Good luck!
posted by churl at 4:54 PM on August 12, 2007