iTunes is ruining my music!
December 13, 2009 1:45 PM Subscribe
iTunes is ruining my music! After importing or ripping an album, an average of 5 tracks will skip and begin playing again at the start. This gets VERY stressful when I import about 5 albums a day and don't get a chance to listen to the music until a few days later, causing me to have to re-import many times over to make sure all the songs play through.
This has been going on for a few months now and seems to be getting worse. I know the discs aren't scratched and the imported tracks are not corrupted before going through iTunes.
I think the tracks are fine UNTIL I attach album art and correct the tags.
My usual method is to rip disc/drag-and-drop into library, right-click > get album artwork, copy the album artwork, right-click > clear album artwork, highlight all > get info, correct the tags and paste album artwork, press OK.
When the tracks begin playing again, the time scroller does not reset, it's as if the track was recorded that way and it continues playing to the end.
I've tried completely un-installing and re-installing iTunes but it has not fixed it. A quick Ask MeFi search brought up the question of lack of RAM, but I doubt iTunes needs more than 4 gigs to play a song correctly.
If any more information is necessary, please ask. I'm at my wit's end here!
This has been going on for a few months now and seems to be getting worse. I know the discs aren't scratched and the imported tracks are not corrupted before going through iTunes.
I think the tracks are fine UNTIL I attach album art and correct the tags.
My usual method is to rip disc/drag-and-drop into library, right-click > get album artwork, copy the album artwork, right-click > clear album artwork, highlight all > get info, correct the tags and paste album artwork, press OK.
When the tracks begin playing again, the time scroller does not reset, it's as if the track was recorded that way and it continues playing to the end.
I've tried completely un-installing and re-installing iTunes but it has not fixed it. A quick Ask MeFi search brought up the question of lack of RAM, but I doubt iTunes needs more than 4 gigs to play a song correctly.
If any more information is necessary, please ask. I'm at my wit's end here!
Get Media Monkey. DRM free, works with ALL players, and is really nice!
posted by Jinx of the 2nd Law at 1:51 PM on December 13, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Jinx of the 2nd Law at 1:51 PM on December 13, 2009 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Ah, I knew I was missing something. Vista Ultimate 64-bit and iTunes 9.0.2.25. This has been an issue with previous version of iTunes and I had hoped 9 would have fixed the issue.
I've tried Google and it would seem that I'm the only one having this problem.
I've had to resort to importing a single track, listening to it through, adding album art, listening to it through again to see if it's fine, then moving on to the next track. As you can imagine, it gets very tedious.
And if there were questions regarding why I have iTunes get album art then copy it to the track then clear the downloaded art, it's because I've noticed iTunes doesn't append the album art to actual file when "getting", just seems to link to it within iTunes.
posted by Germs of Love at 1:55 PM on December 13, 2009
I've tried Google and it would seem that I'm the only one having this problem.
I've had to resort to importing a single track, listening to it through, adding album art, listening to it through again to see if it's fine, then moving on to the next track. As you can imagine, it gets very tedious.
And if there were questions regarding why I have iTunes get album art then copy it to the track then clear the downloaded art, it's because I've noticed iTunes doesn't append the album art to actual file when "getting", just seems to link to it within iTunes.
posted by Germs of Love at 1:55 PM on December 13, 2009
Response by poster: I should've added that I'd like to MAKE iTunes work, and am not really looking for alternatives. UNLESS it really is unfixable. I need to use the App Store anyway.
Thank for the advice though!
posted by Germs of Love at 1:56 PM on December 13, 2009
Thank for the advice though!
posted by Germs of Love at 1:56 PM on December 13, 2009
Best answer: Rip your CDs with Exact Audio Copy or dbPowerAmp, both of which contain advanced error recovery mechanisms and can be set up to alert you of any problems. They also both do AccurateRip database verification, rip to any/multiple formats, auto-tagging and folder hierarchy creation, write log files, etc.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 1:57 PM on December 13, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 1:57 PM on December 13, 2009 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Interesting. But the issue remains with the importing, no? As I said, the main issue seems to be during the append of the album art and tag correction. I import mp3 files much more than I rip my own discs anyway.
posted by Germs of Love at 2:00 PM on December 13, 2009
posted by Germs of Love at 2:00 PM on December 13, 2009
I have to agree with Inspector.Gadget
From your description (especially since you said it's done this with previous versions of iTunes) I'm inclined to suspect that the problem is somewhere else in your computer. Use an entirely different ripping program (I use Exact Audio Copy w/ Lame encoder) and see if the problem manifests itself there too.
What kind of hardware (motherboard, chipset, audio drivers) are you running?.. Have you updated your drivers/BIOS lately ?..
posted by jmnugent at 2:05 PM on December 13, 2009
From your description (especially since you said it's done this with previous versions of iTunes) I'm inclined to suspect that the problem is somewhere else in your computer. Use an entirely different ripping program (I use Exact Audio Copy w/ Lame encoder) and see if the problem manifests itself there too.
What kind of hardware (motherboard, chipset, audio drivers) are you running?.. Have you updated your drivers/BIOS lately ?..
posted by jmnugent at 2:05 PM on December 13, 2009
Once you import that file.. and it gets corrupted.. can you play that file with a different player (such as Winamp or VLC) and does it skip there too ?
posted by jmnugent at 2:07 PM on December 13, 2009
posted by jmnugent at 2:07 PM on December 13, 2009
Response by poster: Yeah, once I attach album art and tag, the WHOLE file is corrupted. I've tried playing it in Winamp, VLC, and Zune (both the program and the player.)
I'm completely clueless as to checking the motherboard/chipset/audio info, but if it helps any my computer is a Gateway P-7805u. I apologize for not having all the info necessary after asking my question. Embarrassing!
I'll try EAC for sure, but I'd like to re-iterate that this is a problem that happens AFTER the ripping and it happens when importing as well.
posted by Germs of Love at 2:19 PM on December 13, 2009
I'm completely clueless as to checking the motherboard/chipset/audio info, but if it helps any my computer is a Gateway P-7805u. I apologize for not having all the info necessary after asking my question. Embarrassing!
I'll try EAC for sure, but I'd like to re-iterate that this is a problem that happens AFTER the ripping and it happens when importing as well.
posted by Germs of Love at 2:19 PM on December 13, 2009
Best answer: Although the situations are not exactly identical.... here are some forum posts from users who have similar/same Gateway laptops complaining of (what appear to me) to be similar problems.
Gateway P-7805u Nightmares
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=358058
Gateway P-7805U FX Refurbished - Problematic?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=376337
P7805: Listening to Music & Internet Browsing (lockups)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=392350
I don't see any definitive "fix"... but from reading back through some of the forum responses, it seems like the issues are driver related. The first thing I would probably do is run a full Defrag and CHKDSK (checkdisk) on the hard drive - then try ripping/importing again. If you still see the problem.. I would hit up Gateway's website and install the newest Audio & Video drivers .. then test again. Still broken?.. I'd dig deeper into Google and find a forum (such as the one above) with other people who have the same laptop and see if they can test for you.
posted by jmnugent at 2:45 PM on December 13, 2009
Gateway P-7805u Nightmares
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=358058
Gateway P-7805U FX Refurbished - Problematic?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=376337
P7805: Listening to Music & Internet Browsing (lockups)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=392350
I don't see any definitive "fix"... but from reading back through some of the forum responses, it seems like the issues are driver related. The first thing I would probably do is run a full Defrag and CHKDSK (checkdisk) on the hard drive - then try ripping/importing again. If you still see the problem.. I would hit up Gateway's website and install the newest Audio & Video drivers .. then test again. Still broken?.. I'd dig deeper into Google and find a forum (such as the one above) with other people who have the same laptop and see if they can test for you.
posted by jmnugent at 2:45 PM on December 13, 2009
Response by poster: Thanks for all the help! I'm in the process of doing all the above and will report back with results!
posted by Germs of Love at 2:53 PM on December 13, 2009
posted by Germs of Love at 2:53 PM on December 13, 2009
If none of that works, you can try getting a dedicated sound card. Nothing fancy, you should be able to pick one up at dealextreme for like 10 bucks.
posted by tehloki at 4:10 PM on December 13, 2009
posted by tehloki at 4:10 PM on December 13, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by immlass at 1:48 PM on December 13, 2009