iTunes 4.9 (#6): More on frequent music playing stalls/freezes, iPod synchronization problems

Frequent music playing stalls/freezes Readers continue to note problems with audio playback in iTunes 4.9, particularly frequent freezes or stalls.

MacFixIt reader Nick McSpadden's description is typical:

"I was reading the MacFixit website, and discovered your post about the iTunes 4.9 problem. I've been sharing the same problem. Playing extended amounts of music (typically 3 or more hours of continuous play) has resulted in frequent "freezes." The first time, it froze after ending one song and beginning another. Since this occasionally has happened to me in the past, I figured it just hit a hard disk snag on that one song and I deleted and re-entered the song into the library and had no further problems.

"However, it continued to happen, but never twice on the same song or set. Several times it happened during a 'switch,' when one song would end and the next would begin, as that was most common. Occasionally, it did freeze during the middle of a track. iTunes became completely unresponsive, and I also noticed that having an iPod plugged in or playing off the iPod during this time was doubly fatal.

"With an iPod plugged in, I was unable to force quit iTunes (especially if it was playing off the iPod). Attempting to do so would eventually hang the whole system, with only a forced restart being the solution. An attempt to SSH into my machine from another local networked computer showed a process that was stuck and couldn't be killed save a full restart. A full system restart (shutdown -r now) took several minutes (iTunes still wouldn't die!) until I forced the power off with a hard shutdown and rebooted (which is not my preferred method of choice for solving problems... there goes my uptime)."

"The frequent iTunes hangs proved to be very fatal for my iPod, as the process of copying a new import's worth of songs onto the iPod resulted in a similar hang. I'm not sure if this is my iPod having problems (I've noticed some issues with its drive), but partway through the copy via the standard Firewire Dock, the bar stopped moving and the song stopped copying. The little cancel "x" button would click, but had no result. iTunes would once again hang up. Again, this proved to be very bad for the iPod, as the iPod then had lots of drive/file system problems. My end result was having to reformat my iPod (which gets very angry if you disconnect it while the "do not disconnect" message is up) and copy songs over again."

"This of course didn't work either because iTunes was still screwing up when I tried to copy songs back on. My solution? Reinstall iTunes.

"It worked fine for a while. Then I had the same problem- the copy bar would hang. iTunes would be fine until I tried to do anything, at which point I'd get the Infinite Spinning Beachball of Failure. Force-quitting again resulted in my iPod being unhappy, as force-quitting iTunes while it's accessing the iPod causes the iPod to hang, iTunes to hang and be unkillable, the device manager to commit suicide, and will also curdle any milk in the house and scratch any nearby CDs. A hard-shutdown-restart was the only solution."

iPod synchronization problems Users also continue to note problems with transferring music to iPods since the update. In some cases, no new music is added during the synchronization process. In more pernicious cases, all music stored on the iPod is lost in the synchronization process.

James Roberts writes:

"I installed iTunes 4.9 on the day of release and have subsequently put my iPod Photo (software version 1.2) through numerous automatic update procedures via the and firewire connection on my G4 iMac.

"However, each of these updates did not actually add any new music to my iPod because I use the dock and firewire to charge the iPod periodically and when the iPod is sat in the dock, iTunes automatically opens and tries to update even when the process is in reality unnecessary. During the last update, however, it did for the first time, while running iTunes 4.9, transfer from my iMac some newly downloaded podcasts.

"On going to use my iPod this morning, all signs of music have gone. Nowhere to be seen. Not so much as a note. The photos are all still there (these of course also sync via iTunes) as are contacts and notes but no music, podcasts, on-the-go playlists. All of the music has vanished. I can't check what's actually on the iPod though (ie on the disk but can't be viewed through the iPod's interface) as I don't have a cable with me.

"Complicating this is the fact that I had also downloaded podcasts onto my iBook because of its faster connection, intending to listen to them from there. I discovered by accident when plugging my iPod into the iBook for use in disk mode, that iTunes has automatically transfered podcasts from my iBook onto the iPod, even though I always instruct iTunes when prompted to preserve my iPod's link to the iMac and not to change it to synchronize with my iBook. This behavior is confined to podcasts, music on my iBook doesn't transfer so it occurs to me that the one machine per iPod rule I believed to exist could conceivably have been relaxed for podcasts which are distributed free of charge?

"The iPod has until now also continued to update completely as normal with my iMac, which is the machine to which my iPod is officially 'linked', while leaving also leaving alone and intact the podcasts added from the iBook. Confusing. One explanation for the music now missing from my iPod would be that I unwittingly agreed to switch my iPod's 'link' when prompted by iTunes from iMac to iBook. I'm certain I can't have agreed to change the iPod's 'link' from my iMac (on which all of my music is stored) to my iBook though and after listening to podcasts on my iPod which were originally downloaded on my iBook, I listened to music, which must have come from my iMac."

Resetting iPod while connected can restore synchronization In some cases, it appears that performing a manual iPod reset while the iPod is connected -- press and hold the Play/Pause (Select) and Menu buttons simultaneously for several seconds -- restores synchronization capabilities that were lost after updating to iTunes 4.9.

One MacFixIt reader writes:

"I connected my iPod Photo 40G to sync. I had previously upgraded to iTunes 4.9 when it was released using Software Update. I did not download the iPod Updater at that time because of my dial up connection. When I attempted the sync yesterday, nothing happened and the iPod appeared dead to the world with no logo, backlight, menu . . . . nothing. After reading Apple's support documents, I performed a reset, doing it on a hard surface, with two fingers, etc, per their instructions. It came to life, but when I tried to sync again, I would get the flashing "do not disconnect" but nothing would happen and the pod would not show up in iTunes, just on the desktop as a hard drive. Since it showed up there, I used the Disk Utility to check it out and it passed. I then did an overnight download of iPod Update 1.2 and updated the ipod. Still no go for synchronization - just the flashing do not disconnect. iTunes did not recognize the iPod despite numerous quits, reconnections, and restarts. Finally, I opened iTunes, plugged in the iPod, and did another reset with this connection in place. The iPod was finally recognized and I got the iPod setup dialog box and all was good."

If you are having similar issues, please let us know.

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