All the latest UK technology news, reviews and analysis
|
|
|
15 Sep 2006
Users are reporting serious "issues" with the latest version of Apple's iTunes media player.
Apple released iTunes 7 on Tuesday, introducing a feature dubbed 'gapless playback' that eliminates pauses between two consecutive songs on an album, allowing for smooth transitions between songs.
Version 7 also introduced a new way to browse through a media collection by flipping through the album art.
But users who upgraded to the latest version are reporting several problems.
"Anyone who has not yet downloaded iTunes 7, I strongly advise you to wait until the bugs are worked out," recommended one user whose iPod and iTunes ceased to function after updating to the latest version.
Windows users complained that the songs in their library were "extremely distorted" after they updated the software.
"It sounds like sound coming though a slowly spinning box fan," one user complained on an Apple user forum.
Some users suggested that the issues were related to the new 'gapless playback' feature, which requires the software to index the user's entire music collection.
This process could take up a significant amount of processor resources, causing the poor audio quality. Further supporting the theory, other users reported that the media player stopped working when other applications were running.
Waiting for the gapless indexing to finish did not solve the issues for all users, however.
Several users running Macs complained that the application crashed when skipping tracks. A user by the name of ApathyJones pointed out that disabling the Sound Enhancer feature dealt with the problem.
vnunet.com was unable to re-create either of the reported problems using a dual-boot MacBook Pro running MacOS 10.4.7 and Windows XP SP2.
Representatives from Apple did not return requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Shaun Nichols.
Latest stories from Security
Related articles
Related jobs
Poll
What is the most important IT priority for your company this year?
Connect with V3.co.uk
This paper focuses on a series of best practices and techniques for development teams looking to improve their software development processes
Why good data management at all levels is essential in the modern business (video, 6mins)
Overview: My client; Based in the City...
**New Vacancy** Based in London Up to £35,000 - £42...
Junior BA The role of the junior BA is to support the...
Project Manager - Financial Services IT - up to £85'000...
Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies. IThound.com brings you over 2,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports.
Do you agree?
iT CUTS 0FF!!!
WHEN i PLUG MY iP0D iN iT CUTS 0N AND 0FF LiKE THEiR iS S0ME THiNG WR0NG WiTH MY C0RD AND i KN0W iT'S N0T BECAUSE WHEN i D0 iT 0N MY 0THER C0MPUTER iT ALWAYS W0RKS
Posted by: HELP PLEASE 19 Feb 2009
problem downloading itunes 8
am told successfully downloaded after doing all the required moves but when I click onto the itunes icon it flashes briefly but wont let me in.
Posted by: robbie 06 Nov 2008
Mac owner , I tunes 7 reluctant
My G5 is only two years old and have recently installed the I tunes 7 upgrade. Now I can't sync or restore my Ipods nor input a CD to library. Have found no distortion problems . I can still manually remove and input songs to either of my three Ipods. Will transferring my library to "My Book " for storage also transfer these abnormalities ?
Posted by: Glenn Rowden 14 Aug 2008
opening i tunes
having problems for a week trying to open i tunes on computer
Posted by: denis 13 Aug 2008
iTunes 7 is crap!!!!
I clicked on the "update now" box when iTunes 7 became available, and now I can't sync my ipod with itunes at all and i can't go back to a previous version because iTunes 7 has updated a file somewhere that does not get removed when I uninstall it. Now, with version 7, as soon as I connect my ipod, iTunes freezes, and i can't do anything. When I unplug my ipod, iTunes works again, but tells me it can't sync my ipod, which isn't even connected anymore. I am amazed that a company that can produce technology as advanced as the ipod, can not write a decent piece of software to use it with, or at least make sure it bloody works before they release it.
Posted by: Rick McKay 19 Jul 2008
Don't download itunes 7
My itunes crashed & now I get a message to download Itunes again. I lost about 500 songs which would take me days to put back in. I am going to try to copy the songs from my ipod back on my PC again but not sure if those programs work. We have 2 Apple laptops and 4 ipods between the 3 of us in my family, something I am regretting now. "Don't put your eggs all in one basket comes to mind....
Posted by: Deb Stella 18 Jul 2008
Itunes
This itunes is getting on my nerves!!!!! I load it up fine, can import my own music Turn computer of next day my cd drive is MISSING!!! I have to keep rebooting my system does anyone else have this problem if so how can i fix it?
Posted by: Lucy 17 Mar 2008
ipod 7
since loading itunes 7 i have had nothing but trouble with my computer, also lost over a 1.000 tracks plus video.whats going on? any way of retriving my music. help
Posted by: alan hatfield 07 Feb 2008
itunes 7.6
I upgraded to 7.6 in order to rent movies. Now I can no longer hear sound from purchased TV shows or movies. Anyone know what's up with this? Apple reimbursed for rented movies that I couldn't hear, but what about my TV shows?
Posted by: Matthew Hall 27 Jan 2008
Should this happen?
Brand new to ipod, just installed new Nano unit and now my computer CD/DVD sound playback is rubbish, crackly and slows down. Uninstalled and reinstalled software / drivers but still no good. XP home edition Not impressed
Posted by: Jack Himsworth 14 Jan 2008
iTunes does not view music on ipod
Upgraded from shuffle to nano with video screen am able to copy/buy music with Itunes 7 but cannot view ipod content in iTunes stuck with the licence screen. Does anyone else have this problem? and can anyone solve it.
Posted by: Denise Powell 31 Dec 2007
7.5 PROBLEMS
Just downloaded itunes 7.5 and now have bad audio playback (have tried switching sound enhancer on/off -no difference) and itunes is insanely slow now and is unusable. Anyone have the same issues and any suggestion to solving?
Posted by: Jonny Devaney 29 Dec 2007
itunes 7.5 sucks
It continuously causes my computer to crash! Called Tech support at apple and spoke with Zar who was unhelpful and unsympathetic. Told me that I am the only one having this problem and that it is my computer. I should contact Dell & Microsoft. Apple needs to get it together. If you haven't downloaded 7.5 -- save yourself the stress and DON'T.
Posted by: Maya 14 Dec 2007
Don't upgrade to Itunes 7.5
I completed the automatic upgrade now can't get access to my itunes library and had to reinstal quicktime. How can I go back to Itunes 6. I can no longer updater my ipod and its completely useless now.
Posted by: Sarah 05 Dec 2007
It wont even start!
I upgraded from the old version to 7.5 and I'm stuck staring at a window called itunes setup assistant. Any attempt to click the ok or cancel button in this window is useless because its frozen as soon as it starts!
Posted by: Alex 26 Nov 2007
upgrade
Asked if i wished to upgrade to 7.5 did so thinking right thing to do, Bad mistake ,lost all my music unable to run i tunes even after reboot and uninstall and re-install, whats going on????????
Posted by: m k roberts 21 Nov 2007
iTunes 7.5
I have recently updated to iTunes version 7.5 and since then I have not been able to get access to the iTunes software. Any suggestions would be appreciated, further when will a fix be available?
Posted by: Emily Milner 17 Nov 2007
It broke my PC and created a PC/Mac rift!
I updated to 7+ on a wave of updates to my Mac. I connected my ipod to add a song I had on my mac to my PC formatted ipod. A task normally easy. Well, this time the Ipod's songs were relocated/lost somehow due to 7. I reconnected it to my PC to rewrite it on an older version, it crashed and took my HD with it (caused my HD to fail somehow related or not it sucked.) Anyway, I updated to 7.0 thinking that would help fix my ipod. I had to downgrade to get my ipod working again. Now, it made it worse. It created a rift between my Mac and my PC. I couldn't share the songs or even play the songs on my Ipod on my mac. I am downgrading from Itunes 7.
Posted by: Mike 11 Nov 2007
screen changes
once downloaded the screen becomes really closer
Posted by: Leon Edwards 09 Oct 2007
iTunes 7
My iTunes stays on the American store and won't let me go to the Canadian one
Posted by: Cloud 06 Oct 2007
charged without receiving product
For the first time in 77 song downloads, I was charged for a song that never downloaded, on iTunes 7.
Posted by: bub 26 Sep 2007
itunes7
since downloading, within hours, cant even open itunes, just get error messages
Posted by: steve 11 Sep 2007
ipod and itunes
everytime i connect my ipod to my computer to put songs on it itunes 7 doesnt open it worked for like the first month or so but now its just being stupid
Posted by: gavin 06 Sep 2007
Whathu***
Listen, are the bugs smooshed in iTunes 7? B/c mine's been perfect until yesterday. Now my iPod nano (the old kind) will play about 30 of 1000 songs, all from cd's or online purchase, and skip the rest. It won't even play them on my iTunes. What is going on??? I'm poor and my life savings went to this thing! I expected it to last for more than a year and a half, especially from Apple!
Posted by: Upset 01 Sep 2007
Cracking and Popping iTunes 7
Worked fine for 1 month. Suddenly every time I hit the play button I get a horrible crack and pop sound over the music. Quicktime movies have the same problem now. I noticed it the day after I put in a 1gb stick of memory. My memory banks are maxed out but I don't think that should be a reason for iTunes to start acting strange. It will occasionaly work semi-properly after a reboot but only if I don't switch programs, open any Quicktime movies or start any podcasts. I'm pissed cause I just finished importing my cd collection and now I have half a million songs that I can't play. Windows media player is having similar issues. All other sound applications work fine without any issues (FL Studio/Games/Streaming music from websites) Does anyone know how adding memory can affect my iTunes and WMP?
Posted by: Arch Stanton 20 Feb 2007
Apple users report serious iTunes 7 problems
I think they have messed up BIG time on iTunes 7, they should of kept everything on no. 6 below they were perfect... No i have install this itunes 7, i can't play my videos... On the itunes as i see fuzzy colour merges and just the sound. Th eplayback is terrible with sound glitches u get from burnt cd's to in car cd players. Just like that, they jump DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT, untill they have done all these BUGS and there are alot!!
Posted by: Ryan 19 Nov 2006
Don't Install iTunes 7
Another huge problem is iTunes7 takes about 5 minutes to load my 24,000-song database, and then goes into a 10-minute drill "evaluating gapless playback" for 1,300 songs -- the same songs each time. I uninstalled iTunes7 and reinstalled iTiunes6 -- CAUTION: the databases are not backward-compatible -- you will lose your playlists and star ratings. --Waz
Posted by: Wazmo 14 Nov 2006
itunes 7
I have recently downloaded itunes 7 onto my new computer and cannot work out how to listen to the songs on my ipod through my computer. I was able to do this on my old itunes by clicking on my ipod in the list on the left and then my songs etc came up like they do in the library. It just comes up with the "ipod summary" and i cannot view or listen to the songs from the ipod on the computer. I would greatly appriciate if anyone who knows how to do this would leave a comment.
Posted by: katie16 05 Nov 2006
Unable to Burn
I am unable to Burn Purchased music, drive is fine, only in iTunes do I have this problem
Posted by: Matt Wilsey 03 Nov 2006
My issues are with my iPod, not iTunes
I'm running iTunes 7 on a brand new iPod. I'm not noticing any of the poor-quality playback issues noted in so many of the comments, but several podcasts cause my iPod to reboot itself. The podcasts play fine in iTunes, but will not play at all on the iPod. Also, songs now skip ocassionally on the iPod ... sounds like a scratched CD.
Posted by: Craig Palenshus 16 Oct 2006
my experience
I have one machine that is fine, another that "hangs" at song 700 every time itunes starts up and auto-determines gapless. If I remove that file, it dies on the next file 700. If the gapless check is stopped before it hangs, iTunes remains usable. If not, it hangs and even a "kill" from the command line won't dispatch it. Logging out then in finally kills it. This is a nasty problem, a fix would sure be nice.
Posted by: Ward Kaatz 10 Oct 2006
A cunning move by apple
Its gradually dawned on me that this is an XP SP2 issue. This appears to be a move by apple, on behalf of microsoft to try and squeeze out anyone with a copied version (read: devils0wn) version of windows XP, SP1. (who obviously won't update to SP2 for fear of being caught.) Anyone who is stupid enough to use copied software, I suggest you remain on a primitive version of iTunes. The Workaround: Disable Gapless playback, Disable Sound enhancer, Remove any tracks >30mb (longer than ~40 minuites or so) Reflash your ipod & Rock. Enjoy!
Posted by: shoe 06 Oct 2006
ITUNES 7
I have had a series of problems with Itunes 7 downloaded on September 30th. Importing CDs to library now takes longer than playing the CDs. Also the data on some of the tracks seems to have disappeared.
Posted by: JBB 02 Oct 2006
ITunes 7 sudenly won't launch
On XP the new ITunes worked absolutley fine for 3 weeks and now it will suddenly not even launch. I have tried re installing and all the help on the apple web site to no avalaibe. This is partiularly painful as I had Itunes Airport all set up and working really well throuout the house. I cannot go back to v 6 as the Library file is converted to 7 ,so it tells me. I was a big convert to ITunes if they don't fix this quck I will be moving on - has anyone found a fix yet ?
Posted by: Clive D 02 Oct 2006
itunes
my itunes 7 on the mac crashes when just listening to music without even being at the computer doing anything it also plays 2 tracks together.im sure people with other computers see all the fancy stuff that apple comes up with think its great.its only when you buy one of their duff computers like mine with 3 power related repairs so far that they realize its just a big con
Posted by: stephen conacher 28 Sep 2006
I concur
I have had exactly the same problems as those listed below running on my G4 powerbook I-tunes 7 starts running the gapless playback then hangs the whole computer. On the occasions that it did work the whole computer ran slowly and songs played were punctuated with pauses. If you are thinking of downloading I-Tunes 7 I strongly recomend you don't! This is the worst release apple have done and if this is the shape of things to come I'll be moving back to windows. At least with windows you knew that latest release would reliably screw everything up.
Posted by: snufkin 27 Sep 2006
Nothing but problems with iTunes 7 for me.
Since upgrading to version 7, my sound is terrible and if I run any other program, iTunes hangs it up. It has also caused system crashes. I updated it to 7.0.0.70 but I still have the same problems. And I also notice that when I am playing iTunes now, it uses from 75% to 85% of my CPU whereas before I went to 7, it used 1 or 2%. Also, any program that I am running freezes between songs now. I did change the settings in QuickTime as suggested by others here but still no luck. I wish I knew how to roll back to iTunes 6 without losing all my playlists, etc. What a crappy product!
Posted by: Tom 26 Sep 2006
sound enhancement
i tried disabling the sound enhancement feature to keep the playback from sounding "fan-distorted"! it helped for about two songs and then resumes the same fan crap! im also having problems connecting with the music store whereas w/ version 6 i had no problems whatsoever! i have tried downloading the older version but it continously fails to start the program. it says that it failed cause it was installed by a newer version of itunes! this is crazy cuz i deleted the 7 version b4 i installed version 6! hos long till these bugs are fixed and new ones arise?!?!
Posted by: bryan smith 26 Sep 2006
How to Uninstall Itunes 7
Would someone please give me directions for how to un-install this Version 7 and how I can get back to Version 6--this is a nightmare. I just cannot figure it out on my own. Thanks for your help
Posted by: Deborah 24 Sep 2006
I can confirm the java link
having read Ron's comment on Java applets causing the jumping on iTunes tracks, I tried it out by opening some of Apple's own web pages, which are rife with applets - it does seem to cause the tracks to jump and jitter
Posted by: Phil K., Berkshire, UK 24 Sep 2006
java
here we go again. its apple all over. lol. itunes 7 works fine without any programs open. however, when u open a java applet it crackles and jumps every few seconds. and hwhere can u get the old itunes?
Posted by: oliver 22 Sep 2006
Crashing iTunes 7
I have used iTunes since I came with iMacs. I love it, never used anything else. The latest version actually won't open on my OS, XP SP2. I hope Apple fixes these problems pronto.. because I'm getting real used to MediaMonkey.
Posted by: Mark McKeen 22 Sep 2006
iTune 7 Problems in Intel Mac
I had to remove iTunes 7 as it distorted music and fonts in iTunes were distorted. Changed back to previous version..now all is OK.
Posted by: Ron 20 Sep 2006
Ugh Don't upgrade
I had to uninstall Itunes 7and go back to he old version. I read about the gapless deal as far as I can there is no way to disable it. Least I couldn't find it. You might not have any trouble but i know a lot of us are.
Posted by: Bill Benson 18 Sep 2006
no problems for me
i just upgraded my itunes (using imac g5 ppc) and have had absolutely no problems. i think the the new additions in version 7 are great.
Posted by: kyle 18 Sep 2006
Worst Apple Product
I downloaded the program iTunes 7 today and it has not worked properly once the whole day. iTunes gets hung up on it's self, spinning it's wheels on some function called "Gapless Playback". I cannot believe that Apple would put out a product as terrible as this.
Posted by: E*ROCK 18 Sep 2006
No communication
After installing itunes 7 itunes won't communicate with my 5g vid. It shows up in explorer but just shows do not disconnect on the ipod. I tried reinstalling 7 but still no good. Then i uninstalled 7 and tried 6 and the ipod driver but because the library converted itself to 7 it is not recognised.. Luckily the ipod and itunes work independantly BUT if yu scroll in tunes with a song playing it distorts...Help!
Posted by: Jon 18 Sep 2006
Can't manually manage my IPod
I can no longer manually load individual album folders. ITunes now wants to sync to whatever is in ITunes. This new version sucks. I wish I had never downloaded it.
Posted by: David 17 Sep 2006
itunes 7 is s***
this program is the biggest waste of time of my life. everything said is not a rumor, as my songs are all distorted now as well.
Posted by: andrew 17 Sep 2006
I FOUND A FIX!
what i did to fix my problem (in windows at least) was to go into quicktime settings, go to audio, and set the sound out size to 16 bit. mine was on 24bit and my computer didnt like that for some reason. hope that helps someone else.
Posted by: andrew 17 Sep 2006
iTunes 7 hotter than hot potatoes**Do Not Touch
Installing iTunes 7 caused [X 10.3.9] to crash twice while using iTunes. After booting up the second time, I'm greeted by a notice that says that the iTunes library is damaged. Now when I start up iTunes there isn't a single song in the music library. Who authorized the release of this beast into the wild?
Posted by: charlesdigi 17 Sep 2006
Wish I had not upgraded ...
I am getting severe distortion, skipping and accelerated playback (plays OK for one second and then plays at ~2 times speed then back to OK etc). Horrible bit of software.
Posted by: Mark 17 Sep 2006
Distortion? That's an understatement.
Wow. I am so happy that I'm not alone in this - it was so frustrating when 6,000 songs in my library were ALL suddenly reduced to terrible quality. I'm going to go back to iTunes 6.
Posted by: ALLen. 16 Sep 2006
Uninstall before Installing?
I downloaded iTunes 7 today, but when I went to run the install, it failed, saying I needed to uninstall the previous version first. That seemed like a bad idea, as I didn't want to lose all my playlists (I only have a 1st Gen-5G iPod - not enough room for everything on the computer). I just deleted the installer instead. Sounds like I made the right choice.
Posted by: Ori 16 Sep 2006
Works Great after a quick Restart!
This is just my experience but got iTunes 7 installed just fine. I experienced the glitch in audio... Did a reboot. Everything is playing fine now. Gluck!
Posted by: kevin 16 Sep 2006
On a positive note
The best (and, ironically, the least talked about) feature in iTunes 7 is that the iPod software updater is built in. Before this, the user would have to download two programs every time Apple updated iTunes. If they didn't, their iPod would stop working right and they go flaming mad to an Apple store and complain that their iPod is broken. Now firmware updates are brainless. That's a solid update.
Posted by: imgoingtogetit 16 Sep 2006
CAUTION: Itunes 7
How I wish I had read the comments before installing iTunes update. But you know Apple/ Mac if you can't trust them who can you trust. I have learned my lesson. I-tunes 7 has serious issues. All though all my music played back ok. The problem I had was every time I attached my ipod the program would freeze up. Lockup after Lockup. Well I uninstalled it and reinstalled iTunes6 at least it works... Very disapointed.they would release a product like iTunes 7 I did like the interface. Only if it worked..............
Posted by: Michael 16 Sep 2006
Not crashing for me but still bad
My iTunes v7 doesnt crash at all, it just plays back the songs with bad distortion about every other second. Disabling "Sound Enhancer" didn't fix it.
Posted by: Quetzal 16 Sep 2006
It's true!! - best not to upgrade itunes 7
So - Vnunet.com was not able to re-create either of the reported problems using a dual-boot MacBook Pro running MacOS 10.4.7 and Windows XP SP2 - but then again how many other combination hardware (dell, HP, IBM, Sony, etc) and OS versions are out there that have upgraded to itunes 7 and ARE experiencing distorted songs? Why pay 99 cent a song when you have this flaw? It seems Apple is very silent about the problem - all they have to do is listen. Their QA is obviously non-existent. You would think they would have tested the product on other platforms combinations.
Posted by: Victor in California 15 Sep 2006
no Sound after 77
my iTunses will not play after installing 7
Posted by: John Matthews 15 Sep 2006
It's True - iTunes 7 crashes
gapless playback? Why does anyone want that anyway? Since I upgraded I can't run iTunes because it hangs itself, then other apps, then the computer as a whole, and never finishes the indexing process. I wish Apple would 'fess up to stuff like this rather than brush it under the carpet.
Posted by: Phil South 15 Sep 2006
absolutely true
Crashes when skipping songs on my iMac G5 and won't play any song at all (!) then crashes on my MacBook. In my experience this is the shoddiest thing Apple has ever released.
Posted by: Alex 15 Sep 2006
artwork
there's also a new feature that downloads album artwork without storing it in the actual mp3 file as before. this is broken because it doesn't show the artwork on the ipod. any idea if this problem with "distorted" audio is just because of some indexing that itunes is doing outside of the file or if the actual content of the mp3 files are changing?? (ie: will the audio work properly again when they fix the bug or if you go back to itunes 6)
Posted by: rob 15 Sep 2006
IT-7 Huge Issues
Is this a beta or what? My Itunes 7 keeps crackling on high points on all my songs now. I've narrowed it down to me not being able to surf the web, work on programs, etc while I listen to Itunes at the same time........lame! Gapless playback has already indexed my library. Itunes Ver: 7.0.0.70 XP SP2 P4 2.8ghz 512rm
Posted by: Todd 15 Sep 2006
Same as...
although, itunes is playing perfectly well I am also having problems with crashing. The no gaps is pretty poor, as an owner of many dance albums this is a great feature, shame it doesn't work. Also it now takes about an hour for my ipod to update even with only one new tune!!!
Posted by: Paul 15 Sep 2006