IPod nano: Stuttering playback

I've been having intermittent problems with my ipod nano (~6 months old) that manifest as stuttering playback. This happens seemingly at random, affecting all sorts of tracks, which then play fine at other times. The stuttering can be slight or so bad that the whole playback comes to a halt. Turning the iPod on and off doesn't neccessarily solve it, thought it can, and it can also go away of its own accord!
Has anyone else experienced this? I've tried the reset and updated my iPod - neither helped.
Next step, return to Apple and get ripped off for p&P and handling? Not impressed with this company or their 'customer service'
Any advice would be appreciated!
Cheers

Hi,
Casper G - I've not restored it yet. I'll give it a go tonight.
Deluded, I've never tried with a podcast. All my issues are with music (either converted from mp3 ripped from a CD, or downloaded direct from iTunes) and audiobooks.
Apple's response to your issue is pretty pathetic.
ibkidd37 - no I don't rate songs. This isn't an issue with accidental fast forwarding. The playback stutters (not skips) and slows and then either corrects itself or grinds to a halt.
Is there any other way of getting technical support other than asking the forums and hoping some other paying cutomer has had the same issue and solved it?
Cheers

Similar Messages

  • Ipod nano gapless playback question

    can anyone tell me if the 1G or 2G nano can support gapless playback ?

    I don't believe they do.

  • IPod Nano Battery Life when using Nike+

    I saw this on the support site:
    How much does using the Nike + iPod system affect my iPod nano battery playback time? The receiver draws very little power from the iPod nano. The overall impact on the iPod nano battery playback time is less than 5 percent.
    However, I've owned my Nike+ kit for a couple of weeks now and I went from fully charged to almost empty on my battery after only 3 1-hour exercise sessions! That seems pretty insane given how much battery life the 2G nano is supposed to have. Any thoughts?
    iPod Nano (2G) with Nike+ kit   Other OS  

    Are you leaving the backlight on during your workouts? If so, that's probably the culprit.
    Also, do you get "normal" battery life (12-20 hours of playback, depending on EQ settings, backlight, etc.) when you're using your nano simply to play music (and not using the Nike kit)?

  • Video podcasts have jerky playback on my iPod nano 4G

    I've been enjoying Good Game video podcasts on my 4G iPod nano for several months:
    http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/
    About a month ago, the videos started stuttering badly every few seconds.
    I asked ABC TV is they changed something about how they encode the videos, and they say they haven't.
    Is it possible that one of the iTunes updates has changed video playback so my iPod nano can no longer cope with decoding the video stream?
    Does anyone know if there is a fix for this problem?
    Cheers,
    m.

    Have you reconnected your iPod since listening to the podcasts in question? If not, then you need to do that so that the iPod can update. The podcasts won't delete from the iPod itself after you listen to them until it is updated. (Someone correct me if I am wrong)

  • Ipod nano 4GB stutters ...

    I've just got my personalized ipod Nano 4GB and it seems not to work properly.
    The sound/music "stutters" in a random manner, especially when I am listening BBC podcasts.
    It is something with the ipod and not related to the source file since rewinding and playing the same file again does not reproduce the stutter on the exact same place of the “track" , but if it continues playing, the stutter will occurs randomly in another place/time of the playing podcast or music file.
    I've tried everything: from resetting the ipod, factory reset, last firmware update, etc but it still behaving in the same away.
    Could someone please give me a feedback and confirm if this is a common problem with ipods?
    (I've sent a msg to Apple, they told me to contact customer services/support - I did - but nothing... -- should I send it back and try to find an alternative to ipod?)
    Before I forget it is just 3 or 4 days old .
    Thank you all.
    ipod nano 4GB    

    Deluded, I am able to recreate the stuttering problem on my 2GB Nano, also purchased just a few days ago (Monday, July 31, to be exact - I have also updated it with the latest iPod Updater). I downloaded the latest BBC "Wake Up to Money" podcast (August 4) and heard it stutter a couple times within the first 5 minutes; I played it again and it stuttered again, but not in the same places it had before. I also noticed random little "ticks" throughout the playback.
    I did some testing with the LAME 3.96.1 MP3 encoder, and heard very similar "ticks" on a music track encoded to 56 kb mono @ 44.1 kHz sampling rate, the same parameters as the BBC podcast. However, I never heard it stutter, although this may be due to the much shorter length of the music track (4:24) as opposed to the podcast (23:51) (note that the length in and of itself is not a problem - I've already played a single 4-hour VBR MP3 without a single glitch).
    After trying a few more settings in LAME, it appears that the Nano has a problem with mono MP3 files at a 44.1 kHz sampling rate - mono MP3s at 32 kHz or 22.05 kHz were tick-free, as were mono AAC files at 44.1 kHz. I tried converting the podcast to a mono 64 kb AAC file in iTunes, and sure enough, it played back perfectly (or at least the first 4 minutes) - no ticks or stutters of any kind.
    Note that this is hardly conclusive, as the ticking and/or stuttering is very random and I've only tested it on a couple files, but it does seem to point strongly to the Nano having problems with mono MP3 files at 44.1 kHz.
    This is something Apple needs to be made aware of, but until /if they offer a fix, it appears that simply transcoding the podcasts to mono AAC files will do the trick (note that in the "Custom" encoder settings in the iTunes preferences, you actually need to specify double the bitrate you want the file to be when you select "Mono", i.e. if you want a 56 kb mono AAC, you'll need to set the bitrate at 112 kb - it should then say "56 kb (mono)" in the Details box). Also note that the converted files will not show up under "Podcasts" in iTunes or on the Nano - they'll just be standard files in the Library, although all the tag information will still be there, so they will sort correctly, i.e. the artist name will be "BBC Radio Five Live".
    ...Just did a quick test, and it appears that you actually can force iTunes to recognize the AAC file (which will have an .m4a extension) as an actual podcast. To do this, open up the iTunes Podcasts folder (if you're using the default iTunes setup on a PC, it should be "C:\<your user name>\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Podcasts"), open up the folder that corresponds to the show containing the podcast you just converted (in this case, "Wake Up to Money") and drag-and-drop the .m4a file into the Podcast window in iTunes. You can then delete the original .mp3 file (turning on the "Kind" and "Bitrate" columns makes this much easier to keep track of).

  • Why does my 16gb 6th generation ipod nano skip and stutter during playback?

    Why does my 16gb 6th generation ipod nano skip and stutter during playback?

    Try a hard reset first. 
    Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Volume Down button 
    until the screen goes dark. The Apple logo appears after a few seconds, 
    and then the Home screen.
    If that doesn't work, try a restore of the device in iTunes.
    Otherwise, does this skipping and stuttering only happen with certain tracks?  What format are these tracks in and where they come from (outside of iTunes or from the iTunes store itself)?
    B-rock

  • IPod Nano 4G Skips During Playback with Apple Lossless Songs

    My iPod Nano 4th Generation has been consistently skipping a brief portion of music about every 5th Apple Lossless song during playback. I've been working unsuccessfully to resolve this issue with tech support and fixed the problem when I disabled the energy level setting in the playback menu. While this is a hit to battery life, the skipping no longer occurs. Hoping that this issue is permanently resolved in an upcoming software update.

    Hi,
    I brought my ipod yesterday and had the exact same issue. it would skip certain songs frequently and was extremely frustrating. Im not sure if this is the case for all ipods (i have an ipod nano 16Gb 4th gen, with firmware 1.0.4), but i fixed my issue in a series of steps. Im not sure which exact part of my method did the job, but here it is:
    1. plugged it into iTunes and clicked "restore" under the tab "summary". WARNING: This will delete everything, and restore factory settings. im not sure if this is necessary, but youll need to delete the songs which skip anyway.
    2. pressed the eject button IN ITUNES (under "devices", and next to your ipod icon), ejecting the ipod. wait for the ipod to specify when it is ready for it to be unplugged. proceed to unplug said ipod.
    3. Choose the language of your ipod, and go into playback settings and (settings/playback or something) and turn OFF "shake" and "energy saver"
    4. Plug your ipod into your computer again and drag all the songs onto your ipod using itunes.
    5. after it has finished copying, WAIT until the ipod no longer says "synching", and until it says "connected"
    6. Press the eject button IN ITUNES (again, under devices, and next to your ipod icon)
    7. Eject when the ipod says it is ok to do so.
    As i said, im not sure which part of the method did it for me, but i think it might be the way in which i was ejecting it. Before i was ejecting the ipod on my desktop. I think it is important to eject it using itunes. Anyway this fixed my ipod. Im not sure if it will do the same to yours, but if its making you very angry (to say the least) like it made me, its worth a try i guess. I would appreciate it if people let me know if this works.

  • Stereo playback in IPOD nano

    I got a new ipod and when i play a song on it the stereo seems to be not playing properly. the same song when played on my PC has that stereo playing so very well.
    By stereo i mean sound which can be differenciated between Left ear an right Ear. Does IPOD nano (3rd gen) not support stereo playback. help me if any setting changes ave to be made for this to take effect.
    without setreo its bad. pleas help

    hi Rockmyplimsoul
    thank you so very much. my mistake was that i had not conncetd the headphone correctly, i had pushed it only half way thru.
    now that i have followed ur adivce and pushed it all the way in. it works absolutely fine...
    thnks a million, u rock
    Nanite

  • Ipod nano hums during car playback

    My ipod nano hums during playback in my car. In addition the volume is so low that even with the ipod level at full blast I still have to turn my car system way up to hear the nano at a reasonable listening level. I have tried two different adaptors and that hasn't helped. It works fine when I connect it to my sound system at home.
    ipod nano    

    First thing to check is the Shuffle function of the iPod. Shuffle should be set to OFF to work with the Alpine correctly and when you updated the firmware it may have reset the iPod to default to turning the Shuffle feature ON.
    Source: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7229639&#7229639
    Cheers,
    Patrick

  • Problems with iPod Nano 6th Gen Playback & Updating

    Hi. I have had a look and can't find another post on this - apologies if I have missed it!
    My problems start before I purchased my new Nano 16GB last week.
    When the last update of iTunes came available, I was unable to install it. The task bar would get to about 50% (although it varied) and would then time out. When I had this problem I tried everything from every forum imaginable, from deleting all Temp files, disabling the firewall and all start up applications and clearing the registry – everything. Nothing worked. Eventually I decided that I should uninstall, then install the new version.
    After a week of the same problems trying to install iTunes, I gave up and downloaded on another computer, and saved the .exe file to a USB stick. This worked until two days after I downloaded it, yet another update came out and I had to start all over again (I didn’t – I am running on 10.1.2.17 still).
    I was concerned when I purchased my new Nano that I would have problems connecting it to iTunes as I was not running the new version – but it was okay. Unfortunately, the iPod requires update 1.1 and I am also having the same problem with this – I get time out error 3259 after sometime trying to download it. And yes, I have tried all the same tricks, but nothing seems to work.
    I am running Vista on a Dell PC, and connect to the internet on a pre-pay internet USB dongle. I can download updates for other programmes, and other files successfully – it is only iTunes that I am having an issue with. ITunes is added to my list of accepted programmes on my firewall, but I disable that when I am downloading.
    Meanwhile! My new iPod is fantastic. Unfortunately I am experiencing an odd problem with it, and cannot seem to find other people with the same issue. The memory is not overloaded (it has 1.10GB of free space on it). I have 1857 tracks on it, and 14 podcasts. I play the music files through the ‘Songs’ menu, on Shuffle mode. For some reason, after playing one or two tracks, it doesn’t seem to want to play the next one. The track will be displayed on the screen, but it does not play. When you look at the song progress bar, it shows that it is part way through the song, but it is not moving. I have tried pressing ‘Pause’ followed by ‘Play’ and nothing happens.
    The only way to get it to start playing again is to skip to the next track, but even this has its issues. Sometimes, when you skip forward a track, it plays a completely different track to the one that is displayed. When you look at the progress bar for the song it is showing, it isn’t moving, but music is still coming out!
    Does anyone have any idea what the issue is, and how I can get the machine to play continuously without having to handle it several times? Please?!

    Hi dianak22!
    I have an article here that can help you troubleshoot to resolve this issue:
    iPod nano (6th generation): Hardware troubleshooting
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3474
    You can also walk through the steps of troubleshooting using the troubleshooting assistant, which can be found here:
    Apple - Support - iPod nano (6th generation) - iTunes Troubleshooting Assistant
    http://www.apple.com/support/ipodnano/6th_generation/assistant/itunes/
    Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!
    Cheers,
    Braden

  • Ipod nano 5th gen & stock car radio playback

    I bought my wife an ipod nano 5th gen and now that she takes it everywhere she wants to be able to play it thru our autos radio/cass/cd player. Can anyone tell me the best way to do this without buying another radio or having to take this one out?

    See if you can still find an 1/8" inch to cassette adapter, I haven't seen any at Best Buy, or anywhere, in a while now though..
    If you like my post, or solution to your issue/question, go ahead and click on the little star by my name and/or accept the post as the Solution. It makes me happy.
    I'm NOT an employee of Best Buy, or Geek Squad, though I did work as an Agent for a year 5 years ago. None of my posts are to be taken as the official stance that Best Buy will take on your situation. My advice is just that, advice.
    Unfortunately, that's the bad luck of any electronic, there's going to be bad Apples... wait that's a horrible pun.

  • I just sync'd my iPod Nano for the first time. All the audiobooks appear to have been loaded but I cannot hear anything during playback. The volume is turned all the way up. My headphones work when plugged into a different unit. What's next?

    I just sync'd my brand new ipod Nano with my laptop PC running Windows 7, and loaded all my audiobooks. They show up on the Nano's screen, but when I select one I hear nothing. The earphones work fine when connected to another unit. What's next?

    I'm ok with having to resync everything once she gets home but it concerned me when you said it would, again, wipe everything once I plugged it in here. I don't care about having to reload music, contacts, & apps from here, but I would rather not lose all the pictures that she took while she was gone. If we did decide to go the whole start-over-from-scratch route on her end while she is there, could the loss of pictures be adverted if she created a backup of her phone, copied the backup to a USB drive, & brought the backup file home with her so I could restore it from here? When I plug my phone into another computer, I can open it through My Computer & copy the pictures; could I do that when she gets home before I allow iTunes to open & wipe everything again?
    I guess the other option would be to just have her just copy all of the pictures onto a USB drive before she comes home, I'm just curious if it's possible to restore everything if she just brings the backup file home.
    Thanks again for taking the time to helping me.

  • IPod Nano 5th gen locks up, losing podcast playback positions.

    My 5th gen iPod nano has been randomly locking up when playing audio.  I will start listening to either music or podcasts, and then when I go to pause it after a while I can't do anything.  The audio will still be playing, but I cannot pause it, adjust the volume, etc.  The screen is also shut off when that happens, and I need to do a reset to do anything.  I've been searching online and haven't come across anything that helps.  I have a warrenty for it, but I am hesitant to send it in because I likely won't be able to get another 5th for what I paid originally.  Has anyone had any problems like this, or know of any way to fix this?  It is completely random, it started this summer, and would be fine for a while, then I would have it happen multiple times in a few days, then it can be fine for a while.  Also, this may or may not be related, but when I sync it to my PC it will lose my position on podcasts, ones that I have finished and should be removed are set to unplayed, and some that I am in the middle of will also be set to unplayed.  I haven't been able to come across anything that helps on this either, I'm not sure if it is my iPod or just something with iTunes.

    Yes, I've tried that a few times, it didn't seem to help, and it gave me a terrible time, I had to restore it multiple times, because I would do that, then it would lock up while syncing everything back onto it, then I would have to try restore it again, and finally I was able to get the stuff back on it, but it has locked up while playing since I did that.

  • IPod Nano, 4th Gen. Problems with playback.

    When watching a clip, the iPod Nano will suddenly start to fastforward halfway, or around 8 minutes into the clip. This doesn't happen to all my movies and clips, just the ones that are around 10-15mins long. The audio stays the same and does not fast forward, but the visuals begin to skip by the time the images end, the audio is still going. When playing the same clip back on iTunes, or other programs, the clip is perfectly fine. It only begins to fastforward when watching it on the iPod Nano.
    This is very frustrating! Any help would be appreciated.
    I have also tried restoring and restarting the iPod, but nothing works.

    First, make sure you are running the latest versions of your OS. You should be running the latest service pack for whatever version of windows you are running. Here are the basic system requirements as stated in the Apple store:
    Mac Requirements
    USB 2.0 port
    Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later
    iTunes 8 or later
    Internet connection (broadband recommended; fees may apply)
    iTunes Store account
    PC Requirements
    USB 2.0 port
    Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3 or later)
    iTunes 8 or later
    Internet connection (broadband recommended; fees may apply)
    iTunes Store account
    Second, start the process with the iPod connected directly to the system, not through a USB hub. See if this changes things for you.
    Also make sure you have gone through the basic troubleshooting as stated here:
    http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/nano/
    If problems persist, it may be the installation of iTunes that is causing trouble. Uninstalling iTunes and re-installing could clear things up. Here is a link to instructions on removing iTunes:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1926
    Of course, start with the easy things first and work from there. Hope this gets you running smoothly.
    i

  • Can iPod nano playback on same song after sync?

    Hello,
    Everytime when I add new music to my playlist on my ipod nano, I disconnect and go back to continue to play same song on where i left off, it randomly goes to a new song after syncing?! I always keep my playlist on shuffle, could that be the problem?   It does not happen to my podcasts, which continue on where i left off whenever I sync. I'm confused, please help

    To create or access a second (or more) library, hold down the Option key (or Shift key in Windows) when launching iTunes 7. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or navigate to the other Library.
    Note: You can only have one Library open at a time and iTunes will default to the last library opened if you don't use the keyboard command to choose one: Using multiple iTunes libraries -Mac
    You might also want to have have a look at this help page: How to use multiple iPods with one computer

Maybe you are looking for