160 GB iPod Classic just started skipping songs. Is there a fix?

My 160 GB iPod Classic worked flawlessy for about two years and now has begun to skip songs. Always after the same playing time from zero to around 48 seconds. About 5% of the songs skip, but the list is growing and it seems to happen at random. I am on iTunes 9.2.1 (5) on my iMac running Tiger OSX 10.4.
(I also have an older 60 GB iPod that is working fine). I have read many strings by this community concerning this problem and cannot seem to find a good solution here. It seems like some sort of corruption issue. My iTunes library seems to be fine. If I delete an album from the iTunes library and then synch the iPod Classic to delete the same album from the iPod Classic then re-burn the album to iTunes and then resynch the iPod Classic, the album plays just fine. Of course, I do not wish to hunt and peck for all the bad songs in order to clean them up, especially if more corruption is going to happen. This is a maddening problem as many of you know. It drives me nuts and ruins my enjoyment of my music with this 160 GB iPod Classic.
My music is all in the AAC audio file format and I have about 8700 songs, some 25 music videos, 25 podcasts and thousands of photos taking up around 63 GB of space on my iPod Classic. I sure wish that everyone who is having this skipping problem can band together and get a voice at Apple for some help.
The iPod Classic was a joy for about two years - and now - has become an aggravation.

Here I am submitting possible causes and solutions for my own problem. Possible root cause of skipping may be the use of a headset cable having a TRRS connector male plug having 4 conductor rings and 3 insulator rings. My problem started when I began to use an AKG Q460 headset which has this connector. Same TRRS plug may be found on iPhone headset or many other headsets having an active switch control in the cable. I think this headset plug may have caused corruption of digital song data when I actuated skip to next or previous song or possibly even when I increased or decreased the volume which is an incrementing pulse control signal. I went back to the headset cable having the same TRS connector as found on the Apple original headset and on my Sennheiser headset and there is even a short TRS cable that comes with the AKG headset. The problem seems to have gone away. No new skipping songs have occurred since using the TRS connector. You can learn more by searching on TRS connector on Wikipedia.
Fixing the corrupted songs was accomplished as follows: 1) MARK the corrupted song as a one star rating on the iPod. 2) Synch the iPod and then when synch is complete, DELETE the marked songs into the trash. 3) Synch the iPod again to remove the corrupted songs from the iPod. 4) Drag the songs out of the trash to the desktop. Then drag the songs back into iTunes. Remove the one star rating. 5) Synch the iPod once again to restore the uncorrupted songs. Fortunately, the iTunes version of the song does not get corrupted when synching the iPod. So far, this has worked fine. I even had one corrupted music video which was repaired with this method. Comments are welcome, especially regarding the TRS vs TRRS connector theory.

Similar Messages

160 gb ipod classic max at 16k songs

Apple says 160 gb can hold 40,000 songs...why is all of my memory used with 16k songs? How can I fix it to get a lot more on my iPod?

First of all, do something about the 1141Kbps songs! Did you import them from CD as WAV format?
If so, how did that happen? Check your import settings. In iTunes for Windows, use CTRL+, (that's the Control key and the comma key) to show the Preferences and select the Import Settings:
Use either AAC or MP3 (anything but .wav)
The Bit Rate is going to have to be your choice. If you are happy with the slightly lower quality of 128Kbps over 256Kbps, then use 128Kbps. Make some test imports listening comparisons. This will sort out future imports.
Using 256Kbps instead of 128 effectively reduces the capacity to 20,000 songs.
Any wav files probably need to be re-imported, especially if you like album artwork.
Anything else, one option is to use iTunes to automatically put 128Kbps versions onto your iPod, even if the original file is larger.

My ipod wanted to start skipping songs without my content is this considered a manufacturer's fault and will Apple replace it?

please help

What was the error you received when yu tried to update the iPod? The following lists error and their resolution.
iTunes: Specific update-and-restore error messages and advanced troubleshooting
If your iPod is defective, within warranty and not abused Apple will replace your iPod.

My ipod classic has started making a mewing sound and all it does is scroll through the songs. It will not play except when connected to my computer. I tried resyncing and that did not work. How do I fix this problem?

My ipod classic has started making a mewling sound and all it does is scroll through the songs. It does not play on my Bose sound dock or through earbuds. It will play when connected to the computer...but that makes it hard to take it on a walk with me I thought it might be a synching problem so tried that--still doesn't work. How do I fix this problem with out restoring it to the factory setting? I do not want to lose all my music content as some of it I cannot replace easily. Please help with suggestions and advice. Thanks. Karen in GA

Have you recharge your iPod for at least 2 hours, preferably till the Full charge Battery symbol comes ON.?
See this Apple support Article
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/
You did not by chance bought the Hello Kitty special edition?
Have nice day!

160 GB iPod Won't Sync All Songs From iTunes

I have a 160 GB iPod and barring the normal song-skipping issues everyone seems to have, I've had no problems out of it. That is until a couple of days ago. I would attempt to listen to a song and it would skip to the next one during the middle of it. It would run sluggishly, skip nearly every song, and at times, freeze. So I decided to exercise the restore option. After that, when I tried to sync it to my library, it only synced 330 (out of 14,000 plus)songs, all of them artists starting with A. I've tried rebooting and restoring the iPod to no avail. I even did a system restore for my entire computer. Nothing works; it insists on giving me only a fraction of my music library. Any suggestions?

*Hard Drive Diagnostics*
Take your iPod and place your right thumb on the centre SELECT button and your left on the top MENU button. Press down both thumbs for about 6 seconds until your iPod reboots. Immediately move your left thumb around to the rewind button |<< on the left and hold this down together with SELECT for a further 6 seconds. Your iPod should now switch into Diagnostic Boot mode. Press MENU for *Manual Test*, then select *IO > HardDrive > HDSMARTData* to reveal your stats. For comparison here are mine for my 2 year old 6th Generation Classic:
Retracts: 889
Reallocs: 12
Pending Sectors: 0
PowerOn Hours: 2202
Start/Stops: 894
Temp: Current 24c
Temp: Min 10c
Temp: Max 50c
Take a note of your results. When finished press *SELECT & MENU* for 6 seconds to reset the iPod again.
With modern disc drives sectors are no longer marked bad by a disc scan, if the SMART firmware detects a sector it has trouble accessing it will attempt to invisibly reallocate it to a spare area of the disc.
Note that I've only 12 remapped sectors and none pending. To help explain what the numbers mean here is an extract from the Wikipedia S.M.A.R.T. article:
*Reallocated Sectors Count*
Count of reallocated sectors. When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping, and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps. This is why, on modern hard disks, "bad blocks" cannot be found while testing the surface – all bad blocks are hidden in reallocated sectors. However, as the number of reallocated sectors increases, the read/write speed tends to decrease. The raw value normally represents a count of the number of bad sectors that have been found and remapped. Thus, the higher the attribute value, the more sectors the drive has had to reallocate.
*Pending sector count*
Number of "unstable" sectors (waiting to be remapped, because of read errors). If an unstable sector is subsequently written or read successfully, this value is decreased and the sector is not remapped. Read errors on a sector will not remap the sector (since it might be readable later); instead, the drive firmware remembers that the sector needs to be remapped, and remaps it the next time it's written.
Large numbers of Reallocs or Pending Sectors would suggest your drive is failing and that you may need to repair or replace your iPod. Check your stats after another attempt to update your iPod. If the numbers increase that again points to hard drive failure. While it won't be good news at least you'll know it isn't some random software problem and you can decide what to do next.
tt2

160 GB IPod Classic : Sound Distortion?

Recently, I purchased a 160 GB IPod Classic from Wal-Mart. Once I got home and synched my notoriously large music library onto it, I immediately noticed a huge difference in the sound quality. The kicks and snares were ugly, and the bass was even more disgusting! All of my favorite songs were so distorted. At first I assumed it was the headphones, so I tested them out on my ''ex'' 8GB IPod Touch to compare - and everything was perfectly fine (and better).
I searched my issue online and seen many buyers like me having the same exact problem, and most of them purchased their IPods in 2009-2010! How can a problem like this go unsolved for so long? Why wouldn't Apple change/fix the software to be up with the newer generation's standards if they are still for sale today? There has to be someway this could be fixed.
So all I want to know is if I really wasted $249 on a device so worthless? I only bought this product for the 160 GB of memory since I couldn't fit all of my music on my IPod Touch, and now I feel robbed.

Music post 2008 ish is recorded into an MP3 file at higher volumes than prior to that era.
Modern DAC (digital to analogue converter) can deal with this increase in volume (earlier albums, particularly those ripped from 1980's CDs) will sound quieter.
Unfortunately the DAC in the ipod classic hasn't been updated from one of the early versions.
What I've done for some recent purchases, is run them through this volume levelling software:
http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/download.php
There is an equivalent version for the Mac. They are identical in operation, and one version is no better than the other.
I reduce the volume by about 10% on a whole album, even if it's only 2 or three tracks that are distorting.
Remember to keep a copy of your original files for safety.
The quality of the music does not degrade, and I'm really fussy and have $300 senheiser IE80s. It's just the volume that is reduced so it doesn't upset the iPod classic DAC.
However, there's no getting away from it, that this is a REAL PAIN, and there should be NO EXCUSE for apple selling such an inadequate product. It shouldn't be too long before the iPod touch or Nano is in the 200Gb region. After all, they can fit 64Gb on a Micro SD card whose outer casing is smaller than my small fingernail, what are Apple waiting for?

My 160 g ipod classic wont synk past 4 gigs and when it gets to 4 gigs it erasis all the content a message unknown error occurd (13011)

my 160 g ipod classic will not sync past 4 gigs and when it gets to 4 gigs it erasis all the content a message unknown error occurd (13011) i have formated it with windows and restored it several times nothing works should i toss it and buy a new one or is it me doing somthing wrong

Thanks everyone, lots of good suggestions here.
I did briefly consider trying the idea of grouping smaller loads of playlists to upload, but I also noticed that each time I ejected then re-synched the iPod a few more gigs of music would upload.
So I just kept at it until most (nearly all) of my music made it onto the thing.
This seems like a really rudimentary thing for Apple to fix - but more fundamentally, this shouldn't happen at ALL. When they market a new product, having such a basic issue plague it seems very Microsoft-like.
Up to this point I've never been disappointed with anything Apple has ever done.
This issue is purely and simply bad design and slipshod programming. I hope they fix it in the extremely near future.
Thanks again for all your help and suggestions guys!
Cheers
Dex

I am confused. Is there currently a way to transfer 160 gig ipod Classic music to another computer of mine after my hard drive crashed? it has old limited library already on it?

I am confused. Is there currently a way to transfer 160 gig ipod Classic music to another computer of mine after my hard drive crashed? it has old limited library already on it?

See this older post from another forum member Zevoneer covering the different methods and software available to assist you with the task of copying content from your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452022?start=0&tstart=0
B-rock

Case for 160 gb iPod Classic???

Been everywhere (including the Apple Store) looking for a plain, simple silicone case for a 160 gb iPod Classic. This is the OLD style, and dimension iPod. It is thicker than the new (7th gen) 160 gb iPods. I can't even figure out how to word the google search to look for one. Anyone know where I can find them?
MANY thanks in advance-
Blue skies-
Jeff

When you did the Reset, did the Apple Logo comes ON and asked you to select the preferred language?
Charge your iPod for at least 2 hours.
After charging till full charge, preferably 4 hours
Toggle the Hold switch, make sure you dont see the red mark when you do the next step
Reset the iPod -> Press Menu and Center button simultaneously for about 10 secs till the Apple Logo comes ON
Then release the buttons
Select your preferred language.
Here is the Apple support Article on the 5Rs
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/
Good Luck!

Duplicates from iTunes on to iphone4s only, not ipad2, or iPod classics- just phone. C'mon!!

Duplicates from iTunes on to iphone4s only, not ipad2, or iPod classics- just phone. C'mon!!

How do I get to 'talk to' support in here?

My Ipod classic has started to play mono only through the headphones. I have tried different headphones with the same outcome. Is the device repairable or better to upgrade?

My Ipod classic has started to play mono only through the headphones. I have tried different headphones with the same outcome. Is the device repairable or better to upgrade?

Hey Grimeymouse,
Thank you for contributing to the Apple Support Communities.
It sounds like your iPod classic is only playing sound in mono when using multiple headphones.
Since you've likely isolated this behavior to the iPod by trying multiple headphones, see this advice from the "The headphones don't work" section of the iPod troubleshooting basics and service FAQ:
If the issue appears to be with the iPod, try resetting it. If that doesn't work, then restore iPod with the latest iPod software using iTunes 7 or later.
All the best,
Jeremy

When i connect my 160 G ipod classic to my computer, the computer says ipod should be formatted before use.

when i connect my 160 GB ipod classic to my computer, the computer says ipod should be formatted before use. what could be wrong

Hello mimward,
It sounds like Windows can see your devices, but iTunes is not seeing them. I would use the troubleshooting in the following article named:
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1538
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling

HT1386 160 gb iPod Classic says it must use iTunes 9 or later. 120 gb iPod Classic (wifes) is on 8.0 and doing fine. If I install iTunes 9, will both iPods be o.k.? Will any music be lost? THANKS

160 gb iPod Classic says it must use iTunes 9 or later. 120 gb iPod Classic (wifes) is on 8.0 and doing fine. If I install iTunes 9, will both iPods be o.k.? Will any music be lost? THANKS

You can either burn it to a CD or DVD from within iTunes, or back up the entire iTunes library as you would any other folder.
(84357)

My iPod Classic just shows the apple

Broken. iPod Classic just shows apple. Then tells me to go to support. Red x n circle.

Bring it in to Apple for a checkup, most likely the battery is near dead, or your charging cable is damage.
Can you get another USB cable, and connect the iPod to a High Power USB 2.0 port, and leave it charging for 4 hours (The charging sign (lightning) must be ON the iPod display)
Do not connect it to any USB Hub, as these don't provide enough power for iPod charging.
After fully charging the iPod, do the disk diagnostic to see the condition of the Hardisk. refer to this post by tt2.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17028567#17028567
Good Luck!

My ipod classic wont start it only shows the apple sign and wont sync ? can anyone help

my ipod classic wont start it only shows the apple sign and wont sync ? can anyone help

Hi there,
I would recommend taking a look at the troubleshooting steps found in the article below.
iPod won't turn on
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1383
-Griff W.

160 GB iPod Classic just started skipping songs. Is there a fix?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for