Audiobook playback problem on iPod

Hi,
Does anyone know how to make the iPod automatically play all sections of an audiobook?
The way mine is working, when it finishes a section, it stops playing and goes to the top level menu. That wouldn't be so bad if the sections were 4 hours long, but most of them are less than 5 minutes.
This isn't a new problem, my clickwheel/dockable iPod has always worked this way, and the workaround I've been using is to have a smart playlist on the iPod, but I'm hoping there's an actual fix!
Any suggestions on how to make audiobook playback on the iPod work properly?
Thanks!

I've found a workaround for this problem: the Join Together v5.1 iTunes script from Doug's AppleScripts combine the segments into two large AAC files.
Now it's OK if the iPod stops playing segments after they finish because they're hours long instead of minutes.

Similar Messages

IPod audiobook playback problem

Hi guys, I have a white 30GB 5th generation iPod that i've had for a while, apart from a problem with the headphone jack which i can cope with, when playing audiobooks, in particular 'harry potter and the...' if I pause the playback and come back to the audiobook later the iPod often restarts the audiobook at the beginning after a random time interval, it also occasionally sets right back to the main menu screen (Music, Video, Extras etc...). I'm wondering if this is a software bug or another hardware issue.

I've found a workaround for this problem: the Join Together v5.1 iTunes script from Doug's AppleScripts combine the segments into two large AAC files.
Now it's OK if the iPod stops playing segments after they finish because they're hours long instead of minutes.

Ipod 7th generation Nano audiobook playback problem.

Suddenly, my Nano started to double play my audio books with almost overdubbing the material with a fraction of a second delay. This happens on both the left and right channel. It happens on multiple audio books. Any thoughts?

Try one or more of the following:
Restart your computer
Uninstall & Reinstall iTunes
Reset iPod (will not erase everything)
Go to My Computer (Windows XP) or Computer (Windows Vista & 7) and see if it shows
Restore iPod (will delete everything)
Make sure iTunes and/or iOS firmware is up to date
Extra Link:
iPod not recognized in 'My Computer' and in iTunes for Windows
Hope this helps.

Podcast & Audiobook Playback Options on iPod Classic?

I recently got a new iPod Classic (7th Gen) as an anniversary gift, but I've been having trouble with how it handles Podcasts & Audiobooks - the iPod I used to have was a couple of generations older (I think 5th Gen?). Basically the two biggest issues I have are:
1. Podcasts - the older iPod used to play just a single episode, and then exit back to the main menu once the episode was over (unless I queued several episodes together in a playlist). The new iPods treat podcasts like an album, and continue playing the next track. This wouldn't be an issue, except that podcasts are sorted in newest -> oldest order, such that it will play Episode 13, then move on to the next track which is Episode 12, and I have to stop it, go back to the menu, and select Episode 14. Is there any way to get the order to sort ascending (changing it in iTunes didn't appear to affect the order on the iPod at all)? Or at least an option to play only one episode at a time and not automatically cycle through them?
2. Audiobooks - I classified my audiobooks into various genres such as "Classics", "Fantasy", "SciFi", etc. in iTunes, and on the old iPod, these genres would show up under Music->Genres in the iPod menu (alongside Rock, Pop, etc.). This appears to no longer be the case. Similarly, audiobook authors no longer appear in the list of Artists and audiobook titles no longer show under Albums. It appears the only way to access audiobooks now is through the
Music->Audiobooks menu? And unfortunately it appears as though the Audiobooks menu only lists individual track names, and not Artist or Album? To make matters worse, the track names are being sorted alphabetically and ignoring the Disc # & Track # metadata stored in iTunes. Is there any way to fix any of this?
Any help would be appreciated! I've poked around in the settings both on the iPod itself and in iTunes with the iPod connected, but I haven't found a way to correct any of these issues yet.

I've found a workaround for this problem: the Join Together v5.1 iTunes script from Doug's AppleScripts combine the segments into two large AAC files.
Now it's OK if the iPod stops playing segments after they finish because they're hours long instead of minutes.

Post 2.1 - Audiobook Playback Corruption

Since updating to 2.1, I'v had multiple instances of my audiobooks suddenly giving garbled playback. There doesn't seem to be a pattern for how long I can play before getting the garbled playback. I'll be listening to an audiobook and then it will start to sound like a cassette deck eating a tape. If I stop playback and try to begin again it begins in the garbled state. If I power off/on my iPhone, I am able to begin playback and listen to my audiobook but eventually it becomes garbled again. This was not a problem prior to 2.1.

Unless you have a compelling reason to use Type 3, Audible's Type 4 format sounds noticeably better than Type 3. (The main compelling reason is disk space, or capacity on your iPod, but there are ways to manage that: http://aldoblog.com/audiobooks/itunes/managing-audiobooks-on-a-small-capacity-ip od/) Couple the audio quality improvement with fixing the playback problem with the iPhone/iPod Touch 2.1 firmware, and it's a no-brainer.
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.
<Edited by Moderator>
Of course, if you have a lot of Audible audiobooks, re-downloading them is going to take some time. But it's not too much work. One trick you might not know about, if you go to Audible.com, and go to My Library, you can click the Edit Devices link, just above the list of titles, and modify your device preferences. If you choose Type 4 as the preferred format for your device, all of the download links in your library will change to download that format. Much easier than changing the format for each item one by one.
Message was edited by: Alderete

Audiobook fault on 3g ipod nano

I dowloaded an audiobook. Part 1 is 2h:42min long. It plays fine on my mac, but on the ipod nano jumps at 2h32min to part 2. Anyone else had any playback problems with audiobooks on nanos?

This exact thing has happened to my Ipod too. I tried replacing the battery. That didn't work. I was told you are supposed to put it in Disk mode, but you can only do that when you reset it, and since it won't reset...

IOS Music Player MP3 Gapless Playback Problem

Hi,
I've been having this gapless playback issue on iOS now for the past few years, since at least iOS 6 if I can remember correctly. The number one reason I use an iPhone and iOS devices is for gapless playback in the iOS music player. For the last few years I've been experiencing a bug with the stock iOS music player on my iPhone 4S using iOS 6 and on my iPhone 5 using iOS 6 & 7, and currently on my new iPhone 6 running iOS 8.1.2. This only happens on my iPhones and using iOS, this bug is not found when I use my iPod classic or when playing the same albums through iTunes.
I thought it might have been spotted by other iOS users and fixed in iOS 7.1 or at least the current version of iOS 8, but instead it's gotten worse, albums that used to play smoothly between transitions now suddenly pause and jump for a split second when changing from track to track.
What's happening is, I listen to a lot of albums that are continuously DJ mixed and play straight through without any pauses between tracks, and I've been experiencing problems a lot now with random split second pauses between tracks and choppy transitions. These albums in question have been ripped from cd using the latest versions of iTunes.
For example,
I'd be listening to an album and it would play gapless and smooth for most of the album, but maybe one or two transitions on the album would have a split second pause between them, and the rest of the album would play perfectly with no pauses, skips or jumps at all.
This only happens on my iPhone, as I have a 160gb iPod classic and I've listened to all the same albums on it and never has a problem playing the album without any pauses, every album plays 100% smooth and gapless on it.
I mailed Apple about it through their feedback page on their site... https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
Hoping that they would take note of this and try and look into it and fix the issue. That was probably about a year ago now, never got fixed or got any confirmation back from them about this problem. Then last August, I'd had enough and contacted Apple support to notify them about this issue. They told me the usual story, "have you tried restoring the phone?", which I obliged and did. The problem was there on a freshly restored iPhone 5.
So they told me that they would put me in touch with someone higher in Apple to take the case further, "great" I thought.
I spoke with a senior care advisor and explained the problem and agreed to send detailed explanations of the issue and test files too so that they could hopefully hear what I was talking about. But after a few weeks of going back and forward, I finally got them to hear the issue with the random pauses, the first week they denied there was a problem and said the files played ok on their test iOS devices, so I myself tried the files on another iOS device and the same problem was there.
The last correspondence I had with the Apple care advisor was back in the end of August / start of September, and she told me that they spotted the issue and was told by the tech's that it would be fixed in a future update, I never got a when this would happen, I was just told to make sure my iOS device was up to date with the latest version of iOS. I couldn't speak to an actual technician, got no follow up support, just a vague "We'll look into it." Case Closed.
I got so sick of this problem that I sold my iPhone and iPad just after this last phone call with the Apple people, and switched over to Android. I'd being reading up on gapless playback music players and found out that there's a good few available for Android devices. I got myself a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact, twice as powerful as the iPhone 6 and half the price. I was using that for the last few months, and playing my music through Neutron Music Player app which is a great music player which plays gapless 100%
But I couldn't really take to Android OS, seeing as I've been using Apple products for around 10 years now and iOS since the iPhone 3G. So I decided to contact Apple again and see if they'd fixed the music player issue in iOS yet.
I wrote a long email explaining the problem, how it wasn't really looked at properly, and how I was a long time Apple customer and had to resort to switching over to Android because the basic music player functions on iOS devices have bugs. I took a chance in mailing this to Tim Cook's offices, I knew he wouldn't reply personally, just thought that it might get read by someone in his offices with a bit more say in the matter.
Just before Xmas, I got a call from someone from executive relations from my local Apple offices about this. He seemed nice and was aware of the problem from reading back through my emails and previous case notes from August when I opened this case originally.
We had a talk and he said he would get one of the tech's to call me too about this so that I could explain the bugs to someone more knowledgeable about iOS.
A few days later I received a call from one of the tech's at Apple and was chatting to him, explaining the problem. His response was that he thinks Apple doesn't support gapless playback on current iOS devices. From looking at the gapless playback information page on the Apple support site below, it looks like it hasn't been updated to show any iPhone models after the iPhone 3GS... http://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT201644
I was trying to explain to him how ridiculous this sounded, why would Apple stop supporting basic functions on their music player on iOS devices? It makes no sense at all? You can see that the amount of hardware devices and software that supports gapless playback today... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gapless_playback#Player_support
He couldn't explain either, he just said that because it's not listed there on the Apple support page.
Then the next day I got the follow up call from the Apple executive relations guy, he was stating that he was speaking to the tech guy that called me and it looks like Apple doesn't support gapless playback anymore, from looking at the documentation on site.
I told him how stupid this was, and how lots of music players have gapless playback as standard today. And if they don't support it now, then why does it play through some parts of the albums on iOS ok and then just randomly pause, or have jumpy / choppy transitions on the rest of the album. If it was the case, no albums would play gaplessly at all, it would be like when the first ever iPod's were released back in the day with no gapless playback and would pause for a split second between every transition.
He couldn't give me an answer and said that maybe down the line they would start supporting it again, and that I should request the feature to be added to future iOS versions via the iPhone feedback page... https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
He just kept on emphasising that it was "NOT A BUG OR ISSUE", trying to cover up the problem because the info on the site wasn't updated to show the current iOS devices. Which in itself is wrong, looking at the page it says "Supported iPod and iPhone models (make sure you have the latest iPod or iPhone software)"
iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS only go up to iOS 6, so that contradicts itself when the latest version is iOS 8.
The info is out of date and needs to be updated. So in August I was told, "we found the issue and will look into it" and a few months later, "it's not an issue", what's a cop out.
I was annoyed and taken back by this response, and really found it hard to believe that this was the case, Apple stopping supporting their music player on iOS devices. Seeing as iTunes plays everything smoothly and no gapless issues. I just went out and bought an iPhone 6 for €900 / $1060, and for that money you'd expect it's basic music player to work. It's total BS to think that a top computer software / hardware company would just decide to abandon basic functions in their devices, especially when we are talking about how much Apple takes pride in their products and how much more they charge for them over their competitors.
So this is my next step to try and get this problem seen and out in the open more. The more people who know about it and are aware of the issue, the better.
Hopefully more people can get the word around and get this noticed by Apple and finally fixed.
I've uploaded some test files below to show the problem. The files are mp3's and aac, and have been ripped from cd using the latest version of iTunes. The mp3's are the ones with the issue, but the aac play with no problem. If you listen to the transition at the end of track 2 (2-02 Colours (JH Re-Edit)) going into the start of track 3 (2-03 Your Body), you will notice the split second pause / jump. But listen to the aac version and compare it to the mp3 version and you will hear that it plays back fine, just as it's supposed to. Try them in iTunes too and both versions playback fine, no jumps or pauses.
You can download them here, all links have the same files, I just uploaded them to different hosts for other people's choosing...
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=86512332626247919914
https://www.mediafire.com/?w5wvi50er96b14s
http://www42.zippyshare.com/v/37047710/file.html
https://www.sendspace.com/file/lubcmc
More files can be provided if needed to show the problem happening on various other albums.
I really hope that people can spot this issue too and help get this fixed, I know this gapless playback feature might not be important to some people, but like I said at the start, it's an essential function for me in a music player and I use it on a daily basis when I listen to music.
Thanks for reading this long rant of mine, appreciate it.
Ger

I believe this issue occurs only between songs that iTunes has converted to a lower bitrate for you during transfer to your iOS device and songs that it has not done this for. Take this Between the Buried and Me album, for instance. I have marked all of the transitions that should have been gapless but probably aren't in red. I know for sure that most of these marked transitions are indeed broken and that the most of the transitions not marked in red work flawlessly... I honestly can't remember whether or not some of these transitions were gapless or not, but the many transitions I do remember working or not working match up exactly with whether or not the songs on either side of the transition were also on other sides of the 256kbps threshold, the threshold at which I enabled iTunes to convert tracks to 256kbps AAC.
I'm going to try re-sync'ing my library with that "feature" disabled and see if it fixes my gapless playback problem. Will post the results once I test it out.

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)

Can no longer transfer audiobooks from overdrive to ipod nano 6

Can no longer transfer audiobooks from overdrive to ipod nano 6. Diagnostics: Connectivity test-ipod found. Sync test -ipod not found. This problem began about 2 weeks ago. I downloaded itunes update 12.1.0.71 about 1 week ago. I'm on Windows 7.

Do you mean a playlist created by Overdrive?
I downloaded the newest version of ODM yesterday. Couldn't do it from within the application, had to uninstall/reinstall it. Here's what's happening now with WMA, which is my preferred format:
-Instead of just moving the audiobook and cover graphic and all that over as in the past, now ODM creates a separate playlist under 'Books' in your device. Problem is, only some (seemingly random) tracks go over there. The others just show up under 'Books' but not in the specified playlist, so you have to drag them over in iTunes.
-If you stop listening, it starts over from the beginning next time you're ready to resume, so if you expect to find your place again right away like in the good old days, think again.
-For me the WORST PART is only so much data of that sort is permitted under 'Books' so it seems, because after a certain threshold the transferred parts of books become greyed out and cannot be played. You are limited to far less data in a period of time than previously. I used to be able to keep several books on my device at once and listen to multiple things depending on my mood etc. Now I can fit about 2-3 big books, or 4-6 smaller ones, MUCH less than previously was possible, which is a problem if you've waited for a popular title at the library that you don't have the room for (even though you have plenty of memory in the device).
All in all, I think ODM need to get their act together. We should not allow them to think they are done with this upgrade, the fixes might be okay for temporary, but they are unacceptable for a permanent format. They have a phone number on their website. I left a message. Others have been tweeting them too, not sure of the contact info.
Good luck everyone. Post back here if you find something out.

Playback problems, skips & freezes

Only recently, a few songs on my playlist wouldn't play. I have to skip to the next song in order for ipod to play. It has also been slow, unresponsive and occassionally freezes when I press the key to skip to next song. I connected it to my computer via the FW port and for the 1st time I've noticed it immediately start checking the ipods hard disk. The diagnostic checked out okay. And the software update is also current at version 2.3. Does anyone have an idea what's happening and how I can fix the playback problem?

Go step by step and test.
1. System Preferences > Other/ Flash Player > Advanced > Delete All
     Press the "Delete All" button
     Install Adobe Flash Player.
    http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
    Follow the prompts.
    Quit Safari.
    Restart computer. Relaunch Safari.
2. Allow Plug-ins
    Safari > Preferences > Security
    Internet Plug-ins > "Allow plug-ins"
    Enable it.
    Press " Manage Website Settings" button for more options.

Problems since iPod software update

Since I updated my iPod software the computer and iTunes do not recognize my iPod. No amount of resets and charging, changing USB ports changes this. When I do plug in iTunes also freezes. Once iTunes worked and acknowledged the iPod and said it was corrupted and that I should restore it, but I cannot replicate this result now. Furthermore I have 10 gigs of hi res photography stored on which I would lose. Do I have any more options? At this point I couldnt restore it even if I wanted to.
This is all ridiculous since it came IMMEDIATELY after the software update.

Pdtaylor, I have some of the same problems. I purchased the 30gb video ipod from Bestbuy yesterday. Had itunes 6 on my pc, but when I connected my new ipod, I got a warning that I had to upgrade to itunes 7 or higher. Fine. I uninstall itunes 6, restart pc. I go and download the latest itunes 7 software from itunes, installed it and reboot my pc. Next I start itunes 7, plug in my new ipod. Winxp detects it as a removable drive. Fine, this is normal. I start itunes 7. It briefly detects the ipod, does some kind of software update to the ipod, which I assume is a firmware upgrade? The ipod shows up in itunes 7. I can add some music, see old playlist, etc... I disconnect the ipod and it plays back music, as it should.
BUT, the next time I connect my ipod, winxp see's it, but itunes 7 can't find it. I get a 'do not disconnect' message on the ipod. After 30 minutes of this, I decided to unplug the ipod and uninstall the itunes 7 software, restart and then re-install intunes 7 again,restart. I connect the ipod, winxp see's it, but still intunes 7 does not detect the ipod. *** is this sh**?
For 2 hours I google the web reading about some people having very similar problems with intunes 7 with 5th gen ipod video models. Some folks say it the firmware upgrade, which is suppose to fix video playback problems, so maybe the new firmware is funky?
Today I'm going to take my new ipod back to Bestbuy for an exchange. If I still have problems with itunes 7, then I'm going to get a refund of my hard earned money and look for a non-ipod music player.
Intel Windows XP
Intel Windows XP

Song playback problem

On my 8gb nano I've been having a playback problem. A song will start playing and then stop. The nano will then skip to the next song. If I try to go backward to the begining of the song that wouldn't play, the nano skips over it and goes to the song that played before the song that wouldn't play. What can I do to troubleshoot or fix this problem?

Hi Wille_ecj!
You might need to reimport that song(s) into your iTunes library - or, you could try to play it in iTunes. And, if you are prompted to find the source of the file on your computer, try locating it.
If you can't locate it, just delete it from your iTunes library, then reimport it back in.
If this is a song that was purchased from the iTunes Store, however, then try and see if the techniques in this article help with that issue:
iPod doesn't play purchased content from the iTunes Store
-Kylene

Playback position on iPod not Syncing to iTunes. Nano 5, long mp3 files. I have remember playback position selected in Options, and that works fine. But position (45 minutes) on iPod and 2 minutes on iTunes do not get together

Long audio files (mp3 books) on ipod nano 5 play fine, Ipod remembers playback position (I set the flag in info-options) but after listeniong for a while on ipod, I expect that a sync to PC should update the playback position in iTunes. Thus I should be able to subsequently sync a second device to iTunes and have the position passed along to the second device. This is not working for me. I have the latest nano software, and iTunes 11.1.2.32. Have just re-installed iTunes per troubleshooting suggestioons on support web page.
Is this a format problem (mp3 issue) or something else?

Reply seems to be theway to elaborate on my origi;nal post.
I have now tried turning off Manually manage music and video on the iPod. One of the 3 long audio files (books as mp3) reloaded to the iPod when I made the chnge, but no loss in my case.. Playback position on iPod seemed to load into iTunes (looked good while iPod was connected in Playlists and Library/Music, but as soon as I disconnected the iPod the saved positions reverted to the old values. One more theory shot down. Since my goal is to keep several playback devices in step, I am back to jotting down the latest position and manually forward spacing the alternate device to pick up where I left off.
This seems so logical a use that I am baffled about why it is so hard (impossible?).
Jack

Problems with ipod connection.

Problems with ipod connection.
I have problems to connect my ipod to computer windows 7.
When I connect I get the following error:
"We encountered an ipod, but could not be identified correctly. Disconnect and reconnect the ipod and try again."
And it recognizes the ipod when trying to go play music or videos make me the following error:
"Error while trying to copy on disk. The device is not connected."
I've uninstalled all apple applications and re-installing, as I formatted the ipod and continues to set the same error.
What else can I do?

Hello,
While your symptoms don't exactly match the descriotion, this article may be usefull in discovering if there is a setting on your computer that is causing this to happen.
iPod not recognized in 'My Computer' and in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1369
-Griff W.

Problems with Ipod Touch

Problems with iPod Touch.
Hi, I bought an ipod touch in Colombia a couple of months ago but lost the invoice, I tried using it but everytime I connect the iPod to the computer, it restarts over and over again, I've tried all the recommendations show in the Apple support site, but no method has proved the question is, I can take this ipod to a Mac store in the U.S. for repair or change.
I live in Venezuela, there is some Apple store in my country where I can take it.
Thanks in advance for your quick response

You should be able to go to the USA for warrantee service. If you purchased at an Apple store you should be able to go to your account in iTunes and see the purchase. I am confused by your statement:
"I live in Venezuela, there is some Apple store in my country where I can take it."
If you go to the Venezuela apple website you can see if/where there are Apple stores.

Audiobook playback problem on iPod

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