Determining Gapless Information duplicates my songs

Hi, twice now I've had the problem where iTunes very quickly goes through the process of 'Determining Gapless Information' and duplicates the songs it goes through.
This is thoroughly annoying as an album can be doubled or at least have one song twice, not to mention the extra space it takes. The first time this happened it duplicate nearly 2000 songs and I went through the laborious process of deleting the actual files and then the same on iTunes. It has now done this again but around 500 and it seems that the original file is an MPEG-4 Audio file and the duplicate seems to be MPEG-3 Layer Audio file.
Does anyone else have this problem and if so how can it be stopped?

bump. does anyone have any ideas or suggestions or thoughts, or maybe off site links that could help me?

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"Determining Gapless Information" please help

I'm running Itunes 8 and WinXP SP3. Now ever time I start up Itunes/connect my Ipod/Try to add something new to the library this thing keeps coming up saying "Determining Gapless Information". Now I know what it's trying to do. What I want to do is make it not do that any more. Every time I've tried it get's to file number 166 of over 3,000 and it locks up, pegs my processor to 100% and it takes me about half an hour to kill the itunes process. I want to fully disable this Itunes process that runs so I don't have to deal with it any more and so I can finally start adding things to my library again.

bump. does anyone have any ideas or suggestions or thoughts, or maybe off site links that could help me?

Eternal "Determining Gapless Playback Information"

I have all my music on an outboard 1TB drive (and a backup). Every once in a while I clean up the mistakes and get rid of the trash in there and reload the iTunes library. Always used to work.
This time, though, the "adding files" took longer than usual, and now every time I open iTunes it goest straight into the "Determining Gapless Information Mode" starting on file 1 of like 600,000, with the rolling beachball preventing me from using iTunes for anything else while that is happening.
If left alone it will roll forward for days and process thousands of files, but every once in a while it gets completely stuck and I have to restart it. Currently it gets stuck right away. I don't have time to click anywere on the program before the process takes over (I have been able to turn it off by moving quickly a few times, but rarely.
I've tried it on two machines now with roughly the same results. Any ideas?

600,000 legal tracks? WOW!!

STOP "determining gapless playback info": how to get rid of it?

I have itunes 7 with macbookpro and 80 gigs of music on an external hard drive connected through USB to my Airpot Extreme 802.11n base.
I CANNOT USE itunes because it is endlessly "determining gapless playback info" (i'm using the French version who says "détermination des données de lecture sans intervalle")
though I DON'T NEED IT. This is the option that allow albums to play gapless... no such an improvement for a so slow process!
This morning it treated 200 songs in 5 hours... it has been one week i'm letting it work times to times but with this rhythm I still have to wait 350 hours = more than 15 days 24/24... without speaking of the extremely frequent cases when I have to "force to quit" and restard itunes.....
I CAN'T BEAR THAT ANYMORE... IS ALL THAT REALLY NECESSARY?
I cannot imagine this option cannot be unactivated... so please if someone can tell me how to get rid of this "determining gapless playback info" thing... I would be very happy...
Many thanks for your answer!

I'm having the exact same issue. I have a 802.11n Airport Extreme that has my 100 GB music library connected to it via the USB port, and my iTunes (on my MacBook Pro) connects to it via the Airport Disk. Each time I add a batch of new songs to the library, it takes for ever for iTunes to resolve the gapless information. I just added 30 tracks, and it took about 10 to 15 minutes, during which iTunes was completely inaccessible with the spinning beach ball.
My theory is that to determine gapless information, iTunes has to load each track into memory to analyze it. That goes by quick if the libary is direct connected, but over the network that can be a pain (especially if the mp3s are large).
I really wish Apple would make this feature "toggle-able" on a future release of iTunes.

Upon opening itunes it will process the artwork, then proceed to determine gapless playback information. It will analyze a few songs the completely stop working. Any Ideas?

Upon opening itunes it will process the artwork, then proceed to determine gapless playback information. It will analyze a few songs the completely stop working. Any Ideas?

Repeated execution of the "determining gapless playback information" process may also be a symptom of corruption in your iTunes Library.itl file (the main iTunes database). If you have a recent backup it may be worth restoring that (especially if it immediately precedes addition of the skipping files). However, the two symptoms you are seeing may be interrelated, i.e., the "determining gapless playback information" repetition and the skipping music may both be caused by incomplete or corrupt media files. If possible, find and (re)move all the media files - you should be able to do a date-based search in Windows Explorer - and try restarting iTunes. Of course, you should backup your library first so that it can be restored if the media files are OK.

ITunes determining gapless playback information then freezing computer

I imported my music to itunes last night. My computer froze while it was trying to find the artwork then i rebooted it and now itunes keeps determining gapless playback information. It gets about three quarters of the way through and freezes in the same spot everytime. I don't know what to do.

I have the same problem - and cannot use iTunes at this point. Have about 15,000 tracks, and it got through most of them crashing which seized up the whole machine. I removed the song it crashed on which didn't fix it.

ITunes Freezes when determining gapless playback information

I have a library of about 10,000 songs stored on an external hard drive. I imported them all into iTunes, and then when it tries to determine gapless playback information, it always freezes. First it froze on one particular song that I removed. It went a little longer the next time but then froze on a different song. Is there anyway I can have it skip songs? Or is it freezing because of a different reason? I basically can't use iTunes because it freezes within 2 minutes of me opening it..

Welcome to AD!
I'm not sure this will work, but it's what I would try on my PC.
I would rename the folders containing those new music albums to something else. Then itunes will not be able to find them, so should skip the determining gapless info for them.
Specifically, use Windows Explorer to rename the folder they are in from "Artist A" to "Artist A re-do"
I would also check to see if another player such as WMP could play them. They might be damaged files.

ITunes Freezes on determining gapless playback information

I really would like some help, I start iTunes up it starts to check the gapless playback information, then stops and I can't do anything more, except close it out. I have tried repairing it, I have tried uninstalling then reinstalling it, nothing seems to work. Does anyone have anything else I should try?

Wow..adding to this one and will post my own. I just bought an iPhone and discovered iTunes 9 now Locks up on "Determining Gapless Playback Information". iTunes 9 worked fine prior to this as was syncing with iTouch. While it locks up on one song "Analyzing 4 of 4: Boys Boys Boys" the screen for Welcome to Your new iPhone is up but it is already locked up. I don't want to have to un-install and possibly lose my iTouch sync info. Without the iPhone hooked up iTunes just seems to lock up right away and never gets tot he Determining Gapless Playback.

Determining Gapless Playback Information....

Ever since I downloaded iTunes 7, every now and then iTunes is analyzing my ipod by " Determining Gapless Plabyback Information ". Yet its only doing this on half of my music. It takes forever and it slows down my computer. Is there any way to shut this off or is it better just to leave it alone?
G4 and emac Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Look in the little window where it says its determining gapless playback info, there should be a little x inside of a black circle, click that and it will stop, but it will keep doing this every time you sync until it checks every song. It does take a while, I suggest just syncing it before you go to bed and let it do its thing while you sleep.

Determining Gapless Playback Information Repeats Unexpectedly

I allowed the original Gapless Playback scan to complete on all songs in my library (just 5K songs, but a slow PC). However, some songs are scanned again every time I start iTunes AND every time I sync my iPod and sometimes randomly (like when I download a new iPod Touch App). I normally allow the process to complete (again) every time. When it occurs during an iPod sync, is causes the sync to hesitate at the end of the process, apparently waiting for iTunes to finish the Gapless Playback scan. This is infuriating!
While I can cancel the Gapless Playback scan, doing so does not prevent iTunes from performing the Gapless Playback scan again the next time I start iTunes or sync my iPod! Sometimes when I cancel the Gapless Playback scan during an iPod sync, my iPod will show NO MEDIA after disconnecting it when iTunes tells me it is OK to Disconnect! This forces me to sync the iPod AGAIN, which causes YET ANOTHER Gapless Playback scan on the SAME songs! Naturally, I allow the process to complete, which solves NOTHING.
WHAT I'VE TRIED:
1) I have attempted to play with the "Part of a gapless album" setting on the affected songs to no avail (set to On, Apply, then Off, Apply).
2) I have dumped my iTunes library and created an entirely new one from scratch (holding the Shift key when starting iTunes to create a new library in a new location).
3) I have completely uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes.
4) I have tried this on another computer and found that I experience the exact same problem on exactly the same songs on both Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit and Windows XP Professional 32-bit.
5) I have submitted feedback to Apple (nearly an exact copy of the first 2 paragraphs you see above).
Note that I cannot re-rip these songs because I received them as part of a bonus package for a Sony PlayStation 3 video game (God of War 3, Collector's Edition). The MP3 files I have of these songs are the only ones I'll ever have access to. Also note that there is nothing obviously wrong with the song files because they play fine and all metadata appears to be valid.
How do I instruct iTunes to forever ignore Gapless Playback Information on these troubled songs, to NEVER scan them again, while keeping them in my iTunes library? Thank you for your attention on this matter.
null

I know this is filed under iTunes for Windows, but I found this discussion whilst Googling for a solution to this exact problem under OSX 10.5.8, so I just thought I'd add my name to the list of people who are suffering!
Running OS X 10.5.8 with iTunes 9.1.1 (12) and a 160GB iPod classic. My iTunes library recently exceeded the capacity of my iPod, so I thought I would experiment with the converting higher bitrate files to 128kbps AAC option. Naively, I thought this would only address lossless files, as the idea of re-encoding a lossy file seemed a little silly to me - but no, even VBR MP3 with an avrage bitrate of not much over 128kbps got re-encoded. During the process (which was painfully slow - disk activity was at around 1.5MB/s for the entire duration) many of these suffered from Unknown Error (-50) and simply would not convert. All in all it took me 72 hours to convert my library on a 2.4ghz machine with 4gig of ram
I guess the above doesn't really pertain to this thread, so just consider it backstory However, now that the transfer has been completed, every time I update my iPod, for example when I plug it in to charge and it syncs a couple of new podcasts, it determines gapless playback information for 11,000 songs in my library! Every time!! I can't begin to describe how frustrating this is, and I can only hope they come up with a cross-platform fix in the very near future. I doubt personally we'll even see the issue officially acknowledged, but hopefully Apple are at least working on addressing it.
As a side note - Apple, if you are reading this, please allow us to only re-encode specific types of files to 128kbps AAC - I'd love to do this for my lossless albums, but I really don't want to do it for my V0 MP3s.

Everytime iTunes starts with "Determining Gapless Playback Information"!?

Hi,
for 7 weeks now everytime I start iTunes (12.1.0.71) it keeps saying "Determining Gapless Playback Information" and does it with the last 189 mp3-files I imported. The files are always the same, it does not happen to any other, older mp3-files and it does not happen to new m4a-files. I found some ideas in forums but all of the suggestions are outdated because iTunes 12.1.0.71 does not have the options mentioned anymore....
Any ideas?

Welcome to AD!
I'm not sure this will work, but it's what I would try on my PC.
I would rename the folders containing those new music albums to something else. Then itunes will not be able to find them, so should skip the determining gapless info for them.
Specifically, use Windows Explorer to rename the folder they are in from "Artist A" to "Artist A re-do"
I would also check to see if another player such as WMP could play them. They might be damaged files.

Macbook Pro running 10.6.8 and I can't update itunes as it freezes everything! It's open at 'determining gapless playback information' Please help! I've downloaded Combo and it has not help, and have had to force quit on the Mac each time I've tried!

Please help! I have already tried to use the Combo update, which I downloaded today but it has not help. Itunes then freezes at the point of 'determining gapless playback information,' no idea what to do next, please help!!

Deirdre_N,
you can download the latest iTunes (as of this writing) directly from Apple’s servers here. If you’re already running 10.6.8, then there’s no need to redownload the Combo update; iTunes is an independent download.

ITunes 11.1.3 did not solve "Determining Gapless Playback Information" bug

The solutions here on forum are outdated (as "Get Info" – "Information" – uncheck "Part of gapless album") because we no longer have this feature, described here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1797?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
I'm a little worried about that bug because it grows every music added (+1000 musics at this time for me).
What I already tested on Lion (and with no success):
• "Get Info" music – "Options" – check "Skip when shuffling"
• "File" – "Create new version" – "Create AAC version"
• "Consolidate library" when album/musics selected
• Remove album and put it again
I can only stop this bug pressing "x" on iTunes display. But the list is growing.
Do you have any tip?

FINALLY!! THE SOLUTION:
1. Close iTunes.
2. Move the selected files at username/music/itunes to your desktop:
3. Run iTunes. iTunes will start as if it was the first time. All your preferences, musics, books, apps will not appear at this time (do not worry). If you find any problem just put all files that you move to your desktop again on username/music/itunes
4. Click on 'Files' and select 'Library' and 'Import Library'. Choose: iTunes Library.xml at your desktop. (you can say "But this library was a mess!" Do not worry, iTunes will fix it).
5. iTunes will import data from that file. For me it spends 5-10 minutes depend on the size of your library (my library has 50gb with 10.000 musics).
6. After that you will see the annoying message on iTunes display: "Determining Gapless Playback Information" and much more musics than before (do not worry, it will be the last time that you will see it).
7. iTunes will do that and it is done. No more bugs.
8. Now you say: "Where is my apps, books, movies etc.?" Do not worry. Just move the folder at 'Itunes Media' (see image above) to iTunes, I mean, move folder "Books" to iTunes on 'Books'; move 'Home Video' folder to iTunes Movie; move 'Mobile Applications' to iTunes applications.
9. Close iTunes. Run it. Smile!
Considerations:
a. consider all your library is indexed, it means, all your music is organized at username/music/itunes/itunes media/music
b. consider you have to select again visualization mode for every music list.
Tested and works on iTunes 11.3.1 and Lion

Determine Gapless Playback Information"

I use Itunes ,,wha does it mean when it running "Determine Gapless Playback Information" How do I turn off? or what it this?

CasperGemini wrote:
Are you working with the gapless option in hopes of resolving the issue with the tracks cutting out early during playback?
Yes -- in upgrading the bitrate on these tracks, I merely replaced the old file in my storage device with a new one with the same title (to preserve data), and this switch seems to give iTunes ****. If you check the link in my original post, a few us of seem to think iTunes & iPods use bitrate (vs. track time) to calculate playback, which is why the new, higher bitrate tracks are being snipped early when playing them back on my iPod. Like I said, whatever that "determining gapless playback information" thing actually does in iTunes, it fixes this issue.....which is why I'd like to manually command my library to re-determine this info...

Need help with this annoying "determining gapless playback information" freeze and crash error to having to hard reset my computer! Someone please help

Haven't been able to use itunes for at least 2 months now. I went to upload a newly downloaded album and now itunes freezes on "determining gapless playback information" every single time! Then i have to hard reset my mac every time as well, which i have done a good 30+ times now. Someone please help me out, it would be much appreciated. i just want to listen to my music again. Apple support is useless and just want money when it's there fault it has happened anyway by applying that useless 'determining' non sense. Please help!

This is the "iTUnes for windows" forum, If your doing this on a mac, you may get better help in the "iTUnes for mac" forums

Determining Gapless Information duplicates my songs

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