ITunes stuttering & skipping

I'm streaming iTunes over an Airport Express. It works perfectly with an emac running Panther and a MacBook running Leopard, however it skips & stutters regularly on an iMac, also running the latest Leopard and iTunes. I can't seen to resolve the issue, any suggestions?

I'm running a G5 PPC that I've recently upgraded the harddrive and migrated accounts from a MDD. Both the MDD and the G5 are running 10.5.6 with iTunes 8.1.1 and QT 7.6. On the MDD iTunes played content beautifully...no skipping and no stuttering. After the migration and upgrades applied the G5 iTunes is almost unlistenable. If windows are moved around in Finder iTunes stops and then starts, if programs are opened or closed iTunes stops and then starts. I've tried all of the fixes that are mentioned...downgrading QT, reinstall of iTunes, archive and install of the OS, running an older version of the OS and QT. Applying the updates in a different order, disabling Spotlight indexing, repairing permissions, dumping caches and so on NOTHING is working to fix this issue!
Is it processor utilization? Memory utilitization? What is it! I've spent hours trying to fix this issue but to no avail.
Any thoughts? Any ideas? Please Apple help us our here and fix this issue!

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ITunes stuttering skipping, basically a useless program now

At some point during the last few weeks during the seemingly daily updates now with iTunes, I have noticed iTunes stuttering and skipping at various times. I'm up to version 7.5.0.20.
After a reboot sometimes, I can go an hour, and run many other programs before I get the stutter. Other times, it happens immediately after I reboot. And when it starts, there is NO stopping it unless I reboot. It will frequently, randomly stutter, while I am doing just about anything, but is particularly picky when I am scrolling in web browsers and other windows. These skips and stutters are worse than I've ever experienced with CDs in the last 20+ years. I cannot use iTunes anymore. Right now I have the Quintessential player streaming internet radio. I have scanned these forums, and the internet. I have tried everything I have found (about 7-8 different things) and NOTHING fixes this problem. The only other thing besides updating iTunes that has changed on my computer is that I added a new 500gb hard drive, and I have moved my entire music collection to that drive.
Any help would be appreciated. I listen to music through iTunes every day. I need to have this fixed.

Hum, my friend may have given me a hint as to what may be the problem.
I think that it has to do with Quicktime/iTunes not using my sound card to properly decode mp3s...
I have a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi soundcard. It is able to optimize its work using various modes (Entertainment, Audio Creation, Gaming), and I find that the CPU usage of itunes.exe changes depending on which mode I choose, which orients me to a soundcard driver compatibility problem. In Entertainment mode, it oscillates around 5%, in Audio Creation, around 10%...
I say that it is Quicktime/iTune's issue because all my other music playing programs use 0-1% cpu usage even when playing songs. Also, there had been problems between Quicktime and Creative drivers in the past...

ITunes playback stutters/skips

I have the latest version of iTunes (7.6.1) and when I playback music from the hard drive or web radio it randomly stutters/skips every so often. The music on my iPod and iPhone plays just fine. Any thoughts on why this might be?

This is a widespread issue, search the boards for "stutter" .... there must several hundred people posting on these forums with the same issue.
I have my 300GB + iTunes library on an external WD My Book Pro (a 2TB version set up as a 1TB RAID mirror) connected via FW800. I solved my stuttering playback problem by transferring my library to another external FW800 drive with two Seagate 200GB drives configured as a RAID stripe.
It would be interesting to get some stats on how many people have their iTunes library on external or network drives and what vendors the drives are manufactured by.
Post your iTunes config details here, even if you dont have the problem.

ITunes 7 Skipping Issue Fixed - Cross Fade Playback

Per the prior post by chiefhabeb, if your DMA settings are correct and your still experiencing skipping, do what mponzi suggested, completely disable the "Cross Fade Playback" feature in iTunes. (iTunes/Edit/Preferences/Playback) After updating my audio driver, making sure my DMA settings were correct, turning off iTune's "Sound Enhancer" feature and updating DirectX, I still had minimal but unacceptable skipping which was driving me crazy. Finally per mponzi's suggestion, disabling the "Cross Fade Playback" feature is what worked for me! SKIP FREE MUSIC THIS MORNING....FINALLY!!!!!!! Hope it works for everyone having the same annoying issue!

Per my earlier post - this really fixed the stuttering/skipping problem for me. Not one song has skipped all morning since disabling the cross fade playback. (Now if my videos would only playback like they used to.....have made several adjustments per troubleshooting iTunes Video playback and they are still stuttering and out of sync. Burned up enough time on iTunes issues. Will save the video playback problem for another day.

My Itunes is skipping while I browse the internet

My Itunes is skipping while I am on my PC and attempting to browse the internet at the same time. Any suggestions?

This seems to be a very common problem after upgrading to iTunes 7. Apple offer this help on troubleshooting the problem:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93610
Some people, like me, never completely resolve the problem. I got rid of most of the stuttering except when a large program was loading by following the above advice.
In the end I downgraded back to 6, but this is only possible if you have an iPod that is OK on 6 and you don't want the content offered on V7.

ONline Video Stutters/Skips [other programs affected]

HI. ive been having this problem for quite some time now; everytime i watch videos online, the video stutters and or skips. i tried everything, fixed my internet connection, wait for the video to load completely, but the problem is still there. these past few days when it starts stuttering/skipping my other programs do the same thing too.
like for example if i was on itunes i cant access it since the cursor wont even move, and if im on imovie playing a video or something, it stutters as well. i have a feeling it's not just about my safari, it's about my mac in general [i hope not]
ive updated all my flash, safari, EVERYTHING. still the prob persists. i cant watch vids online at all!
pleasseee helllppp meee!!!!
[ps: i sing on youtube, and i use youtube instrumentals as music, and i cant really do that with stutering audio in the background.LOL. just sharin' how important this is to me! hahah]

You don't really give us enough to go on, so I'm not going to swear to this, but sometimes you see this kind of thing with a dying hard-drive, or filesystem corruption. Make a backup of any important data NOW to be on the safe side.

ITunes stuttering playback

After the big OS X Leopard update, iTunes started skipping or stuttering on playback. It does it often enough that the program is basically unusable. The skipping is NOT related to internet access by my mail program (Mailsmith) or web browsers. It is NOT an mp3 file corruption problem, since the stuttering occurs in different places with each replay of the same song. The songs are those loaded from my own CD's and played flawlessly before the software update. The usual rigamarole of trashing preferences and resetting PRAM has not changed anything.
I have noticed other people with the same problem posting on different boards. I assumed that the 7.6.1 update to iTunes would address this issue. No such luck.
I am at a loss. I have an almost new MacBook which worked flawlessly until the update. I am very disappointed with Apple that 1) this issue is not addressed, and 2) that it is impossible to contact anyone knowledgeable about how to attempt to fix this. As a legacy Mac user (first 128K Mac bought on 2/24/1984 and many, many Macs since, this is a new type of helpless feeling.
Help!

This is a widespread issue, search the boards for "stutter" .... there must several hundred people posting on these forums with the same issue.
I have my 300GB + iTunes library on an external WD My Book Pro (a 2TB version set up as a 1TB RAID mirror) connected via FW800. I solved my stuttering playback problem by transferring my library to another external FW800 drive with two Seagate 200GB drives configured as a RAID stripe.
Thats all I've found so far.....

ITunes is skipping at the beginning of every song

Hello.
My iTunes started skipping about 2 weeks ago. It hasn't done it for the last 2 years I've had this compuuter - it started either when my iTunes updated or my iPod did.
Any ideas about how I make it stop?
It doesn't do it all the time. There have been a couple days where it has been okay. But not many.
Any ideas would be great.
Thanks,
Jeremy

Try resetting it first be holding the middle button and the menu button at the same time for a few seconds. If that doesn't work, try restoring it by plugging it into your computer and using iPod updater to restore it to the original settings. It does delete EVERYTHING from your iPod, but at least it will work again...
Cheers!

ITunes is skipping tracks. Why?

The iTunes player skips two tracks in a row of an album I bought at iTunes store. All the the other thousands of tracks play OK, but these two won't play, either on the PC or the iPod. Any help? Thanks.

Hi, Susana.
Thank you for the question. If the issue is being experienced on the computer and iPod, it could be an issue with the downloaded files itself. I would recommend deleting the songs that are giving you the issue and download them again free of charge via the Purchased section of the iTunes Store. When you selected the songs to delete it will present you with two options. Make sure to select the option that says keep file as it will delete it from iTunes but not off the computer.
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519
Cheers,
Jason H.

Itunes songs skipping

Why do certain songs that are purchased from the Itunes store skip on the Ipod classic? About 1/3 of all my songs that I have purchased through Itunes skip at some point during the song. Some at 5 seconds, some at 40 seconds, etc... I Can not convert bought songs to MP3 so the only solution is to burn a cd and re-rip into MP3. These same songs play fine on my Ipod photo, what is it about the clasic that prevents Apple's own songs from not playing? This is just completely unacceptable. Get your act together Apple!

See if this helps.
iPod does not play content purchased from the iTMS.

XCode 5.0.2 compiling causes ITunes to skip....

XCode 5.0.2, compiling a C++ game....every compile causes ITunes to skip playing the current song.
15 inch MacBook Pro QuadCore i7
16gb RAM
plenty of HD space.
10.9.1
Any ideas what might be causing this?

Try this out I had the same issue then I found out all you have to do is to set the default view to List before opening any previous or new project and it worked for me hope it works for you too, credit goes to this user below who found the solution.
ahmedMac25
I was able to resolve by workaround:
1. Closed all open applications
2. relaunch Finder
3. run sudo find / -name ".DS_Store" -exec rm {} \;
4. this removes all .DS_Store old files on the computer
5. launch finder and set default view to "LIST VIEW" as shown here:http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/ss/Setting-Finder-Views-For-Folders-And-Su b-Folders_2.htm
5. rerun the offending application and file chooser works

CPU 100%, Wireless drops, iTunes stutters

This is driving me crazy. I've noticed that when i run some programs like safari, itunes and msn together of recent my cpu goes crazy to 100%. Wireless drops and itunes stutters like crazy. I'm not doing anything different, the programs haven't changed, syslogd is not affecting it.
What the **** is going on? A machine of this speed shouldn't be unable to cope with 3 programs. It has only recently been happening ie past 5 days.

Open Activity Monitor and see if you have a process called "airportd" running. I was experiencing this problem recently and airportd was the culprit. I had to kill the process and the CPU went back to normal. Searching for airportd in these discussions will give you more information.

Latency peaks Itunes stuttering

Since I upgraded to Itunes 8, my music stutters a lot.
After someone pointed me on a dpc latency checker, I discovered everytime the latency was very high, itunes stuttered.
I'm not completely sure if Itunes causes the latency or viceversa..
Does anyone know how I can find the cause of the latency/stuttering (and fix it)?

Hum, my friend may have given me a hint as to what may be the problem.
I think that it has to do with Quicktime/iTunes not using my sound card to properly decode mp3s...
I have a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi soundcard. It is able to optimize its work using various modes (Entertainment, Audio Creation, Gaming), and I find that the CPU usage of itunes.exe changes depending on which mode I choose, which orients me to a soundcard driver compatibility problem. In Entertainment mode, it oscillates around 5%, in Audio Creation, around 10%...
I say that it is Quicktime/iTune's issue because all my other music playing programs use 0-1% cpu usage even when playing songs. Also, there had been problems between Quicktime and Creative drivers in the past...

Your iTunes V7 Skips? Be prepared to give Apple $50 for a possible answer!

My iTunes has skipped with both iTunes-purchased as well as regular MP3's ever since V7. I've complained as often as many of you have. I've tried all the de-installing/re-installing of iTunes/QT, etc, etc that many of you claim fixes the problem - no go. I have a state-of-the-art Core 2 duo PC with plenty of RAM, disk space, bandwidth, you name it, but still iTunes skips when it's the only thing running. And, my pc is NOT an HP as so many seem to be. And, just like you, Windows Media Player (ANY version) and Musicmatch, and other players don't seem to have the same problem.
I complained via web multiple times and was finally told, iTunes support couldn't help me but I could contact Apple support who would but it would cost me $49. What's with that? They break their own product and make me pay to get an answer?
Say what you will about Microsoft (I sure have), but this is every bit as unresponsive as M$ has ever been. I have hundreds of dollars in iTunes music purchases, but no more.
And, don't tell me about 'downgrading' to V6. Those of us who've been through that know the problems, especially the 'database' incompatibilities.
So this is the better way?
Toshiba P100 Core 2 Duo Processor 2Ghz Windows XP Pro 2GB RAM, 512MB Video RAM

My iTunes has skipped with both iTunes-purchased as well as regular MP3's ever since V7. I've complained as often as many of you have. I've tried all the de-installing/re-installing of iTunes/QT, etc, etc that many of you claim fixes the problem - no go. I have a state-of-the-art Core 2 duo PC with plenty of RAM, disk space, bandwidth, you name it, but still iTunes skips when it's the only thing running. And, my pc is NOT an HP as so many seem to be. And, just like you, Windows Media Player (ANY version) and Musicmatch, and other players don't seem to have the same problem.
I complained via web multiple times and was finally told, iTunes support couldn't help me but I could contact Apple support who would but it would cost me $49. What's with that? They break their own product and make me pay to get an answer?
Say what you will about Microsoft (I sure have), but this is every bit as unresponsive as M$ has ever been. I have hundreds of dollars in iTunes music purchases, but no more.
And, don't tell me about 'downgrading' to V6. Those of us who've been through that know the problems, especially the 'database' incompatibilities.
So this is the better way?
> Toshiba P100 Core 2 Duo
Processor 2Ghz Windows XP Pro 2GB RAM,
512MB Video RAM
I honestly don't know what could be causing this issue. However, I would like to know if you're running the 64-bit version of Windows XP Professional. Even if you have the latest technology, not everything will be perfectly compatible, and as far as I know, a 64-bit version of iTunes hasn't been released, so you're bound to run in to problems if you're running 32-bit software on a 64-bit OS. Of course, I don't know very much about compatibilities between 64-bit and 32-bit software, so I could be completely wrong, but I don't know. But if it is the case that iTunes is having trouble because of this, then you'll either have to put up with it or use iTunes on a 32-bit computer. I suppose you might have an option somewhere to run 32-bit software in compatibility mode, but again, I'm not sure if that exists.
Also, I agree that Apple's support model is terrible.
Gateway GT5082 2GB RAM (4 x 512), nVIDIA 6100 Integrated Graphics

ITunes 'stuttering'.

I have a 27-inch, Mid 2011 iMac and just updated to 10.8.3. I thought this update was supposed to fix 'stuttering' issues in iTunes. I have had a bit of an issue with that but after this latest update, it seems to have gotten much worse. Thoughts?

I seem to have recently come across this problem too. To my best recollection, it's only ever been these past few days that iTunes has been stuttering – never have in my ~2 years use of this PowerBook have I had the problem before.
I'm running iTunes 7.0.2, but the odd thing is that 7.0.2 is a relatively old update now. I've been running 7.0.2 for nearly the whole month it's been out without experiencing stuttering, and it's only just been in the past few days that the problem has manifested itself. I'm trying to remember if there was any correlation with the installation of other software, or heavy use of PhotoShop, or something similar – but nope, not to my knowledge. The only other consideration is the size of my library (~25gb), but I haven't added anything to it for a few weeks now.
The Activity Monitor usually also shows a spike in CPU usage – nearly always to 100% capacity – whenever iTunes stutters, but again I can't correlate the spike with any particular activity or program.
*Scratches head*

ITunes stuttering & skipping

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