Random Skipping / Stuttering of Tracks MBP

I use a 15" MBP and the songs in my iTunes library would randomly skip for a second or so before resuming play. This would happen randomly (doing intensive/non-intensive stuff) and viewing "Activity Monitor" reveals that when this happens, a spike in the HDD read (the red line in the graph) occurs.
I tried repairing the permissions using batchmod but it still doesn't seem to work, anyone knows whats the problem?

Fixed in the latest version.

Similar Messages

ITunes Randomly Skipping to Next Track

Just upgraded to the latest iTunes (9.0.3), and every single one of my songs skips.
Mostly happening around the 10 second mark, but it has been completely random also. The song displays the full length, but will randomly skip to the next track. I have been able to drag to anywhere in any song and have it play, but sometime it will skip randomly after that.
I have never had this issue before, and have not found a solution. After exhaustive searching, I have found that this was a bug in iTunes 7, especially for Windows. Since neither of these things is true for me, I am very confused.
Nobody has yet provided a functional solution to this ridiculous problem, and other threads of this type have been locked.
I would like somebody to either give me a working solution, or for Apple to admit that it is a problem and release a patch, instead of locking threads and pretending it doesn't happen.
-- Dakota

Hi Dakota--
This is not a universal problem. For example, my iTunes will play for hours and hours and it will never skip.
I noticed in some posts you made to the other, already answered, thread that your iTunes library is on an external drive. And that you've had some problems with the files where you get error -36, which is a disk I/O error.
That could be caused by a problem with the external drive or the FireWire cable. First thing I would do is try a different FireWire cable. Also make sure the cable is seated firmly in both the computer and the drive.
If that doesn't help, post back and I'll help you see if we can figure out if there's a problem with the external drive.
charlie

Random skipping of iTunes tracks

My music has been playing fine for months, and now, several tracks now skip at certain points. :22 seconds in, the next :10 seconds. Sometimes it skips to a new song all together, sometimes it just skips ahead in the song, almost like a scratched CD might have done. It just flickers ahead, maybe only by one second. But its annoying, and its been getting worse. These tracks used to play perfectly. Using iTunes 6.0. Any ideas??

It is difficult to sort out random crashes especially if they are not frequent.
Here is a troubleshooting article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1717
A couple of things to think about, maybe content files with issues and maybe conflicting software.

Apogee Duet FireWire skipping/stuttering audio

I've bought Apogee Duet FireWire back in 2011 when I had another macbook pro and I believe it was OS X Lion powered. The problem started since I updated to Mountain Lion and next upgrades were the same. There was a time when it was not very clean if the drivers at the official apogee's site are fresh enough. But now I have OS X Yosemite and fresh drivers that claim to be for this system. As to hardware, since Apogee had only FW400 wire, later I bought FW800 wire, and then FW800<->ThunderBolt adapter. So now I use this connection: Duet -> FW400/FW800 wire -> FW800/ThunderBolt adaptor -> MacBook Pro. The audio is working normal in 80% of time, but otherwise there are stutterings of the sound. Is there a way to get rid of this problem? Thank you.
Problem description:
Apogee Duet FireWire skipping/stuttering audio
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Hardware Information: ℹ️
    MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) (Technical Specifications)
    MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,3
    1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4-core
    16 GB RAM Not upgradeable
        BANK 0/DIMM0
            8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
        BANK 1/DIMM0
            8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
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    Battery Health: Normal - Cycle count 106
Video Information: ℹ️
    Intel Iris Pro
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - VRAM: 2048 MB
        Color LCD spdisplays_2880x1800Retina
        2757 spdisplays_1080p
System Software: ℹ️
    OS X 10.10.2 (14C109) - Time since boot: 0:58:24
Disk Information: ℹ️
    APPLE SSD SM0512F disk0 : (500,28 GB)
        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
        Macintosh HD (disk1) / [Startup]: 499.07 GB (6.42 GB free) (Low!)
            Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked
            Core Storage: disk0s2 499.42 GB Online
USB Information: ℹ️
    Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
    Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
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    Wacom Co.,Ltd. Intuos5 touch S
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        Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard
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    Apogee Electronics Duet 400mbit - 400mbit max
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    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
        Apple Inc. Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter
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         6%    WindowServer
         5%    coreaudiod
         2%    studioapp
         1%    Little Snitch Agent
         1%    Google Chrome
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    292 MB    Google Chrome
    258 MB    Skype
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    Apr 9, 2015, 03:23:29 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/WacomTabletDriver_2015-04-09-152329_[redacted]. crash
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    Apr 7, 2015, 04:19:38 PM    /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/WacomTabletDriver_2015-04-07-161938_[redacted]. crash
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I just started having problems with my Duet this afternoon and found this thread so I thought I'd give a shout out to you guys to see if you have any ideas before talking with the company....
I've had my Apogee Duet since about feb and never had any problems until this afternoon. For some reason the Duet doesn't seem to want to interface with my computer at all anymore. When plugged in, the lights light up on the Duet however under system profiler I get the "unable to list firewire devices" error msg. Under the Sound tab in preferences, the Duet is not listed as an available I/O. In the Apple Midi Setup or whatever it's called in utilities, the icon for the Duet is still there but it doesn't show it as online. I can still press the big button and the little green light cycles through input 1/input 2 yada yada yada, but the computer doesn't seem to see it. When I open up Maestro, both the control and mixer screens are completely blank. I've tried resetting the unit (holding button down for 5 seconds), using different firewire cords, and finally uninstalling and reinstalling the Maestro software (using the Duet software - May 2008 link on apogees site) and none of these things solve the problem. I haven't had a chance to plug in another FW400 device into my Macbook Pro to see if it's a problem with the port, but I get the same result with the Duet on my MBP and my G5 PPC tower, which leads me to believe it's a problem with the unit. Also, since it's bus-powered, the lights wouldn't light up if the ports on the computer were fried, right?? Has this happened to anyone else?? Any ideas on how to fix it before calling up Apogee?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Randomly skips/fails to play some samples during playback?

Randomly skips/fails to play some samples during playback?

You're right that was foolish let me clarify.
Raising the I/O buffer thing is a good idea, i've tried that already though and no joy
BASICALLY i've had this problem with a couple of tracks, ones which i have worked on the longest and probably the ones with the most effect plugins and tracks used. Seemingly at random during playback some of the samples dont play (and some even stop playing halfway through the sample). If the regions are bounced, the resulting wav file visibly splits the original sound where the computer 'decided' to stop/restart playing the sample. Again, i haven't found a pattern: - at one point a four bar loop with three tracks solo'd would play all the tracks perfectly during playback for a few seconds, then suddenly switch to only playing one track, then switch back after another few seconds.
Weird.
I think it may be related to previous experience which i have had with the Space Designer and Echo effects, where the echo or reverb sound itself cuts out halfway through the sound/after a seemingly random amount of time (and then cuts back in).
I've seen this reverb and effect problem on more than one computer, but the original problem with the track playback is, in my experience, unique to my system.
The computer i'm using is not old or at all running out of memory (although i realise this does not exempt it from being the cause of the problem)
Anyway this has been trolling me for weeks and its driving me mad
Thanks
OP

ITunes skips, stutters, jerky when I minimze

Okay here is the deal. I use to have iTunes 4.9 and it worked fine. When I went to update my iTunes to 6.0 it messed up my computer big time. So I uninstalled 6.0 and installed 4.9. That didn't work. I couldn't go back to the way it was. The problem is when iTunes is open and I try to play music it play fine. However when I go to minimize the program it starts to skip, stutters, plays jerky whatever, it doesn't play like it did on 4.9. It also bogs down my computer. I have over a gig or RAM. So I went to try my other audio player music match and the problem is even worse. I never had this problem before I installed iTunes 6.0. My mouse now disappears randomly when I have too many programs open and iTunes is not open. What ever iTunes did is conflicting with my other programs even when I restart and never open up iTunes.
I am running windows XP home edition SP2.
System Processor: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.66GHz
DirectX version: 9.0 or better
Graphics Card Processor: GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X
Video BIOS version 4.28.20.05.02
ForceWare version: 81.85
I have Safe mode (waveOut only) checked in QuickTime 7.0.3.
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling and nothing has change. If anything things got worse. My mouse is even jerky at times.
PLEASE HELP!

hi Michael!
hmmmm. let's try running your XP "Input Devices" troubleshooter. easiest way to find it is to do a Help and Support Search on "list of troubleshooters", and scroll down the list until you see the relevant link.
keep us posted.
love, b

Why is my radio randomly skipping songs?

Hi, my ITunes radio is randomly skipping songs, without me touching the screen. I have wiped off the screen, and there is nothing on it. I have tried resetting it from the Lock/Unlock button, and the home button, but that didn't work. There is a small scratch at the top of my screen, but it has been there for a while, and hasn't effected my phone before. I hope someone can help me with this problem.
                                                                                Thanks,
                                                                                            Quinnyjoe

Hi Quinnyjoe,
Don't worry, there's nothing physically wrong with your phone. My radio stations on iTunes Radio worked fine on iOS 8.2. But, on iOS 8.3, I too am experiencing the multiple song skipping issue (with titles showing for split second and changing continuously, until resuming play on a random track). Although I only experienced it last night (on iPhone, haven't tried on Mac) and am not experiencing the issue as of this morning (at least until now didn't). I think, it's either an OS bug or something's wrong online on Apple's end. In any case, it has either already been fixed or should be fixed in coming days.
Hope this helps
(iPhone 5S, iOS 8.3)

Songs skipping/stuttering

It's only been happening for the past day or so, but while I'm listening to songs, whether iTunes is open or in mini-player mode, the songs will randomly start skipping/stuttering. Is there any way to fix this other than re-installing iTunes?

I have a similar problem. After changing the battery, I can barely hear my podcasts even at the highest volume level while I have no problem with the volume of the songs. However, some of my songs are warbled. The warbled songs are no from the same album. I also did the R's.
Help appreciated.

ITunes still random skipping

Since Apple has locked the original "Random Skipping" thread I'll start a new one. I tried their fix and it does not work. When I responded that it still did not work I received a message asking me to verify that my computer meets the minimum requirements. I have an HP dv5000 with 2GB and an Intel T2500 Dual Core processor running at 2.00 GHz. Obviously my computer meets the iTunes minimum requirements.

rcb17 - not sure about purchased videos as I haven't purchased any. I use it for video clips on my digi camera (.mov) and pretty much anything else. Its free so its got to be worth a try.
MetalMilitia606x - Nice idea but I'm struggling to get this to work as there a format clash. My itunes tracks show as M4a files and WMP doesn't seem to like them. I could convert them but given I've got 28gb of music I'd rather not. Seems more of a workaround than a solution.
shopson - Think this is the way to go but I'm going to contact the retailer I got the ipod from at Christmas and see how I stand for a refund. I accept the ipod is not faulty but given that it can't be used in the way it was designed owing to what would appear to be a fault in the manufacturers related product, then I think theres probably a case there. I've given the manufacturer an opportunity to address this and they clearly aren't interested. What else can I do.
(Cue the sound of another lock being applied imminently)
Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP

The mouse on my computer randomly skips and at times freezes. What's happening with it?

Why does my mouse randomly skip or freeze?

Unless your mouse is about 3 feet from your mac pro then magic mice are notorius with these kind of problems on mac pro's.
Here's a long thread on this problem:
Poor Bluetooth reception and jerky mouse
Summary, replace the internal bluetooth antenna with an external antenna or use a BT dongle.
Other reported problems with MM in general is batteries loosing contact depending on the make of batteries.
Google "skipping magic mouse" or "jumpy magic mouse" and look at More Like This on the right side of this page.
Update:
AAARRRGGGHHH Just realized your profile said iMac but you posted in the mac pro forums. Still look at the More Like This threads. For iMacs you could have the battery loosing connection problem or even interference.

Tracks skipping within the track in iTunes 11.1.5, Windows 7

I am currently having trouble with the tracks in my iTunes library skipping within the track as it streams, is there something I can do to resolve this?
Initially I thought it was just the songs that I bought through iTunes that were having issues but it seems to be any of the songs I listen to that is having this issue. Even if it is something I tried to reimport from CD. I have only been having this issue over the last two to three weeks.
I have Windows 7 HP and iTunes 11.1.5.
If this has been discussed before my apologies.

Hi The Frazzled Shinigami,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
I recommend the troubleshooting steps in this article if all songs are skipping when you play them in iTunes:
iTunes and QuickTime for Windows: Audio does not play or plays incorrectly
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1362
Regards,
Jeremy

Skipping/stuttering in itunes may in fact be a bigger problem..?

so, i've been over in the itunes forum for the last couple weeks digging around for a fix to an issue i've had with that app since upgrading to 7.6 for movie rentals.
specifically, it's SEVERE skipping & stuttering of audio & video files in itunes, irrespective of whether they've been purchased on ITMS or ripped from my personal collection.
i think there may be a connection, though, with QT, since i upgraded that to 7.4 at the same time. well, fast forward to tonight when i clicked on a link to go to youtube to check out something a buddy sent me...guess what? skipping video and audio for every single youtube video i selected. have gone to other streaming media sites and...voila! same thing.
it's apparent that the playback issue is a large one, or at least bigger than itunes for me...so was interested in whether anyone here has been experiencing something similar.
this didn't exist before "leopard + QT 7.4 + itunes 7.6"
btw, the update to itunes 7.6.1 did not alleviate the issue.

agreed. could've written that better. was attempting to demonstrate the pervasiveness of the problem...
affected media:
- video & audio in itunes (m4p & m4v)
- video & audio in quicktime (mpeg)
- video & audio in both safari & firefox (flash)
hoping someone's got a suggestion...

Audio Skipping/Stuttering

In the last few days i have begun to experince skipping of audio tracks, but only in Itunes, the songs work fine in any other media player and my Ipod.
The skipping is accompanied by a CPU Spike ranging from 20%-90% and only occurs when Bitcomet is open.
I have no idea what the problem could be, does anyone have any ideas? Ive always used these programs together and its only just begun to happen..
Windows XP Pro (With SP2)
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (Latest Drivers)
Itunes 6.0.4.2 (Latest)
Bitcomet 0.64 (Latest)

Well, the first question that comes to mind, since you're torrent downloading, is, have you run a spyware/malware/virus program recently?
And if you're 'sharing' stuff (people d/l from you) then that could cause issues as well . . . causing your computer to get 'too busy' (the spikes) for iTunes to function... Just because it's 'always worked' doesn't mean it will continue to if people are downloading from you, and the more you have that you're sharing (as I understand torrents) the more you have people downloading. And I'm not EVEN going to get into the legality of most things available as torrents....
I'm assuming there's no issue when the torrent software is off?
Also, have you asked around in the torrent software's forums, if they have one?
Just my thoughts, at any rate.

When playing a song in iTunes (AAC or MP3) I get random "skips"

This is a playback issue. Regardless of the format I playback a song, and regardless of the track, at random times during the track I lose audio for a split second. It just cuts out, only for a quick moment... less than a second, then resumes playing.
I run a Macbook Pro but I moved all the music, ~76GB worth, to an external hard drive. I'm wondering if the external hard drive is the problem. I don't have enough room on the Mac to store it all locally. I can provide more details if anyone needs it, not sure what else to provide though.
TIA

Try contacting support and request for a fresh copy.
http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact/

Ipod automatically turns off when i skip a few tracks!

I noticed when I skip a few tracks when on shuffle mode, the ipod will just reject my orders and turn itself off. Is there any way to prevent this?
thanks in advance for even reading this!

Ok what you want to do is connect the ipod to the computer. Once it shows up in itunes go to the summary tab. When you ar in the summary tab click the restore button. After the restore is complete sync the ipod. If the problem continues contact technical support the ipod might need to be sent in for a repair.

Random Skipping / Stuttering of Tracks MBP

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