What's up with "determining gapless playback" ?

When I import songs into iTunes it says it's "determining gapless playback" and it takes a really long time! (I have a couple thousand of songs in my iTunes library and I'll have over 10,000 before I'm done with all this importing).
What is it doing and is there a way I can turn it off and only do it once when I'm done importing all this music?
Thanks in advance!

bumping this post because I'm having a similar problem. Mine does this for 170 songs (of 7,000 in my library) every time I sync my iPod. Most of the songs it goes through are purchased from iTunes and I don't even have the whole albums, just one or two songs. POINTLESS waste of time!
For the record, though, I love the gapless feature (listened to Abbey Road tonight on my iPod, worked beautifully!). Just want to know why it has to determine the info again for EVERY SYNC!

Similar Messages

  • 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 I found some ideas in forums but all of the suggestions are outdated because iTunes 12.1.0.71 does not have the options mentioned anymore....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.

  • Problem with "determining gapless playback"

    Hi.
    How do I turn this off completely? If I press X then it slows down a bit and also it creates mistakes on some of my songs .
    Is there any way to stop this feature? If not I propose a way of dealing with this to be available in the next Itunes upgrade .
    EDIT: Also, since my Itunes library is different than my actual library, how can I put the old directory so that I tunes will use it as my library ? I do not wish to burden my Hard Disk any more . Thanks .
    Message was edited by: Storm XIII

    bumping this post because I'm having a similar problem. Mine does this for 170 songs (of 7,000 in my library) every time I sync my iPod. Most of the songs it goes through are purchased from iTunes and I don't even have the whole albums, just one or two songs. POINTLESS waste of time!
    For the record, though, I love the gapless feature (listened to Abbey Road tonight on my iPod, worked beautifully!). Just want to know why it has to determine the info again for EVERY SYNC!

  • Issues with itunes error -50, determining gapless playback, missing speaker options, home sharing not working

    In the last few weeks I have been experiencing multiple issues with my iTunes.
    I believe it began when my itunes library corrupted and I had to start again.
    By starting again I mean I went to previous itunes libraries and used the most recent backup.
    After I noticed a large number of unknown error (-50) messages I thought I better copy the backup I was using from the previous libraries folder over to the itunes folder (in case the error related to failed attempts to back up the library).
    This problem in itself wasn't too bad as I am able to close and relaunch iTunes and carry on however I have noticed some less desirable side effects - the loss of home sharing. I am unable to pick speakers to broadcast to (I have 2 airport express units plugged in and working and an Apple TV2) and I am unable to access the iTunes library on Apple TV.
    I've done some basic troubleshooting: creating rules to allow the home sharing ports, temporarily disabling antivirus/firewall, uninstalling antivirus/firewall, setting up rules on the router for homesharing ports, uninstalling iTunes, rebooting, reinstalling iTunes and retrying, disabling home sharing and reenabling, disabling peerblock, deauthorising itunes and reauthorising and rebooting both the pc and Apple TV, checking sharing settings under preferences and verifying both the entire library is shared and that the status of home sharing is on but no devices connected, created a new library and reimporting my media and the problem still exists.
    I noticed that occasionally when I switch between libraries, deauthorise and reauthorise I do get access to home sharing and Apple Tv gets full access to the library BUT iTunes quickly becomes unresponsive and when I close and relaunch Apple TV can no longer see my library or iTunes.
    I have checked the network I am running on is marked as a home network, I have tried connecting the Apple TV via LAN instead of WiFi but this makes no difference. What I do find interesting is that I have iTunes running on another pc and on a virtual machine and as soon as I run either their libraries appear on Apple TV so there must be something about the installation on my pc and nothing wrong with the Apple TV, airport express, router etc.
    With that in mind I retried an uninstall and this time deleted as many tmp files as I could see in the iTunes library folder, rebooted and reinstalled. I also checked the permission levels on the iTunes application folder and the iTunes library folder (located on an additional internal drive), I then tried running iTunes as an administrator (which my user account is already set as) but all the problems are still evident.
    The determining gapless playback has no effect on how I use iTunes but it clearly does not need to run for every single recently added track any time I make a minute change to other library entries. I tried looking up one of the files it was determining gapless playback for but it wasn't corrupt or read only so I don't see why it needs to retry continually.
    I'm running Windows 7 64bit with all latest updates installed and iTunes 64bit 10.6.3.25, all apple devices are running the latest version of firmware and I'm running out of ideas. I did try running CCleaner to clear up and registry issues if there were any and I ran Appcleaner to remove any iTunes cache that may have been left between installs. I'm running out of ideas - what am I missing here?

    I have found the problem was in part caused by Windows firewall.
    Exactly how Windows firewall can cause the problem when I wasn't even using it I don't know.
    What I do know is that when I checked 'allow a program through the firewall' I found 4 rules set for iTunes, one of which was public network access.
    I deleted the superfluous rules and the Home Sharing problems are solved.
    All that needs sorting now is the 'determining gapless playback'.

  • What is processing album art and determining gapless playback?

    Whenever I add music to my itouch, it takes forever because it determines gapless playback and processing album art.
    What exactly happens if I hit the X when processing art?

    and is this in relation to my library on the pc or my ipod?

  • 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 Playback Information renders iTunes unresponsive

    As soon as iTunes loads, the entire application locks up. I can't even click the little circle-X on the display to stop the operation.
    The track # does increment every minute or so, so it is doing something... just... very... slowly...
    It's currently on #14 of 44,465. I can't wait forever!
    How do I get around this?

    I was also having the same problem. I read in another forum to delete some files in my iTunes Music folder. I did that but the problem remained. Now I had windows Vista x32 prior to Windows 7 x64 and I had iTunes 9 too. Recently upgraded to 7 when everything failed. I am not sure if there is a problem with having an iTunes library from before but here is what I did.
    I just renamed my iTunes music library folder to something without iTunes (music folder) and then deleted everything but the actual music files. I opened iTunes and finally it did not freeze. And the "Determining Gapless Playback" completed!
    I hope this works for you.

  • 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...

  • 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.

  • Vista 64-bit - Determining gapless playback crash

    hey guys and girls
    just bought a new desktop computer, intel duo quadcore processor, 4 gb ram = it can run itunes (or so you'd think). have all my music copied directly from my old computer via external hard-drive. have taken it off the external and onto the internal drive of the new computer.
    added all my music to the library and it set about trying to determine the gapless playback information, at this stage it will stop randomly and will freeze itunes then i have to restart itunes and when it opens it tries to determine the gapless playback again. more often than not i just tell it to stop trying before it freezes but i want to fix this problem. i have selected all files-->get info--> and set gapless album to NO but it still tries to determine gapless playback.
    anyway i can stop it from trying to determine gapless playback. or any solutions to the problem would be greatley appreciated.

    Hey hammersfan,
    If you are having an issue with iTunes quitting unexpectedly on your Windows computer, I would suggest that you troubleshoot using the steps in this article - 
    iTunes for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8: Fix unexpected quits or launch issues - Apple Support
    Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
    Be well,
    Brett L 

  • 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.

  • 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.

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