Replacing a song file cuts off the end of songs on iPod - anyone else seen this?

[BenRad]

Here's what's been happening to me for quite some time now (1+ years):

I "preview" a CD using the interwebs and I listen to it on iTunes + my iPod. I then decide I enjoy said CD, so I go out to the record store and buy a copy. I then rip aforementioned CD at a higher quality than the previous rip (VBR -extreme). I tag the files, etc. I leave the files as is in my iTunes library, possibly only going through to add some track data or whatever. I sync with my iPod. After syncing, all of the songs from the freshly ripped CD cut off at the end of each track. I see "-00:02" seconds remaining, and eventually it goes to the next song. This happens every time I try to replace a set of files in my iTunes library. The only way I've found to fix it is by deleting the files from iTunes and then re-importing them...but I'd like to keep my playcount data and ratings.

Anybody else seen this, and if so, have you found a way around it? I've looked at other posts concerning the song cut off, but they don't seem to apply. Thanks...

[shades79]

I've got the same problem, though I hadn't realised that replacing the song was causing it - thanks for clarifying. Please someone help!

[jhollington]

This is a somewhat known problem, and seems to be a result of the gapless playback analysis that occurs when you import the tracks into iTunes the first time.

Basically, the iTunes database is storing an end-of-track marker and passing it to the iPod in order to properly support gapless playback for those albums that require it (although all such tracks are tagged in this manner).

However, this marker is based on an absolute byte position in the file. Of course, since a 192kbps file is 50% larger than a 128kbps file, when you replace the underlying files, the iTunes marker still points to the same physical end-of-file position, which will now be about 2/3rds of the way through the track, rather than at the actual end.

Likewise, if you were to convert your files to a lower bit-rate and then replace the underlying files, you'd actually lose gapless playback entirely (since the marker would now be well past the actual end of the file).

The bottom line is that replacing underlying tracks is not supported by iTunes, and technically never has been something that you're supposed to do. With the gapless playback analysis, however, this becomes all the more obvious.

Unfortunately, the only way around it is to either re-rip the CDs through iTunes itself (it will offer to replace the tracks for you in the process, and reperform the necessary gapless analysis), or delete your existing tracks from your library and import the newly-ripped tracks as new entries, which will unfortunately result in losing your ratings, playcounts and playlist references for those tracks.

Although you may prefer to use LAME instead of iTunes built-in MP3 encoder, if you're ripping at a high enough bit-rate (generally 192kbps or above), the iTunes MP3 encoder isn't too bad.

[shades79]

Wow, thank you very much for your prompt and concise reply. I've been searching for weeks for an explanation. It makes total sense though I wish it weren't an issue, time to say goodbye to the playcounts I guess. Lucky I use last.fm!
Thank you again.

[pdypdy]

I thank you as well jhollington and to BenRad for clarifying that it was only happening when I was replacing my original song files.

Anyway, I was wondering, since this problem "seems to be a result of the gapless playback analysis that occurs when you import the tracks into iTunes the first time," is there any way to get that information to delete so that it can re-analyze (either through iTunes or a 3rd party tagging software)?

Unfortunately, I've have used LAME VBR to re-rip a lot of CDs and I've replaced the original song files so as not to lose play counts and it wasn't a problem for me until I just upgraded to the newer Ipod that supports gapless playback. Whoops!

I appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks.

[jhollington]

Unfortunately, there's currently no way to force a reanalysis without importing the tracks again (thereby losing rating and play count information).

Some other sources have suggested truncating your "iTunes Library.itl" file and letting iTunes rebuild it from the XML backup, but this is not a particularly effective solution, since it will still cause some of your metadata to be lost in the process (and in this case for your entire library, not just those songs that have been replaced).