iTunes Routinely Syncs Songs That Haven't Changed

[cleanup]

I have my iPod mini set on autosync with iTunes on my iMac. I added ONE song today... one. I dock the iPod mini, and it updates six songs, songs that I recognize and never changed. I unplug the mini and think of a test. I add a song that's already on the iPod and in my library to a few playlists that it wasn't in before. I touch nothing else, and I plug the iPod back in. iTunes should sync the new playlists very quickly, and display no "Updating song x of x" because no songs are technically being synced. For some reason, iTunes syncs another song, a song I rarely listen to but I recognize. It is not the song that I just added to new playlists.

A few days before I was listening to "Walk Idiot Walk" by The Hives. All of a sudden it skipped to the next song. I discovered that my iPod mini seemed to think it was twenty seconds shorter than it actually was. When I got home I docked it, and it updated 8 songs including Walk Idiot Walk. It ended at the proper time after that.

What the hell is happening? iTunes keeps updating or syncing songs that were never touched and should already be synced. Walk Idiot Walk seemed to shorten by 20 seconds. iTunes updates new songs, but it also updates old songs that haven't been touched. I don't change ratings on the go, or anything of the sort. I only dock my iPod when I change a rating in iTunes, add songs, or make playlists.

Let me try docking the iPod again and see what iTunes does this time.

This time nothing changed. iTunes said "Updating iPod," then said "iPod Update Complete," without changing anything.

However, more and more routinely, iTunes syncs random songs. It doesn't seem to cause any trouble, but I'm afraid the Walk Idiot Walk incident was caused by erratic autosync behaviour.

Any idea what's going on?

 

[croshtique]

Is it updating play count/last played information?

 

[cleanup]

Is it updating play count/last played information?

iTunes updates play counts and such behind the scenes. It only shows "Updating songs x of x," then the song title if the song has actually changed, or it's a new song that has been added.

Any other ideas? =\

I have the most recent iPod mini software (1.4) and iTunes 6.0.1. Everything's up to date and works otherwise.

 

[jholzner]

iTunes updates play counts and such behind the scenes. It only shows "Updating songs x of x," then the song title if the song has actually changed, or it's a new song that has been added.

Any other ideas? =\

I have the most recent iPod mini software (1.4) and iTunes 6.0.1. Everything's up to date and works otherwise.

Well, the play count is stored in the meta data isn't it? I do know that if I add album art and then plug in my iPod it updates it (even though I don't have a color iPod) and it says updateing song x of x and all it's updating is the album art.

 

[sakasune]

I have the same issue. Sometimes it seems related to a song I listened to previously before the last sync, but that's not always the case. (and the play count is done behind the scenes anyway).

 

[powerbook911]

Well, the play count is stored in the meta data isn't it? I do know that if I add album art and then plug in my iPod it updates it (even though I don't have a color iPod) and it says updateing song x of x and all it's updating is the album art.

Exactly. Mine does the same. Play counts, artwork, etc. It goes through updating, when you sync back up.

 

[cleanup]

Well, I added one more song to my library, and I decided to update my iPod again. I played plenty of songs in between the last update and this one, so a bunch of playcounts should have changed. It ended up updating 7 songs, some of which I know I listened to, but only 7? I listened to more than seven songs...

I didn't change anything else. Just added the new song. I didn't change any album art or anything.

Very weird.

Maybe it's a bug?

 

[Ashapalan]

same problem here.
I use a mac, does anyone using windows have this problem?

 

[Sirus The Virus]

I don't think it's a problem. The same thing happens to me every time I sync my iPod. It's just syncing the meta data, thats all.

 

[Scottyk9]

I don't think it's a problem. The same thing happens to me every time I sync my iPod. It's just syncing the meta data, thats all.

Synching metadata is not a problem, but what is described is more than this - despite the fact that the song has not changed (even though the metadata may have), the song is not playing properly on the iPod (ending prematurely). After a sync, where the song is re-transferred, it plays properly.

I have noted the same problem with my iPod (3G) and iTunes 6.0.1 on my iMac G5. I was wondering if it means there is a problem with the iPod hard drive, and have been meaning to check the disk.

 

[asherman13]

mine did this too. delete the songs, move to trash, take out of trash (DO NOT EMPTY) and re-import to itunes. that worked for me (it sucked having almost 2hrs worth of robin williams live on broadway doing that tho). notice, however, that you ipod still takes up space every time it adds the songs again. you'll have to reformat and add ALL the songs again. sorry buddy . hope that helps...