iTunes: downloaded album, but some songs won't play

[Alan Browne]

I downloaded an album with 24 songs.

(iTunes 10.7 (21) 64 bit; iMac, OS X 10.7.4).

Some tracks don't play and immediately skip to the next song (or skip
over 4 songs that won't play). A total of 10 songs won't play.

None of them have the "exclamation" point next to them indicating an issue.

They won't play on the iPhone either.

I went to the iTunes Store (via iTunes) and checked the status. The
album is marked as downloaded. No means to DL it again (or the
particular songs).

I sent a case to Apple support. No reply (other than an e-mail with
referenced support articles that don't apply) to date.

Any thoughts?

--
"There were, unfortunately, no great principles on which parties
were divided – politics became a mere struggle for office."
-Sir John A. Macdonald

[David Empson]

Alan Browne <alan....@FreelunchVideotron.ca> wrote:

> I downloaded an album with 24 songs.
>
> (iTunes 10.7 (21) 64 bit; iMac, OS X 10.7.4).
>
> Some tracks don't play and immediately skip to the next song (or skip
> over 4 songs that won't play). A total of 10 songs won't play.
>
> None of them have the "exclamation" point next to them indicating an issue.
>
> They won't play on the iPhone either.
>
> I went to the iTunes Store (via iTunes) and checked the status. The
> album is marked as downloaded. No means to DL it again (or the
> particular songs).

Delete the songs from your iTunes library, then you should be able to
re-download them by going to the iTunes Store UI and clicking on
Purchased in the right column.

If they still don't work, it may be a bad file on Apple's servers (which
I have seen mentioned occasionally but haven't encountered myself -
Apple fixed at least some of them on being alerted to the issue).

What was the album, and which song(s) don't work? Perhaps someone else
has it or is willing to try a sample song.

--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz

[Alan Browne]

On 2012.11.07 08:31 , David Empson wrote:
> Alan Browne <alan....@FreelunchVideotron.ca> wrote:
>
>> I downloaded an album with 24 songs.
>>
>> (iTunes 10.7 (21) 64 bit; iMac, OS X 10.7.4).
>>
>> Some tracks don't play and immediately skip to the next song (or skip
>> over 4 songs that won't play). A total of 10 songs won't play.
>>
>> None of them have the "exclamation" point next to them indicating an issue.
>>
>> They won't play on the iPhone either.
>>
>> I went to the iTunes Store (via iTunes) and checked the status. The
>> album is marked as downloaded. No means to DL it again (or the
>> particular songs).
>
> Delete the songs from your iTunes library, then you should be able to
> re-download them by going to the iTunes Store UI and clicking on
> Purchased in the right column.

I tried that first off and it didn't work. The "defective" tracks were
of course marked as downloaded on Apple's servers so would not DL again.
See below.

Note that the non-playing files on my Mac (in the folder, not as
declared by iTunes) were not 0 or tiny in size. They were about the
expected size ( 10 - 12 MB or so ea.)

> If they still don't work, it may be a bad file on Apple's servers (which
> I have seen mentioned occasionally but haven't encountered myself -
> Apple fixed at least some of them on being alerted to the issue).

Since your reply, Apple sent me an e-mail telling me to delete the files
and try again - so they've reset some of the songs...

It worked partially (6 of the 10 tracks) on a track by track basis but
the other 4 did not.

So then I tried to DL the album entirely and _only_ the 4 missing tracks
were DL'd.

Resolved - if not perfectly smoothly. I reported the bumpy success back
to them.

[Alan Browne]

On 2012.11.08 18:25 , Lewis wrote:
> In message <9MqdnWyrcP7WtgHN...@giganews.com>

> Alan Browne <alan....@FreelunchVideotron.ca> wrote:
>> On 2012.11.07 08:31 , David Empson wrote:
>>> Alan Browne <alan....@FreelunchVideotron.ca> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I downloaded an album with 24 songs.
>>>>
>>>> (iTunes 10.7 (21) 64 bit; iMac, OS X 10.7.4).
>>>>
>>>> Some tracks don't play and immediately skip to the next song (or skip
>>>> over 4 songs that won't play). A total of 10 songs won't play.
>>>>
>>>> None of them have the "exclamation" point next to them indicating an issue.
>>>>
>>>> They won't play on the iPhone either.
>>>>
>>>> I went to the iTunes Store (via iTunes) and checked the status. The
>>>> album is marked as downloaded. No means to DL it again (or the
>>>> particular songs).
>>>
>>> Delete the songs from your iTunes library, then you should be able to
>>> re-download them by going to the iTunes Store UI and clicking on
>>> Purchased in the right column.
>
>> I tried that first off and it didn't work. The "defective" tracks were
>> of course marked as downloaded on Apple's servers so would not DL again.
>

> No, that is not how itunes work. You can ALWAYS download anything you
> purchased, as long as Apple still has it. Perhaps you were not able to
> figure out the UI or something, but it is pretty simple. Remove the song
> from itunes locally, fo to the purchased tab in the itunes store, and
> download the tracks again.
>
> Yep. just did it. Works perfectly.

Except that when I did it, it did not work perfectly at all.

As I said I had deleted the 'broken' songs from my iTunes.
Could not DL them again at all. (Was the 1st thing I tried when the
tracks didn't play).

After a message to Apple and another 24 hours, could still not DL them.

Another 24 hours and I could. So, something on their end was not right.

[Alan Browne]

On 2012.11.09 00:06 , Lewis wrote:
> In message <Y5OdnQAGr5DjygHN...@giganews.com>

> Then you did something wrong.

No. There was some error on their end.

>
>> As I said I had deleted the 'broken' songs from my iTunes.
>> Could not DL them again at all.
>

> Then you must have not deleted them because there is nothing in the
> iTunes store that would prevent you downloading the songs again. Maybe
> you removed them from the itunes library, but did not delete them
> (though even then, pretty sure re-downloading them works).

I deleted them, confirmed "move to trash,"emptied the trash AND looked
in the folder (2nd attempt) to be sure they were gone. They were.

>
>> After a message to Apple and another 24 hours, could still not DL them.
>
>> Another 24 hours and I could. So, something on their end was not right.
>

> I seriously doubt they did anything at all.

Explain why the same procedure did nothing one time, nor a 2nd time and
worked (imperfectly) the third time. (Without resorting to "you did
something wrong" as I didn't and you repeating it won't make it so.)

As David Empson pointed out in his post such problems are not unknown at
Apple.

I know you'd prefer that this is all my fault, but in years of using
iTunes this was the 2nd time I've had DL issues with music. The other
time I just DL'd the missing tracks per the usual. This time it
required Apple support. They are there for many things including fixing
their end. (Databases do get corrupted - even Apple's).

[FDK]

"Alan Browne" wrote in message
news:59SdnYh4E49y6QDN...@giganews.com...

He's an Apphole, what do you expect?

>As David Empson pointed out in his post such problems are not unknown
>at Apple.

>I know you'd prefer that this is all my fault,

BINGO!!!