[chasg]

Hi All,

I have a friend who was having trouble with his white bezel iMac and sync'ing his iPod nano (non-video version). He knows I used to be an Mac tech support guy , and asked me to come in and see what I could do. I figured it'd be a quick fix, but it actually took quite a while to figure out what was going on.

The problem was that, when he tried to sync his ipod, the iMac would almost freeze, it was so slow (almost 100% of CPU cycles were dedicated to the job).

A quick removal of various prefs files didn't solve the problem. I ran through the gamut of various fixes (heck, he even bought 10.5 in an effort to solve the problem). It wasn't until I decided to manually remove every last iTunes and iPod-related file from both Libraries and his home folder, that the iPod started acting normally. I started putting things back one by one, and it wasn't until I put back a song that he'd purchased from the iTunes music store that the problem re-manifested itself.

I then took a closer look at these songs, and several were only 4KB (he'd downloaded a mere 20 songs or so, so it was easy to look at all of them). I know that he wasn't doing anything unusual to iTunes or his Mac, as he's very much a beginner, and conservative enough that he doesn't want to mess with things.

Well, I got his machines working again, and blew away all of his previously downloaded songs, confident that he could start working normally again. Not so: he's just sent me a message, seems he's purchased and downloaded one song, and the problem has returned.

I'm stumped, any suggestions?

Chas

[seanc]

Do the downloaded songs play properly in iTunes?
If you purchase a song and watch the download, does it download fully?

It sounds as if they aren't downloading properly, or they're downloading and getting corrupt or something else bizarre is happening.

[chasg]

Good questions, many thanks for the thoughts.

I checked a few songs, but I didn't listen to them in their entirety. I'll ask him to check. I'll also get him to dl a new song, and see if it comes down all the way (is there a progress bar for an iTunes dl? I've never used the iTunes store myself).

Whatever it is, it's bizarre indeed!

Thanks again,

Chas

[seanc]

Yes there's a download indicator in iTunes, assuming he's running the latest version, there will be a downloading section on the sidebar.