[pfapfap]

Hey folks. I've got a problem that nobody seems to know what to do with. iTunes and my iPod both started acting goofy around the same time, but this could be coincidence.

iTunes.

First off, the "Library" label is blank. It's just the Library icon and no text. I have vague recollection of it disappearing in the past and reappearing at some point, but it's plum gone for good now.

But the main problem is that when I play back music through iTunes, after a while it pauses for a few seconds, plays again, pauses, etc. The pauses get longer and closer together, and sometimes it just locks up the whole thing.

iPod

A few weeks ago, it gorked up and acted like nothing was on it. I plugged it into iTunes and everything was there. Several iTunes, iBook, and iPod lockups later, it seems to be running well enough on its own, but when I try to sync with iTunes, it locks up. Severely. I even once got the "you must restart" in three languages. I figured maybe it was the auto-update, so I turned that off and tried adding songs manually. Did a couple of albums, no problem. Did a couple more, locked up.

The only thing I've changed in my setup recently is I've been... er... "borrowing" songs from various online sources. I read something about a bad .m3u glitch, but I have the latest version. I also tried completely removing iTunes and any reference to it, redownloading, and reinstalling. Added a few albums' worth of AAC files (which took way longer than it should have), and got the same pausing-while-playing problem, with a new twist of it making weird sounds every few seconds. So I said screw that and restored my backed-up iTunes settings so I'd at least have all my play count info, etc.

Specs

iBook 800 G4
256MB RAM
180GB Lacie Harddrive
20GB iPod (not sure "version" .. it was the last model with the four circular buttons)
Mac OS X 10.3.7
iTunes 4.7.1

I have about 40GB or so of music, and my iTunes database file is about 10MB.


Anyone have ANY ideas? Did I get some nasty worm? Are the problems with each item independent of each other? My machine seems to be running fine otherwise, but I don't do too much on it. Things like Photoshop can be a bit slow to load, and I get a rainbow pizza from time to time in various apps, but I figured that was just my limited RAM. But then again, maybe this thing should be a lot faster. My current guess is that I have some audio hardware issue on the iBook and a coincidentally screwy iPod.

Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Apfhex]

There are no known "worms" for OS X so that's unlikely.

I can't say I know what's wrong. Have you tried restoring your iPod?

As for the vanished name of the "Library" in iTunes, did you know that it can be renamed? It seems like you probably accidentally changed it to be blank.

[Big Mac]

Yeah, it sounds like something is borked. Your iPod may have appeared blank if it tried to synch with another user's iTunes library that was blank - that's the best explanation I have that issue. Your system is behaving peculiarly, and my first instinct would be to reinstall OS X. Boot from your OS X disc by putting it in the drive and restarting while holding the C key. Then perform an Archive and Install.

[pfapfap]

Hmm, thanks for the tips. I haven't used the iPod with any other machine.

Not really eager to reinstall OSX just cuz of the hassle with other software, but I'll probably end up doing it. Also not eager to restore the iPod because at least it has music on it now. If it STILL locks up when it's, then I'll weep.

Anyway, thanks again. I hope it works.

[Big Mac]

Well, when I thought there was the possibility that you had a different user account logged in while your iPod was connected to your machine, and that it wiped your iPod because that account had a blank iTunes library. But if you don't use multiple users at all I don't have a really great answer for why that would have happened. Anyway, an Archive and Install shouldn't cause any problems with your installed software. It really only reinstalls the OS.

[pfapfap]

Okay, a quick question... HOW do I rename my iTunes library? It won't let me change it.

[pfapfap]

Ugh ugh ugh. Okay, so I restored the iPod and it's still locking up when it updates. I can't even force quit iTunes. And the last time I plugged in the external firewire LaCie HD, it didn't even show up. The iPod did, and it updated with a few dozen songs that were mistakingly on my local HD no problem. Then when I quit iTunes, the drive showed up. Re-loaded iTunes and it locked up on the first song.

What the heck is going on? I had a LaCie firewire sleep death last year, but I thought that was fixed? Is yet ANOTHER drive of mine borked? Anyone have any suggestions? I haven't done an OS reinstall yet. I'll give that a shot next.

And possibly related to this... is my computer supposed to be this slow? Even typing in this message in Safari, I'm getting lag. When I load up a folder in my dock, it takes a few seconds to show up... same with subfolders. I'm a long-time Mac loyalist, but this is really starting to irritate me.

[cpac]

mostly it sounds like you may have a corrupt preferences file or two - (try deliting the ipod and itunes preferences files from your library). You might also want to delete any caches that seem relevant.

As for the spotty playback that you mentioned - I only get this when some other application has sucked up all the ram (usually a beta application with a memory leak).

A reinstall should certainly fix your problems, but the lesser solutions above may make a full reinstall unnecessary.

[pfapfap]

Well, I reinstalled OSX and did all the updates. The damn thing still locks up. Before I did any of that, and before I even posted here, I tried completely removing iTunes and all preference and database files. I imorted a few albums and tried to sync - same problem. Any suggestions on where else I can look to find hidden iTunes files? And anyone know how I can rename the Library back to having an actual name? Apfhex said it could be renamed. How?

What the hell is going on here!?! My only thought is it's the damn harddrive. This is TWO firewire drives that have gone belly up on this machine. If I can't use these drives with MacOS, I'm not sure I want MacOS, quite frankly. Much as I don't like using them, my Windows machines at work give me a lot less headache these days. Grr.

[pfapfap]

I am especially irritated because whereas before I had an iPod with music that couldn't be changed, now I have an empty iPod.

[cpac]

have you tried creating another user and syncing your iPod with that user's itunes?

I've been using my TiBook with a LaCie firewire drive (for primarily the purpose of having a large iTunes library) without problem.

Have you tried resetting your iPod? (holding down play/pause and menu until you get a restart screen?)

To rename the iTunes library, click on the Library so it's highlighted, then click once once the word library - you should then be able to edit the name without problem.

[iDriveX]

I can tell you that it's the music you downloaded from "various online sources" and nothing to do with your iTunes or OS X install. I had the same problem about 2 years ago and I worked with an Apple Technician over the phone to fix it and no matter what they couldn't get it fixed. I thought it might have to do with a corrupt Mp3 file and I had downloaded a lot over the net. So I added folder of music by folder of music and there turned out to be two files doing the corrupting. That was the last time I downloaded illegally. The time I would have saved not having to deal with that crap would have been worth 10-20 CDs bought on iTunes.

[pfapfap]

Okay, a bit calmer now.

cpac - When I first had the iPod goofiness, I had to do a few resets like that. That's when it first pretended like it didn't have music but it really did. Now that I've restored it, it actually doesn't have anything on it. Creating another user to test out various things with iTunes is a good idea. I'll give that a shot. As to renaming the Library, I've tried that a whole bunch of times. The problem may be that there's no name for it at all right now. I can rename all the other playlists 'til the cows come home, but the Library simply won't let me rename it.

iDriveX - I'm certainly willing to believe that's the case, but some things make me wonder. First, I've had a few times now where I've tried to mount the drive and nothing has come up on the desktop. Considering I was burned so badly with that damn "don't let your computer go to sleep with a drive attached" glitch last year, I'm very very nervous about that. It seems to be mounting okay now, but I'm going through and attempting to burn all of my music to data CDs (most of it ripped myself, a project I don't feel like re-doing). Something interesting is that it's choking on music I imported myself. Pretty much anything I've added in the past few weeks is guaranteed to cause a problem, but I've also found one disc that I imported BEFORE my recent experiments with torrents. And before I restored and reinstalled everything, I deleted all of my iTunes preferences, removed iTunes, reinstalled, and tried to import one album at a time. Everything I did was stuff I ripped myself, and it was going very slowly. It also did the pause-while-playing thing, even when iTunes was the only thing open.

Oh, the error I get when it chokes trying to burn a CD is "unkown error -36". Does that mean anything to anybody?

Anyway, once I get these CDs burned - which is taking quite a while, much longer than the last time I did this - I'll try out various things. I'm still leaning towards the drive being bad, but I don't want to experiment with that too much while I can still sort of access it. At least not 'til I'm backed up. Thank you all for your suggestions. This thing be drivin' me nuts. Arr.

[pfapfap]

Oh, something I forgot to mention. Oddly, a lot of music I imported many months ago is showing up as being added two weeks ago. I'm also curious how you could figure out which files were corrupt, iDriveX? If it let you add them originally, how could you tell the second time around?

Right now iTunes is choking when I simply insert a blank CD. Ugh. This does not bode well.

[pfapfap]

Okay, someone mentioned to me a Quicktime Assist bug that showed up in 3.4... this sound familiar to anyone? A likely candidate?