Weird: Closing VFP resets iTunes

[TamarGranor]

I've now seen the same weird thing happen several times, enough to know that I'm not making it up. Hoping somebody might have a suggestion.

I got a new computer within the last month. Running 64-bit Win7 Ultimate. As I set it up, I updated lots of apps to their latest versions.

Among other things, I'm running iTunes 10 (specifically 10.5.2.11). I keep it configured to shuffle my entire playlist.

A number of times since I switched machines, when I've closed VFP (9 SP2 with all hotfixes), iTunes has abruptly stopped playing whatever track it was on and returned to the top of my playlist. Pretty sure I've always closed VFP by typing Quit in the Command Window.

Even weirder, if I don't do anything to change it, iTunes then plays the same sequence of tracks that I've just heard.

Anybody seen or heard of something like this? (And yeah, I know that if it were anywhere near April 1 and I posted this, you'd all just laugh and ignore it.)

Tamar

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I didn't ever had this behaviour, but you could be on something big.
I seldom use iTunes as a player, but I do have n iPod and synching it has been a pain the last few times I did that.

iTunes does spend an awful lot of time to detect the iPod, to backup it and whats worst, to connect to the itunes store. I could easier synch the iPod, by setting up a wireless connection and going to the app store with the iPod itself, synching the other way around.

The iPod displayed new terms&conditions I could then accpet. With the PC version the CSS was flawed and submitting "accept" never worked. And this got that way before the last series of updates coming from microsoft.

I also don't know if yesterdays bad synching experience didn't have to do with the newest software installation from audible, I yesterday downloaded "Christmas Carol" (narrated by Patrick Stuart) via an audible download software that like amazon MP3 can and does add downloads to the iTunes media library and so also is connected that way.

I also had a firewall warning about itunes being blocked and unblocked it. Then after I deleted the iPod backup and deactivated a Virtual Box network, it was somewhat back to normal.

I don't know if this is an overlap via the C runtime, but I doubt it. I don't know what else would connect iTunes with VFP, though.

I never before connected this to VFP, though. Maybe I should try iTunes, without having started (or quit) VFP and see, if it behaves better, but actually I think iTunes is a hog anyway.

The one thing we both could do to investigate further is to use process monitor on both vfp.exe and the apple software. I have quite many things under suspicion, but mainly iTunes itself.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Nigel Gomm]

might iTunes be monitoring a folder (for importing new files into library) that VFP is writing to on exit (e.g. foxuser) ?

 

[JRB-Bldr]

iTunes has abruptly stopped playing

Isn't that a FEATURE of Apple products?

Whenever a Micro$oft application is used, shut down and annoy the user so that they go out and purchase an Apple product replacement device.

Good Luck,
JRB-Bldr

 

[Dan Freeman]

Whenever a Micro$oft application is used, shut down and annoy the user

No, that's the old Microsoft mantra: "the code isn't done until Lotus won't run".

Tamar, I suspect the current release of iTunes is badly flawed. I'm having an issue where it won't exit. If I exit iTunes, it stays in the task list and will not run again until I reboot Windows. Even if I end the task in TaskMan, iTunes will not run again until I reboot Windows.

(Some would say it's a *benefit* that I can only run iTunes once!)

This has never been an issue before. It only showed up with the most recent iTunes update.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I couldn't reproduce the playlist behaviour, you've got to work a little with VFP I guess.

But dan, that's also what I get, if you kill iTunes in Task manager, when it hangs in syncing the iPod. I think it's because of the design, I think either the AppleDeviceHelper.exe or the APSDaemon.exe or some other process hinders the restart and only shutting down all apple stuff or a reboot reanables iTunes to restart.

The irony is, I run Windows on a Macbook and could use MacOS instead and use the native iTunes to sync the iPod, but I don't reboot just for that. When buying the Macbook as a replacement for another notbook in repair at that time, short before the 2007 MVP Summit, I thought I'd also give development with Silverlight including testing on MacOS a chance, and also perhaps apps programming, but never did so by now.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[TamarGranor]

might iTunes be monitoring a folder (for importing new files into library) that VFP is writing to on exit (e.g. foxuser) ?

Pretty unlikely, in that I keep all my music or photos on a separate drive from everything else, and have iTunes looking there. But interesting idea.

(well, paraphrase)
It's iTunes

Yeah, possible. I actually didn't mention another weird behavior of this version of iTunes, which is that it always starts with the first track in my playlist. Used to be when you kept it set to shuffle, hitting the Play button after starting it up jumped randomly. Not anymore.

That said, I'm wondering if there's some flaw in the Win7 random number generation code. I like to play Spider solitaire and more than once on this machine (and never on my previous machine), I've noticed that when I open Spider and start a new game, I get the last game I played instead of a new one. (I do have another Win7 machine; I'll have to look to see whether I get that behavior there, too. But that one's running 32-bit and this one's 64, so ...)

My biggest suspicion on the iTunes/VFP thing is that it's actually a keyboard issue. Maybe it happens when the last app I touched prior to switching to VFP was iTunes, and some keystroke is landing on iTunes. I'll test sometime when I'm not actually listening to music, so don't mind starting over.

Tamar

 

[Dan Freeman]

Olaf, I don't have to sync (or do anything else) to get the behavior:

* Start Windows
* Start iTunes
* Exit iTunes

iTunes will not start again until I reboot Windows.

Somebody screwed the pooch somewhere, but I don't actually use iTunes often enough to really dig into it.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I've now completely uninstalled iTunes, downloaded the current 64-bit installer, and reinstalled.

Same behavior.

It might be interference from anti-virus software. It might be some form of security. It might be any number of things.

I'm not going to put a lot of effort into it because each test requires rebooting Windows.

One thing of note, though: after I've started iTunes, it shows up in task manager as "iTunes *32". I specifically started with the 64-bit installer.

Something is fishy. I'll wait for the next iTunes update before I spend any more time on it.

 

[TamarGranor]

My biggest suspicion on the iTunes/VFP thing is that it's actually a keyboard issue. Maybe it happens when the last app I touched prior to switching to VFP was iTunes, and some keystroke is landing on iTunes. I'll test sometime when I'm not actually listening to music, so don't mind starting over.

Played with this over the weekend. Absolutely repeatable.

- Bring iTunes to the front. Make sure it's not playing
- Minimize iTunes
- Bring VFP to the front. (I think even by opening it.)
- Type Quit<cr> in the Command Window

Observed: VFP closes and iTunes starts playing. Happens only when iTunes was the last app minimized before switching to VFP, and only when iTunes is minimized. I can see it get focus on the taskbar (or whatever they call that in Win7 <g>).

Now that I know what it is, I can try to avoid it and mostly ignore it.

Tamar