# iTunes - Streaming Web Radio Constantly Rebuffering



## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

Anyone out there in ehMacland listen to streaming web radio through iTunes at work or home? 

I listen to classical stations at work all day long; various stations & rates from 24 kbps to 128 kbps. It's always worked fine but since last week it stalls & rebuffers every few seconds. It's impossible to listen now.

Our office technician has noticed the same thing but thinks the problem is at the other end, perhaps in the tuning service or something. No obvious problem with our network connection; it's fine at 61.42 mb/s down, and 44.95 mb/s up.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Probably a cache issue, run OnyX or similar and see if that helps.


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## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

The Doug said:


> Anyone out there in ehMacland listen to streaming web radio through iTunes at work or home?
> 
> I listen to classical stations at work all day long; various stations & rates from 24 kbps to 128 kbps. It's always worked fine but since last week it stalls & rebuffers every few seconds. It's impossible to listen now.
> 
> Our office technician has noticed the same thing but thinks the problem is at the other end, perhaps in the tuning service or something. No obvious problem with our network connection; it's fine at 61.42 mb/s down, and 44.95 mb/s up.


Me too. Listening to the CBC directly from their site in window works fine but iTunes can't handle it anymore. iTunes cannot handle playing itunes purchased media anymore either. SL and iTunes have really lost my respect.


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## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

chas_m said:


> Probably a cache issue, run OnyX or similar and see if that helps.


Nope. I'm on a WinXP / Dell from Hell at work.

Seems better this morning though - I've been listening to a 64 kbps station for about half an hour and so far it has only conked out twice, very briefly.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

The Doug said:


> Nope. I'm on a WinXP / Dell from Hell at work.


The fact that you're on a Windows machine does not mean it's not a cache issue, it just means my suggested cache cleaner (which is Mac only) doesn't work. In the future you may wish to specify that you're using Windows -- this is a Mac forum and while plenty of people here use both platforms, if you seek Windows-specific solutions you'll want to mention that little detail.



> Seems better this morning though - I've been listening to a 64 kbps station for about half an hour and so far it has only conked out twice, very briefly.


Was the machine restarted since yesterday? If so, that is strong evidence that my suspicion was correct.


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## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

Whatever. I don't think it's a cache issue as the machine & iTunes streaming radio has been working fine for many months / years, and suddenly the rebuffering started last week. It was fine yesterday morning for an hour and then later on it started happening again. It happens whether the machine has been on for hours, or freshly rebooted (I always reboot my Windows machines at work daily, and have done so for years out of habit). It also happens on our techies' Windows box so it's obvious that the problem is not restricted to my computer.


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## Theseus (Jun 6, 2006)

Try setting your iTunes streaming buffer size to Large: iTunes preferences > Advanced > Streaming Buffer Size


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## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

Done that, doesn't help at all.


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## irontree (Oct 28, 2006)

An internet stream may also lag if there are lots of people currently listening to the station...


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## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

irontree said:


> An internet stream may also lag if there are lots of people currently listening to the station...


Yes, but that wouldn't explain why it works fine a web window but 30 seconds later it won't work in iTunes. It's an iTunes problem.


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## FeXL (Jan 2, 2004)

Internet radio is streaming whenever I'm at the computer, usually 128kps ones.

Haven't had any issues that weren't traceable to our ISP (Shaw).

Currently on iTunes v7.7


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## WestWeb (Jul 11, 2009)

Heck I can listen to a 320Kb station for as long as I like and their won't be any problems with the streaming quality, Same with all other media I get from iTunes. Podcasts, TV, Movies. They all Stream/download perfectly and seamlessly, and my internet is far slower than yours.

You are right there must be something wrong with your copy of iTunes. Is their anyway you could backup your iTunes library and simply re-install iTunes on that computer? Then if the problem persists, or is solved, you'll at least have narrowed down the list of culprits.


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## The Doug (Jun 14, 2003)

Found out that our campus network admin had _inadvertently_ restricted iTunes bandwidth. Rectified, all is well again.


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## kloan (Feb 22, 2002)

Bump for this.

This happens to me as well. HOWEVER, the thing that drives me nuts is that once the signal drops out, it doesn't rebuffer. The status bar just stays empty and I have to manually click cancel and double click the station and it'll connect immediately.

Really annoying bug, especially when I'm in the middle of a workout and the frickin music goes dead when I'm in the middle of a set.


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