some tracks play silently on iTunes

[Kenji]

I'm one of the few remaining members on PlanetMUG, an online only Mac user group running on FirstClass BBS software and one of the last vestiges of the once-mighty Berkeley Mac User Group, BMUG. 

 

Another member posted that many of his old songs appear to play in iTunes on his Mac but there is no sound on those tracks. I asked him if time is elapsing at the top of his iTunes window, and he says it does. 

 

He said he believes this problem started when he deauthorized several old Macs. So here's my question. If these are tracks that has Apple Store DRM from back in the day, and they had been downloaded to machines that are now deauthorized, would they appear to be playing but not have sound? Would this be the symptom of deauthorized DRM tracks? What else could be causing his problem? 

 

I've suggested he try two things. 

--try playing the problem files with another player app,

--check song info in iTunes to make sure the volume isn't set to  -100%

 

He is running macOS 10.13.6 so I assume he is on iTunes 12.x

 

[kirkmc]

No, they wouldn't play, they would generate a dialog for authorization.

 

There's something going on on his Mac that is preventing the audio from working. Perhaps check Audio-MIDI Setup and see if there's a weird sample rate set that might prevent some tracks from playing audio. 

 

Have him try in the Finder, press the space bar, and see if they play in Quick Look.