That is a highly unusual problem that I can't say I've ever had. I've ran fairly large playlists in the past without issue.
As a temporary measure you can split the playlist up into separate files and have zara load up a new one each day or every few days.
Before I started using the event scheduler to pick the songs I seem to recall about 1,500 songs would run at about 96 hours before repeating.
I have had the exact same to problems both on Windows 7 and XP with Zararadio. I think it is just best to move on to another radio automation program.
Well you've exhausted the free software, your next move would be pro-grade which starts getting expensive. A lot of folks use Station Playlist but you'll need a music scheduler, which also costs money. At the full power we use BSI Simian and Natural Log but this is a very expensive combination of software. I also don't like Simian very much and greatly prefer Zara but Zara doesn't control audio switchers or take triggers.
There is PlayIt Live which is free but I haven't been able to get it to work.
Also forgot to mention pro-grade software is going to need some serious hardware to work right. Broadcast grade soundcard would be required as well as at least 8 GB of Ram, 4GB will work but expect some issues.
Basing this off the mess that is Simian, a huge resource hog.
OH! I did forget all about the software that Salem put out thats free. As long as you're handy with Linux I've heard the program is quite good. I think its called Rivendell? Maybe Raduga?
I have Zara running on windows 10 no problem, never falls over. It runs 24/7.
The playlist problem is easly solved, I use playlists with 500 tracks in them and at the end of the playlist I have a shortcut to the next playlist last in line in the playlist. Problem solved. The playlist loads no problem and fast. Do this to all the playlists and they will run around forever.
I have used Zara for years on many diff computers and never had a problem, Windows XP, 7 and now 10.
Back to Radioboss it works good enough I will just have to restart the program every 2 1/2 to 3 days it takes 1min yo 1min 30 seconds to restart the program and get it playing again. You can have the program start playing exactly where it stopped when you cloed the progam. I will have to restart it at night when hardly nobody is listening to my station.
Screw Free radio station software. They will all fail at one point why do you think they are free? That being said I recommend nextkast yes it's $200 but the encoder and software is all-in-one it is easy to use you can't possibly messed that one up.
Nextkast was made with the album rocker in mind {ME) so it will have Great audio. I also run my FM transmitter with it and haven't had too much difficulties. The only thing is you have to set your trigger gain so that the next track will trigger when the volume begins to be too low.
Also I've tried these low RAM Computers they all will fail. You need to have at least 8 gigabytes or 16 gigabytes of RAM. Radio station software takes up a lot of resources and tons of memory and though they will run on little to nothing the more RAM you have the better off you will be.
Even Sam broadcaster is glitchy unless you have at least eight gigabytes of RAM when you're running anything higher than XP. I have ran a station for several years and had the painstaking lesson to learn as it took me awhile to realize that you do get what you pay for when it comes to streaming live on the internet.
What thelegacy is describing has not been my experience with running automation and streaming software.
Perhaps it's true if you don't have a dedicated computer. Then you need as much processing power and memory as possible.
But if all you're running on your computer is your radio stuff (that's a technical term, by the way), then you really don't need a super duper powerful computer. I've run a complete station (Zara, sound processing, stream encoding, streaming server and web server) on a single, dedicated, computer. Not particularly fast (some kind of dual core processor, an AMD I think), XP, 4 GB memory. That computer was able to support 128 simultaneous streaming listeners (@40KBps) while also at the same time broadcasting over the air - I maxed out my upload bandwidth before maxing out the processing.
I've also never had a problem with Zara. From versions 1.4.4 up through 1.6.2. Not with sizes of playlists (thousands and thousands of songs) or events (several hundred).
I suspect that those having problems are running tons of other software. That computer only had the programs that I needed for broadcasting installed. No anti-virus (although I ran scans before setting it free) - there's virtually no chance that mere browsing will infect a server with a virus. No software firewall (everything related to that handled at the router side).
I rebooted it once a week Sunday evenings, not because I had to, but just as a good practice. And the only extraneous processing I did on it was to look at logs.
Just some food for thought.
I run Zara on a rather low end HP tower I bought at Walmart. The PC came with Win 8.1 but is now on Win 10, absolutely no problems.
Thelegacy is well....a legacy.
... therefore no one knows everything.
Here's what I know.
I had terrible interference with my audio applications on Windows XP until I discovered that the latest updated version of AVAST Anti-Virus was blocking things without telling me.
So I tried AD AWARE and it also screwed with my audio software.
After removing them both I have never had another problem and run Zara, Winamp, Shoutcast, Icecast, StereoTool, VLC and Audacity with NEVER a problem.
Carl might be onto something there, my automation computers do not have antivirus software installed.
I know with SAM Broadcaster hou cannot run AV software. NextKast is a little more forgiving but still some of the AV software may be an issue.
FWIW as far as I'm aware no local clusters have AV software installed on their playback machines either, they tend to be dedicated to one use so no need for antivirus. I know for a fact, aside from the included windows AB, there is no AV software installed on any of my cluster's machines. (The office computers are another story, they NEED AV software. For whatever reasons DJs and other station staff are just fantastic at getting my machines infected. For those I run Avast.)