Comments on: Why good error messages matter: iTunes and iPod update

By: misleading error message

misleading error message — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:59:31 +0000

[...] … Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website. Message. Music Industry …brainsnorkel.com Why good error messages matter: iTunes and …The problem is actually to do with an intermittent error reported on the iPod's disk, and the steps [...]

By: Dan Blears

Dan Blears — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:24:28 +0000

Quick fix after some real google trawling.

Use a USB port on the back of your PC, the ones on the front of mine wouldn’t sync for some reason.

By: Luis Martinez

Luis Martinez — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:56:26 +0000

I wasted so much time in mine trying to fix my 160 gb ipod. I dont know why I did not take it to the apple store sooner it was only 4 months old so it was under warrantee. They said its the hard drive did not ask no questions and handed me a new one after I explained all I had done and gone through. I conected other ipods and an iphone to my computer and all worked flawlessly synced no problem. Got home connected the new ipod worked flawlessly no problem. Loaded my 97gb worth of media with no hesitation at all. The supposed currupted songs loaded on it with no problem.

By: Christine

Christine — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:22:12 +0000

hi,
i tried to uncheck the Read Only attribute on my songs. I clicked OK and it applied my settings, but for some reason when i right-clicked it again the Read Only checkbox was checked again. Also I couldnt find ‘Settings’ tab in iTunes, and Enable Disk Use couldnt be changed. Any help would be appreciated!

By: santidiablo

santidiablo — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:40:25 +0000

No problem Barbara. Glad my due diligence was able to help someone. =)

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:13:53 +0000

I have been struggling with this problem for awhile. Finally, I read the post from Santidiablo. I tried the easiest option first – always a good policy. I have been using the convenient USB ports on the front of my desktop HP. Never even thought of using the ones on the back instead. I just unplugged my printer and plugged the iPod dock into that spot – voila! I hope this solution lasts because I need my purple shuffle to keep me company when I walk. Thank you, Santidiablo, for your simple fix.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:31:20 +0000

Just got this message as well and Google took me to your blog. The last song it tried to copy to the iPod before the error was corrupt. A quick trip into Time Machine to restore it, and the iPod is syncing again.

By: babca

babca — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 11:45:55 +0000

iPhone v2.1, “Attempting to copy to the disk “babca” failed. The disk could not be read from or written to.” (with no error number)

Still don’t know where was the problem exactly, but it WORKES now without any reinstalling:
-I unchecked My Music folder > Properties > Read only, then OK and clicked use for folder, subfolders and files…
-BossPrefs (in iPhone) > More > Set Permittions > Fix it
-restart iPhone and plugged to another USB

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:28:54 +0000

I got the message “can not be read from or written to” while syncing my IPOD. I got about half my songs synced and then the message would pop up and it wouldn’t allow me to sync the other half of my songs. Finally, I noticed the message was popping up when trying to sync a specific song, so I simply deleted that song from ITunes and that fixed the problem. Conclusion- that one song must have been corrupted, because once it was removed, the rest of my songs were able to transfer fine.

Easy fix.

By: girtby.net – iDefend iTunes

girtby.net – iDefend iTunes — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:09:57 +0000

[...] is the bearer of bad tidings. Your iPod is going to die sometime. iTunes is likely to deliver this message to you. Don’t shoot the [...]

By: John

John — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:46:35 +0000

I had this problem just now.. Restored the ipod, etc. Turns out it was due to a corrupted mp3.. Alien Ant Farm – Calico. Horrible song. I recently decided to start working on my album cover art and I guess that somehow messed that mp3 up. I ended up just deleting the last few songs of that album after calico because they all seemed to be messed up and now it’s working perfectly.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:38:35 +0000

I was having the same problem today, getting the “iPod can not be read from or written to” error on my older iPod Photo. It ends up that I was using my iPod Touch USB cable to try to sync the iPod Photo, which came with a Firewire cable. I switched over to the original Firewire cable that came with the iPod Photo and it synced perfectly. Weird thing is, I have previously synced this iPod with the USB cable many times in the past, but this time, it didn’t like it. Guess I’ll have to keep both cables handy.