Q: Error Code: ERROR ITMS-3000: "Line 79 column 29: element "data_file" incomplete; missing required element "checksum""

I have this question too

Did you get an answer? DId you figure this out? I've been trying to upload a book for several days and keep getting the same error that you're getting re: "checksum"

I can't find a solution online?

Any solutions to this?

Jeff

I received a reply from Apple and it is to do with the metadata. somewhere something you have entered into ITunes connect is different from the metadata in your book. At least that was my problem and when I reentered everthing in ITunes Connect it uploaded OK

This is absurd. This is obviously a new thing the implemented since the only search results are from the past few days. If my ePub creator ( Calibre ) enters slightly different variations of the same data, who cares? Overwrite it!

I agree. I'm in the process of uploading 14 eBooks - all of which have been well formatted, etc., and I'm getting this variation of "checksum" error on every one. Frustrating!!!

Yeah I'm looking over my metadata now to see if I can find some discrepencies...

After reviewing the debug output, I found that it was referencing a file that didn't exist in the ePub document. I thought that was odd because I had removed all references to that file. Turns out that producer wants the cover image that's embedded in the ePub to have the same name as the cover that's uploaded to the store via producer. Hey morons (Apple), they don't have to be the same name because you're not merging it back into the ePub! I have always submitted my titles this way. Really appreciate you just changing this on us over the weekend ( last book I uploaded was Thursday ), oh and the cryptic error message was a nice touch. Thanks!

This wouldn't have happened if Steve here...

Thank you for this useful info! I can't imagine how long I would've been trying to figure that out on my own. It's now uploaded successfully.

I've also been uploading ebooks to iTunes for a few years now (only about 15, but still). You're right that it's a stupid requirement. I've always used a different cover image (higher res) in the Cover Art section of Assets. But I'm not even sure you can use the same image file. If I remember correctly, I've had problems in the past by having images in the epub larger than 2 million pixels. But the cover art image has to be a minimum of 1400 pixels on the short side. So, for a "6x9" cover, you'd have a 2.94 million pixel jpeg, which would cause another kind of error. Maybe they've done away with that req, but either way, having to use the same image file is a useless requirement. I just used the same, larger cover image but gave it the same name as the smaller one in the epub (it lives in a different folder).

Yeah, I remember when they started teh 1400 pixel requirement, I was not a happy camper that day...

Amazon doesn't care at all about the data ha! However, their awful pricing rules over shadow their ease of uploading. I still can't believe Apple got in trouble for "price fixing" when Amazon forces us to fit our titles into their "fixed" range, or else we get hit with a massive penalty (loss of royalty, which is the same thing)! That's the one reason I like iTunes over Amazon/Barnes & Noble, though we actually haven't uploaded to B&N yet.

Anyways, my workflow is: InDesign ePub export, Clean it up with Sigil, then use Calibre to split the pages, generate the TOC, and convert to Mobi.

Also, remember ePub is just a Zip file. So if you really want to inspect the file, change it's file extension to .zip and unzip it. I've tried doing this through Finder but it never seems to work so I do it via command line (Terminal). Then I can manually tweak it if needed. One example of this being a requirement, was when I was getting an error from Book Proofer that the ePub was encrypted! Turned out that InDesing placed a little xml file named "encrypted.xml" inside the META-INF folder. Luckily the fix was to just delete the file, zip the data backup and then change the extension back to .epub.

I'm having the same problem.  Cover image has the same name.  I have Book Proofer installed, but it looks like that only syncs the file to my iPhone, so I plugged my iPhone into my Mac to see if it syncs properly, and it tells me I don't have iBooks installed (I paid a third party to create my ePub file).  So now, I'm downloading iBooks (280 Mb install) just to see if my ePub will sync to my iPhone through Book Proofer...... all so I can upload my book to iTunes???

This is the most bass-ackwards, non-user friendly BS I have ever encountered.

Here's the response I got from Apple when I reported this problem.

The delivery of your book ended in error because there is an issue with the MD5 checksum provided.  Once received, the MD5 checksum (there is one checksum for each asset file provided) contained in the metadata file is compared against the actual file received by the iBookstore.  If any differences are detected, the asset file and the entire corresponding package will be rejected.

To correct this upload error, add your book assets (i.e. sample file, if required, iBooks or EPUB file, and cover art) in to iTunes Producer again, make sure all required metadata fields are filled out, and click on Deliver when you are ready to deliver the book to us.

I didn't create the Metadata file or the EPub file myself, I hired a third-party vendor to do it because it's over my head.  Now, I can't even upload it, because they can't put in plain English what the problem is, and I don't have the technical knowhow to examine the 'Metadata" and figure out what the problem is.

I just solved my problem.  The name of my epub file was different than the actual title of my book.  Once I changed it to match, the upload completed.

I would also imagine that the image must be the same exact file as well, since they refer to using an MD5 checksum.