The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error occured (-50).

I'm having this problem as well, and since you seem to know what you're talking about, I'm going to ask you a question or two (or anyone else who knows the answer!)

Before updating iTunes to 7.3, I had added a whole lot of songs to my Library, and the restart and addition of 7.3 made those files disappear from the application but not the files. So, my question is, should I put all the songs that I want in my new library in before I follow the steps outlined in order to stop the error to occur again?

I hope that made sense. Any input is greatly appreciated 😀

I'm a first-time mac owner who needs clarification. On step 3, you say to delete the 2 library files in the itunes folder. I have no idea where the itunes folder would be located. I am sure it is obvious to those who have done this before but i'm stumped!

imac Mac OS X (10.4.10)

So I followed the steps, and the error message no longer comes up HOWEVER.. I got the message saying 'Some of your songs could not be imported because they could not be found'.. Only thing is, now that they all have the same 'date added' I can't be sure which ones are missing.

I know that the last album I uploaded is there but the last purchase from the store isn't.

Is there a way you can search the itunes folder (Would consolidating the library do this? - I did try that and it said 'Preparing to consolidate' for a while then did nothing) to match up the library and music folders? Or maybe use what's actually on your ipod maybe?

So annoying... Please help!

Just adding my name to the long list of people who are having this issue. I would prefer that Apple come out with an "official" fix for the problem.

At any rate, it convinced me to finally upgrade from Mac OSX 10.3.9 to 10.4.10 -- but that didn't solve the problem. 😟

iMac 20" G5 Mac OS X (10.4.10)

I've run into the same problem and I too would like to see an offical fix.

Just adding my voice and an observation. When you rebuild you library you will need appropriate disk space to do it.

Those directions for rebuilding the iTunes Library are good (and basically the same as the ones from Apple: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313). It does, unfortunately, lose the play count and last played dates (why? why? Isn't this stored in the XML file too?)

Another hitch for me is that when I do this, all of the dependencies between my smart playlists get broken. Apple has instructions for backing up and restoring playlist information at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93763, and it seems to work, even for smart playlists. What chafes my bum, however, is that it seems like I'll have to export my playlists one at a time (you can't export a folder of them all at once, and you can't select multiple playlists at the same time), and then reimport them again in exactly the right order.

This wouldn't be a huge deal if I didn't have literally hundreds of interdependent smart playlists. The order of import clearly matters, and the tediousness is just ridiculous. Wouldn't the point of re-building the library be not to break things like this?

Not quite sure where to go with this. I have a good backup of my old iTunes library... I'm thinking downgrading to 7.2 again and then praying that 7.4 (or 8, or whatever) will import the library correctly, without hosing it.

Not a happy camper.

Is it likely that Apple will come out with a patch for this problem? I get the "-50 unable to save iTunes file" so everything I've added to my library since the newest iTunes release is lost whenever I reopen iTunes.

Is it worth it to wait it out for iTunes to fix it? I don't want to lost my play counts and whatnot. But if it's going to be a while, I might as well save a new iTunes library file.

2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook and a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac. Mac OS X (10.4.10) 30 GB iPod Video

APPLE!!! WE NEED A iTUNES FIX!!!! NOW!!! QUICK!!!..

I got my hopes up big time when I downgraded to 7.2 from 7.3: when 7.2 opened, it "updated" my library file (a copy restored from backup, pre-7.3 upgrade). My hope was that that update would clean up whatever was causing 7.3 to choke on the Library. file.

No dice.

Re-upgrading to 7.3 after downgrading to 7.2 resulted in the same flurry of -50 errors as before. Whatever 7.2 was updating wasn't what was making 7.3 *****. Back to 7.2 and waiting for a real patch from Apple.

Thanks...this seemed to have work...

Hey there's a new iTunes update!! Will this fix the error??

2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook and a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac. Mac OS X (10.4.10) 30 GB iPod Video

Note that if you still have the binary "iTunes Library" file that was causing this problem under 7.3, it will read and save correctly under 7.3.1.

After rebuilding the library are podcasts and other data on the library lost?