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Ipod cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found

Up until recently, the only thing there was wrong with my Ipod was the occasionally "100% freeze that only could be solved by draining the Ipod from battery", which it did less than three times a month. Then this sunday, when I was going to work (nightshift) I took the bus as usually, and listened to music on my Ipod for about half an hour.

I hear music and podcasts from my ipod when I work, I connect my ipod to a jackstick and connect it to the radio of the wagon I drive around in. And then it started acting weird. The sound seemed to freeze up, but after 1 min or so, it played a fraction of a second and seemed to freeze up again. So I held down the toggle button and menu button, which did restart it as it should.
I chose the same podcast and it started playing as if nothing were wrong. But then it did the same thing, and on the display where the name etc. of the item I was playing were supposed to slide from one side of the ipod to the other, was moving a bit and then coming to a complete stop, and then it would move a bit again.

So I drained it from battery, and recharged it, when I got home from work. When I woke up I tried to play the same podcast, without listening to it, though, it did play, but the timer moved awkwardly, the seconds moved in a funny way.

Then I tried using the restore function, in Itunes, thinking it would perhaps erase some bad software and installing it all over. But now When I try to synchronize the ipod with my itunes library, it synchronizes a few songs and then the red circle that comes with 'do not disconnect' disappears from the ipod and itunes says "the ipod 'name of ipod' cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found."

After that the picture with the red circle and the'do not disconnect' freezes up, and the only way to turn it back on is to hold down the menu and toggle buttons, as if trying to get the ipod to go into disk mode. Also, Itunes can't see the ipod anymore.

I went to the shop yesterday and said there was something wrong with it prior to my restoring it, but the guy in the shop made it sound like it was my fault for pressing the restore button, and that it would most likely start working if the software on it were updated.

The software on my ipod is up to date, and I've tried removing and reinstalling the newest version og Itunes.


I'm sorry for the wall of text that just hit you headon, but I hope that telling all the details might shed some light on my problem.

I hope someone out there can help me, or refer me to another topic with a solution. I just realized how addicted I am to that little piece of hardware.

Thanks in advance

AMD, Windows Vista

Posted on Apr 15, 2008 10:38 AM

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Posted on Apr 15, 2008 11:29 AM

Is this any help?

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6476702
15 replies

Apr 15, 2008 11:10 PM in response to Jeff Bryan

It seemed to work to begin with. I haven't been able to sync more than 4gb, after trying that, it got to 5 gb. I have discovered something weird.

In the device manager, there's a yellow warning triangle on my Ipod device, the device status says: "windows is uninstalling this device (code 21)."

I tried removing the driver and let windows install it again, but the warning sign keep on coming.

I also read that the culprit could be the newest version of Itunes, but I can't for the life of me find Itunes v.7.2.0.35, which someone in the post said works perfectly.

The problem has to be something other than the ipod itself, because I can flip through the menus on the ipod as if nothing were wrong easily. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Apr 15, 2008 11:29 PM in response to Jusse

I forgot to add that everytime I try to follow Endareth's small guide again, the 4-5 gb it did sync previously are still in my Ipod according to Itunes (I can't see them on the Ipod). So in the 'status' bar, where one can see how much space is occupied by 'audio' and 'other' it adds up the 4-5 gb under 'other' everytime I sync.

Apr 17, 2008 1:53 AM in response to Jusse

Have you tried a format of the iPod through Windows? A full format does a check and remap of bad sectors on the iPod hard drive.

I know how to do this on XP (not sure if it's the same on Vista though).

First, put the iPod into forced disk mode.

See: How to put the iPod into disk mode.

On your PC, go "my computer" and right click on the iPod, then choose "format". Ensure the settings are at "default" and that "quick format" is not checked. Now select "format". It will take a while, but when that's finished, restore the iPod using the updater.

To exit forced disk mode, reset the iPod.

Apr 17, 2008 3:04 PM in response to Jeff Bryan

I discovered that I had successfully transfered some of my podcasts to my ipod, so I tried unchecking all the podcasts and only synced what I had checked, which was all my music. Error 69 came back again and I tried unchecking the song it stopped at. When I sync now it doesn't show any items when syncing, because it almost instantaneously stops and says error 69.

And when I press ok to error 69 itunes says there's another error. Error 48. But I've managed to transfer like 4gb of music, out of 10gb.

Apr 17, 2008 3:18 PM in response to Jusse

I have tried to check the 'sync only checked songs and videos' and when I only sync one song or one podcast error 48 appears and stop the process. The funny thing is that when I and check all my library and all of my podcasts, error 48 pops up, but it doesn't stop the process. It continues to sync and at some point stops with the error 69 and the stuff that's been transfered before error 69 pops up is on my ipod.

Apr 17, 2008 3:47 PM in response to Jusse

I don't know why but the edit button has disappeared.

Anyhow, It seems like I get error 69 at every other song or so and it's quickly followed by error 48, and I refuse to believe that the tracks are at fault here.
In addition to that, I tried resetting the ipod and when I plug it back in, I get the following message from itunes:

"Itunes cannot read the contents of the ipod <name of ipod>. Go to the summary tab in ipod preferences and click restore to restore th is ipod to factory settings."

Should I try restoring it? I hesitate, because I think that last time I did it, it only made it worse.

This is indeed a mystery without end.

Apr 18, 2008 3:33 AM in response to Jusse

Okay, I tried restoring the ipod. With about 4 or 5 error 69s I have now synced my entire itunes library and all of my podcasts. Last night I think I read that error 48 on appears on mac? I got it a couple of times on my windows vista last night.

But I hope that my problems are over. I'll report back in a few days.

In the meantime, I'd like to thank you for helping me diligently, Jeff 🙂

Apr 18, 2008 4:17 PM in response to Jusse

UPDATE:

I've just made an interesting discovery (at least I'd like to think so myself:).

When I got home from the gym today I plugged my ipod in the computer to recharge the battery (I had without any incidents heard around 60 songs). When Itunes detected my ipod it didn't recognise the library on my ipod and it wanted to restore the ipod and copy it's current library onto the ipod. Fine, I thought since it's completely indifferent. Only Itunes started with error 69 again.

So I thought, to heck with it.

I deleted my library 100 %, and I've just finished the hard work of sorting out my new library and my new playlists. I only added music, about 1600 tracks and synced - WITHOUT any errors occuring. I tried then to add the podcasts, of which there are 61 and Itunes was able to sync 55 of these before getting the error 69, the last 5 being podcasts of older date, which it hasn't had any problems with earlier.

So right now, I'm thinking can the podcasts interfere with me syncing songs? or something far out like that?

btw. itunes recognises the library on the ipod, so I don't think that's a problem anymore.

Apr 21, 2008 10:59 AM in response to Jeff Bryan

Maybe so, but the podcasts Itunes had a problem with, were the oldest podcasts from the specific subscription, and I've heard those before on the ipod.

So they really aren't that important to sync, luckily 🙂

Last night I heard music and podcasts on my Ipod all night, it froze up twice, where it just stopped playing and the display didn't change - both times in the middle of a podcast. I reset it both times and just started playing again, without any further complications.

If I had to make a qualified guess, it would be that the podcasts can somehow freeze the ipod. Or, something like that 🙂

Ipod cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found

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