Can't burn a CD from iTunes - "Burning Disc...finishing"

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Level 1

8 points

Can't burn a CD from iTunes - "Burning Disc...finishing"

Using iTunes 8 with a machine that has never had previous problems burning CDs...trying to burn an audio CD with purchased music...17 songs, 52 minutes, 49 MB, onto a blank 80 minute/700 MB CD. After clicking the "burn disc" button, it goes rather quickly to a status of "Burning Disc...finishing" and hangs there (I have waited over an hour on this latest attempt). This has occurred twice now with different CDs, and iTunes doesn't really let me abort the burn. I can't get the CD to eject without rebooting the machine. My account is authorized on this machine.

800 MHz PowerPC G4, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Oct 14, 2008 6:44 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Sass

Level 2

343 points

Oct 19, 2008 12:12 PM in response to Keith_R

I'm having a similar problem after installing 8.1 (skipped 8.0). After quite a long bit of "churning, churning", my Macbook Pro keeps kicking out the blank CD -- iomega, verbatim, CD-R, 1x - 16X and calling for a blank disc! Doesn't make any difference when it is inserted, somehow it can't be found. Pure frustration!

Sass

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Answer 2

Keith_R Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 26, 2008 8:50 AM in response to Sass

There are many seemingly related reports of CD burning problems with the new iTunes, yet no fixes or statements from Apple regarding a software fix. I'd happily give up the "Genius" feature just to get my old iTunes back.

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Answer 3

Sass

Level 2

343 points

Oct 26, 2008 9:01 AM in response to Keith_R

Amen!!!

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Answer 4

Dave H.

Level 2

215 points

Oct 28, 2008 9:44 PM in response to Keith_R

I have had similar problems tonight and I went into "Disk Utility" and repaired the permissions on my hard drives (I did both although probably did not need to). Once that was complete I tried burning my playlists again and they worked fine and were burned in just a few minutes and never got hung up. It may not be a universal answer but it worked for me. I hope it helps.

Dave

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Answer 5

Oct 29, 2008 7:35 PM in response to Sass

I'm having the same problem on both OSX.5 and OSX.4 machines. Both have iTunes 8.1.

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Answer 6

Oct 30, 2008 8:33 AM in response to Keith_R

guys! try burning at 16x. i was having major trouble with the burning of audio CD's, but switching down to 16x makes it work perfectly. just burnt 4 CD's i a row with no problems!
good luck!!

p.s. Apple really need to address this problem!

muchos love!

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Answer 7

Keith_R Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 30, 2008 5:47 PM in response to Dave H.

I repaired disk permissions, relaunched iTunes, clicked "Burn disc", selected 16x, and it pushed the CD back out a couple seconds later. I pushed the CD back in, exited iTunes, relaunched iTunes, and it went straight to "Burning Disc...initializing". When, after 20 minutes of nothing, I click the X to stop the burn, and confirm, the window changes to read "Canceling disc burn...this may take a minute or two". It sticks there. When I then try to exit iTunes, I get a confirmation window asking if I am sure I want to quit. I confirm (twice), but iTunes doesn't really quit, until I try a few more times and tell it again I really want to quit, at which point the system tells me I have inserted a blank disc and asks what I want to do.

Bottom line - this is still messed up. I want iTunes 7 back.

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Answer 8

Edwah

Level 1

0 points

Oct 30, 2008 9:47 PM in response to Keith_R

I had the message "disc burner or software not found" I knew I had Pioneer DVD-RW-DVR-109.
I had successfully burnt both cds and dvds till just recently after trying disk utility permission update and that not working I zapped the pram and it worked just fine, not a techy but this never happened prior to iTunes8—Apple are you listening?

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Answer 9

Nov 14, 2008 6:11 AM in response to Keith_R

I just had the problem solved by restarting. The problem for me may have come from doing several software upgrades (including iTunes) and then not restarting the computer.

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Answer 10

Keith_R Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 21, 2008 8:43 PM in response to Keith_R

Just updated to 8.0.2. It still hangs at "Burning Disc... finishing."

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Answer 11

damonk

Level 1

4 points

Nov 25, 2008 8:59 AM in response to Keith_R

I'm with you. Genius?? gives me nothing. I can't burn a disc, "The attempt to burn disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error." Tried different discs, rebooting etc.

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Answer 12

damonk

Level 1

4 points

Nov 25, 2008 9:00 AM in response to Dave H.

Tried repairing permissions. No luck.

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Answer 13

gtberg

Level 1

8 points

Nov 28, 2008 11:24 AM in response to Edwah

How do you "zap the pram"??? What exactly is that?

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Answer 14

Nov 28, 2008 5:48 PM in response to Keith_R

I've also been having this problem, but ever since that update, not only has my iTunes been unsuccessful at burning CDs, but so has every other CD burning program I have on my Macbook! Nothing burns anymore! With iTunes, it burns about half of a playlist before the drive starts whirring like crazy, and the remaining time starts going back up until it stops and I get the "medium write error" message. On LiquidCD, it flat out refuses to burn, saying there was some sort of error with the drive. And on ExpressBurn, it does maybe 4 tracks before it hangs on whatever it was burning, and then ejects the CD saying it is finished, when it really isn't. Apple better fix this soon.

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Answer 15

Nov 29, 2008 2:18 PM in response to Edwah

Yes - Just got the CD not found/software error but It's definitely working fine. Not happy!

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