iTunes Library file is locked, on a locked disk...

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iTunes Library file is locked, on a locked disk...

I have a mac mini and for about a month now, I'd been struggling with space for my iTunes folder. So, I copied all of iTunes music to an external drive and pointed iTunes to use that as my default storage. Music was reloaded and all seemed fine. When I logged in the next time, and every time since, I get the following error when iTunes launches and fails:

The iTunes Library file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file.

Also keep in mind that this only happens when I log in to my basic user acct on my mac. When I log-in to the admin acct, iTunes launches fine, but empty. I thought about trashing the profile and starting over, but I've had just as many problems migrating my Entourage '08 email profiles to the new account, so I'm going with what I hoped would be the lesser of two evils.

Please help.

Mac Mini 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 2, 2008 8:22 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 2, 2008 8:28 PM in response to jacque314

jacque314,

What format does the external drive use that has your iTunes Music on it?

Hope this helps,

Raleigh

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Answer 2

Dec 2, 2008 8:29 PM in response to jacque314

You need to check and see that you have both Read AND Write permission on the iTunes Music folder AND on all folders within it. Log in to the account where the library resides and navigate to the music folder thru Finder. Get Info and check your permissions. To change them, you may need to input the Admin password. Also, and very important, make sure that Read and Write permission is applied to ALL enclosed folders. (Check this under details.)

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Answer 3

jacque314 Author

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Dec 2, 2008 8:35 PM in response to Diane Wordsmith

Thank you for your fast responses. After a month of banging my head on the desk, writing this out helped me figure it out. Fixed!

I had copied over my entire iTunes folder. This included the following:
iTunes Library
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
iTunes Music Library.xml

Because they were set to default to the admin acct, when they copied over they retained the admin only read/write access.

I had originally only checked the iTunes Music Library.xml file for access issues.

Thank you for your help!!!

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Answer 4

Dec 2, 2008 8:37 PM in response to jacque314

Glad it worked!

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