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iTunes Library cannot be saved (Error -54)

Hey guys,

Recently started getting the following error "The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error occured (-54)."

!http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9720/picture1tt8.png!

I've searched the forums and Google, but can't seem to find a solution which fixes the error and which does not delete my ratings and playcounts.

Any help appreciated!

Message was edited by: snkhan

Apple iMac 20" 2GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.5.6), iPhone 3G 2.1, iLife '08, iWork '08

Posted on Feb 19, 2009 1:45 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 20, 2009 5:45 AM

Have you already tried this:
Go to iTunes, "file", choose export library. Save the library.xml file on your desktop. Quit iTunes, delete the library files in the iTunes folder. Relaunch iTunes, go to "file", click on import library and choose the library.xml file.
93 replies

Feb 22, 2009 3:41 AM in response to snkhan

Take a look here: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/11/30/how-to-fix-your-itunes-artwork/ and http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19933
These are options for downloading your artworks again. Another tip that wasn't mentioned is that you can open your itunes library, select all songs by pressing "command a". Right click on your library and select "get album artwork". This may take a while, but works very well. If iTunes doesn't find all the artworks, download a program to download the ones that iTunes couldn't find. (You can find this by googling a bit, maybe "album artwork finder mac" or "cover finder mac").
Anyway, downloading your album covers again isn't the nicest thing in the world, but it's far simpler than rating all your songs again...

Feb 26, 2009 9:46 AM in response to snkhan

Thank you so much! I tried two suggestions, unsure which one fixed the problem:

1. Changed my Recently Played smart-list to only display entries from the last two days.
2. Reset my warnings via the advanced menu.

I also happened to switch from SFTP to FTP in a plugin I use. No more silly -54 errors! Thank you again for bearing with me.

Mar 13, 2009 12:00 AM in response to snkhan

I too get the same dialog after setting up my 1.0 firmware 3rd generation Shuffle with the default (i.e. including Voice Over) checked. I also let iTunes 8.1 create a selection that would fit, which uncheck 4 of the 6 checkboxes when the Shuffle is selected:
- Sync Only Checked Songs
- Convert Higher Bit Rate Songs to 128 kps
- Enable Disk Use
(I left Enable sound check, and Manually manage music unchecked)
So, only the first box remained checked, as it was by default: "Open iTunes when this iPod is Attached"

I went ahead and Reset All Warning in the Advanced pane of the Preferences dialog but left the Recently Played "smart playlist" at 2 weeks. I then click on OK on the dialog box in the first posting.

Despite the error, the Voice Over was installed, the selection of right size created, and syncing is being performed. Perhaps it just has to "burp" first (pardon the vernacular), as new software (and old) can always have errors that have little relationship to their wording. It should be otherwise, but based on the different approaches in 10 replies and 7 other threads, look at the variety of fixes!

My least favorite errors are those that silently fail. An action is initiated, but doesn't occur, and there's no error message. An example where info would be helpful is the infamous "Disk is in use" - can't eject - but the OS doesn't tell you by what. I would give 5 to 1 that some layer knows, and somebody thinks or doesn't, that it's OK not to tell. Frustrating.

Anyway, it would be interesting to hear if this is simply an annoying message that doesn't really block anything, or leaves some functionality out, until a firmware patch comes out (1.0.1?). Is it just me, or is Apple getting a little lax on their 30 year history of fabulous releases and bridges? Sorry, just calling it like I see it. There have been a host of problems since top mgmt changed and left.

Mar 2, 2011 5:10 AM in response to snkhan

I recently moved my iTunes library to an external drive. This allows me to open it from a 2nd computer as well as the one it is connected to.

I had it open on the 2nd computer where I was syncing a phone. I pulled the phone out before the sync was done (had to go to work) and then had to do a force shut down on that computer.

When I tried returned to iTunes on the main computer, it gave me this error repeatedly. When I quit and tried to come back to iTunes, it would not let me open the library.

After opening iTunes on the 2nd computer once more (and doing a full phone sync - not necessarily related to fixing the problem) and closing it down... then I was able to open it happily again on the primary computer.

iTunes Library cannot be saved (Error -54)

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