"iPod cannot be synced. The required file is locked."

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Level 1

9 points

"iPod cannot be synced. The required file is locked."

I'm sure there are several threads about this, but none have produced an answer that works for me.

I have an iPod Touch 1G and iTunes 8.0.1.11, though I don't think that matters. I should probably ask this on a Windows XP website, but I thought maybe I could get some results here.

Basically my deal is, when I plug in my Touch and let it try to sync (or hit sync manually), I get the error message "The iPod (iPod name) cannot be synced. The required file is locked."
Ex: http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/8393/20901666.png
(Also, manually drag-and-drop method of music in the library freezes iTunes.)

Now, people say to go to your iTunes music folder, usually the one under "My Music", right click and uncheck the "read only" box. I've done that, hit OK, and brought up the Properties again, and it has been re-checked without my doing.

Could this be iTunes's doing? Or am I doing something wrong? Or should I go ask Windows users?

Another little bit of info: This only started happening today. I have done nothing different than I have before.

Posted on Feb 26, 2009 5:05 PM

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Answer 1

Katrina S.

Level 7

24,131 points

Feb 27, 2009 7:23 AM in response to thefowles1

Sometimes my files get mysteriously locked in XP, too. A PC restart usually clears it up.

However, I once had to take ownership of my entire music folder again. Is this XP home or Pro?

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Answer 2

thefowles1 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 27, 2009 12:28 PM in response to Katrina S.

Usually when I try it, the computer has been on for a while. I'll try that.

I use Home.

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Answer 3

thefowles1 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 27, 2009 2:39 PM in response to Katrina S.

A restart did nothing. D=

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Answer 4

Katrina S.

Level 7

24,131 points

Feb 27, 2009 3:14 PM in response to thefowles1

Bummer. Now that I looked at it again, that error message looks like it might be complaining about a file on the iPod.

If you reset your ipod does it go away? And if that didn't work, I would restore my ipod to factory settings. But I'd try the reset first.

Message was edited by: Katrina S.

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Answer 5

thefowles1 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 27, 2009 6:02 PM in response to Katrina S.

Well, the iPod Touch can be rebooted, if that's what you mean. I can try that.
It's weird, though. I can't manually add apps/music, nor will syncing work.

Resetting/rebooting Touch did not help, restoring it did not help. =C

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Answer 6

Katrina S.

Level 7

24,131 points

Feb 27, 2009 6:07 PM in response to thefowles1

I don't think I can provide any help, since I don't have an iTouch. All I know, is they act differently than the other iPod models. I won't be buying one since they can't be put in disk mode. There is an iTouch forum.....best of luck.

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Answer 7

thefowles1 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 28, 2009 8:19 PM in response to Katrina S.

Aye, I found out that they use a flash drive instead of a disk drive after I had received one, but that doesn't bother me.

I'll try there.. thanks.

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Answer 8

Feb 28, 2009 9:48 PM in response to thefowles1

Hey Fal_Indelstan,
You could always try going to an apple store to have a genius look at it, I'm sure you will be more then happy with there support. However since you are writing on this blog that isn't the route you want to go. Now even though I don't have a first generation ipod touch or a machine running windows you might try the the ideas on the following link http://www.megaleecher.net/iPodCannot_BeSynced the way that I got this link was by googling it.

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Answer 9

Feb 28, 2009 10:09 PM in response to westongallagher

An After Thought,
I know that when my second Gen. iPod Touch is Lock I get a messaged like that, have you tired unlocking your ipod before you try to sync it?

If that doesn't work you could always try updating to the latest version of iTunes, a lot of the time Apple hammers out some of the odd issues.

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Answer 10

thefowles1 Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 1, 2009 12:22 AM in response to westongallagher

Unfortunately I have already googled it (that's my first course of action, always) and I found that, but that website's method won't work for the Touch. =/

I'll try the unlocking idea... that never occurred to me. Dunno why that'd work but I'll give it a try.

If it doesn't work I'll update iTunes and will try that, then update this thread. Thx Weston.

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Answer 11

Mar 1, 2009 8:25 PM in response to thefowles1

Alright,

How did upgrading to the latest version of iTunes go? Did it help any? No, dang! sorry getting ahead of myself I don't even know if it has or not. I have been racking my brain trying to recreate this issue but am having no luck. I did however find a computer running xp sp2 to do some test and such on it.

Here are some more ideas that my wife and I came up with for you to try,

1. In iTunes go to (Help)/(Run Diagnostics) in the menu bar (In my opinion you don't need to do the test for (cd/dvd) or (network) but that is up to you. After which I request that you copy and past the report like so:

**************************************************************
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (Build 2600)
Gateway W3107
iTunes 8.0.2.20
QuickTime 7.6
FairPlay 1.1.11
CD Driver 2.0.7.5
CD Driver DLL 2.1.1.1
Apple Mobile Device 2.1.2.7
Bonjour 1.0.6.2 (118.5)

iTunes Serial Number ######

Current user is an administrator.
The current local date and time is 2009-03-01 20:47:13.
iTunes is not running in safe mode.

Video Display Information

NVIDIA GeForce 6100

** External Plug-ins Information **

No external plug-ins installed.

** iPod/iPhone Connectivity Tests **

iPodService 8.0.2.20 is currently running.
iTunesHelper is currently not running.
Apple Mobile Device service 2.12.33.0 is currently running.

Universal Serial Bus Controllers:

Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller. Device is working properly.
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller. Device is working properly.

No FireWire (IEEE 1394) Host Controller found.

Connected Device Information:

Jarvis, running firmware version 2.2.1
Serial Number: #####

** iPhone/iPod Touch Sync Tests **

Sync tests completed successfully.

************************************************************

Just to see what it comes up with, I don't know if the diag. will fix any issues, since I've never needed to use it but it looks like it will give you a good report of whats going on. Go Apple! *and yes with the report feel free to block out any information you don't want to share.

2. I was reading around on the internet and I've found that a lot of the times its something simple to fix some of these issues like the one about the time getting messed up when windows xp goes to sleep. So Here is a simple idea to see if it helps.

Go to (edit)/(preferences) in the menu bar Click on the (Devices) tab and try clicking (Reset Sync History) button. Then try Syncing again. Don't know if it will help but hey worth a shot right?

3. My wife was looking around on the internet and she found a bunch of info on files that are corrupt not being able to sync, since I don't have a corrupt file and am at a lost in how to make one. I was unable to test this theory.

However, the information suggested that it may be related to a picture file. so I would look into the (photos) tab in the iPod touch's Summery page and un-check one picture folder at a time and sync to see if it is related to a particular image folder.

Also beside of the image folder it was noted that some errors are accruing with outlook syncing, so you might also look into the syncing of your contacts and emails in the (info) tab of the iPod Touch's Summery page.

After those too I would look into music that you have just stared to try and sync and try eliminated one at a time again to see if there is one particular file to be the error.

*In note of that it is suggested to only do one at a time, since its always best to do a process of elimination.

4. And last have you tried backing it up in iTunes and then Restoring it. To see if a hard reset like this fixes the issue?

Here is Apple's knowledge base article on it: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414

*Sorry that its such a long post I just want to save you time waiting for me to get back to you.

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Answer 12

thefowles1 Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 2, 2009 1:46 PM in response to westongallagher

(I had originally had the diagnostic results posted here, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary there. Plus I think the solution may have been found; read down.)

Step 2 didn't help (the clear sync history one), so moving on to step 3...

So far nothing has worked. I'm still waiting to see if anything happens with the photo syncing disabled. The Outlook problem is fine; I don't use outlook, have any contacts in it, or have any of those options to be synced enabled.

PROGRESS! I'm now getting the error:
"The iPod cannot be synced. An unknown error has occurred (-50)."
So now it's actually specifying an error code. I'm going to look this up real quick.
Also, a note: This error code showed up only after I disabled photos to be synced.

*MORE PROGRESS!*
I checked Apple's database for the error code -50 and used their solution to try and amend the problem. So I went back into iTunes and tried restoring it from a backup I made of it a few weeks ago, what I had been trying to do all this time.
So far so good. The progress bar is moving!

I'll post a success/fail story once it's done. I would like to thank you, Weston, as it looks like even though the expected effect didn't occur, your steps helped the problem become more defined.

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Answer 13

thefowles1 Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 2, 2009 1:56 PM in response to westongallagher

SUCCESS!
Cha-ching, it worked!

Apparently it had to do with the digital driver signing, nothing with the actual files themselves at all. Huh. -shrug-

But, uh, I was stupid and deleted some of my earlier backups so the ones I thought had all of my files and crap I deleted. Woops. xD

But it's syncing and transferring properly now. Many thanks again! =]

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