NTFS Junction point causes iTunes to report "There was a problem downloading the sofware for the iPhone. An unknown error occurred (-50)"

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NTFS Junction point causes iTunes to report "There was a problem downloading the sofware for the iPhone. An unknown error occurred (-50)"

To try to save space on my C: drive, I created NTFS Junction Points to redirect iTunes to store iOS update files on my D: drive. But when I do this, iTunes reports an error when I try to download iOS updates via iTunes. Switching back to the original folders on C: drive fixes the problem.

Error message:

There was a problem downloading the software for the iPhone. An unknown error occurred (-50)

Here were the NTFS Junction Points I was using:

C:\Users\seitz\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes>dir /AL

Volume in drive C is OS

Volume Serial Number is F268-F567

Directory of C:\Users\seitz\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes

2023-08-03 15:01 <JUNCTION> iPad Software Updates [D:\Users\seitz\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPad Software Updates]

2023-08-03 15:18 <JUNCTION> iPhone Software Updates [D:\Users\seitz\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates]

Posted on Dec 18, 2023 5:13 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Dec 22, 2023 2:29 PM in response to seitz_m

Past experience suggests that Apple software is not always compatible with junctions. I have used them to relocate iOS backup data, but iTunes breaks if these are used with the main library. You may have stumbled on another use it isn't happy with. Remove the junctions. Clean up previously used .ipsw files before attempting an update. Update directly on device if space is still at a premium, or find some other set of data unrelated to iTunes that you can safely relocate.

tt2

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