CD won't burn, keep getting an error

pumkineater735 wrote:

trying to burn a cd using Apple Music and an external cd burner. followed all the steps on the support page, my laptop has over 100gb of available storage, but cd will not burn. it'll spin for a few seconds then give me the error "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The disc drive is unavailable. It may have been disconnected." the burner is new and I tried burning at different speeds, I have no idea what it could possibly be. PLEASEEEEEEE help

Is this a desktop burner, with its own power supply? Or a portable one, that runs off bus power?

Bus-powered burners may draw more power than a single port can provide, especially when burning. The Apple USB SuperDrive has a reputation for not working well unless connected 'directly' to a USB-A or USB-C port on a compatible Mac, with only an intervening Apple USB-C to USB adapter, if necessary. Third-party portable drives sometimes come with cables for plugging them into two USB ports so that they can suck power out of both,

If your drive is, say, a portable drive that came with one of those "Y" cables, it might work most of the time when plugged into just one USB port – but fail at times, during burning, when it could not get enough power. Perhaps something like that could have led to the error message that you saw.

Re: MacBook Pro (M4, 2024) : "CD won't burn, keep getting an error"

Wondering what kind of music files you are trying to burn, as some may be protected.

(DRM: Digital Rights Management legally protects the rights of musicians, artists, software developers etc.)

Apple support's online article: Intro to burning CDs and DVDs in Music on Mac - Apple Support

Eg: says:

"You can use Music to create your own CDs and DVDs with songs, albums and music videos from your music library.

Important: You can’t burn songs or videos downloaded from Apple Music to CDs or DVDs".

NB: There are various other tips that may be helpful for burning a disc in that first linked article above, .

TheLittles wrote:

Playing Apple Music Files:

So, view the extension. If not MP3, then it would play on a vintage CD player.

That's not how things work. A "vintage CD player" would be one that plays CD-Audio discs. So you would need to burn a CD-Audio disc, not a CD-ROM disc with a bunch of data files (.MP3, .AAC, .AIFF, etc.) on it.

For that purpose, you can use just about any non-DRMed music file as input – when you tell the burning software that you want a CD-Audio disc, it should take care of the conversions necessary. Note that burning a .MP3 file or .AAC file to a CD-Audio disc will not recover sound quality lost due to lossy compression, but it will make the data larger and put it into the format that a vintage CD player expects to play.

See: if Purchase Date1. is shown. If shown, then it is purchased, and is likely copy-protected.

The iTunes Store initially sold music in the form of 128 Kbps AAC files that had DRM. Starting in 2009, the iTunes Store sold music in the form of 256 Kbps AAC files without DRM. This was part of a deal with the record industry that scrapped the "flat 99 cent price if you buy songs one at a time" model, to one where the record labels could choose between three pricing levels (69 cents, 99 cents, $1.29).

So most music "Purchased" from Apple does not have DRM. I believe that the DRM on those early (<2009) files might also allow a limited amount of burning to audio CDs. What that DRM would prohibit is playing the files on any computer that hasn't been authorized to play music using your Apple Account.

"CD won't burn, keep getting an error: trying to burn a cd using Apple Music and an external cd burner. followed all the steps on the support page, my laptop has over 100gb of available storage, but cd will not burn. it'll spin for a few seconds then give me the error 'The attempt to burn a disc failed. The disc drive is unavailable. It may have been disconnected.' the burner is new and I tried burning at different speeds, I have no idea what it could possibly be. PLEASEEEEEEE help"

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Playing Apple Music Files:

So, view the extension. If not MP3, then it would play on a vintage CD player.

1. Go to: View Button (top-right, neck to Search bar) (screenshot below)
2. Expand: File
3. Check: Kind
4. See: if it is MP3
5. Expand: Stats
6. Check: Purchase Date
7. See: if Purchase Date is shown. If shown, then it is purchased, and is likely copy-protected.

Screenshot:

”That's not how things work. A "vintage CD player" would be one that plays CD-Audio discs. So you would need to burn a CD-Audio disc, not a CD-ROM disc with a bunch of data files (.MP3, .AAC, .AIFF, etc.) on it.[….]”

———-

Playing Music CDs:

Rocio 7 is what I use. Music CDs are what use (which is why I left “Music” as its own word. Should had said “Music CD-R” MP3 files play just fine. My system is from the 90s. Had it ever since. The play fine on my 2023 Mac, using QuickTime Player.

What I Use On my 2018, 2021, and 2023 MacBook Pro: External All-in-One Optical Writer - Apple Support. Even burning Blu-ray on this works like a charm. Got it at a local retailer. Works off one port.

Edit…

”That's not how things work. A "vintage CD player" would be one that plays CD-Audio discs. So you would need to burn a CD-Audio disc, not a CD-ROM disc with a bunch of data files (.MP3, .AAC, .AIFF, etc.) on it.[….]”

———-

Playing Music CDs:

Roxio 7 is what I use for the burning software. Music CDs are what use (which is why I left “Music” as its own word). Should had said “Music CD-R”. MP3 files play just fine on Macs and Player. Roxio 7 is the hiring software I use. My system is from the 90s. Had it ever since. They play fine on my 2018, 2021, 2023 MacBook Pros, using QuickTime Player.

• Watching DVD movies on iPad or new MacBooks - Apple Community

Roxio 7 is the burning software I use.