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iTunes errors (-54) and (13010)

Hello dear Apple community. I have a problem (and I see I'm not the only one) with these two errors (-54) and (13010).

The thing is that I didn't have any kind of error with iTunes untill the update 11.2.1 I can't sync my iPod aymore as it says "iPod can't be synced Unknown Error (-54)" or "iPod can't be synced Unknown Error (13010)".

Today was the last thing I could take as I wanted to add pictures to my Photo gallery and while syncing normally it got to Step 4 of 4 (Importing Photos) and it stopped completely at 10 pics changing suddenly to a message saying "Deleting Photos" Doing just that. Deleting my entire Photo gallery. I started Googling how to fix these errors but I got the other error numbers and I stumbled into one question that had a reply saying "Deleting iTunes Library Genius.itdb works" with lots of other comments saying that it did work I decided to try it out. The only thing that happened when I deleted said file was that when I opened iTunes, it automatically created another file with the exact same name. Now I read in other threads that the update 11.2.1 started having the Genius help or something like that which created that Library Genius.itdb file. Maybe it's me, maybe they removed support for iPods Gen 2 and 3 but I see that most of people who has these same problems have devices that are Generation 4 and high which makes get to a conclusion: The update got screwed up at some point or as other threads said, it got "Corrupted"

I use Windows 7 making some files to be harder to find than in a Mac but I really would appreciate that if someone out there have an answer to me, someone who also uses Windows 7 and found an answer to this problem. Please. And I really mean it. Please. Let me know how you could and what you did to repair it. But if there isn't any solution to date, I guess I'll have to wait to the next update and see if it's fixed or not.

For your attention, Thank You.

Windows 7

Posted on Jun 7, 2014 2:32 AM

19 replies

Sep 26, 2015 10:19 AM in response to Onecyberguy

Many, many sincere thanks to "havinath" for this!

Oct 20, 2015 6:04 PM in response to havinath

Your solution didn't help me, but it put me on the right track. Here are the steps that solved Error -54 for me:

Error -54 is a file permissions issue -

if you open the Start menu & type %userprofile% (including both % symbols) then hit Enter you should see the My Music folder, which is the default location for iTunes music files.

Open My Music, select the iTunes folder

Then, make sure you have sufficient control over the contents of that folder -

right-click on the folder, go to Properties

Make sure that the Read-only Attribute is not checked. Mine was checked and when I cleared the check-box then I could successfully sync my iPhone 5s.

Oct 29, 2015 7:08 AM in response to cook_enterprises

Many, many thanks to Cook Enterprises for this! I'm sorted.

(I will buy you a virtual beer here in London!)

Dec 30, 2015 9:48 AM in response to Markc1871

I too have had the -54 error within iTunes when trying to backup, restore and sync.

General Hint:

Before anything else, turn off the iPhone by pressing the power on button until you get the prompt to power it down.

Wait for a minute or two.

Power up to the iPhone.

Try to run the feature causing the problem.

If the problem(s) persist continue to read here…

The statement made:

Reply Helpfulby havinath on Dec 26, 2014 4:31 AM

This worked for me.

Error -54 is a file permissions issue -

is true for this instance, however, in my case the file was a .jpeg file that didn't want to play nice.

To discover what was causing the problem, I went to the computer folders containing the to-be-synced files and did a search.

Tried the picture file folder on the computer to be synced first because this is where the greatest potential for variable file types exist.

Found a file that couldn't be opened by "Preview" by selecting all and an error came up that one of the files couldn't be opened.

It had been created as a .pdf file and had the name and suffix ####.gif.jpeg.

I pulled the pict file, after it couldn't be opened by "Preview," ran the sync process and the -54 error was gone. The backup ran correctly, too. Didn't want to try the restore process from previous attempts because the restore would take me back to where I had problems.

Simple solution is to turn off all options when trying the sync process.

If the sync runs OK, go back and add one option at a time until the error shows up.

If the process stops with a -54, check for a corrupt computer library for music or pict file(s). The corrupt files will most likely not be able to be played or opened in "Quicktime" or "Preview."

Move them to another location not included in the sync process (maybe a folder on the computer desktop) and try the sync process, again.

If the process runs without errors you have identified the bad file.

If the error shows up again, search for other corrupt (maybe misnamed) files, move to the same location as noted above.

Repeat until corrupt files are ID'd and removed and the process runs, correctly.

Hope this process fixes the -54 error problem for you.

iTunes errors (-54) and (13010)