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Error message when burning a CD

Attempting to burn a CD from my playlist in iTunes, but keep getting an iTunes error message that says "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error".

Posted on Jul 10, 2014 8:37 PM

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3 replies

Jul 10, 2014 8:45 PM in response to msrearick

Take your choice:


Bad discs

Dust bunnies in drive blocking laser

Drive failing

Crashed/corrupt firmware controlling drive

Crashed system component


Try different brand of discs and/or slower burn speed

You don't say anything about your model computer. With some you can reset software. Of course sometimes restarting a computer can help.


Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 Apple Portables: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411 Apple Computers: Troubleshooting the slot-loading SuperDrive - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2801


Failing all those it is not uncommon for optical drives to need replacing every 5 years or so.

Jul 11, 2014 11:08 AM in response to Limnos

My error message only started to appear after upgrading to iTunes 11. The reason i suspect the software rather than the hardware is that this has happened to me before when an upgrade caused me to suddenly get these errors and only subsequent further upgrades suddenly "fixed" the problem. Since repeated fails wastes discs needlessly and since repair might be more waste of money, I find that the lack of transparency about some problems is not user friendly!

Jul 11, 2014 11:15 AM in response to Gaylyn Henry

Try using a third party burn utility. Burn is free. I like LiquidCD but I don't know if it works on newer Macs. This will let you test if it is an iTunes problem, though system components will still be part of the process. Other utilities may also let you turn off the laser so the process takes place but doesn't actually use a disc each test.

Error message when burning a CD

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