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iPod cannot be synced.

Hi,

Can anyone help me please? My friend got a new 2nd gen shuffle for her birthday on Monday. She's asked me to load it with songs as she doesn't have a pc.

I have dragged the songs into the playlist that I have created but when I try to sync it i get the following message:

The iPod "Mandys iPod" cannot be synced. The disk could not be read from or written to.

What does this mean and why is it happening?

I have a 1st gen Nano and it works fine with my itunes. I have also used a 2nd gen nano with the same itunes and that worked fine.

I can't figure it out. I've registered it to my friend and looked through the iTunes help pages and I can't find anything there either.

Please help.

Thanks.

Michelle.

HP/Compaq nc6000 Windows XP Pro Laptop

HP/Compaq nc6000, Windows XP Pro, Laptop

Posted on Apr 24, 2007 11:52 AM

Reply
21 replies

Apr 28, 2007 2:21 PM in response to Michelleg1983

I am having virtually the same problem. To clarify what I have been experiencing:

1) I connect my Shuffle (2nd Gen) to my dock (via a newly purchased usb 2.0 hub which works fine with every other usb 2.0 device I have and bought specifically for use with my new shuffle)

2) iTunes comeas up in WinXP and hitting autofill begins adding music from my library to my iPod

3) Part way through the process, the error message "Delayed write failure" pops up as a balloon in WinXP. The USB device disconnects and then reconnects (the Windows sounds telling me this is the case)

4) The message "The iPod "XYZ's IPOD" cannot be synced. The required folder cannot be found. The iPod disappears from iTunes and Windows

5) A little while later it reappears in windows and then iTunes

6) Again in iTunes, beginning an autofill, during sync the message appears "Attempting to copy to disk "XYZ's IPOD" failed. An unknown error occured (-124)

7) A delayed write failure message in a balloon from windows pops up again.

8) This whole process goes around in circles re-connecting, partially syncing and then disconnecting, with the occasional "The iPod "XYX's IPOD" cannot be synced. The file or directory is corrupt or unreadable. This then means the shuffle needs to be reset via the shuffle reset tool as iTunes is then unable to reset the devcie.

This whole process seems to go around in circles for no apparent reason or logic. Occasionally a 1418 message also pops up. Interestingly the Shuffle behaves with my laptop so the natural assumption would be a hardware issue with the desktop, however the Shuffle is the only device which misbehaves with my desktop PC and I keep my desktop pretty much updated and my new PCI HUB for my iPod works with everything else. I don't see why this usb flash device should be so much more complicated than other usb flash mp3 players.

Currently I am considering trying to set up a library which accesses my desktop's files via our home network through my laptop's itunes library to sync which seems very convoluted for a simple device. Either that or looking to use a different (non apple) application to use to sync the music.

I really love the design of the new Shuffle and got it on the grounds of its good intelligent product design, if someone could enlighten me on how to resolve these errors (which all seem interrelated and yes I have been all over the support documents trying the R's and resetting and registering drivers with a .bat file) then I would love to get my Shuffle working the way it was intended.

iPod Shuffle 2nd Generation Windows XP

Windows XP

Apr 28, 2007 3:05 PM in response to TafkaD

I am having virtually the same problem. To clarify
what I have been experiencing:

1) I connect my Shuffle (2nd Gen) to my dock (via a
newly purchased usb 2.0 hub which works fine with
every other usb 2.0 device I have and bought
specifically for use with my new shuffle)


[...]

This whole process seems to go around in circles for
no apparent reason or logic. Occasionally a 1418
message also pops up. Interestingly the Shuffle
behaves with my laptop so the natural assumption
would be a hardware issue with the desktop, however
the Shuffle is the only device which misbehaves with
my desktop PC and I keep my desktop pretty much
updated and my new PCI HUB for my iPod works with
everything else. I don't see why this usb flash
device should be so much more complicated than other
usb flash mp3 players.

Currently I am considering trying to set up a library
which accesses my desktop's files via our home
network through my laptop's itunes library to sync
which seems very convoluted for a simple device.
Either that or looking to use a different (non
apple) application to use to sync the music.

I really love the design of the new Shuffle and got
it on the grounds of its good intelligent product
design, if someone could enlighten me on how to
resolve these errors (which all seem interrelated and
yes I have been all over the support documents trying
the R's and resetting and registering drivers with a
.bat file) then I would love to get my Shuffle
working the way it was intended.


And after all that, you don't see the difference between HOW you connect shuffle to desktop versus laptop? Take the hub out of the equation and it works...

Apr 28, 2007 7:50 PM in response to TafkaD

I am having virtually the same problem. To clarify
what I have been experiencing:

1) I connect my Shuffle (2nd Gen) to my dock...


This pretty much sums up my problem exactly, except that I'm connecting through a USB1.1 port.

If I try to sync more than 5-10 songs at a time, it disconnects and I get the message "The iPod "XYZ" cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found." Sometimes windows will reconnect to the iPod automatically and sometimes I need to unplug/replug. This has been happening for a quite a while with various versions of firmware and software and with both generations of Shuffle. *It happens with or without using a hub.*

Apr 30, 2007 3:23 PM in response to 0Ari0

And after all that, you don't see the difference
between HOW you connect shuffle to desktop versus
laptop? Take the hub out of the equation and it
works...


Thanks for the advice however the HUB does not appear to be the issue as it works fine with every other USB device I posess (including a large 320GB USB HDD which would involve a lot of file movement via the HUB). The PCI Hub was purchased as a usb2.0 connection as the built in USB ports on the motherboard do not fully usb2.0 (ie not powered).

I have done some more digging around and the delayed write failure which I mentioned (which incidentally only occurs when using my iPod) is to do with the information being moved from off one drive and onto another via a page table entry. When these get too many in some cases the page table entries get exhausted and the delayed write failure occurs. This is covered at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174

However, I have been trying to resolve this to little avail still - adjusting my BIOS and disabling "Enable write caching on the disk" had no effect on the problem. Has anyone else encountered this and how can this be resolved with an iPod? It sounds like something iTunes could look to address as it seems hardware specific to the iPod as other USB 2.0 devices work fine.

Shuffle 2nd Generation Windows XP

May 1, 2007 6:03 AM in response to TafkaD

What you've written is a bit confusing. You refer to your "PCI hub" - are you using a USB hub, or a PCI USB adapter card? To me, a hub refers to a box that simply plugs into an existing USB port to give you more (external) ports. Plugging a USB2.0 hub into a USB1.1 port will not give you 2.0 capability. There's a bigger difference between the two than just power delivery.

With that said, I just purchased and installed a PCI USB2.0 adapter card and it appears to have fixed my problems (and greatly increased transfer rates). The cost of the card was about $30.

May 1, 2007 9:39 AM in response to Michelleg1983

i'm having this exact same problem. I just got my ipod shuffle [second generation] yesterday and uploaded the newest version of itunes, and then tried to upload some music onto my ipod. it acknowledged that my ipod had been plugged into the USB port, and it would begin to sync any playlist that I selected. but after a few minutes it would tell me that it could not be synced, and that the disk could not be read from or written to.



what am I supposed to do???

May 2, 2007 1:37 AM in response to Chicougo1

To clarify. I am using a PCI Card which gives me 4 USB 2.0 ports. This is termed a USB PCI Hub. I am not plugging an external usb hub into a usb 1.1 port.

It seems the problem may be less with the USB 2.0 connection and more with the "delayed write failure" as detailed in my previous post. Still where other devices work fine, via iTunes the error occurs.

Windows XP

May 2, 2007 3:50 AM in response to Chicougo1

That sounds exactly like the problem I have been having. It's quite irritating as it takes away the quick sync approach to the shuffle - quick device on the go. If it is something to do with the way in which files are taken on/off a HDD and to the iPod via USB then this problem sounds like something that could possibly be sorted with a software update to iTunes to fix this.

Windows XP

iPod cannot be synced.

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