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"The required file cannot be found"

Hello and Thanks in advance.

I have had my iPod 20g click wheel for almost 3 years now and have had very little to no problems. I recently had to restore my PC and had all my songs backed up on a external Hard Drive.
The Problem is: When I try to Sync my iPod with my new PC It sees that it is pluged in, reads that it has the latest drivers, but gives me the error:
The iPod "name" cannot be synced. The required file cannot be found. ... then an unknown error (1418) sometimes.
I have tried to reinstall the USB drivers, plug it into diffrent USB ports with no luck. I have also tried the (toggle Hold on and off, pressing Menu and center button)Each time its the same thing. So I have an iPod with my old songs on it and no way of Reseting it to factory settings so I can sync it with my PC.

Please if anyone knows what I need to do or any advice, list it for me so I'll stop going crazy.

Thank you again.

iPod Click wheel, no color, no video, Windows XP

Posted on May 2, 2007 6:41 PM

Reply
9 replies

May 2, 2007 6:57 PM in response to Damon769

I'm having the same problem. However, I somehow put too much music on my iPod and for whatever reason when I plug it into USB, I recieve the following statement, "Songs on the iPod “IPOD” cannot be updated because all of the playlists selected for syncing no longer exist." I have music on my library, but not my iPod. Is there I can't even listen to the music. When I click on a song on my computer, nothing happens. Is there any way I can re-sync the music with certain software? Without software? I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks

Sony Vaio Windows XP

May 2, 2007 7:26 PM in response to Damon769

Hi Damon769,

There are a few things to try with one of those "required file/folder" error messages.

I'm not sure what exactly you have tried and/or not tried, but let's go ahead and work step-by-step through the list, okay?

The basic procedure with the following instructions would be to disconnect your iPod from your computer prior to actually performing the task.

Then, when you are complete with that step, open iTunes, and connect your iPod to your computer again, to check if you are still getting the error message. Repeat this kind of sequence as you go onto each next possibility to try:

<hr>
Corrupt Photo Cache folder:

Sometimes the "iPod Photo Cache" folder(s) on your computer can be corrupted in some way, which causes this error message.

Try deleting this folder off your computer:

1 - Go to "START > Search".

2 - Select "All files and folders", and make sure that you are searching over your entire hard drive.

3 - Then, type " ipod photo cache" in the blank, and click "Search" to begin searching.

4 - When the search is complete, delete any "iPod Photo Cache" folders that you may find on your computer.

<hr>
iTunes needs to be reinstalled:

It's possible that iTunes needs to be reinstalled, perhaps because some required installation files were not loaded properly, or have been deleted.

Disconnect your iPod from your computer.

Go to "Add or Remove programs" in Control Panel. Find "iTunes" and "QuickTime" on this list, and remove them both.

Then, download the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility, to clear out the remaining iTunes and QuickTime installation files off your computer (see this MS document for information on it):

Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility

Also, use this article to manually remove the left over files from installation:

Removing iTunes and QuickTime for Windows

After you've done that, restart your computer.

Then, go to this page to install the iTunes + QuickTime installation pack onto your computer again:

Download iTunes - 7.1.1.5

Now, restart your computer once more.

<hr>
Corrupt iTunes Library files:

-- It's possible that there is some sort of corrupt file in the iTunes library, which is causing this error.

When you are getting this error message, does it seem to occur when it hits a particular song(s) in the sync?

If so, then try tracking down where which song that is, and then attempt to play that song in iTunes.

If you think you've found the culprit, delete it from your iTunes library (with your iPod disconnected), and reimport it into your iTunes again.

-- Make sure that your external hard drive is connected. If you store your iTunes library songs on an ex. hard drive, then make sure that it is connected to your computer, or else you will have files that cannot be found in your iTunes library.

<hr>
USB issues:

This error could also be caused by something with your computer's USB connections with your iPod.

-- First, try connecting your iPod to a rear port, not the front one.

-- With your iPod disconnected, try unplugging all other USB and FireWire devices (except your keyboard and mouse).

-- Update or reinstall your USB drivers. For instructions, see the steps in this article.

-- Also, you could try using a different USB cord. Disconnect your current one from your computer and your iPod, and restart your computer. Now connect the new USB cord (if you have another one) to your computer, and connect your iPod.

<hr>
Firewall issues:

It's possible that your firewall or antivirus software is blocking an iTunes process (like iTunesHelper.exe, for example), from running properly when your iPod is connected.

First, let's determine what Internet security software you have.

If you're not sure, you can go to "START > All Programs", and browse along the list for your security program.

(Make sure to do the following with iTunes closed and your iPod disconnected.)

Here are a couple of firewall/security programs that come to mind, that we have kbase articles (or I have the security program myself) about how to allow iTunes onto it:

If you're using your Windows firewall, then you can use this article to enable iTunes on it:

How to enable iTunes on Windows XP firewall

If you're using McAfee Personal Firewall Plus, then use the instructions in this article to enable iTunes there.

(That article above only mentions "iTunesHelper", but allow anything Apple/iPod/iTunes related on that list... not sure if that is the only one listed there, but look around anyway).

If you're using Norton Internet Security

If you are using something else, then usually, you launch the program, and go to some sort of section like "Settings", then go to something that says "Firewall settings", "Internet Permissions", or something similar.

Try to find a list of applications that it "Allows/Blocks".

Then, like normal, enable "iTunesHelper.exe", or "iTunes.exe", and "iPodService.exe" or anything else iTunes/iPod related (again, not sure if there are many things on that kind of list).

Now, after you've enabled iTunes processes on your firewall, restart your computer. Then, check your firewall again, just to make sure that your settings haven't changed back to default, and are still allowing iTunes.

Then, connect your iPod, and see if it syncs with iTunes or not.

<hr>
Let's test something...

If that does not fix your issue, then I would also like to do a little test with how something acts on your computer for you:

With iTunes opened and your iPod disconnected, go to Task Manager (Ctrl AltDelete), and click on the "Processes" tab. Here, there ought to be these three processes listed:

iTunes.exe, iTunesHelper.exe, and iPodService.exe.

Carefully watch those three processes (if they are all there), and leave your Task Manager up and runnning so you can see what happens.

Now, connect your iPod to your computer.

Do those three processes stay in your Processes area when the iPod is connected? Or does some other strange thing occur?

For example, do either of those applications only stay for a few seconds when your iPod is connected, then promptly disappear?

Now that were done with the test (please describe the results of what happened in a reply), you can move onto some other possibilities:

<hr>
Other causes:
There could also be other things that could cause this error.

For example, if your computer is out-of-date with its Windows Updates, that might be a contributing factor.

You could try enabling disk use in iTunes, then resync your iPod with iTunes, and see if the error still occurs. (for instructions on disk use, check disk use

Also, these "other causes" could be things similar to what is mentioned in this article. (i.e., running Chkdsk on your hard drive, or keeping your computer up-to-date with its downloads).

<hr>


I hope one of those things solves your issue,


-Kylene

May 2, 2007 7:29 PM in response to Reggienobles

Hi Reggienobles,

When you get a message that says "the selected playlists do not exist", this occurs when, as the message seems to indicate, when your iPod was synced with specific playlists in iTunes, and then those playlists were removed.

Now I'm not sure what is going on exactly in your case, but I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to simply restore your iPod, and start afresh (restoring clears all of the contents off your iPod).

For info on restoring an iPod, see this article:

Restoring iPod to factory settings


-Kylene

Jul 27, 2007 2:57 AM in response to iPod_nano_1_GB

Hey Kylene, thanks for the abundant options to fix the nano. I've tried most of those options.

I've finally got it to SYNC with my iTune! YAY!!
I've done so many of the things you listed I'm sure what really fixed it.

I reset the ipod nano itself by pressing and holding down the pause and play button.

I also moved the USB connection to a different USB connection on the back of my computer.

I opened the "My Computer" window and right-clicked on my ipod, and then selected "Format". I select "Yes" to format since I don't have anything on the nano to delete anymore.

I then Eject my nano from the computer and did a restart while the nano is disconnected from the computer.

Once Windows finish loading I reconnect the USB to the nano(back of computer) which automatically pulls up iTune. It asked me to name the new ipod detected and created a playlist for that specific ipod name.

Whew~ Took me 4 hours to fix it. I hope this helps others in their quest to their answers. :P

Oct 14, 2007 3:30 PM in response to Damon769

i had this problem. what worked for me was i was able to restore my ipod and instead of choosing to have it automatically put the music on i chose to do it manually. when it tried automatically to put it on it would get the "name" ipod cannot be synced. required file could not be found. i was able to manually put all of my music on 20 songs at a time, and each show one at a time and this worked for me, i was able to transfer all of my library onto my ipod. i just thought i would post what worked for me because i spent so much time figuring it out and hopefully it will help someone.

Nov 6, 2007 1:57 PM in response to Damon769

Hi,

I have a new laptop and new itouch. I copied all my songs to itunes.

But the play list can’t sync to my ipod, the error appears “files could not be found”. I tried attempting playing some songs in the play list about 3-4 song which I should have to locate the source files and it works. I want the fastest way because I have more than 4000 songs in my play list that if I play it one by one it will take forever.

What would be the best solution for this in order for me to sync all my songs to my ipod.

Thanks
Myrna

Jan 24, 2008 10:58 PM in response to Damon769

I have a 60GB iPod Photo from 2005. Never had a syncing problem until tonight... I traced it to one smart album in iPhoto, and eventually (by tweaking the smart album's settings, eliminating and re-including photos in the process) I narrowed it down to one batch of photos imported recently, since my last successful sync. I exported those photos (as Original), then deleted them from iPhoto, then reimported them. Now it syncs great.

You could probably do the same with music. Sync only one playlist and drag your music from your main library into that list in big chunks until it fails... then delete your last chunk and add smaller chunks of that chunk until it fails again. Eventually you know which songs to remove from the library, then re-add from the disk.

Version 7.6 of iTunes came out between the last time I synced and the time I imported the photos. Not sure where the blame lies. Photos newer than the "corrupted" ones synced just fine in my tests of tweaking the smart album.

"The required file cannot be found"

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