Error - 36, Cannot sync songs after software update

[meancode]

Hi all,

I am not too happy right now. I have never had an issue with my iPod and so this is my first problem. Maybe I live in a bubble, but its true. I have never had an issue with it that I could not easily solve.

I honestly do not know why I ever upgrade the iPod system software. I swear that every time I do, something goes horribly wrong.

Today I decided to apply the latest update (iPod Updater 2005-03-23 I guess) to version 1.1 of my software.

I have a 60 GB iPod photo. I am running Mac OS 10.3.9 and iTunes 4.8. Maybe it is because I tried to update two things in a 24 hr. period on my Mac, maybe that is the problem.

My iPod updated fine, rebooted fine. I could listen to music on it fine.

It shows up in iTunes all right. But it blinks red and says its updating. What is it updating is beyond me. I use a sync'd Playlist and I have not modified it in a while. I let this go for many hours.

iTunes is hosed, red, application not responding. I have to force quit. I reset my iPod and plug it back in. Same problem with iTunes.

Fine, I will just format my iPod with the iPod Updater application.

Now I have an iPod that has no songs on it and iTunes does not know its got an iPod attatched. No amount of restarting my computer or iPod seems to help.

....

OK I have restarted a few times and now iTunes know I have an iPod photo. Now I can copy playlists and songs over. However if I try and sync my "iPod Photo Library" Playlist all I get is spinning beach ball of death. iTunes hands, and I do not understand this, but I notice that SystemUIServer is hung as well, which cannot be good at all. Although I cannot contribute SystemUIServer hanging to iTunes as it is hung before I start iTunes or plug in my iPod.

I thought that if SystemUIServer was hung, then I could not do anything. I can use my machine fine. I repaired permissions but that did not help. I will try and sync my "iPod Photo Library" Playlist over night and see what happens.

....

I wake up to a message saying that Song X cannot be found. I click OK. Now I get an unknown error -36

"Attempt to copy to disk "Photo" failed. An unknown error occurred (-36)."

I now have a very small portion of my Photo Library Playlist on my iPod. I can no longer drag songs to my iPod when I turn off Playlist syncing.

So I am now at a total loss.

So, what to do? Other then throw it across the room of course.

I have an iPod shuffle and it is working just peachy, even after it's software update.

Well thanks for the help and listening to my rant. I really hope someone can help me here because right now I have a rather nice white shiny paper weight.

Thanks.

Ken

[edalzell]

Are you running 10.3.9? I had a similar problem and it was 10.3.9 that caused it.

There are many people with the same problem.

[meancode]

Yes I am in 10.3.9.

The thing is I have a clean install of 10.4 on a firewire drive. I have imported my Library only, so I have my entire iTunes settings, playlists etc.

I still get the -36 error but I AM now able to sync playlists.

I get the distinct feeling that my iTunes Library is FUBAR though. I am trying to make a new playlist to sync to my iPod and now I cannot seem to drag music into a new playlist.

I am not going to have fun creating a new Library, I have hundreds of Playlists and Smart Playlist setup!

[meancode]

it looks like iTunes 4.8 hosed my library and playlists. so I am not very happy right now.

[Eliot]

I have had the same problem since i updated to 10.3.9

This is what to do , try plugging your i-pod into another hub ( preferable the one on the back of your Computer ) this should do the trick.
i had my i-pod firsty plugged into the front hub of the computer and i always seemed to get the 36 error and if not geting the error the time it would take to copy a file over was crazy.
Now after plugging my i-pod into the back hub i can copy as fast ( or i would even say.....faster ) as using a firewire cable.
I have not used a fire wire cable yet as i sometimes can cause kernel panics but it seems to work o.k. on most computers.....yet i still believe usb .2 is more stable, but this is just my opinion.

Let me know if it works , otherwise the only thing i can think of is to go back to 10 .3.8 .........seems to be more stable with everything.
cheers

[len10]

Hi

I think this problem may have something to do with USB connections. I'm on my second ipod photo (first one had other faults) and I've had this -36 problem with both. The first one worked OK when I started to plug directly into the right hand usb2 port on my powerbook, but not on the left and not with either port if I was using the ipod dock! It would only manage about 2 songs and 5 photo's before the dreaded error -36 (which is often apparently a communication error). Now, with my replacement ipod - same problem but worse - it gives the old -36 on both usb2 ports. So I tried plugging into my powered usb hub. Aha - no error. however, it copies songs at the rate of 1 every 15 seconds. with my library that's about 2 days to complete. I'm fully up to date with itunes and ipod software - maybe I should try to go back to an earlier version. I'm also going to get a firewire cable. My1st generation ipod worked fine with firewire so worth a go.