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Stumped the apple geniuses with leopard install

H

heyp

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I recently upgraded from Tiger to Leopard and all looked good until I tried to sync my ipod. A message appeared saying that I did not have enough access privileges to write to my music folder and that's where the fun began. After trying all the permission commands that I found on the apple support site and restoring my ipod with another computer because mine wouldn't let me, I still was not getting anywhere. I resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to do a clean install for this problem to go away. So I bought a new external and swapped the hard drive in that for the internal hard drive in my macbook and installed leopard cleanly. Much to my dismay, the problem persists.

At this point, I have an ipod that will sync with any other computer but mine and I can sync any other ipod to my computer. How does this make any sense? This problem has stumped two apple geniuses who have no clue how to solve it and suggested buying a new ipod.
 
can you try reformating your iPod? can you afford losing whatevers on there? all of your iTunes media is on your Mac right? if so then try the 5Rs.
 
You could also try this:
  1. Quit iTunes.
  2. Copy your iTunes library to another folder - this can be anywhere, even on a completely different drive.
  3. Hold down Option and launch iTunes. Click Choose Library and navigate to the copy you made.
  4. Try syncing your iPod.
 
Try this:

While you have your iPod plugged in, repair the Disk Permissions (I think this is something done by Disk Utility but I'm not completely sure). It might fix the permission error you're getting.
 
sadme said:
Try this:

While you have your iPod plugged in, repair the Disk Permissions (I think this is something done by Disk Utility but I'm not completely sure). It might fix the permission error you're getting.
Click to expand...
That will fix permission errors within iTunes, which could definitely be a source of trouble. I second this recommendation.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
That will fix permission errors within iTunes, which could definitely be a source of trouble. I second this recommendation.
Click to expand...

Yeah I did this on another computer but not on mine because it wasn't even mounting there for a while, so I'll give it a shot.
 
Not that it really makes much of a difference, but what type of iPod was it? I can easily see how this stumped the geniuses, I don't really see what the source of the problem would be. This might be one of the more confusing problems I have ever seen.
 
JML42691 said:
Not that it really makes much of a difference, but what type of iPod was it? I can easily see how this stumped the geniuses, I don't really see what the source of the problem would be. This might be one of the more confusing problems I have ever seen.
Click to expand...

Agreed, it really makes no sense, that's why it's bugging me. It's an 8GB ipod nano 2nd gen.
 
richthomas said:
whats the exact error message? maybe you could Google it or search for it here right in MacRumors.
Click to expand...

well i get a couple... one is "the ipod could not be synced because you do not have enough access privileges for this operation" and another one is something like "you do not have write access to the music folder" (but i'm the only admin and the folder and all associated folders say i have read and write access)... and if i try to eject the ipod after these i get "the ipod could not be ejected because some files are still in use"... and then the ipod will eject by itself with the error "you have improperly removed the device, some data might be lost..."

i've done several searches on here and the apple support site... ive tried terminal commands to clear up the ACLs, i've reinstalled itunes, i've restored my ipod several times, i've done a clean install of leopard and then dragged my music from an external, i've restored permissions on my hard drive and repaired the disk... it's as if my computer and my ipod refuse to talk to each other... when i attempt a sync, itunes will say syncing 1 of x songs and will get about a third of the way thru the first song and my ipod will kick out of the "do not disconnect" to the main ipod screen... and then i get the slew of error messages... my suspicion is it's something with itunes, it has a corrupted file somewhere that i missed when i tried the re-install, but i did this http://macosx.com/tech-support/is-t...ninstall-itunes-from-mac-os-x-tiger/9744.html so i figured it would be like starting itunes from scratch
 
I am mostly surprised by the face that it persists through a clean-install. Maybe it is some fluke hardware problem of somesort which only is noticeable with both devices.
 
JML42691 said:
I am mostly surprised by the face that it persists through a clean-install. Maybe it is some fluke hardware problem of somesort which only is noticeable with both devices.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i was using the clean install as my last resort because I figured it would clear everything up... it also wouldn't bother me as much if the ipod couldn't sync to any computers, but it's just mine
 
After a new install of Leopard on a empty HDD and a full erase of all media on the iPod and still having errors syncing it sounds like the iPod is having hardware issues.
 
Sounds like a bad USB port on your laptop to me. I used to fix laptops for a living, USB ports are most often damaged on laptops because they are used so heavily these days (iPods, cameras, printers, mice et al).

If the iPod works fine with another Mac, and the problem persists through clean installs of Leopard, then its the Macbook hardware that is at fault.

If you have AppleCare or are under warranty still I'd go in and arrange a repair for the laptop itself.
 
Sayer said:
Sounds like a bad USB port on your laptop to me. I used to fix laptops for a living, USB ports are most often damaged on laptops because they are used so heavily these days (iPods, cameras, printers, mice et al).

If the iPod works fine with another Mac, and the problem persists through clean installs of Leopard, then its the Macbook hardware that is at fault.

If you have AppleCare or are under warranty still I'd go in and arrange a repair for the laptop itself.
Click to expand...
I was thinking something like that too, to the OP, do you have any other devices that you could plug into to USB ports to test them and make sure that they work properly (other than iPods). But I would bring your computer in again and ask for a replacement.
 
JML42691 said:
I was thinking something like that too, to the OP, do you have any other devices that you could plug into to USB ports to test them and make sure that they work properly (other than iPods). But I would bring your computer in again and ask for a replacement.
Click to expand...

i can hook up my external hard drive to the usb just fine and i can sync my girlfriend's ipod with my computer thru usb... unfortunately, neither ipod or macbook is under warranty... i don't have a huge problem with buying a new ipod (though obviously i'd like to avoid that), but this issue is just bothering me because it's so strange
 
Could be an ownership problem

How did you sync the music from the external hard drive to the ipod after the clean install? Did you have iTunes reimport all the songs to create a new library or just point iTunes to your existing library on the external drive?

Also, did you set up the freshly-installed system with the same user name and user id as the first one? In other words, was your user on the old installation the first one created in that installation?

If your previous account was, say, the second one created and you are using the first account created in your clean-install system, the user ids will not match even if you used the same name for both accounts. Unix file ownership info is stored as a number in the file system. The /private/etc/group and /private/etc/passwd files map the owner and group numbers to their respective names. The user id and group id numbers usually get assigned consectively in order of creation.

For example, let's assume that your original account was the second one created on the system and is called bill. If I recall correctly, OS X starts numbering users at 501, so the bill account would be 502. You save a bunch of files on there, pull the drive and clean install leapard on a new drive.

In the new system, you set up the first account (501) as bill. When you plug your old drive in, the user id for those old files is 502, but your current account is 501 so you do not have write access to those files.

The permissions of the files are correct in this example. The ownership is wrong.

Even if the old and new accounts have the same user id, hopefully you will get some ideas of other things that may be factors.
 
jahala said:
How did you sync the music from the external hard drive to the ipod after the clean install? Did you have iTunes reimport all the songs to create a new library or just point iTunes to your existing library on the external drive?

Also, did you set up the freshly-installed system with the same user name and user id as the first one? In other words, was your user on the old installation the first one created in that installation?

If your previous account was, say, the second one created and you are using the first account created in your clean-install system, the user ids will not match even if you used the same name for both accounts. Unix file ownership info is stored as a number in the file system. The /private/etc/group and /private/etc/passwd files map the owner and group numbers to their respective names. The user id and group id numbers usually get assigned consectively in order of creation.

For example, let's assume that your original account was the second one created on the system and is called bill. If I recall correctly, OS X starts numbering users at 501, so the bill account would be 502. You save a bunch of files on there, pull the drive and clean install leapard on a new drive.

In the new system, you set up the first account (501) as bill. When you plug your old drive in, the user id for those old files is 502, but your current account is 501 so you do not have write access to those files.

The permissions of the files are correct in this example. The ownership is wrong.

Even if the old and new accounts have the same user id, hopefully you will get some ideas of other things that may be factors.
Click to expand...

I dragged and dropped the iTunes Music folder from the external to the new hard drive and put it in my Music folder. Then I opened iTunes and clicked add to library and chose the folder I had just dragged and dropped. Is there a better way? I'd like to have all my music on the internal hard drive, so I figured this was the easiest way.

As far as user id, on the old hard drive my id was 501 just as it is on the new hard drive. I've been the only admin for both.
 
You should be aware that the Repair Permissions facility in Disk Utility will not affect folders and files within your own home directory. Repair Permissions pulls all of its information from Installer receipt files, and if something isn't in a receipt its permission will not be modified.

You can use the terminal to manually set permissions on your Music folder (and all items within) to be absolutely sure that you have read/write access.

This may take a long time, depending on how many music files you have.

The relevant commands to type in the terminal are:

cd ~ --just to make sure you are in the home directory!
sudo chmod -R -N ./Music --strip ALL ACL entries from all files and folders
sudo chmod -R 0777 ./Music --make it so everyone can read/write/execute. No reason to run into permissions errors with this

This will make it so that the Music folder has full read/write/execute permissions for anybody. Obviously, not the ideal long-term solution but this will rule out a permissions problem with your Music folder.

If you can get things working after this, I can show you how to correctly set the permissions such that only your account has read/write access, and all others have read-only access.
 
ElectricSheep said:
You should be aware that the Repair Permissions facility in Disk Utility will not affect folders and files within your own home directory. Repair Permissions pulls all of its information from Installer receipt files, and if something isn't in a receipt its permission will not be modified.

You can use the terminal to manually set permissions on your Music folder (and all items within) to be absolutely sure that you have read/write access.

This may take a long time, depending on how many music files you have.

The relevant commands to type in the terminal are:

cd ~ --just to make sure you are in the home directory!
sudo chmod -R -N ./Music --strip ALL ACL entries from all files and folders
sudo chmod -R 0777 ./Music --make it so everyone can read/write/execute. No reason to run into permissions errors with this

This will make it so that the Music folder has full read/write/execute permissions for anybody. Obviously, not the ideal long-term solution but this will rule out a permissions problem with your Music folder.

If you can get things working after this, I can show you how to correctly set the permissions such that only your account has read/write access, and all others have read-only access.
Click to expand...
He can try it, but it sounds like it is one of two things, a USB problem with the computer, or a hardware problem with the iPod.
 
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