Challenge: Try to find what's wrong with my iTunes app (error 13014)

[dastinger]

Hey,

Recently I turned on FileVault on my 2012 rMBP running 10.9.1. I rarely use iTunes so I don't really know when this started but I thought this would be relevant information.

Anyway, today I tried opening iTunes and I got a message saying the iTunes library was locked. When I clicked OK, iTunes would just close. Ok, after searching a bit I decided to delete the iTunes folder under Music. After I've done that, iTunes told me a new library had to be created... I chose where to create the new library and, although I tried different locations, I always got the same error message:

Ok, now I decided to manually create a folder named iTunes under Music. After I've done that, I started getting a message saying iTunes could not be opened with the error code 13014.

Searched for that and got to numerous threads on Apple Communities. I tried:

- Repairing permissions;
- Applying Read & Write permissions to my username to all my folders and files under my user folder;
- Turning off Filevault;
- Repairing disk;
- Reinstalling iTunes;
- Several reboots.

If I go back to deleting the iTunes folder, again I get the error message where iTunes is not able to create it whenever I ask it to.

Still the same issue.

Please please please help me. This is driving me nuts and, although I don't use iTunes much, I obviously want it to work properly.

Any ideas?

Thank you

 

[dastinger]

Tried one more thing.

I logged into my mother's account, ran iTunes, copied over the iTunes folder to a pen drive and then copied the same folder into my Music folder. Again, I got this message:

If I delete it and choose, per example, the pen drive to save the new library, I get the same error message about not being able to create a folder in there.

If I choose the library file directly from the pen drive, I get the same message as above.

If I only delete the .itl library file and open iTunes, I only get a beachball and the iTunes app icon bouncing on the Dock.

No one has any ideas? Come on guys, I'm going crazy

 

[DeltaMac]

You should be able to fix that by choosing Get Info for your external drive, and clicking the box "Ignore Permissions on this device", or something similar to that.

I read that also can happen if your boot drive is almost full.
How much free space do you have on your hard drive?

 

[dastinger]

First of all, thanks a lot for your reply.

My library is/was located on my internal SSD so tried your first suggestion but only to see if I can get iTunes to create the Library folder inside my pen drive. Thing is, that option was already checked and I still get the message saying that it is not possible to create a folder in there. Just as I get on any folder I choose within the internal SSD.

Also, I have 38GB of free space (256GB SSD) so I don't think that is the issue, unfortunately.

 

[DeltaMac]

Verify that you "own" all files and folders within your home (user) folder:
Run this command in your terminal. Change "yourusername" to whatever yours actually is (two places)

sudo chown -R yourusername /Users/yourusername/

Wait for the prompt, which might be immediately, or might take a few seconds.
Then, Restart your Mac after running that command. Try out your iTunes after the restart.

 

[dastinger]

I ran that command and the only result I got was this:

chown: /Users/dastinger//Library/Preferences/com.npvdata.client: Operation not permitted

 

[Bruno09]

Not a solution to your original post, however this message :

"The (iTunes, iPhoto, etc…) library is locked, is on a locked disc, or you do not have write permissions for this file"

may mean that you are not the owner of the Library.

To fix this : select the folder or file, right click, get infos, in the bottom of the window, under "Sharing and permissions" :

- add your username if not present yet.
- select you username
- click the gear icon and click "make (Me) the owner".

EDIT : has the same effect as "chown", but via the GUI way.

 

[dastinger]

Not a solution to your original post, however this message :

"The (iTunes, iPhoto, etc…) library is locked, is on a locked disc, or you do not have write permissions for this file"

may mean that you are not the owner of the Library.

To fix this : select the folder or file, right click, get infos, in the bottom of the window, under "Sharing and permissions" :

- add your username if not present yet.
- select you username
- click the gear icon and click "make (Me) the owner".

EDIT : has the same effect as "chown", but via the GUI way.

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I am sure I am the owner of the library as I am of all the folders within my user directory. I even applied Read & Write permissions to all the folders and files within my user folder by using the Get Info window, making sure I had R&W permissions and choosing "Apply to enclosed items".

Also, I searched and found that the file that was giving me an error (on the chown command) was related to an app that I don't use anymore and I deleted it. I restarted and ran a permission repair and got a message that I never saw before:

Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
ACL missing on “Applications/iTunes.app”
Repaired “Applications/iTunes.app”
Warning: SUID file System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent” has been modified and will not be repaired.

Permissions repair complete

Thing is, iTunes still behaves the same way after doing this.

 

[Bruno09]

I am sure I am the owner of the library as I am of all the folders within my user directory. I even applied Read & Write permissions to all the folders and files within my user folder by using the Get Info window, making sure I had R&W permissions and choosing "Apply to enclosed items".

Ownership and Read & Write permissions are not the same thing.

Yes, you *should* be the owner. However, you should verify as I explained above.

If after selecting your user name and clicking the gear icon, "Make (Me) the owner" is grayed, then you ARE the owner.

If "Make (Me) the owner" is clickable, then you are NOT the owner ---> click on it.

 

[dastinger]

Oh ok, my bad.

Anyway, I tried it and the option is greyed out so I am the owner. I verified for the entire user directory, Music folder and iTuned folder within it (the one I copied over from the other username). The option is greyed out on all of them.

 

[Bruno09]

Did you try launching iTunes with the Option key depressed, to navigate to the "right" location of the iTunes Library.itl file ?

 

[dastinger]

Right now, I don't need to have the option key pressed in order for iTunes to ask me the Library location. If I delete the iTunes folder under Music, I get this message:

If I choose a Library file located on another folder or hard drive, I get the "Library file is on a locked disk" message. If I choose to create a new one, I get the "The folder iTunes could not be created" message.

 

[dastinger]

No more ideas? Still couldn't get it to work.. Haven't tried nothing different really.. Can't think of anything else but formatting. What makes me wonder is that I am able to run it under another user account. Maybe that helps? I don't really know...

 

[casperes1996]

Can you access iTunes from another?

Can another user on the same machine access iTunes? Can another user on the same machine access an iTunes library that you cannot? Test, and report back. If another user cannot access the iTunes library, it's not your permissions that's the problem, that's for sure. PS. As far as I know, an SUID warning is referring to files that seem to have been intentionally altered by the user (like changing the sudoers file) and will therefor not be changed by disk utility

----------

It seems you can't repair the ACL issues without reinstalling the OS, but a complete format isn't needed. Delete iTunes and run the "Install OS" function from System Recovery, and install over your existing drive. No data should be lost this way, and your ACL permissions error should be fixed.

 

[dastinger]

Can another user on the same machine access iTunes? Can another user on the same machine access an iTunes library that you cannot? Test, and report back. If another user cannot access the iTunes library, it's not your permissions that's the problem, that's for sure. PS. As far as I know, an SUID warning is referring to files that seem to have been intentionally altered by the user (like changing the sudoers file) and will therefor not be changed by disk utility

Thank you for your reply!

Yes, if I login on another user account, I can use iTunes. I don't know about the library because, right now, I don't have a library nor I can create one.

As I said, I don't know if this started happening after I enabled Filevault but I disabled it already and the same thing still happens. Also, iTunes is the only app giving me issues.

--EDIT--

Just saw your new post. OK, I will do that later this evening and report back. Thank you a lot for your help.