CD burning from iTunes

January 2, 2006 3:57 PM

When burning a CD from an iTunes playlist (purchased or not), only 2 or 3 songs burn and then the process is terminated with "unknown error 4450". I have tried reinstalling iTunes, apple help, have checked all the preferences, have had no issues in the past, etc., etc. Any advice is appreciated.
posted by artemis to computers & internet (12 comments total)

Anything special about the songs in the playlist? A corrupt mp3? Are all of your songs in the iTunes music folder?
Have tried burning a simple music CD (not a playlist)? Does that work successfully?
posted by Thorzdad at 4:04 PM on January 2, 2006

Are you using a different brand of cd?
posted by evariste at 4:07 PM on January 2, 2006

Thanks, have tried multiple playlists including ones created by iTunes, could be a corrupt mp3, yes - all in the folder, do not have the knowledge or i think the technology to burn a simple music CD. Have tried 2 brands of CD!
posted by artemis at 4:44 PM on January 2, 2006

I get this error whenever I have way too many processes running when burning. You have to remember that burning a CD is very extensive operation and iTunes is very finicky about this.
posted by Number27 at 4:45 PM on January 2, 2006

artemis, what happens if you just drag a song file from your iTunes library into a blank CD?
posted by interrobang at 5:39 PM on January 2, 2006

Have you tried other programs to try and burn those CDs? Is this a mac or a PC? If it's a PC, see if other programs work. If they don't, then you know it's not iTunes. Maybe your drive is faulty?
posted by cellphone at 5:47 PM on January 2, 2006

Thanks all. It is a PC. I can rip CDs to iTunes and when trying to burn, I usually get about 40% max before getting the canceling disk message followed by the pop up error message.
posted by artemis at 5:55 PM on January 2, 2006

You can only burn purchased tunes a certain number times. Have you exceeded this for some of the items? (Should be a better error message, I know, but it's worth asking...)
posted by unixrat at 7:44 PM on January 2, 2006

Step 1: Try a slower speed. Burn it at 2x if it'll let you.
Step 2: Try media from another brand. (I see you've already done this one, though)

You said that it gets 40% through before erroring out. Does this occur if you shuffle the songs around a bit? What happens if you take the first 3 songs in the playlist, make a new playlist, and put those songs there and try to burn them? Do they burn, or does it error out regardless of what you try to burn?

Is this a CD or a CD-RW disc?

Tip #1: In the future, when posting a technical question, please give us all the details. Operating system? iTunes version? Hardware makes & models? (iTunes should identify the burner you're using, so at least let us know that info) The more details one gives, the easier it is to assist in the diagnosis. :-)
posted by drstein at 8:15 PM on January 2, 2006

Though OS X does it to some extent on its own, it might be a good idea to defrag your hard drive & run Disk Utility to repair permissions.
posted by omnidrew at 8:41 PM on January 2, 2006

I've been having this problem too, but I think it only happens when I try to burn a playlist that includes a song from the new Kate Bush CD I recently uploaded to my computer, so my current theory is its a corrupt mp3 (although it plays fine from my computer with itunes). I also wondered if it might be some kind of anti-burn technology. The CD is plastered with all those scary FBI warnings, etc. Good luck.
posted by Zendogg at 11:58 PM on January 2, 2006

Many thanks - success with Windows media player and CD burning from Roxio!
posted by artemis at 6:03 PM on January 3, 2006