The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error occurred (-50)
On June 29th, I created a thread on the Apple discussion forums regarding a cryptic error in iTunes 7.3 that kept popping up after I upgraded from version 7.2. Whenever I launched the program, a progress bar would appear indicating that a library upgrade was in progress. Once this finished, a dialogue box with the message “The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error occurred (-50)” would appear. This same error popped up every time I attempted to play a track. This lead me to believe that my copy of iTunes 7.3 has a problem saving the library database files on my hard drive. I removed iTunes, QuickTime, and Safari from my system and re-installed. The error message popped up again.
That day, hours before the iPhone launch, many other users logged onto the discussion forums in search of an answer to the exact same issue. Apparently, this cryptic error I was receiving affected a lot of other people. None of the Apple employees hired to manage the discussion forums made an effort to help solve the problem. Users who called Apple technical support over the phone were told the problem was a non-issue. Hours later, the long-awaited iPhone launched. Apple sold 500,000 units over the weekend.
On Saturday, reports of the -50 issue flooded the discussion forums. The problem made the front page of Digg, and quickly became the top story. The Apple forums were brought to a crashing halt due to the traffic from Digg and new iPhone users. Apple scrambled to restore the forums, and a temporary version was launched with the search engine disabled. During the upgrade, the iPhone forums were moved to the top of the page, above the Macintosh Computing Hardware section. Clearly, Apple’s priority was the iPhone, and the iPhone alone.
Over a week has passed and still no fix has surfaced. The -50 error thread has over 38,000 views but no officially acknowledgment from Apple. This is not the way to keep a customer happy.
1 comment
(5 months, 1 week ago)
I’m getting a similar error message except mine is (-48). And it just pops up randomly when I’m listening to music, and I’m missing alot of songs now that used to be in my library. I’ve probably lost about twenty songs by now.