An unknown error occurred (-54)

Sorry, but I lack the proper punch for the Pit, so here I am.

I just lost two hours trying to figure out why my Macintosh couldn’t sync to my iPod Shuffle.

“Attempting to copy to the disk “Bozo iPod” failed. An unknown error occurred (-54)”

The one tiny thing I did since the last time I successfully synced was an upgrade to the new Mac Os, “Leopard” – Of course, that’s the cause of the problem.

Want to know what my intense research and trial-and-error found? That cryptic message means that my MP3 files are flagged as read-only. Of course, they are because I did that intentionally! This wasn’t a problem in Tiger. It’s apparently a problem in Leopard.

Why do they need to be able to write to my MP3s?
Why doesn’t the stupid software say “Can’t write to file xyz.mp3”

No. I am stuck googling for error -54.

ERROR 144

::flips through user manual to error codes section::

ERROR 144: Serial bus data frame checksum error.

“Oh, well that just explains everything.”

-Me, ca. 1986, discovering how an 8-bit Atari computer tells you it has encountered a disk read error, because it is etched forever into my brain.

Attempting to answer your questions failed. An unknown error occurred (-53)

The real shame is that this is appearing in a brand new OS release from Apple in 2007. Mac’s are supposed to be the absolute pinnacle of user friendliness.

I normally speak greatly of my Mac. I love it dearly and I show it off at all opportunities (indeed, I took it to work today and showed everyone Time Machine). This is not a particularly shining example of Macness, however :frowning: