..could not copy ..... because the file could not be converted.

iTunes 11.0.2.26 on Win 7.
I bought a song on iTunes for my wife the other day and she put it on her iPad.
After some syncing, iTunes is trying to sync that song to my iPad.
Everytime I get an error saying 'iTunes could not copy (name of song) to the (my iPad)
because the file could not be converted'.
Is there some way I can convert that song?
I'm not sure how it got to my wife's iPad and won't get to mine.
Thanks!

The song showed in iTunes on my iPhone with a little cloud icon with a download arrow.
Tried downloading it and syncing. Same error.
Deleted the song from my iPhone.
Deleted the song from my iTunes Library on my PC.
Then re-downloaded the song to my PC's iTunes Library.
Re-sync'ed the phone. Went fine.

Similar Messages

"Could not save a copy because the file is already in use..."

I have read previous discussions of this issue, but nobody suggested a solution. Sometimes when I use the Save As command to save an open file with the same name as an existing Photoshop file that is not currently open, I get the dreaded message: "Could not save a copy because the file is already in use or was left open."
When this happens, I have to save my open file using a different filename, then change the name in the Finder after manually deleting the original file with that name. This happened occasionally in Photoshop CS3, and is now happening more frequently in CS4. If no one can offer a solution, can someone please tell me if there is a way to officially submit a bug report? The simple truth is that Photoshop costs way too much for a well-known problem like this one to be hanging around version after version. Adobe really needs to fix this and I'd like to tell them so. Thanks!

alansky1 wrote:
Adobe really needs to fix this and I'd like to tell them so.
I've run into this and I'm convinced it's not Adobe. Whenever I've gotten around the problem it's often something from Apple that got in the way.
I use a simple workaround when Finder/QuickLook isn't letting go of the file. First use a free utility like TinkerTool or Onyx to turn on the Quit command in the Finder. Whenever the Finder gives you trouble, if closing the Finder window in question doesn't solve it, just do the ol' Command-Q. It's a little faster (and maybe safer?) than force-relaunching the Finder. This usually releases files for me when all else fails; it also often cures the annoying "can't eject the volume because it's in use" messages when you've already quit every program you can find.
There's the question of why Photoshop and not others; I'm not an engineer but I think the sheer size of Photoshop files is a factor. In one instance I noticed that quicklookd was using a lot of RAM, and QuickLook has been implicated by an earlier post in this thread. It isn't unusual for a Photoshop file to be very large compared to other types of documents. It's possible that when QuickLook hits a large Photoshop file, and it does its normal thing of generating a big preview for it, it could get tied up reading that huge image long enough to block another program. Sometimes it seems like QuickLook just hangs on them. When it happens, you can try looking at Activity Monitor to see if something like QuickLook, Spotlight, or some other program is using an unusual amount of CPU or RAM.
Apple Mail (at least in 10.5) is another major offender by the way. If you attach a file to Apple Mail it will hang on to it as "open" even after you remove the attachment. Other programs will not be able to write to the file that was attached or formerly attached. Nothing short of quitting Apple Mail will make it let go of the file. You'll notice it when you delete a JPEG, PDF, Word doc (definitely not just Photoshop) attachment because you realize you need to make a change and attach it again. Attempting to export an updated one over the old one is blocked until Apple Mail is quit.
In my experience I think what Chris says is true.

I received error message that 6 of my songs I purchased on a workout album could not be copied because the file could not be converted. How do I get these 6 songs to download on my ipod shuffle?

I received error message that 6 of my songs that I purchased on a workout album could not be copied because the file could not be converted.
How do I get these 6 songs downloaded to my ipod shuffle?

I can think of only one reason a song would be "converted" while it is being loaded on a shuffle.
Select the iPod in the iTunes sidebar, under DEVICES. Over to the right, depending on iPod model, go to the Summary or Settings tab. There should be a setting there that says Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC (the 128 kbps part may be adjustable). If that checkbox is checked, try unchecking it.
NOTE: This setting may allow more songs to fit on the shuffle, but for any converted song, the sound quality will become inferior. So I don't use it.

Purchased a song from iTunes, i tried to transfer it to my itouch, but i received an error "iTunes could not copy because the file could not be converted". how do i convert the song (well, i thought it will automatically be converted)?

purchased a song from iTunes, i tried to transfer it to my itouch, but i received an error "iTunes could not copy because the file could not be converted". how do i convert the song (well, i thought it will automatically be converted)?

Problem Fixed:
Remove the song from your itunes library, then go to the itunes store and try to download it again. It will say something like "this song has already been purchased, would you like to download it again for free?". Click yes, and it will download again. This worked for me, hope it helped

Itunes could not copy because the file could not be converted

So I just bought two songs from Itunes...but they won't sync to my iphone and an error message keeps coming up. It just says "Itunes could not copy because the file could not be converted" I just paid money for the songs though...so I would really really like to get them on my phone...any suggestions??

Problem Fixed:
Remove the song from your itunes library, then go to the itunes store and try to download it again. It will say something like "this song has already been purchased, would you like to download it again for free?". Click yes, and it will download again. This worked for me, hope it helped

What is the best way to copy aperture library on to external hard drive? I am getting a message that say's "There was an error opening the database. The library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported".

What is the best way to copy aperture library on to external hard drive? I am getting a message that say's "There was an error opening the database. The library could not be opened because the file system of the library's volume is unsupported". What does that mean? I am trying to drag libraries (with metadata) to external HD...wondering what the best way to do that is?

Kirby Krieger wrote:
Hi Shane. Not much in the way of thoughts - - but fwiw:
How is the drive attached?
Can you open large files on the drive with other programs?
Are you running any drive compression or acceleration programs (some drives arrive with these installed)?
Can you reformat the drive and try again?
Hi Kirby,
I attached the UltraMax Plus with a USB cable. The UltraMax powers the cable so power is not an issue. I can open other files. Also, there is 500GB of files on the drive so I cannot re-format it. Although, I noted I could import the entire Aperture Library. However, I do not want to create a duplicate on my machine because that would be defeating the purpose of the external drive.
Thanks,
Shane

ITunes could not copy "Beethoven's Symphony No 9 (from "A Clockwork Orange")" to iPhone "Heywood Floyd's iPhone" because the file could not be read or written

Hello, i am having the following problem...
"iTunes could not copy "Beethoven's Symphony No 9 (from "A Clockwork Orange")" to iPhone "Heywood Floyd's iPhone" because the file could not be read or written" [ ... and yes, Heywood Floyd is an avatar name..]
With this...
a. it occurs when I try to synch my iphone with iTunes.
b. I have tested the "Beethoven's Symphony No 9" files that I have found on my iTunes, and my iPhone, as there is a copy of "Beethoven_ Symphony No. 9, _Choral_" folder that is the concert from Bernard Haitink & London Symphony Orchestra;
c. This is where is get weird, a sort of Jack Torrance moment, they only file related to "A clock work orange" is 06 A Clockwork Orange - Ode to Joy.m4p...
So what is happening, and how can I resolve this, as I am not able to synch between my mac and my iPhone....

Check the media source drive for errors.
See also Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows. Not sure it is relevant but can't hurt.
If iTunes is confused about what media is and is not on the device take these steps:
Backup the device.
Restore as a new device.
Restore from the earlier backup.
tt2

ITunes could not copy to the iPhone because the file could not be read

So here we go again, just put some newly imported from CD songs on my iPhone the other night no problem. Updated iTunes and now I get iTunes could not copy "whatever" to the iPhone "myphone" because the file could not be read. just for fun i removed one of the songs already on the phone and received the error trying to put it back on. I also just updated to iOS 8.3. is it the phone or itunes?

Two possibilities come to mind.
Check your source hard drive for errors, right-click on the drive holding the library, click Properties, tools, check for errors, scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors...
Or...
Repair Security Permissions
Right-click on your main iTunes folder and click Properties, then go to the Security tab and click Advanced. If necessary grant your account and SYSTEM full control of this folder, subfolders and files, then tick the option to replace permissions on child objects which will repair permissions throughout the library. This is the XP dialog but Windows 7 shouldn't be too different.
If it won't let you change the permissions use the Owner tab to take ownership from an account with administrator privileges.
tt2

In Elements 13, when trying to save, I get this message:Could not save a copy as "agb3_2014:09_054.tif" because the file name was not valid.

Hi:
I use Nikon NX2 then save as a TIFF file then do final editing in Elements. With Elements 8, I could then save as a JPEG file and upload to Flickr. With Elements 13, I get this message and cannot save:
Could not save a copy as “agb3_2014:09_054.tif” because the file name was not valid.
I note the colon (:) in the file name. I did not place it there. It is some automatic save. Typically I save as 2014/09
It is probably some setting I need to adjust but I am stumped. All help is welcome.
Thanks
Al
Message was edited by: Albert Butzer

Don't use the slash, either. Stick to no punctuation except dashes and underscores for safety's sake. Other punctuation usually has another meaning in code.

Cannot save as PDF - "Could not save a copy as (filename) because the file is already in use..."

I have a number of PSD files I've created and I'm trying to save them as PDFs.
I can Save for Web and Devices, I can save as a .gif, .eps., and every other format I've tested, but I cannot save as a PDF. I get the error:
"Could not save a copy as (filename) because the file is already in use or was left open by another application."
I'm running Adobe Master Collection CS5 with Photoshop CS 5.5 (12.0.4 x64) on a Windows 7 64-bit machine.
I have a 928 GB HD with 697 GB free.
I have rebooted and tried saving the files immediately after I reboot. I have killed my virus scanner. I have killed a number of other possible culprits including Acrotray.exe and CS5ServiceManager.ext
I have run Process Explorer as recommended by Microsoft and found no applications using the file. I've also tried saving the file to my external hard drive and/or renaming the file with only rare luck.
Nothing seems to fix it.
The boards seem to suggest Adobe isn't taking responsibility for this and pointing it back to the OS or other software. I'm willing to believe them if someone can show me how/where to kill whatever process it is - but at this point, all my indicators point back to Photoshop.

Here is a clip from a past post where user could not drag and drop files to hard drive.
To my great relief I have now sorted this issue and offer the following as the Correct Answer. My sincere and grateful thanks go to Curt and Yammer, above, who have helped me so much in sorting this Windows 7 issue which is clearly very relevant to Bridge users also. Any slowness to grasp what they have been saying is down to me!
The key to solving this issue lies is understanding that in terms of Windows 7 Security, every internal or external hard drive, plus folders, sub-folders and files thereon has an OWNER. Also each OWNER has a certain level of PERMISSION to do things such as moving files to a different folder, deleting or re-naming them etc. If you try to do things that you don't currently have Permission to do, that is when you get an ‘Access Denied’ error message. Also your system has an Admistrator or Administrators and at the outset you need to ensure through the Control Panel that you are listed as one of them. .
If, like me, you didn't realise these things, (and why would you if Microsoft or your computer or hard drive suppliers couldn't be bothered to really make sure you knew about them), then trying to fathom the ‘Access Denied’ problem becomes a stressful and frustrating nightmare as I can testify having spent a week at it!
The steps that I took to resolve the issue and which I believe now constitute the 'Correct Answer' are as follows:
First make sure that you have Administrator rights on your system via the Control Panel
Next ‘right click’ on the Drive whose files you want to gain full access to, for example the drive that your pictures are stored on, and click on 'Properties'.
Under the Security tab you will see a list of Groups and Users on this drive and the Permissions that they have to do things.
Before doing anything to edit these Permissions, first click on the Advanced button. This opens another window with a tab showing the Owner of this drive.
Click on the Owner tab and if you are not already listed as the owner, make yourself the owner by selecting your name from the list. I believe it should appear there if you are an admistrator or user. (In my case at this stage the owner was initially shown as an obscure string of numbers and letters which I believe identified the drive when it was connected to the lap top I was using before I upgraded my machine)
Now be sure to check the box that says "Replace Owner on Subcontainers and Objects" and the click Apply. On completion of this step, the drive in question and all the folders, subfolders and files thereon should now be 'owned' by you. You could check this out by right clicking on a particular folder then clicking Properties > Security > Advanced > Owner. Your name should appear. So far so simples!
Now go back to the Security Tab for your drive (Step 2 / 3 above) and look at the Permissions you currently have. Your aim now is to allow yourself 'Full Control.' If you don’t currently have this level of permission click Edit, select your name on the list, check ‘Full Control’ and 'Apply' the change.
I think I'm right in saying that at this point whilst still working in the Drive directory you are now given the option of ticking boxes which allow you to, in effect, cascade the permission you have just granted yourself to all the files and folders on that drive. Tick the box to allow this and Windows should then take care of the rest.If I'm not quite correct here then in my particular case, for example, all my images were stored on my external drive. The top level, or 'parent' folder in which all my pictures could be found was the 'My Pictures' folder and I had created a number of folders and subfolders ('child ' folders) within that folder. The permissions I gave to the Parent folder – My Pictures – were cascaded down through the Child folders.
On completion of the above step I tested the result in Windows Explorer by dragging a few files back and forth between folders and it now worked perfectly - I was now able to move / delete / rename etc all files without now getting the dreaded access denied message. What a sense of relief! This meant that I could now open Bridge normally rather than having to right click it and 'Run As Admistrator' - albeit that is a very useful thing to do until you get the problem sorted as described.

TS1424 Has anyone encountered trouble transferring rented films to their iPhone? I get error message "iTunes could not copy [film name] to the iPhone because the file could not be written"

I have dowloaded a film to rent. Downloads to iTunes without problem. However it does not transfer to my iPhone.
At first it appeared on iTunes as though it should be on my phone (it definately wasn't).
Apple Support sent me film to download again.
Tried to transfer it again tonight and the error message I get is: "iTunes could not copy [film title]Spy to the iPhone because the file could not be written"
Can anyone help ASAP

Two possibilities come to mind.
Check your source hard drive for errors, right-click on the drive holding the library, click Properties, tools, check for errors, scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors...
Or...
Repair Security Permissions
Right-click on your main iTunes folder and click Properties, then go to the Security tab and click Advanced. If necessary grant your account and SYSTEM full control of this folder, subfolders and files, then tick the option to replace permissions on child objects which will repair permissions throughout the library. This is the XP dialog but Windows 7 shouldn't be too different.
If it won't let you change the permissions use the Owner tab to take ownership from an account with administrator privileges.
tt2

ITunes could not copy "insert song" to the iphone "insert name of iphone" because the file could not be read

It's about time i posted something about my problem because i've searched everywhere and I did not get the answer i wanted.
When i try to put a song (Drag and Drop) from my Library to my Iphone, the message "iTunes could not copy "insert song" to the iphone "insert name of iphone" because the file could not be read" shows up. I have no idea how to fix this, I haven't seen apple answer to a single one of these threads either.
I've only seen users try to answer this question.
Anyways, when i put the songs on my Iphone, it is also grayed out. There is also a dotted circle (symbol) beside the checkmark of the song.
I've tried creating a AAC version of all the songs already. No luck
Please help
meetobin

Two possibilities come to mind.
Check your source hard drive for errors, right-click on the drive holding the library, click Properties, tools, check for errors, scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors...
Or...
Repair Security Permissions
Right-click on your main iTunes folder and click Properties, then go to the Security tab and click Advanced. If necessary grant your account and SYSTEM full control of this folder, subfolders and files, then tick the option to replace permissions on child objects which will repair permissions throughout the library. This is the XP dialog but Windows 7 shouldn't be too different.
If it won't let you change the permissions use the Owner tab to take ownership from an account with administrator privileges.
tt2

"itunes could not copy song to the ipod because the file could not be converted."

Hello. I'm using iTunes 10.6 and trying to sync an iPod Classic 120GB with Mac OS X 10.6.8. I keep getting the error "itunes could not copy 3 songs to the ipod because the file could not be converted." All three songs are AAC, 256kbps. I didn't have this problem with these songs a couple days ago until I decided to convert all 256kbps songs to 128kbps to fit on my 120Gb iPod. iTunes, nor my iPod haven't updated during this time. Any suggestions?
-Chad

This problem does seem pretty random, affecting just a small number of tracks. Apparently it is due to some file corruption or something... Anyway, this thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2654317?start=15&tstart=0 has a couple of solutions spelled out. Basically the same thing that a-monk-at-large suggested above. (Delete and redownload the offending tracks.)

ITunes could not copy ''file'' because the file could not be written

Recently, I have been experiencing some problems with iTunes and my iPad 2. Whenever I try to sync movies into my iPad, I get the error message ''iTunes could not copy ''file'' because the file could not be written''. This message always appears whenever I try to sync a few movies at once. When I check my iPad after it's synced, I find that a few of my movies successfully sync into my iPad, and can be played. However, some movies show up on my iPad but cannot be played. The video thumbnail just shows a picture of a blank TV screen. Is there any way where I can fix this problem? Thanks.

Hi JimmySlax.
I was having the same issue with music and movies but it had been ok before. The sync would freeze on a random file and then i had to take out the USB cable to clear it. After trying all sorts of things i saw someone mentioning about Anti virus and firewalls. I am using McAfee so i disabled it as a test. After this i could sync music and movies without issue!!!!! So in my case the firewall/anti virus was causing a problem. McAfee updates itself a lot so I am guessing something has happened in a recent update that impacted iTunes.I am not sure if this kind of thing is also causing your problem but it sounds very familiar.
Hope this helps.

Syncing downloaded movies from itunes to ipad which then suddenly stops and will not finish the sync stating itunes could not copy "name of movie" to the ipad because the file could not be written. restored the ipad to factory settings, reinstalled itune

I have had to format my PC running windows 7, and reset my ipad 1 to factory settings, i then installed latest itunes on the PC authorised the PC and re downloaded several movies via itunes previous purchases, all was well until i tried to sync the ipad to the PC, only some of the movies synced onto the ipad, otheres stalled the sync stating itunes could not copy "name of movie" to the ipad because the file could not be written. I have to pull the plug on the ipad just to get itunes to unfreeze, but it still will not sync these movies. and one help

Hi
I was having the same issue with music and movies but it had been ok before. The sync would freeze on a random file and then i had to take out the USB cable to clear it. After trying all sorts of things i saw someone mentioning about Anti virus and firewalls. I am using McAfee so i disabled it as a test. After this i could sync music and movies without issue!!!!! So in my case the firewall/anti virus was causing a problem. McAfee updates itself a lot so I am guessing something has happened in a recent update that impacted iTunes.I am not sure if this kind of thing is also causing your problem but it sounds very familiar.
Hope this helps.

ITunes could not copy "file" to the "iPhone" because the file could not....

I recently downloaded a few episodes from the iTunes store through my iPhone. All episodes worked fine until I synced my phone with my Mac. After reorganizing some music, I found that I had to place all the tv shows back into the phone. However two episodes would not sync. The error messages:
iTunes could not copy "file" to the "iPhone" because the file could not be read or written.
Attempting to copy to the disk "iPhone" failed. The disk could not be read from or written to.
Syncing everything else works perfectly fine. I am under the impression that these two video files are corrupt. What's strange is that they worked perfectly fine when I downloaded them directly on my iPhone. The "corrupted" videos DO play on iTunes, but they will freeze. I have to skip over that particular time in order to play the video.
So my question(s):
Are my files corrupt? How would I go about to fix this issue? Is there anyway I can place the SD versions of the videos instead the HD ones (Given that it's even possible)? I would hate to spend money again to re-download these episodes because I was provided with incomplete files.

This happens time to time with me for some reason. So frustrating there inst a better way that iTunes response to it. Once the failure to copy and the other errors come up, you have to unhook the iDevice and close and reopen iTunes. Sometimes you have to kill the application if it is hung.
Then, go into the sync settings and UNCHECK all media. Sync. Then go to the summary page and check "only sync checked songs and videos" and go to MUSIC and check ONE album. Sync. Repeat this one by one until you get the error. then uncheck the album that caused the error and repeat. Very very annoying but the only way i have gotten this to solve.

..could not copy ..... because the file could not be converted.

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