My solution for the "Error -50" and/or "Syncing" problem

Question

Hi
After upgrading to iPhoto 5.0.2 I also had the "Error: -50" problem"
How have I solved this problem => also with the help and tips from other forums.
• Before the upgrade all my pictures from iPhoto were available on my iPod Photo (30 GB)
• After the upgrade of iPhoto to 5.0.2 I received the "Error: -50" every time I tried to synchronize my iPod. Strange, strange, strange, ...
=> first I detected that putting pictures on my iPod starting from a folder (in stead of iPhoto) worked fine.
Trying to change back to iPhoto did not work and no albums where available in the iPod Options view!
=> then I tried to create a new iPhoto library (press and hold Option(alt)-key while starting iPhoto), put some pictures and albums in it ... and even this did not work.
What did I do to solve this problem!
1. I thrashed my iPhoto application (DO NOT empty you trash, because you have to put it back again)
2. I used "Disk Utility" to repair the disk permissions.
3. I put back my iPhoto application from the thrash (same location as before - Applications folder)
4. and did again a "repair disk permissions"
5. then I tried to sync my NEW iPhoto library on my iPod and EUREKA this worked.
6. Then I switched back to my original iPhoto library (launch iPhoto holding the Option key).
7. Tried to sync ... again the same problem => no pictures and albums available in the iPod - Optoins - Photo tab.
=> conclusion : the problem has to be in my iPhoto library
8. after trying many things (such as eliminating albums => trail and error method) I found the cause for my problem.
=> I used KEYWORDS in my iPhoto library with strange characters and had SMART albums using it. In my situation it was the "&" character.
Replacing or removing this character solved my problem. All my pictures and albums were available in the iPod - Options - Photo tab
9. Sync could be started ... Youpi!
After synchronizing my iPhoto library I noticed that not all pictures were available on the iPod. I start looking which pictures that were missing on my iPod. When I found them I wanted to know why they were not synchronized.
I found the explanation in the file "AlbumData.xml" in the "iPhoto Library" folder.
If you open this file with TextEdit and search for this missing file then you'll find that (at least in my case) corresponding path does not exist (any more). And that was the case for each missing file!
How solving this problem?
1. I tried rebuilding the iPhoto Library => launch iPhoto holding the Option and Command keys. This did not work.
2. What did I do?
2.1. First I exported all my Pictures from the active iPhoto Library (Share - Export)
=> VERY IMPORTANT NOTE : all extra info such as "Key words", Albums, ... will NOT be saved!
2.2. I created a new iPhoto Library (launch iPhoto holding the Option key)
2.3. Then I imported all exported pictures.
=> if you check the file paths in the AlbumData.xml file, you'll see that this info is correct!
2.4. At least I recreated (manually) all "Key words", Albums, ... so I had a duplicate of my original Library.
I hope this also works for other people with the same problem.
Greetings
P@nt@ni

Answer 1

Here my solution for the itunes' "unknown error -50" and not showing any albums in the prefs' tab:
1. All rebuilding options in iphoto didn't resolve the problem.
2. I opened the file "AlbumData.xml" in the iPhoto-Library-Folder with a text editor. I figured out, that the problem wasn't in the Albums, but in the "Master Image List"-Section. They look like this:
          <key>1741</key>
          <dict>
.. titles, filenames, ....
</dict>
After making a backup of this file, I started deleting entries here (you know, the fastest way to do it is to split it always in halves and check in iTunes if the error still exists). After about half an hour I got the problem key.
3. The problem was: Some (curious) white spaces at the BEGINNING of the comment! Curious, because they weren't visible in iPhoto's comment, but I could delete them in Iphoto! I guess they weren't normal space characters, but any special symbols (line feeds? whatever)
4. After that, the -50 error was gone. Now I could see the Album Names. But the sync stopped after a while with a "... file not found...." - error.
5. Again, with trial&error I found out, that 4 pictures in the last 3 months' rolls made this second problem: I just duplicated them in iPhoto and deleted the original ones. So I still don't know why they have produced this error... anyway,
6. Now all of my photos sync well.
.. well, the whole story took me 2 evenings. I really didn't switched to Mac to play debugger for Apple. Do they read these groups here or do I better write them anywhere? They should get those problems fixed asap! As far as I read in the groups, those errors do exist quite a long time?!
My versions:
iPhoto 5.0.4 (263)
iTunes 5.0.1 (4)
OS X 10.3.9
iPod Nano 1.0