iPod Nano - Error transferring Track - Could not write to resource

[Matthew Lewellen]

Binary package hint: rhythmbox

I have two iPods (one for me, one for the wife). We use the iPods primarily for technical podcasts (although we understand that some people use them for music as well).

I am running Rhythmbox 0.11.6 on Ubuntu Intrepid.
The iPods are:
     iPod Nano (2GB 2nd Generation | Model No.: A1199) <-- this is the problem device
     iPod Nano (8GB 4th Generation | Model No.: A1285)

The 8GB iPod Nano works flawlessly with the podcast aggregator; however, the 2GB (older) iPod Nano keeps getting the following error:

    "Error transferring track - Could not write to resource".

Everything else works as advertised, and all contents on the iPod are visible, etc. from within Rhythmbox and other applications designed to work with the iPod.

The 2GB iPod Nano has the same problem (podcasts cannot be written to it) with all of the other podcast aggregators I have found, which leads me to believe that the compatibility bug extends beyond rhythmbox. (We have tried Amarok, gtkpod, Songbird, gpodder, etc. with no luck)

If you are aware of a workaround, patch, or something obvious I may have overlooked, please advise.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/rhythmbox
Package: rhythmbox 0.11.6svn20081008-0ubuntu4.2
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_NZ.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: rhythmbox
Uname: Linux 2.6.27-9-generic i686

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

if you have the issue with more than one software, could be the ipod which is on read only mode or that the library is somewhat broken, re assigning to libgpod for now, thanks.

[Matthew Lewellen (lewellen)]

Thanks for finding the right home for this issue.

I spent some more time with this iPod and tried the following:

1) I attempted to see if there were any issues with the iPod itself and verified that it was FAT32 and then ran dosfsck -a to see if there was anything broken -- it was all clean, no problems.

2) I checked the setting of the automatic mounting from within Ubuntu 8.10. It was mounted as RW and the settings (as far as I understood them) appeared to be consistent. [Note: if you look at the preferences that shows a pie graph of available space, it shows as 100% full even though it is only about 30% full. Also, note that Sunbird's graphical representation of storage availability is accurate -- 30%. I assumed that this was a fault of FAT32 not being able to provide as much information as EXT3.]

3) I opened the iPod as a folder, and was successful in writing a small text file to it (drag and drop). The file appeared in the iPod folder as expected. So it is not read-only from the view of nautilus.

4) I returned to Rhythmbox and gpodder and Amarok -- and although I could see and play all of the podcasts that were on the iPod, I could not drag any new podcasts to it, nor could I synch any files to it.

5) I checked the privileges, and they were as you would expect it to be (RW).

6) I returned to iTunes (on WinXP) and checked to make sure that the iPod firmware was up-to-date ... it was. (It works fine on iTunes.)

7) I tried some light percussive maintenance and loud and persuasive language; however, the iPod Nano is solidstate and was unmoved.

As my 8GB iPod Nano works flawlessly and synchs with all ubuntu-installed software just fine, I still think that there must be a bug in relation to that particular model of iPod (as noted in the description).

Let me know if I missed anything, or whether I could provide any additional details to help crack this issue. Note: I am not a developer, but I'm eager to learn!

[Ookadoo (jbrown0)]

I experienced this same issue but was able to fix it in my case.

If you "delete" everything on the ipod (Move to Trash), it will put it in the .Trash/files folder on the device, but not actually delete them until you empty your trash. This means the space is still being used.

Couple that with Rhythmbox (and other's) cryptic messages about not writing to resource and you will most likely find that your iPod is full.

I'm not certain that your situation is the same as mine but you could try going to /media/[ipod's name]/.trash/files and deleting (REALLY deleting) everything there, then attempt to sync files to it after that.

It would probably be helpful to say something more like "Cannot write to resource, if you know it is writable please check empty your trash and try again" or something that might point a user to the next step of emptying the trash. Or a check before sync that would check the .trash folder and ask the user if they would like to empty before sync.

[Matthew Lewellen (lewellen)]

Mmmm. Could not write to iPod, because iPod was secretly full.

Much too obvious -- and, unsurprisingly effective.

Thanks for that!

After months of switching to Windows for the odd liaison with iTunes -- it would appear that I just needed to watch my disk space. ...sigh.

Case closed.

[jgibbjr (jgibbjr)]

Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. With 18 hrs of commuting/week, my podcasts keep me sane.