Apple has done it good this time. Sarcasm intended.
I have been through the valley of the shadow of death in the past 48 hours trying to fix this bug, and I finally have. What bug you ask? iTunes 7.3 (aka “the iPhone version”) produces an “Unknown Error 261″ when you try to back up your library to DVD. I’m a backup-a-holic, so this was a serious issue for me. My library of music is one of my most prized possessions.
I tried several things over the last two days, but this sequence worked for me in the end:
- Uninstall iTunes 7.3. You won’t lose your music. You won’t lose your library. You won’t lose your playlists. Relax. It just uninstalls the software. Ignore the request to reboot.
- Uninstall whatever version of Quicktime you have. If you skip this step, you will fail. When you’re done, reboot.
- Download iTunes 7.2 from Filehippo and install it.
- Fire up iTunes and turn off automatic updating… at least until
7.3.1 or7.4 comes out. It likely won’t be until the iPhone hysteria fades a little bit. (It should be noted that 7.3.1 is still broken.) - Send Apple a nice note expressing your fondness for their testing process.
Well, my only complaint is that it took three different web searches to find this article. This is the only article I’ve found that addresses the problem. Perhaps most people don’t back up? Your info is dead-on accurate and your solution worked first try. Many thanks to you for taking the time to write this up! Too bad Apple hasn’t done the same.
Cindy
Cindy
July 14th, 2007
It’s comments like yours that keep this site running.
netnomad
July 17th, 2007
I was getting mad because it wouldn’t let me backup my library. did a search and found this article right away. Helped me out perfectly thanks.
Jonathan
October 21st, 2007