Loading ...That was odd – after upgrading to iTunes 6, trying to play my purchased music brought up the authorization dialog. After entering the password, it said I was authorized, then another dialog box said “Error -208″ and the songs wouldn’t play.
A quick search on discussions.apple.com found this, which linked to this fine blog post:
“My friend Jason couldn’t authorize iTunes to play some songs he’d purchased (on the same machine he’d purchased them on), and he found the answer on a discussion board:
% sudo mkdir -p /Users/Shared
% sudo chmod 777 /Users/SharedDoing some investigating of my own, I found a hidden “SC Info” folder that directly links to the iTunes authorization mechanism. I deleted the folder and iTunes prompted me to enter my authorization information again, and then the folder was there again. The folder contains only a single file:
[8:18am iacas@Gaia:/Users/Shared/SC Info] % lis
total 8
drwxrwxrwx 3 iacas wheel 102 May 2 08:17 ./
drwxrwxrwt 3 root wheel 102 May 2 08:17 ../
-rw-rw-rw- 1 iacas wheel 200 May 2 08:17 SC Info.sidbWonder what “SC” and “si” (db = database I would imagine) stand for… At any rate, a useful and helpful hint to those having trouble getting authorization to “stick.”"
Same procedure applies for Windows systems – delete “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\SC Info”, and you’re done.
Crap. Apple really need to fix their installers. I’m also still getting the “iTunes couldn’t update the standard audio player” error…
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Thanks to google I found this. Yeah I emailed apple, and all they did was reset my authorized computers. Thanks for the post. It saved me a reformat.
Thanks so much for the info! This has been driving me nuts all week!
Thank you for this post. I spent days trying to figure this out – this fixed it in two minutes.
Thanks! this worked wonders!!
also found this via google. put a new cpu in my rig and got requested for authorization. this fixed it. thanks!
I have followed the intsructions regarding the -208 error when trying to update my ipod.
The file ‘SC Info’ just appears again (? reinstated by itunes) even after I have removed it from my recycling
bin. I am geting very annoyed by this error that will not let me update my ipod with recently purchased vidoes
and photos I have on my computer (music files seem fine) – the only reason I bought a new ipod was for the video
and photo display – does anyone have any solution to this. I may have to take it up with apple, however from
the other comments I have read they seem to b of little help.
This worked just fine. Thanks!
Thanks a million. Software bugs being what they are, googling the error code always proves better results than contacting the company responsible :-)
Thanks a million. Software bugs being what they are, googling the error code always proves better results than contacting the company responsible..
I too deleted the SC folder only to have it reappear and the same error occurs. Any Suggestions?
SOLVED!!
I am a newbie on itunes, and got this error on the third (!) song I purchased. Tried to delete the folder, but it reappeared like described above.
So i deleted the authentcation on the machine also (in itunes-menu advanced-”remove authentication…”), and deleted the folder (dont know if I had to, but it did not hurt), started itunes again and it asked for my password, and voila! my songs were downloaded.
Thanks for the hints, hope my sollution will help.
Same here – I had removed iTunes and reinstalled… followed these instructions… confirmed the SC folder was gone.
It reappeared as it is supposed to, but I still get the error.
–sigh–
Ahhhh Got it! Not only do you need to remove the SC file… go to the “Advanced” tab in iTunes and Deauthorize your computer.
THEN, when you try again to download, all is happy……
I have a PC and this procedure did not work, mainly to a problem that once I hit the “All Users” folder, there is not a folder named “Application Data”. Anyone have a PC that figured this out?
OK. I’ve purchased a lot of music from Apple’s iTunes Music Store under several AppleID names. Apple doesn’t like this; it confuses their system. I note that Apple doesn’t like it when you spread things out more than they allow. This may, however, happen for reasons beyond your control (e.g., it happened to me when I sent my computer in for repair). To solve this, one of the best things you can have is a good backup (yes, Monday morning quarterbacking is easy). I’ve used CarbonCopyCloner to create bootable backups of my machines and with great success. The “good” file that contains the information that iTunes needs to play your music is the file “SC Info.sidb” localed in the “/Users/Shared/SC Info” directory. It’s an invisible file in an invisible folder, so looking in the Finder doesn’t work. I made it work by issuing the following commands in the “Terminal” application (probably in your “Applications/Utilities” directory):
cd /Volumes/Good/Users/Shared/SC\ Info
sudo cp SC\ Info.sidb /Volumes/Bad/Users/Shared/SC\ Info/.
“Bad” and “Good” are the drives with the corrupted and backup SC Info.sidb files, respectively.
You’ll need to enter the root password (since you’re using the “sudo” command to invoke root prvileges), but then all is well. Eject your backup drive and continue listening to your music.
I note that I’ve had to do this three times now:
1. iTunes 6.0.2 running Mac OS X 10.4.4 (January 2006)
2. iTunes 7.0.1 running Mac OS X 10.4.8 (October 2006)
3. iTunes 7.0.2 running Mac OS X 10.4.8 (November 2006)
Same problem each time; same solution worked each time.
Good luck.
Thanks very much!!! This fix worked like a well-oiled charm.
SJ
Awesome FiX! Thanks alot
My account was doing this and the fix worked GREAT. If you are running Windows Vista you will have to launch the explorer window with Admin rights to get to these folders though.
it says when I try to delete the folder Acess denied and won’t let me delete it!! help!
Omg thanx sooo much! i’ve been tryimg to figure this one out for weeks!!!
Thank you, if it wasn’t for this I was about to explode. The problem with all this internet stuff is that there are no phone numbers to talk to somebody. I was hosed before I found this.
My authorization now sticks, I tried all of the suggested remedies they did not work, still couldnt play or download to my ipod. I did delet the sc
folder. Then tried the suggested next steps it did not work. I just recently download the latest version 7.7
This worked for me, In itunes go the Store, go to my account, go to manage, and change to enable. Done
I can\’t believe no one has made that point yet!!! Good work on really nailing down the correct approach. I\’m going to link to this from my blog roll, ok?