“The iTunes Music Library file cannot be saved. You do not have enough access privileges for this operation.” Those words have plagued my nightmares for the past week.
I generally consider myself a rather computer-savvy fellow, but that error kept popping up in iTunes, seemingly out of nowhere, and I couldn’t find a fix for the error after days of trying. Which left me, of course, unable to add new music to my library, and meant that I was constantly re-downloading the same podcasts over and over.
I began my search for a fix in the C:UsersDennisMusiciTunes directory, since that’s where my iTunes library files reside (I’m on Windows 7, by the way), and noticed that “Temp File.tmp” had no “owner.” Despite trying every known fix in the book (including contacting Apple and Microsoft tech support), nothing I tried would resolve the situation. I scoured the ‘net in search of a solution, and found more than a few helpless iTunes users with the same problem, but none of the suggested fixes helped in my case.
Thank the Force, I’ve finally stumbled upon a solution, and it has nothing to do with the “Temp File.tmp” file, or anything else in that directory, for that matter. If you’re having the same problem, here’s what worked for me (again, in Windows 7):
- Navigate to the directory in which iTunes is installed (most likely C:Program Files (x86)iTunes)
- Right lick on iTunes.exe and select “Properties”
- Under the Security tab, select “Edit”
- Under “Group or user names,” select your user name (or if your user name isn’t there, select “Add” and add it
- Make sure “Full Control” is checked under “Permissions for…”
- Click “Apply”
I have no idea how my user name lost Full control access under iTunes, especially given that I haven’t installed anything related to iTunes in the past few weeks (I suspect my antivirus software may be to blame). Whatever the cause, this resolved my situation lickety split.
Sadly, your fix didn't work for me. But, what has seemed to work is running Ccleaner on the Registry – I seemed to have two missing typeLib Ref entries – one for iuserHelper and ipodManagerUI. I cleaned those out and I also stopped the WMPNetworkSvc from running automatically because it showed up in the security settings as a read only and I couldn't change the permissions because they were inherited. I think the registry fix was the trick but who knows. Hope this helps anyone who couldn't fix it with iTunes permissions.
Thank you! A million thank yous, Ive had this problem for over a week and your solution worked perfectly for me.
Thanx. Finally my problem is solved
I had the same problem, but solved it by deleting the temp files in the Itunes folder. Delete the temp files that are generally hidden.
I am on macbook pro, and cannot find iTunes.exe. I need help with this problem as soon as possible. Thank you as I find that this would be the solution to this problem except that i can’t find the file iTunes.exe
Thanks for the fix!
For what its worth I think I know WHY it occurs.
For the mac user you might have done this via running in WINE, or virtualbox or even with restricted access rights at one point.
For windows 7 opening itunes with administrator access is my guess.
It might also need an itunes crash during one any of those times to lock up the database files also to get this error.
Reasoning…?
Itunes can have only one music library AND insists on storing the library / database files in My Music on your local drive (not to be confused with the itunes media folder location).
I ran itunes once in a virtual environment via a (very cool) windows app called sandboxie () – (which will end up copying only the files it needs for that session from your local environment). Now remember itunes only has one set of database+settings files per (user) per PC.
/rant
Contrast this with something like firefox which maintains user settings etc. in one directory also and has to copy this into the sandbox but DOESN’T have this issue because it is able to respecify the location of the user settings each time it starts up.
Itunes insists on My Music being the one and only location for its database files. (This causes all sorts of problems if you dare to do something “unusual” like store your files on an external drive and move them between different PCs…..sigh…)
/endrant
Now sandboxie keeps a mirror of your relevant local environment in a subdirectory (your sandboxes). So now the itunes database files are being looked for in My Music in the sandboxie sub directory – which has specific access rights only to the sandbox (which is the whole point of sandboxing).
In my case it just involves killing all Sandboxie processes and all itunes processes.
(taskkill /F /IM “sandbo*”)
(taskkill /F /IM “itune*”)
This also deleted the incorrectly used database/library files.
For those with this problem it is likely they have a somehow acquired another itunes settings/library database file from one method or another (e.g. crashed itunes, running in virtual environment, run with different access rights etc.) and have managed to have itunes pointing to this instead. (In itself this is quite a feat and may be a way to get round the portability problem of itunes).
thankyou so much, was panicking i wouldnt be able to fix it!
THANK YOU!!!!
Thank you so much for the quick fix!
Many many thanks. It worked a treat.
This has been bugging me for a while, and I think that fixed it. Thank you so much!
Thanks it helped and worked perfectly fine on my Vista OS.
I recently updated my AntiVirus-AVG and encountered this problem and a bigger problem was my iTunes didn’t recognise my iPhone 3GS too.
You saved the pain of painstakingly going thru a lot of trouble, Thanks.
- Tejasvi
Thank you, it worked for me. A quick fix. I appreciate you letting me know step by step how to fix it. Thanks again
Just what i was looking for. You sir, have done myself and probably many other people a solid. I thank you. And why apple would not know about this really leaves their customer service with much to be desired, though it does not necessarily surprise me.
In any case, thanks! I was starting to worry i was running out of space to store songs on my itunes or something. As a music lover with just under 12,000 songs on my itunes (yeah i’m a loser b/c i feel the need to mention it and brag a bit) the thought of maxing out song collection really gave me a scare. I suppose i should back up my music anyways, but i digress.
Sure enough, it was as you said. My user now has full control, and did not before. Apple should offer you a job.
Glad I could help! You guys are warming this old Wookiee’s heart.
I have Windows Vista. So it is under iTunesSetup. I followed your directions to the “t”. I right clicked on iTunesSetup and clicked properties…and so on. Thank you! It worked!
Thanks mate, you’re a legend. Fixed it first time after trying many other solutions unsuccessfully. Cheers.
Thank you thank you thank you! (I still don’t know what caused this problem to suddenly show up, but this seems to have fixed it. Fingers crossed.)
I *think* I’ve finally figured out why it kept happening to me: my suspicion that my antivirus software was at least partially to blame seems to have been correct. When I had PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Antivirus installed, this would hit me nearly every time I updated to a new version of iTunes. Now that I’m using different antivirus software (going on nearly nine months now), it hasn’t plagued me once!
That could have just been the trigger in my case, though, so don’t assume!
Thank you so much…this was driving me crazy. Your fix worked like a charm!
I have had this problem for over a week now, and I’m not sure your fix helped. Itunes is still telling me the library can’t be saved. If I go to the My Music folder in Windows 7, it lists music that I can play with Windows Media Player, but I can’t get it into itunes. Any ideas?
just seen this for the first time- no idea why. but I went to the area suggested and it says: (wish I could post an SS here)
SYSTEM
Administrators (name-HPAdministrators)
Users (name-HPUsers)
and I checked all boxes under those I could- ‘special permissions’ was grayed out.
‘zat ok?
Thank you!
Thanks a million!! I followed your instructions and it worked. You saved me a lot of aggravation.
I rt clicked iTunes.exe … There is no security tab, only general, version, compatibility, digital signatures & summary. I noticed when I upgraded my avg a month ago I could no longer download via iTunes on my phone or iPad … Says there is something wrong with my method of payment when I know there is not.
Lately gmail is telling me something is wrong, I soft reset & it’s fine. Just turned on iTunes & it says something like I don’t have privilige to my library & it doesn’t matter which of the phone cords I try to back up with … Suddenly it doesn’t recognize my phone. Ohhh this bites!
April,
Do you mind my asking which OS you’re running?
If it’s Windows 7 or later, my strong advice would be to ditch AVG in favor of Windows Security Essentials (or Defender, if you’re on Win8.) In the past few years, MIcrosoft has turned it into one of the best anti-virus solutions on the market, in terms of protection vs. system resources eaten.
If removing AVG completely from your system doesn’t help, we might have to break bad and perform a Takedown on it: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753024%28WS.10%29.aspx
I recently transferred from an older PC to a new one. When I finished, I ended up with duplicates of all my iTunes music (and in some cases I have a total of 4 copies). My niece found and deleted a duplicate library from the computer and now I’m removing the songs, one at a time. Not fun. Now I’m getting the message about the library not being saved due to not enough memory. It has stopped crashing but if I don’t close i/tunes, the songs I’ve deleted are added back. (That’s no fun when I have thousands to go!)
Any ideas here?
Thanks for the help!
AVG-Free 2013 was the culprit for me. Uninstall, reboot, and no more issues I’ve seen so far.
HI
my problem that started recently is that i get the maximum memory nearly reched message, and if i dont shut down, it then wont let me save itunes (i would have but i was away from pc when message came up !)
regardless i re-started laptop and itnes was not impaired
i have been watching my memory useage from starting up itunes, and over a few hours it takes up more and more cache , until nearly all the available is used up. thats obviously when memory warning comes up
i have 6gb of memory currently, and will be adding another 2gb
but why does itunes keep grabbing more and more cache ? ?
i do have a large itunes of approx 18 gb, but its been over 16gb for a long time without issues
im concerned that when i install the extra 2gb it will just keep on eating into that until memory exceeded again?
a restart puts available back to around 4gb then it erodes over a number of hours……………….
any ideas ?
i removed and replaced mcafee antivirus and problem went away!
i have had mcafee a while though, so maybe it becomes an issue if itunes gets over a certain size? dont know why else it started
My problem stopped entirely with a recent iTunes update download. No more messages or freezes. Hopefully it won’t happen again.
Hey – thanks! Just had this happen to me and I think it must have been my antivirus software too! Awesome!
Worked for me! Thanks.
This definately helped me! That pop up was driving me crazy! lol =) Thank you!