Burning a playlist from i-tunes

[JulianE]

I-tunes on my i-mac (El Capitan 10.11.6) is telling me: "The attempt to burn a disc failed. The burn failed because of a medium write error." Can you tell me what this means and, more importantly, what to do about it? Best, Julian

 

[honestone]

A couple of questions:

1. What exact iMac model do you have?

2. If it does not have a DVD player, what external DVD player are you using?

3. What software are you using to try and "burn" the playlist to a "disc"?

4. What brand of CD/DVD are you using?

 

[JulianE]

1. Mac model
21.5 inch mid 2010
3.06 GHz Intel Core i3
8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Is that enough?

2. Sorry, I am talking about an audio CD. The i-mac does have an inbuiilt CD player

3. I am clicking on "Burn Playlist in i-tunes, having created a new playlist from the imported CD.

4. Verbatim 700

Does this help??

Best,

Julian

 

[honestone]

That's helpful, although a DVD player can be used for "burning" an audio CD. (Your iMac actually has a SuperDrive, which can be used with DVDs and CDs).

I have never used the "Burn Playlist ..." feature in iTunes, preferring to use third party products for making audio CDs or Video DVDs. One free one that has a number of positive reviews is Burn, available from here:

http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html

I suspect you want the 64 bit version.

 

[JulianE]

Many thanks for this. Burning with i-tunes never used to be a problem. I wonder if it is a result of my upgrading the OS to El Capitan, but I am a child in these matters. I'll give it a go with the product you suggest. Thanks again.

 

[JulianE]

Many thanks for this. Burning with i-tunes never used to be a problem. I wonder if it is a result of my upgrading the OS to El Capitan, but I am a child in these matters. I'll give it a go with the product you suggest. Thanks again.

I tried Burn and got the same result: "Burn failed because of a medium write error." Does anyone know what that means?

 

[honestone]

There could be an issue with the Super Drive.

 

[JulianE]

I tried Burn and got the same result: "Burn failed because of a medium write error." Does anyone know what that means?

There could be an issue with the Super Drive.

Well, that sounds a bit beyond my reach. Thanks again for the thought.

 

[honestone]

If you select "About This Mac" from the Black Apple Icon located in the upper left hand corner, and then select "System Report", and then select "Disc burning", what does it tell you? Myself, I have an external DVD player that I occasionally attach to my Mac MIni, and that "process" will provide a status/report about my external DVD player.

 

[JulianE]

Heavens, I've never been there before! It says:

Firmware Revision: 3AHB

Interconnect: ATAPI

Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)

Cache: 2048 KB

Reads DVD: Yes

CD-Write: -R, -RW

DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW

Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

Media: To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose File > Refresh Information

 

[honestone]

Hmm, that would indicate the drive is fine. Maybe try a different brand of CD? DVD/CD players, and DVDs/CDs, are always a mystery!

Do you happen to have any individual songs that you can try and burn to a CD, instead of using a playlist? I actually have never burned a CD from a playlist. I just move individual songs to fill up the CD.

Sorry I can't be more definitive with assistance. Maybe someone else can chime in and provide some help.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

Normally, that is an issue with the media or the write speed. Try adjusting the burn speed down to 8x or so and see if that burns successfully. Also, try other CD-R media if you have it.

C

 

[honestone]

Thanks, Cory. This sure is a baffling situation!