iTunes 8 Troubleshooting Roundup

iTunes 8 introduces some nifty new features for iPhone and iPod touch owners, but has also spawned some issues with synchronization, updating, music libraries and other areas of operation. Here's a roundup of the most prominent issues and associated fixes:

Error 5002 when updating mobile apps Some users receive "error 5002" when attempting to retrieve mobile (iPhone and iPod touch) app updates.

Users seem to have found a workaround for this problem that involves trashing the originally downloaded files and re-downloading the updates. To do this, in the iPhone or iPod touch look up the apps that have updates and then open iTunes, select the app, and delete the file. Then access the iTunes store and locate the application there, and repurchase it. The store will not charge users for purchasing the application again, but this will download the latest version available. Then users can apply the update and have the application updated properly.

"Genius" feature not available, giving error 4010 Upon starting up the Genius feature included with iTunes 8, some users are getting an error that claims "Genius results can't be updated right now. An unknown error occurred (4010)." This seems to happen when the Genius startup process gets to where the results are being processed by Apple. As such, users have suspected this problem may be due to the iTunes servers and hopefully it will clear after a few days, so currently it is recommended that affected users "try again later". Additionally, users might try standard fixes such as rebooting their computers, repairing permissions, ensuring iTunes is properly listed in the system application firewall, and quitting all applications except for iTunes.

Error -42023 when attempting to purchase songs When some iTunes 8 users have attempted to purchase new albums from the iTunes store, the downloads start, but after a few downloads have succeeded, the process stops with an error "-42023". This problem may have to do with the iTunes servers during the update to iTunes 8, but affected users have had luck by trying the following: Try checking for available downloads. In the iTunes program users can go to the "Store" menu and choose the option to "Check for Available Downloads", which should retry the downloads from the store. This may still give the error, but for several users subsequent retries finally got the downloads to continue.

Windows Vista blue screen of death Apple has posted an updated version of the iTunes 8 installer that purportedly resolves a previously reported issue in which connection of an iPhone or iPod touch to a Windows Vista system results in a blue screen of death (BSOD). The fix involves uninstalling Apple Mobile Device Support then reinstalling the updated iTunes 8 package. Not coincidentally, one of our previously published workarounds involved uninstalling Apple Mobile Device Support then reinstalling iTunes 7.7.

iTunes persistently crashes on first startup Several users have experienced problems in which iTunes installs correctly, but does not start up. Upon launching the program users get past the software license agreement, and then the program will crash. Sometimes this occurs when the program attempts to build thumbnail previews for iTunes artwork, and other times the cause does not seem so apparent. For users where the thumbnail preview progress bar appears, they can usually get iTunes to load by stopping the process, but upon restarting the process iTunes crashes again. This could be a problem with corruption in previously downloaded artwork, and one possible solution might be to clear downloaded artwork on all songs and re-download it. Users can do this by selecting all songs in the library and then right-clicking the selection and choosing "Clear Downloaded Artwork". Alternatively, users can get information on the selection and check the artwork box only. Ensure the box is empty and apply the changes to all files.