Some users have reported an issue where they can’t import CDs. It appears that they can no longer import either MP3 or AAC files from audio CDs after their update to the latest version of iTunes.
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When this can’t import CDs problem occurs, the following behaviors may take place
- The macOS or Mac OS X Finder recognizes the CD and mounts it, but iTunes rapidly switches between the CD and the music library–what some have called a “strobe-light” or flashing effect
- iTunes recognizes the CD. When you attempt to import it, it displays the message “disc cannot be found”
- The CD does not mount at all. And iTunes does not recognize it. But when you quit iTunes, the CD mounts.
- You see the error “the required folder cannot be found”
Fixes for When iTunes Can’t Import CDs
- Turn off track name downloading. Navigate to the iTunes menu, then Preferences. Click “General” at the top of the window then deselect “Automatically retrieve CD track names from the Internet.” Close preferences and quit iTunes.
- Change the order of start up. If you open iTunes first then put in the CD, try the opposite. Put your CD in before opening iTunes. Or vice-versa.
- Start iTunes again and re-enable this option; you may now be able to import CDs. If not, turn the option back off.
- If you have more than one CD or DVD drive, try using iTunes with each drive.
- Hold down spacebar while launching iTunes. Oddly, it appears that holding down the spacebar while iTunes is launching may allow import of CDs. Strange but many folks say this works the best!
- Restart or Force Restart. Restarting your computer or your iDevice often fixes this issue. To force restart an iDevice, press both the Power and the Home (or Volume Down) buttons until you see the Apple logo. Then release. Wait until your device fully starts up before opening iTunes.
- For Windows, check permissions on your iTunes library folder: by default, C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes.
- Downgrade iTunes. If all else fails, you can downgrade to an earlier version of iTunes
- Connect Directly to Computer. Similar problems occur when you use a USB hub or other peripheral hub to connect your computer to an external the CD drive. Always plug your CD drive into your Desktop or Laptop directly when importing CDs into iTunes.
- Choose Help > Run CD Diagnostics and choose DVD/CD Diagnostics to see if iTunes can find any problems with your CD drive.
Reader Tips
- For Windows Users & iTunes. Change the drive letter on the optical drive. Once the letter is changed from A: to virtually anything else, such as Z:, X:, etc., then iTunes will recognize the disc and work as usual.
- If error correction is turned on, it takes longer to import CDs. Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or iTunes > Preferences > General and select Import Settings. If the “Use error correction when reading Audio CDs” checkbox is not selected, select it. If it’s already selected, deselect it. Insert the CD and import the songs again.
- Make sure your CD isn’t dirty or scratched. If it’s taking a long time to import a song (more than 10 minutes) from an audio CD, clean it and try importing again.
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David Learmonth says
Here’s a thing: why don’t Apple just fix the problem???
Mic says
2019 and the “Press the space bar when launching iTunes” worked for me. My MacBook would recognize old CD’s through an external optical drive but not new ones. Space bar trick fixed the error!
Haley Harding says
on certain cds after importing them onto iPod they wont play and a fault code shows on iPod.
David Crawford says
The first thing I tried work for me, when my iTunes wouldn’t open CD to import.
Close iTunes
Go to your main drive mine is C:\
Go to PROGRAM FILES\iTunes\iTunes.exe
Then double click on iTunes.exe to open iTunes. Install CD to see if it ask to import. If it does it’s just a corrupt desktop shortcut.
Delete desktop shortcut
Right click on the iTunes.exe folder and create another shortcut.
David
Elizabeth says
Hi David,
Thanks so much for sharing what worked for you! We’ll add it into our readers tips section. We really appreciate sending us your tips. They definitely help others.
Cheers,
Liz
Julian Charles says
Hmm. This thread is 7+ years old and the problem continued. One would think, given all the passive aggressive updates coming out, if Apple were motivated to assist their customers this basic functionality would have been fixed by now. Ciao Apple,.
Richard Elmes says
I bought some newly remastered Led Zeppelin and was raring to load them onto my my old iPod but iTunes -(what a bitch that product is) told me it couldn’t fine the files or the library. I tried the Spacebar trick but no good. However, after a hard reboot, it decided to work. Sometimes I loath Apple and I always loath iTunes
Elizabeth says
Richard,
Thank you for sharing your tip! And yes, there are quite a few folks joining you in your iTunes assessment. Enjoy that Led Zeppelin!
Cheers,
Liz
Kristine says
MIND BLOWN. The space bar thing actually worked. How did you figure that out?! Regardless, thank you.
Juan R Toro says
THANK U SO MUCH!!!!
Robert says
Nothing worked for me. I can’t delete iTunes 10 to install iTunes 9. I tried the space bar that did not work. I tried turning off retriving song names that did not work. What else can I do????
John P says
Not worked for me, I still have a bunch of CDs iTunes won’t have anything to do with.
Nawaaz says
Got an iPod touch as a gift. Must rank as one of the worst products Ive come into contact with. Apple really sucks viva samsung viva. Can’t download anything from my countless CD’s. What a waste of money.
john says
Thank you – it worked perfect
Sharpy says
WOW it worked ha
Abi says
Wow been trying for ages to upload CDs and itunes just wouldn’t recognise that a CD was in the disk drive. Tried holding the space bar and that worked! Thanks
Dan says
Turned off the name downloading and held the spacebar for good measure.
Don’t know what did it, but it worked.
For things to happen like this in Skyrim I get, but in an Apple soft?
Oh well. Thanks a lot!
Loz says
Thanks heaps, turn of the track naming, solved the problem for me 🙂
Peter de Braux says
I cannot imprt CD’s either .
I have iTunes 10 and this is May 2012!!!
What is going on??
I own Apple stock, nbut will sell if they are not interested
in solving this very small problem (a big one for my iTunes!!!
Peter
Mic says
Space bar trick fixed the problem for me. January 2019.
Alex says
Hey; I’m actually trying to burn a CD for a project at school; and since my friend doesn’t own blank CD’s and I do; I’m doing hers too. Now my Mac is having a stupid problem where it doesn’t recognize when I put a CD in. I tried your options and they didn’t work for me; any other ideas???
Carrie Robinson says
Worked like a charm. Thanks!
Wendy says
Long live the spacebar! Thank you so much, I was ready to send back the cd…
zeb says
WTF??? Spacebar? I thought this was a joke, but it works fine, buy WHY???? Is it some kind of safe mode or something????
SAn says
A genuine wtf-erlebnis. Fix #1 worked for me (Why for the love of…) so thanx
Jody says
Oddly enough – the space bar worked!? I tried pretty much everything I read about, including turning off the automatic name retrieval and the automatic CD import. I upgraded my CD/DVD driver. I even uninstalled and reinstalled several versions of iTunes – including 9.2.1. But when I did that – it said it could not read the library because it had been made with a newer version (10.)
I tried directly importing from the folder by SELECTing and OPENing – that seemed to work once, but I couldn’t replicate it. Then I tried manually copying files from the disc into the iTunes folder – but that didn’t work either.
So I tried the space bar – and it worked. No clue why.
sean says
Agreed. The space bar worked, after I turned off the auto name retrieval.
Amiri says
Did NOT work for me.
Is there a command line to make it recognize the disk? I’m trying to convert aa files into aac, and needed the disc to be the medium.
Rob says
That worked for me, thanks a bundle.
Rob says
Thanks for the tip, the space bar did it for me too!
Tanya says
The space bar fix worked for me. Thanks!
marciano chinappi says
Unbelievable!!!!!! The space bar thing worked. I would love
to have been there when that was figured out. Thanks
Thomas Gustavsson says
Holding down the space bar when starting ITunes 10.1 really works for me.
It would be interesting to know how and why.
MacAdmin says
iTunes 10.1 update appears to resolve the issues with audio CDs.
Terry says
turn off track naming and hold down the space bar ???
PLEEEEEEEEEZE ! that is so goofy nor did it work
Aviv says
Spacebar holding totaly fixed it!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you 🙂
stefan says
Thaaaaaaank you … disabling worked for me.
pdmike says
Me too!
Illumed Rebel says
I also have this problem. After inserting a audio cd and using the cd import function, iTunes tries to connect to the CDDB database. Any fuc*** occurs and the cd icon disappears in iTunes and in Finder.
This error is so commonplace, I can’t believe it – that attitude is meanwhile typical for apple – apple really sucks!
Andrew says
I had this problem while still using 9.2.1. Deleting and reinstalling 9.2.1 didn’t help. However, while I was in the [user]/Library/Preferences folder, I noticed the “CD info.cidb” and “CDDB Preferences” files. Since the problem appears to be somehow related to iTunes connecting to the online CDDB database, I decided to delete them. Once I restarted, everything’s been fine.
Roger says
I had this strobe problem on my MDD with OSX 10.5.8. I reinstalled iTunes 10 and all was well.