iTunes 8.0 – The iPod cannot be synced. An unknown error occured (13213)
Posted on 09 September 2008, at 9:08 pm, by Wayne Schulz
Hello early adopters of the new iPod Touch 2.1 firmware and iTunes 8.0 – have you run into this bug yet? Your iPod Touch will upgrade to version 2.1 without problems. However after the upgrade – at some point during a sync, my iPod Touch with v2.1 firmware had the error “The iPod xxx cannot be synced. An unknown error occurred (13213)“. This annoying problem kept my Touch in a perpetual sync mode and the red warning flashed repeatedly on my iTunes 8.0. First I tried disconnecting the Touch and re-connecting. No go. Then I shut down iTunes and started again. No go. Finally I stumbled across the answer on the Apple site. (Update: Just to be clear – this is a problem that occured AFTER the successful upgrade of my Touch to firmware 2.1)
In order correct your sync problem you need to follow the steps outlined in this post:
Be sure you completely power down (and leave turned off) your iPod Touch.
Then restart iTunes 8.0, leaving your Touch off.
Now plug your still turned off Touch into iTunes.
Your problem should be solved.
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September 9th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
My Touch 16G updated perfectly via my Vista box.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
My 16gb iTouch also updated without problem on my XP SP3 system.
September 10th, 2008 at 4:16 am
Did the update last night and it all went fine. Just tried to sync and sure enough, there’s the error message!
September 10th, 2008 at 5:13 am
This error condition occurred during a sync and was not related to the initial upgrade to version 2.1 firmware.
I was able to go through and sync several times without error.
Once I received this error my Touch was in a perpetual “Sync” mode and the error continued displaying until I followed the steps.
September 10th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Hmmm. My updates went fine and I’ve synced a couple times with no problem so far, but nice to know the solution in advance in case it pops up. Thanks.
The feature of the update that interests me most is the supposed battery life increase. I wonder how that is being accomplished. Hopefully not by just changing the defaults for screen brightness and time-out.
September 10th, 2008 at 8:26 am
I too have done a couple of syncs without problem since I installed the upgrade yesterday.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:00 am
I had two or three syncs as well. Once this error popped up I had trouble getting rid of it until I found the above info on the Apple site.
Will be interested to see if this is more widespread when the iPhone upgrades is pushed out Friday.
September 10th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I updated my iTunes and Touch 16G to 2.1 just fine. XP SP3 here as well.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Like some (probably famous) person said, “Piece of cake.”
September 11th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Things worked fine for me with my Touch on my Leopard Macbook Pro.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
this worked, thank you very much!
December 12th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
the ipod cannot be synced an unkonown error occured (13019)
that is what I am getting now…nothing has changed…I did take a trip to asia, but everything worked fine while i was there
March 15th, 2010 at 9:12 am
I have had this error for a while now, (error 13019) and it has kept my music from syncing. I just fixed it though, when you go into itunes, on the page where it lists the categories along the top, Summary, Applications,Music, Movies etc. click on Summary and next to Options you’ll see some boxes to check, check the first two: “Open itunes when this ipod is attached”, “Sync only checked songs and videos”. Make sure you check the songs you want synced as well. This solved the problem for me, hope it works for you too.