Damaged Library File

Question

Last week I opened my Itunes to find a progress bar pop up and tell me it's importing my itunes music library.xml, this takes a few seconds then a new box pops up with:
'The file itunes library does not appear to be a valid itunes library file. Itunes has attempted to recover your Itunes library and renamed this file itunes library (damaged).itl' I click OK then itunes starts up with only 10GB of music as oppose to the 20GB I have before this happened. I have tried renaming the damaged file but without any success. All my music is still on my HD but not only some is in my Itunes Library.
Any suggestions to get this fixed would be great, thanks.

Answer 1

+"I tried both your suggestions but without any luck or success."+
Not sure I understand. The first option takes the non-corrupt XML file and attempts to rebuild your complete Library.
If you do not have an un-damaged XML file, you have no choice but to rebuild your Library from scratch, losing your ratins, playcounts, playlists, etc. From your post, it seems you did not do this second step.
First:
a) Check that there may be iTunes created backup copies of you Library XML and ITL files. These would be located (usually) in the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder under the "iTunes" directory. Try looking there for the Library Files.
b) If you have the files either overlay the ITL file (copy-paste) from the "Previous" folder into the 'iTunes" folder (do this with iTunes closed). You can also use the XML file from a running iTunes as I described in my first post.
Second (if you do not have either of the above good files available) you'll need to follow the steps below to rebuild you Library:
‘Refresh/Rebuild’ Your iTunes Library
These steps will re-initialize your Library for you. Read it completely through and do the small trial run prior to implementing the whole thing. You will lose your Playlists, as well as reset your Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes. If these are important, post back and instructions on saving these (as best as your Library has) can be provided::
First, make sure that iTunes is correctly looking in the right Folder for your song files.
--- Make sure you know the current location of your music files (best to confirm this)
--- In iTunes choose: Edit==>Preferences==>’Advanced’ tab
--- Select 'Change' and browse to the music folder in your PC drive (if it isn’t already)
--- Click OK to save that setting
-- In iTunes: Edit==>Preferences==>’Advanced’ tab.
---- Make sure that the 'Keep iTunes Music folder organized’ box is checked (if you want iTunes to organize your folder structure)
---- Also, that the ‘Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library’ box is unchecked
-- Click ’OK’ to accept and close the Preferences dialogue box.
-- Single click on the "Library" in the Source Pane
-- Single click first track in the Library
-- Select all songs (any one of several ways)
-- Delete – or select ‘Clear’ (yes, delete them all)
There will be 2 dialog boxes that pop up (one at a time). The first one asks ‘Are you sure you want to remove the selected items from the list?’ The second asks if you want the files moved to Recycle Bin or to keep them in the iTunes folder. You DO NOT want to send the files to the Recycle Bin, so select ‘Keep Files’. This will only delete the song reference links (both valid and broken). It will not delete the actual music files on your hard drive.
IMPORTANT:
Perform a small test of this prior to doing it en mass. If you do not receive both dialogue boxes, then stop and see this link prior to continuing. You will need to reset your iTunes preferences and also retrieve the ‘deletion test’ song files from the Recycle Bin. Scott P.: My Source List is missing (or, resetting the prefs)
Also note: 'Deleting and Restoring' the song references will reset the Play Count, Ratings, Date Added, Last Played, Ratings, and EQ attributes (there may be a few others). It will remove all song references from any Static Playlists you have. Also, any Smart Playlists that depend on any of the aforementioned attributes will be impacted. This may be a small price to pay to recover your Library -- or not.... You can ‘Export’ your Playlists to an XML file for ‘Importing’ after the refresh. This can restore your static playlists. The export only saves the song info, not the underlying music files. Of course, exporting your playlists is to be done before you delete any song references within iTunes.
Once your song references are removed from iTunes, this is how to get them back:
1 - In iTunes: File==>'Add Folder to Library'
2 - Browse to your main iTunes folder and select it
3 - For multiple music file locations, repeat 1 & 2
Depending on how small/large your music library is, the speed of your computer and your amount of RAM, this could take a few minutes to a few hours.
Your library should now be back to normal.