Did iTunes damage my files?

I've started to discover that some files in my iTunes library are damaged. In some songs you can hear sudden noises, crackling "white noise". I listen mostly to ALAC, so at the moment it's only ALAC files I've found to be damaged, if it also applies to MP3, I don't know.
It's mainly songs I ripped myself from CDs (with XLD, Max, and iTunes), although some files are converted from FLAC (with XLD).
I've never had this problem before, but after a hard drive crash I had to re-rip all my CDs (400+), after which I've discovered more and more corrupted files.
I don't know if they were damage during the import process in iTunes, or if it occurred in connection with an update of iTunes/library update.
As the files were created by three different programs (but mainly XLD), I can only see that iTunes caused the damage.
Is there anyone else that heard of similar issues?

Well the HDD crashed completely, I had to throw it away, so not a single ALAC file in my library is from that crashed disk (the MP3's I had a backup of).
So iTunes does not change anything in the files during import, I guess it's only the library files that are updated then? If so I can rule out the import process causing the issue.
Then it might be as you say, this happend during tag updates. Neverless, this is really annoying, I have 400+ ripped albums, not knowing how many of all those songs that are damaged....
Albums I add to iTunes now doesn't have any issues (so far), so whatever mean bug who did this seem to be killed off...

Similar Messages

Itunes damaged library file

My itunes has been working reasonably well but I have had many issues with it crashing over the last year or so. I just got a Sonos device and after having problems with indexing my songs the support guy looked through my itunes folder with me and we found a load of library files as follows:
itunes library (Damaged)   Created 15 Sep 2012, modified and last opened 16 Sep 2012
itunes Library Extras.itdb   Created 16 Sep 2012, modified and last opened today
itunes library genius.itdb   Created 16 Sep 2012, modifed and last opened 8 Dec 2012
itunes library.itl               Created 8 December 2012, modifed and last opened today
itunes library.xml             Created, modified and last used 15 October 2008
itunes music library.xml    Created 18 May 2009, modified and last used today
We moved all of these files up a level to the music folder, which didn't help with Sonos, and the support guy at Sonos then suggested I 'Reset' my itunes folder location in the Preferences.
THe issue with Sonos was that it was picking up some but not all of the songs and I couldn't see any sort of pattern to it. The number of songs I have is fine and there is very little if any DRM left in there.
It looks as though I need to do something to sort out these library files but I'd prefer to get some guidance from you guys on this forum.
Any thoughts?
Thanks
David

All these files should reside in ~/Music/iTunes. You don't need the damaged file, or the iTunes library.xml file. That is an old library file as yu can see from the date. One troubleshooting step that sometimes helps me is to delete the iTunes Music Libray.xml file and let iTunes rebuild it. Although I'm not really sure it will help in your situation.
The other question I would ask is about the format of the music that isn't bring found by the Sonos device. Are you sure it works with the files that aren't bring recognized?
I'm afraid I don't have a lot of input beyond that, though.

I have music i have put on itunes from cd's i own but when i try to play them or update my ipod it says item cannot be found why did itunes lose the file

i have music i have put on itunes from cd's i won but when i try to play it or update my ipod it says cannot find file and have to locate it why is this

Because the file are no longer where they were when they were imported into your computer and added to your iTunes Library.
Did you move, rename or delete the files after adding them to your iTunes Library?
Do you use any other programmes, which may have moved, renamed or deleted the files, for example, Windows Media Player?
Were the files added to your computer's hard drive, or to an external drive which is no longer connected, or has a different drive letter now?

VIsta + Itunes = Damaged .itl file

After 2 months of flawless use of Itunes on Vista, I would open itunes and it said the library was damaged, spent 20 minutes correcting it them worked. Now after the 3rd time this has happened it now will not show me anything in the library of itunes at all. I tried changing back the damaged files to the correct namd for the file to force it to recover but it simply will not. Any ideas how to rename the old damaged file or get it to see them correctly without corrupting the .itl file again?

FYI the music is still on the PC unchanged and unmoved. I could let it rebuild the library by adding the file folder back but I do not believe I updated the files that i changed information on....

ITunes automatically imports music after re-boots (damaged .itl file)

Every time I start ITunes after my computer has been re-booted, ITunes starts importing my music library and says I have a damaged Music Library file (itl). If I allow ITunes to import my music files then it works fine (all playlists and ratings intact) even if I exit & re-enter the Itunes Application. However, as soon as I reboot the system I get the same damaged file dialog box. Also, I've tried waiting after I have booted the system for a long time to make sure it isn't conflicting with startup processes.
I have a lot of songs and it takes ITunes a long time to import each time, and it is really frustrating. A temporary work-around is that I make a backup copy of the "itl" and "xml" files each time after I exit Itunes when I have made changes. Then after a reboot when I start Itunes, I stop it from importing the library, finding artwork, gapless scan, etc... I copy the previously saved "itl" & "xml" files into the ITunes folder and the ITunes program will then start up correctly with all my music files, ratings & playlists.
_*A. COMMENTS*_
1. Since the "itl" file I copy into itunes folder (as per my work-around)is an exact copy of the "itl" file that was originally in the ITunes folder after a reboot, I don't think the ITunes file is actually damaged, since ITunes will boot from this file after Itunes is started a 2nd time. This also shows me that it is not a path issue.
_*B. SETUP*_
1. Dell 3.4Ghz Pentium 4
2. MS Windows XP Home Edition (service pack 3)
3. Recently upgraded to ITunes 9.0.3.15 (did not resolve problem)
4. McAfee Security Center virus/firewall software
5. Ad-Aware spyware checker(resident)
6. Spy-bot Search and Destroy spyware checker(resident)
5. My Music files are located in C:\Documents and Settings\My Name\My Documents\My Music\ (itunes folder is also in same folder)
6. My Itunes Library .itl file is 2,842 KB
7. My Itunes Music Library .xml file is 16,580 KB
_*C. WHAT I HAVE TRIED SO FAR*_
1. I have re-installed ITunes
2. I ran scan disk (fixed errors & checked physical disk). It did say it repaired something with an "XML" extension, but I didn't write it down because I thought it fixed the issue, but I don't think it was the itunes xml file
3. I cleaned a bunch of junk files (internet cache, etc) and defragged
4. I completely un-installed ITunes and ran a registry cleaner to remove all references to Itunes, Then I installed ITunes. ITunes imported my library and lost all my ratings & playlists however it found all of my artwork (not just automatically created from internet) I re-used an old .itl file for ratings/playlists. However I did try with the newly imported "itl" file and the same problem was persistent
5. I tried restoring my computer to month ago when everything was working correctly
6. I tried for hours looking through multiple forums and the ones that I found that have the same problem (only after reboots) were never resolved. Most of the others just tell people how to get their library back
7. I tried to call Apple Itunes tech support on the phone and was told that Apple does not provide Itunes phone support for PC's. I did pay good money for 30Gb & 16Gb Iphones, so I am giving Apple Money. I would own a Mac however my profession uses software not supported by Apple.
_*D. QUESTIONS*_
1. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? I'm going to try to figure out how to start in some sort of safe mode and log the processes to see if there are any conflicts, but I'm running out of options.
2. I did copy rather large 1200x12000 artwork from the internet into some of the CD's because I was printing them, however I later removed the artwork and replaced it with 300x300. I noticed the Album artwork Cache & Download folders seems rather large and convoluted. I was thinking about possibly deleting all artwork from my library and deleting these folders to see if there is something in there.
Please Help, I've spent far too many hours trying to resolve this issue. I just don't understand that after uninstalling, and cleaning registry that re-installing didn't fix this issue.

Followup:
The link you posted wasn't really any help, but I believe I have finally resolved the issue (after 2 consecutive reboots without problems -- knocks on wood). I wish I could single out exactly what resolved the issue, but I went crazy and did a lot of things last night/this morning (and didn't have the patience to reboot after each single change).
Here's a list of a few things I remember doing
1. Installed updated hardware drivers using Uniblue driver update software (a couple were bundles that affected quite a few things). I booted up this morning only to get a repeated "REFMONINITIALIZATIONFAILED" dialog with the blue screen of death. I wasn't worried as I did a complete backup of all my personal files last night, anticipating a full rebuild today. So the next time I rebooted I used the "last known good configuration".
2. I don't have any indexing programs (that I'm aware of), but I clicked the library file, xml files and all other files in the itunes library root directory and unchecked the "For fast searching, allow Indexing Service to index this file" box after right clicking and selecting "properties" and then "advanced"
3. I rolled back ALL Uniblue SpeedUPMYPC2009 system tweaks (except internet) that were automatically done when I ran the program on 1/10/10.
I have a strong inclination that one (or more) of the Uniblue system tweaks did something that prevented my library file from being accessed the first time after after a boot that I started ITunes. I apparently hadn't accessed ITunes for a couple weeks after I ran the Uniblue program, so it didn't register that it could have caused the issue. At some point in the future I'll try to pin down which tweak caused the problem, but for now I've wasted far too much dealing with this and don't care if my computer runs a few milliseconds slower.
Thank you for responding

TS1717 unes, i have windows 8, i get the message, "the itunes Library .itl file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file. how did this happen, how do i fix this?

the message"The itun, library .itl file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file". i have windows 8. how why did this happen? how do i correct this and prevent another occurance? I am able to access itunes on my i5, ipad, and my old i4 that i use solely as my ipod now. At the time problem occurred, i was connected to ext hard drive that hold over 190GB music, to add to my library. I am now unable to add to my library using my laptop. any advise/help is greatly appreciated!!

I just had the same problem and was able to fix it after trying a couple of things I found after a search.
The solution that worked for me:
Find iTunes folder - it should be in C:\Program FIles (x86) or similar depending on your operating system
Right click the entire folder (no need to open it) and click properties
Click the security tab
Click edit and highlight the user name under which you logged in.
Click the box next to full in the allow column, which should check everything
Click apply
Open iTunes
This worked for me.

How do I restore all of my itunes content onto my newly installed computer drive? All my purchase are no longer in my account but I did back up the files onto an external hard drive. Now how do I get them back? Please

how do I restore all of my itunes content onto my newly installed computer drive? All my purchase are no longer in my account but I did back up the files onto an external hard drive. Now how do I get them back? Please

Ummals wrote:
...I did back up the files onto an external hard drive. ...
Did you follow all the steps as detailed here...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

ITunes damaged file

Ive been having problems with uploading new songs to my iPod. When I connect it to my computer it says some files are damaged and I should run CHKDSK. When I do nothing happens, same problem still there. I have the latest downloads to iTunes and iPod, and Ive tried re installing and nothing works!
Please help me!
HP Windows XP

here is the best place to start with that error message:
iPod: What to do if Windows displays an "itunes.exe - Corrupt File" message
but if more advanced treatments seem to be required, see:
Da Gopha: chkdsk errors

I bought creative suite cs6 design standard student and teacher edition and the download did not work properly - files appear incomplete/ or damaged - none of the program items work at all. File size for installation seems very small for a product of this

I bought creative suite cs6 standard student and teacher edition and the download did not work properly - files appear incomplete/ or damaged. File size seems very small for a product of this size. Can you assist with download issue or provision of software ?

Lalalaladog where did you download CS6 from? I would recommend downloading the installation files for Creative Suite 6 Design Standard at Download CS6 products

Damaged iTunes Library.itl file, anyway to recover?? pls help!

Hi there,
My harddrive has gone through some bad blocks and subsequently had to be replaced. I'm now going through and trying to salvage all that I can off the old HD, however it looks like one of the corrupted/damaged files is the one i need most; the "iTunes Library.itl" and the "iTunes Music Library.xml" files which are found in the iTunes folder. I organise a lot of music via playlists and I believe that these two files are the two that hold all the playlist data.
Apart from data recovery centers, is there any other possible way that I could recover these two files? Seems crazy that I would spend $800 on recovering about 50mb, however they are incredibly important!
Hope someone can help,
cheers,

first check to see if the itunes .itl library file, or any folders in the folder heirarchy above it have somehow been set to "read only". if they have, try switching that off.
What are the iTunes Library files?
if no joy with that, see:
iTunes for Windows: "Disk is locked" or "iTunes folder cannot be found" when installing or opening iTunes

Have found multiple iTunes Library.xml files. Moved Library to new Hard Drive and it needs to be completely rebuilt?

Hello. I have a Mac Mini operating Mac OS X 10.7.2. I recently had to move my iTunes Library to a new hard drive. I followed the directions on how to move the library and refind everything yet when I do so what comes up is a mere skeleton of what I had. I have had to hunt down my purchased Apps, Music and Movies and re-add them to the library. I also noticed in doing this I have multiple iTunes Library.xml files ... shouldn't there only be one? If so how do I clean this up without doing any accidental damage (i.e. how do I find the one that is being used and delete the rest?)? If I delete the others is there any risk of losing purchased content? Lastly syncing my iPads has become a nightmare as I get the "This iPad is currently synced to another iTunes library" message. Obviously something

It's hard for me to picture the exact situation. It sounds like you still have your library file on the internal but some files on the external, and maybe some on the internal, some of which are in the library and others not... By re-adding things after consolidating it may have made things into a hodge-podge. Yes, that article you referenced says: "iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder"with Media Folder being the emphasis. You probably should have just moved your whole iTunes folder. Still, moving the media folder as instructed should not have messed up the library. Did you make the mistake of starting up iTunes before the external drive had mounted fully and it then told you it couldn't find many files? How you proceed to sort it out will depend upon how much time you want to spend and how important things such as ratings and playcount are to you. I have not actually used the consolidate feature across different drives myself (and don't feel inclined to do so here to test ).
If you are in the USA you can download some previous purhcases with iCloud, but not all.
Here's a bit on what an iTunes folder should look like:
What are the iTunes library files? - [http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660]
More on iTunes library files and what they do - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management]
Library files with graphic and explanation of different iTunes versions - http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13169517
Once you get iTunes working off the external drive it should just put new media to the external when you add it.
I have almost no experience with synching (I synched my neice's iPod, once, about 4 years ago).

I cant uninstall my itunes off my computer, i have followed instructions and i still have errors, including error 2330 and redundance cyclic. the only software i have left is itunes.exe and file es.lproj which is located in the ituneshelpresources folder

I cant uninstall my itunes off my computer, i have followed instructions and i still have errors, including error 2330 and redundance cyclic. the only software i have left is itunes.exe and file es.lproj which is located in the ituneshelpresources folder. i recently installed a second hard drive and that let me uninstall everything. I just want to get itunes off my computer and reinstall itunes, i have deleted everything i can and i ran "chkdsk" this did nothing. I would have just updated the oild itunes to the newest version but it didnt ley me do that. installing/ uninstalling or deleting just lets me get half way and shows me these errors. Please help, thank you.
JPHowarth

the only software i have left is itunes.exe and file es.lproj which is located in the ituneshelpresources folder.
If the chkdsk isn't fixing the damage, and those are the only iTunes that can't be deleted, try renaming the "iTunes" folder that they are contained in (in your Program files) to iTunesOLD.
Now try another install. Does it go through without the 2330 this time?

Damaged Library File

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.

+"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.

"The iTunes Library.itl file cannot be found or created."

I have tried all to suggestions for moving around the old library and this is still the only thing I have gotten from the upgrade, as of yet. The message appears when trying to get into iTunes thu any source; desktop shortcut, thu the start menu, or opening the library directly in the My Music folder.
The full message reads:
"The iTunes Library.itl file cannot be found or created. The default location for this file is in the "iTunes" folder in the "My Music" folder."
I half expected a problem when i was told to upgrade, but I have got no idea how to fix this one. Any help would be great.

Will iTunes open at all or do you just get the error message and when you click 'ok' the dialog box closes?
I have successfully restored my library using the iTunes Music Library.xml file, which I figured out by messing around. If you want you can try this; note that it takes a really long time:
1. With iTunes closed open the My Music>iTunes folder (if for some reason you had iTunes set up to use a different folder look in there). Move the 'iTunes Library.itl' file out of the folder onto your desktop, but don't delete it unless this restore works.
2. Open iTunes; it should be empty. Go to File>Import. When the box opens you should be in the same iTunes folder; select the 'iTunes Music Library.xml' file.
3. The library will rebuild itself, which takes a long time (I think it took an hour when I did it and I have about 25GB), but just let it go. Don't stop the process or try to close iTunes while it's doing this. You should eventually get all your songs and playlists back, but I don't remember if playcounts restore this way; you might lose those.
4. Close iTunes - it should now save the new 'iTunes Library.itl' file. Then try opening iTunes again - hope this will work for you! If it does you can just delete the old 'iTunes Library.itl' file. If it doesn't you can move that old file back to where it was, and you'll be back to where you were before.
Normally when the iTunes library.itl file gets corrupted you can replace it with an older version from the 'Previous iTunes Library' folder, but it sounds like you've already tried that and it didn't work. If this really is a registry issue I don't know how to fix that - maybe reinstalling iTunes?
ps - I always export my library before upgrading now, because restoring from that if you have a library problem is a lot faster and it only takes a few extra seconds.
Message was edited by: meeshala

HT203288 the itunes library .itl file cannot be found or created

After new iTunes install.
Clicking the icon gives me this error message saying"The default location for this file is in the "iTunes" folder in the Music folder.
The xml files are present but no itl. file
How do I get iTunes to recognize the library

Will iTunes open at all or do you just get the error message and when you click 'ok' the dialog box closes?
I have successfully restored my library using the iTunes Music Library.xml file, which I figured out by messing around. If you want you can try this; note that it takes a really long time:
1. With iTunes closed open the My Music>iTunes folder (if for some reason you had iTunes set up to use a different folder look in there). Move the 'iTunes Library.itl' file out of the folder onto your desktop, but don't delete it unless this restore works.
2. Open iTunes; it should be empty. Go to File>Import. When the box opens you should be in the same iTunes folder; select the 'iTunes Music Library.xml' file.
3. The library will rebuild itself, which takes a long time (I think it took an hour when I did it and I have about 25GB), but just let it go. Don't stop the process or try to close iTunes while it's doing this. You should eventually get all your songs and playlists back, but I don't remember if playcounts restore this way; you might lose those.
4. Close iTunes - it should now save the new 'iTunes Library.itl' file. Then try opening iTunes again - hope this will work for you! If it does you can just delete the old 'iTunes Library.itl' file. If it doesn't you can move that old file back to where it was, and you'll be back to where you were before.
Normally when the iTunes library.itl file gets corrupted you can replace it with an older version from the 'Previous iTunes Library' folder, but it sounds like you've already tried that and it didn't work. If this really is a registry issue I don't know how to fix that - maybe reinstalling iTunes?
ps - I always export my library before upgrading now, because restoring from that if you have a library problem is a lot faster and it only takes a few extra seconds.
Message was edited by: meeshala

Did iTunes damage my files?

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