Hard disk faild, iTunes library gone

I had move all my library to a external hard drive but it broke down. tryed to have it repair but it was imposible. the sad thing is that the hard drive was supouse to be my back ut. is there a way i can get my songs and apps back without me having to buy them allover again?

Yes, all your purchased music and apps can be recovered. Once you get your new computer (or hard drive), simply sign in to iTunes using your Apple ID and password. From iTunes' help:
Download previous purchases from the iTunes Store
You can download many types of content previously purchased from the iTunes Store to your devices and authorized computers. This way, you can add items to your devices and computers without having to sync or copy files. It’s also useful if your iTunes files are lost or deleted for any reason.
Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store.
Note: Some types of previously purchased content might not be available in some countries.
HideDownload previous iTunes Store purchases to an authorized computer
Click iTunes Store near the top of the iTunes window.
Click the Purchased link at the right of the iTunes Store homepage (below Quick Links).
In the page that appears, select a category.iTunes shows you which of your purchases are available for download. You can view all of your past purchases, or just the ones not currently in your iTunes library. Items already in your library aren’t available for download.If you select Music, you can view your purchases by song, artist, or album. If you’re viewing by album, click an album to see which songs on it are available for downloading.To search for an item, type its name or a keyword in the search field, and then press the Return key to view your search results.
To download an item, click its Download button .To download all available items, click Download All.
You can also download previously purchased music, movies, and TV shows by clicking the Download button next to an item in your iTunes library.
To hide previous purchases you haven’t downloaded yet, choose View > Hide Music in the Cloud. This also hides any iTunes Match songs you haven’t downloaded.
You can download previous purchases on a total of up to ten devices and computers, combined. You can authorize up to five computers at a time with an Apple ID.
To find out how to download previous purchases to your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad, see the documentation for your device.

Similar Messages

Broken Hard Disk, lost iTunes library

Recently my hard disk stop working. So I lost my iTunes library. It was practically empty since I manually managed all songs.
So now I have to create a new library but when I try to check the option "Manually manage music and videos" iTunes ask me to format my iphone.
Why should it delete the iphone content? Will I loose all my apps?

iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848 - only media purchased from iTunes Store
Sync transfer is one way, computer to device, matching the device content to the content on the computer (except purchased content as mentioned above). For transferring other items from an i-device to a computer you have to use third party commercial software. Examples (check the web for others; this is not an exhaustive listing, nor do I have any idea if they are any good):
- MusicRescue - http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/products/musicrescue/ - Mac & Windows
- Sharepod (free) - http://download.cnet.com/SharePod/3000-2141_4-10794489.html?tag=mncol;2 - Windows
- Snowfox/iMedia - http://www.mac-videoconverter.com/imedia-transfer-mac.html - Mac & PC
- Post by Zevoneer: iPod media recovery options - https://discussions.apple.com/message/11624224 - this is an older post and many of the links are also for old posts, so bear this in mind when reading them.
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141
In general do not regard your i-device as a reliable unique storage for your media. It is not a backup device and everything is structured around you maintaining a backup of your media on a computer backup.

How transfer exact arborescence from my music folder on Hard Disk to iTunes ?

Hello All i'm French
How transfer exact tree from my music folder on Hard Disk to iTunes ?
I'm Dj, i use my Mac for that. I'm new on Mac.
On my Pc, i have create many Folders and sub Folders for my music (sample : House/march2010/House Club)
This tree is very important for me and i need to conserve this on Hard drive Mac in the same place.
I Want copy the same tree on Itunes but if i create that myself, it's to long !!
Help me please !
(arborescence in french, tree in english)

iTunes doesn't have any automatic way of re-creating your directory structure in terms of folders and playlists in iTunes. You will have to drag each music folder to a playlist and then arrange these in folders inside of iTunes (which I warn you can can slow down iTunes a lot). I guess the once chance of speeding this up will be if somebody has written an Applescript to do it, but I don't remeber seeing any anywhere.

Damaged hard disk = erased music library?

Oh god, oh god, oh god, my hard disk's been damaged and I'll slit my throat if my music is gone. I will. Please help! I don't know if it'll erase my music, or f it does, if there's any way to get it back. I don't have iCloud or anything like that so please, for the love of god, HELP.

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

Moving songs from external hard drive to Itunes library

I have a bunch of songs on an external hard drive, but my itunes library is on my pc.....I tried to add some of these songs to my library (i played the songs and they were automatically added to the library)....but when i inplugged the external hard drive from my pc and tried to play the songs from the library, it would not let me play them.....an error message came up that stated that the library could not find the device from which the songs came from....why is this?....is there another way to add these songs from the hard drive????

why is this?
The Windows version of iTunes doesn't copy content to the iTunes Music folder when importing from another hard disk by default. Connect the drive and choose Consolidate Library from th Library section of the File menu.
(36713)

Had to re download itunes, library gone?

itunes told me to redownload software, that mine was corrupted, but all my songs are gone, can i get them back?
carrie

Perchance you may still have the music files on your PC -- but not seen in iTunes or the PC.
Do a thorough search of your PC using the tips below:
First - Make sure that you enable your Windows Explorer to view 'Hidden' files:
- Open Windows Explorer
- Select 'My Computer'
- On the main Windows Explorer menu: Tools=>Folder Options=>'View' tab
- In 'Advanced Setting' --> Files and Folders --> Hidden files and folders:
-- Select 'Show hidden files and folders’
- Click 'Apply to All Folders'
- Click 'OK'
Then check using Windows Explorer in 'My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\...' for folders containing your music (or wherever you keep your music folders).
Also check in your Recycle Bin to see if you accidentally deleted it. If so, ‘Restore’ it back to it’s original spot.
Then try running a search using Windows Explorer (or similar) for files with the extensions of: m4a, m4p, MP3, OR with the partial names of the songs you are missing.
Do all the above before you decide that your music files have been completely erased from your hard drive.
IF you can locate the music files/folders, we can get iTunes to recognize it. Try one of these:
If you have a backup iTunes database file available....
1. --- Close iTunes. If you have a backup (or previous version) of the ‘iTunes Library’itl’ database file, then place a copy of that file in the ‘...\My Music\iTunes’ folder (or wherever the current, incomplete file resides).
1b. --- Open iTunes
If no backup ITL file exists….
2a. --- 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.
Then....
2b. --- In iTunes choose: File==>’Add Folder to Library’ & browse to the music folder in your PC drive. Click OK.
Without the ITL file, re-‘Adding’ the music files to the Library will lose you the Ratings, Play Counts, Date Added and Last Played attributes, as well as your Playlists. No real way to recover them if you haven’t made prior backups. Something to consider for the future....
IF your music files are truly gone, and you have some or all of your music files on your iPod, these links will give you several methods of recovering whatever songs remain on your iPod; some free, some third-party software, some more comprehensive for restoring playlists, ratings, playcounts, etc. Read them and their associated links before deciding on a strategy that works for you. There are many various third-party software programs that will offer a more robust process, or an easier GUI. Do a Google search for them if the links below leave you wanting…
Don King Resurrected: Deleted files from hard drive (free user steps – music recovery only)
MacMuse: Computer Crashed (free user steps – music recovery only)
Copying music from iPod to computer (a primer on various methods and software)
Copying Songs from Your iPod to a Mac or PC (resource for 3rd party software)
Senuti (Mac OS X v10.3 or higher Recovery Utility)
iPodRip Software
PodUtil Software
XPlay (Software For Cross-Platform Functionality & Music Recovery)
XPlay Photo Browser (For recovering Photos)
Extremely Simple Method: (just to recover the song files – may not work on a Mac)
1 - Open iTunes
2 - Edit=>Preferences=>’Advanced/General’ tab
2a --- Select ‘Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library’: checked
2b --- Select ‘Keep iTunes Music folder organized’: checked
2c --- Click OK to store changes
3 - Attach your iPod to the PC and hold down the ‘Shift+Ctrl’ keys until the iPod is fully recognized (this will defeat the auto-sync process)
4 - If you get a dialog box to link the Library, decline this option
5 - Within iTunes: Edit=>Preferences=>’iPod’ tab: switch iPod to manual transfer – click ‘OK’
6 – Eject iPod
7 – Close iTunes, then reopen iTunes and attach the iPod (it’s in manual sync now)
8 – File=>Add Folder
9 - Browse to and open ‘My Computer’ (click on the ‘+’) and select the iPod
10 - Click OK
-- The music files should start to transfer back into iTunes with its correct information
–-- This will take some time depending on your PC’s speed and the amount of songs on the iPod
No Playlists, or Ratings, Last Played, & Play Count attributes will be transferred from the iPod to iTunes using this method.
If you have problems with seeing the iPod within 'My Computer', try again switching your update method to 'manual', detach the iPod, then reconnect the iPod to the PC.
AFTER recovering your Library, strongly consider developing a thorough backup strategy for just this type of situation.
You need at least two full sets of your music, not including what is on the iPod:
-- One full set on the PC within iTunes (on internal HD or ExHD)
-- One full set on an separate external backup medium (CD/DVD/ExHD/other)
-- One (full or partial) set on the iPod
Music files on just the iPod and only one other medium is not considered having any backup.
If you cannot store your complete music files on the computer’s internal HD, then create and maintain at least two external sets (any multiple combinations of ExHDs, DVDs, CDs).
Backup both the music files and the Library database file (iTunes Library.itl). What are the iTunes Library files?
Here is a post on developing a thorough backup strategy:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1822938#1822938

Itunes LIBRARY GONE! (5th Gen80GB)

Hi,
I have a 5th GEN 80GB iPod.
I would not say a proud apple owner, given all the problems I’ve had over the years with the device apparently overheating ,then shut itself off while playing in a JBL soundstage speaker thang, (could have been the JBL, (but they insisted it's not them, it's the ipod) as well as the music library in my itunes on the computer suddenly disappearing.
I have XP Home SP3. I installed the itunes software in my primary boot hard C: Drive, and kept all my music in my second internal F: drive. I’ve always had all my (mp3) music ripped from all my old tapes, CD’s and online purchased tunes on my computer, in a music folder.
When I bought this 5th GEN ipod, I installed iTunes on this computer, opened itunes, up and created about ten playlists, then methodically dragged each genre from my music list folder into the specific genre playlist into itunes…follow so far?
So the bad thing for me was, that every time I changed anything at all (date, mis-spelled word, wrong artist, etc.,) to one or more songs in my Music folder, when I opened itunes up, there would be a yellow exclamation next to any of those ‘corrected’ songs, then I would have to Double-Click on it, then LOCATE, to put it back into itunes again.
Last night, after buying four Mp3 songs from Amazon, which automatically opens up itunes to place them there, I noticed all my playlists ands songs were GONE! GONE! GONE!
For some reason, I thought by downloading Gizmo which restores itunes music back into itunes from my ipod would work, but it simply placed all the music into my itunes/itunes media/music folder on the C: drive which was filling up the 74GB drive, and ALL my music was close to that size.
So I uninstalled Gizmo, created another MY MUSIC>ITUNES MEDIA>MUSIC in my F:Drive (500GB) then changed the directory output in my itunes music in itunes Preferences to this location on nthe F Drive.
So is it crazy that I have two sets of music on my computer? About 38 GB of regular Mp3 songs, then another 37.2 GB in my itunes music directory?
I keep those regular songs in there for backup, in case this happens again. So now, I also see exclamation marks in hundreds of songs in the itunes library, which, SORRY, apple seems to think I have all kinds of EXTRA time going back and LOCATING each and everyone of those darkened checked songs! Crazy!
Does anyone with itunes have two sets of folders for music…main Music folder, and also itunes library folder? Or primarily, just the music in the itunes. I listen to my music in WINAMP, not itunes when I’m by the computer, preference I guess.
Thanks for any light on this subject.

Because my Primary drive is only 74GB, I got this pop up message telling me the C: Drive is out of space,that's where all these itune files were going. So I changed the path in preferences, to go to my second hard drive to a created new folder named 'MY Itune Music'. That added another 37 GB of music to my secondary HDD
Right. Because the music you had in iTunes is still in the first location and iTunes is using that.
Putting music into a folder then pointing iTunes to this new folder does not add it to iTunes.
Edit > Preferences > Advanced > 'Keep itunes media folder organized' is CHECKED.
....The second option, 'Copy Files to itunes media when adding to library' is UNCHECKED
This is fine.
When you add new music to iTunes, it will stay in the location you add it from. iTunes will not copy it anywhere.
The easiest way to manage music is to keep it inside the iTunes folder and iTunes manage it. Then everything is in one location. In addition, if you want to move your music, it's simply a matter of moving the entire iTunes folder and nothing will be changed or lost.
If you try to do things yourself, you must do a lot more work to make sure everything stays straight.
Quit iTunes.
Go to /Music/ and copy the iTunes folder to the F: drive.
Hold Shift and launch iTunes.
Select *Choose library* and select the iTunes folder you copied to the F: drive.
Now everything will be as it was except the library files in the iTunes folder are now on the F: drive and this is what will be used.
The iTunes folder in /Music/ on the C: drive is no longer needed.
To get everything inside the iTunes folder...
iTunes prefs Advanced and make sure iTunes media folder location is set to /iTunes/iTunes media folder not eh F:drive.
Tick *Copy files to iTunes media folder....* and tick *Keep iTunes media folder organized*.
This will keep everything inside the iTunes media folder you pointed to in prefs Advanced.
Now go to File > Library > Organize library > Consolidate.
This will copy everything in iTunes library into the iTunes media folder you pointed to in Advanced.
At this point you can delete everything outside of the iTunes media folder on F:
Then you will likely have a bunch of duplicates in iTunes (since it was messed up before.
iTunes menu File > Show duplicates will help to sort it out.
If you edit filenames or paths outside of iTunes with windows explorer, iTunes will lose them.

PLEASE HELP! Itunes library gone but music still on iPod

I recently have started organising my 'my music' files and deleting folders with more than 3 copies of songs, I have a lot of music 2500 songs and opened up itunes and all music I have imported (not bought) has gone, my music is still on my ipod though but I'm too scared to sync it in case all my music has gone, I still have my original music in 'my music' file but it's not shown up on library as usual PLEASE HELP!

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

Adding music folder from hard disk to itunes causes the original music to vanish

what is causing itunes to delete original music folder from hard disk when selecting add folder to itunes

iTunes doesn't have any automatic way of re-creating your directory structure in terms of folders and playlists in iTunes. You will have to drag each music folder to a playlist and then arrange these in folders inside of iTunes (which I warn you can can slow down iTunes a lot). I guess the once chance of speeding this up will be if somebody has written an Applescript to do it, but I don't remeber seeing any anywhere.

How do i get itunes 11 to stop adding music played from external hard drive to itunes library

I use itunes 11 to play music from my external hard drive and when i am finished using the hard drive and disconnect it the artist and songs appear in the itunes libary and when i click on it to play them it cannot locate the file and i assume this is becuse under the advanced prefrences tab i unchecked the auomaticly add played music to itunes library. I do not want my external hard drive music to be added to itunes library which at this point it does not but it is still showing the music in the library even though it cannot be played this is very fustrating please help. how do i get the artist and songs played from the external hardrive from appering in the itunes library.

Do you have a working copy of the library anywhere? The key file is called iTunes Library.itl and normally exists inside <User's Music>\iTunes. This is the file that knows what is in your library and each of the playlists, and holds ratings, play counts etc. Changing the media folder path in preferences tells iTunes where you'd like it to store media in future. It doesn't magically connect iTunes to any media that might already be there, or fix links to media that has been moved, or make it pick up a non-existent library file. If the worst comes to it you will need to import the media into the new empty library.
See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device if you have any of these to recover ratings, play stats and playlists, and to associate your device with the new library.
tt2

Multiple Hard Drives, One iTunes Library

Is anyone aware of a way I could spread my files between two drives while keeping them in the same iTunes library? I'm looking for a way to free up some space on my laptop's hard drive, so I thought I'd move my movies and TV shows onto my external drive, while keeping all of my music on the laptop's hard drive. Is there any way I could do this? Thanks.

long ago, i tried the simple "alias", but iTunes didn't follow that link... so i just copied individual folders to an external drive and deleted the original files on my internal drive. then when i clicked on the songs that had been deleted, iTunes displayed a "open file" dialog box and let me select the files on the external drive... keep the option for "copy file to iTunes Music folder" turned off. it's not elegant, but it works in a pinch...
if iTunes 7 will follow links, that would be better in the long run...

I have a laptop with a bad hard drive, my iTunes library is on an external hardrive. How do I move iTUnes to a new computer and have it work?

I have my iTunes Library all saved on an external hard drive. I have iTunes on the desktop of my laptop. The hard drive in my laptop is going bad. How do I move iTunes to another computer and be able to use my external hard drive? This may be easier than I might think. I hope so.
Thanks

Hey oob,
Thanks for the question. You may find the information in the following article helpful in moving your iTunes library via external drive:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Thanks,
Matt M.

Time Capsule or AirPort Extreme + External Hard Drive for iTunes Library

Hi, I currently have an Airport Extreme (Gigabit) and am planning on getting a MacBook Pro. What I want to do is keep my iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive and attach it to my AirPort so I can access it anywhere in the house (and world). Now I have been reading various reviews that perhaps a Time Capsule would be better for my needs. I don't plan on using it for Time Machine backups right now, just as a NAS Drive. If anyone has any experience with this I would appreciate the advice.
Thanks!
Message was edited by: Mr. Macintosh693

Hi,
I have something like that working at the moment. My setup is based on a Mac Mini Core Duo [ OS 10.5.6 ] connected to a Time Capsule. I have configured iTunes to store all archived music on the Time Capsule. I use the Apple Lossless format for my CDs and approx 420 titles have taken approx 130Gb from my 1Tb Capsule. In general this setup works well [ especially the optical out of the Mac ] but be aware of the following potential pitfalls:-
1. The Time Capsule is a little on the noisy side and depending on the quality of your playback equipment, your choice of music, ambient noise and your values of "satisfactory" you may want to put your Capsule or HDD in another room. This seems OK for generic playback, but in my experience wireless is not a good way to go for streaming content.
2. iTunes v8.0.2 has a preferences capability to allow you to redirect it's archive to the Time Capsule. However, even if you leave the Capsule switched on it goes into a "sleep" mode. Rip a new CD and iTunes won't tell you this; instead it will silently reconfigure itself to store on your local hard drive and then you're left with the challenge of moving your collection piecemeal if you want it in one location, followed by manually updating iTunes to "point" it to the new location of the music.
One nice thing about the Capsule is that it does allow other connection types. I have mine networked to a PC running Ubuntu Linux and a music player called Amarok and I am able to stream the Mac-Ripped lossless files and play them over Linux perfectly... Works very well. Apparently you can do this with a Windows client and iTunes for Windows, but I don't run Windows as a matter of principle and can't validate that.
My 1Tb Time Capsule runs hot, too. Not dangerously so, but hot to the touch. There are no cooling fans, but you might want to think about placement; it needs plenty of fresh air circulating around it.
For what it's worth [ and I appreciate this is going beyond your question ] I also wanted my setup to be able to store and retrieve recorded TV. I have Elgato EyeTV and a USB Freeview decoder. I quickly learned that despite claims to the contrary the performance of the wireless connection just isn't up to streaming video content. So I went out and purchased a pair of Ethernet-over-mains adapters from Zyxel that are absolutely perfect for the job.
Yes, the Capsule is a little pricey for what is little more than a Hard Drive in a box, but it does work very well.
Beware the timeout disconnections and the silently re-configuring iTunes thought...

Using old external hard drive as iTunes library on new macbook pro

Recently purchased new macbook pro with 256 GB of memory. I have an older external Passport for Mac hardrive with close to 1 TB of music. I would like to use this external hard drive as my itunes folder. I opened itunes on new computer, went to preferences - advanced and chose new location /Volumes/JP KAF/Itunes Media/Music and select OK but no music is available. How do I connect my external hard drive and direct my new computer to use it as my music library. I tried the starting itunes and holding Left shift key but that does not open an option of creating a library - Again, this is the newest macbook pro with retina screen. Please help.

No not do it changing preferences. That does as it says; it just relocates media, not the whole library which is more than media.
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.

How do I transfer my music from external hard drive to itunes library?

Hello everyone!
How do I transfer my .mp3 files from my external hard drive to my itunes library?

Drag them into the open iTunes application window. You may need to copy them to the internal drive first or organize the iTunes library afterwards.
(65802)

Hard disk faild, iTunes library gone

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