Help! Lost iTunes Library and all playlist

Last night I discovered that my entire iTunes Library was gone except for about 100 songs and that all my playlists and iPhone apps as well. I had no idea how it happened but when I examined it further I saw a new shared "limewire" playlist. I do not have limewire but I have not seen that shared folder at my house before. Apparently, after much freaking out, my roommate admitted to downloading it. He said that nothing was downloaded because it wasn't functioning after he installed it but still the damage was done.
I checked my music folder and it looks as though all my songs are still there. I backed up my library not to long ago too, thank goodness.
First thing I did was spotlight all the files with limewire in it and deleted them. However, and this concerns me greatly, and file "LimeWireOSX.dmg" in my documents folder can not be found, except for in spotlight, and so can't be deleted.
I then tried to import my library through iTunes which added about two hundred songs, far from the few thousand I had, as well as my podcast and iPhone apps.
This is where I am at now. I am scared that whatever else I thought of doing such as uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes could have terrible ramifications due to whatever limewire could have given my hard drive.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
JD
p.s. my roommate is on dishes duty for a month

The Limewire file may be in your "Downloads" folder.
Do you still have all your music, etc. in your iTunes folder within your music folder?
If you do, look as this: How to re-create your iTunes library, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451.
Think about creating a separate user account for your roommate (if still living).

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Help lost itunes library

a few days ago my laptop got wiped, i have lost everything
luckily my ipod still has all of my songs on it. i have reinstalled itunes. any ideas on how i can transfer the songs from my ipod back onto itunes. please help.
hollz

There is a free way of doing this in windows (Windows explorer), but its a long complexing process. The easy, faster way is using a 3rd party program that can read the iPod and copy everything to the PC. Most programs like this tho require you have "Disk Mode" enabled on your iPod tho so first I'll explain how to do that.
DO NOT CONNECT THE Ipod just yet. doing so may wipe its contents off. Now you will hold down the Shift AND ctrl key on the keyboard. WHILE HOLDING THEM DOWN, connect the iPod to the PC. Continue holding them down til iTUnes opens AND listest the iPod in the source list (On the left side where you see your playlist and all). Once you see it listed there then you can let go of the keys. this will stop any auto update from happening to the iPod.
Now rightclick the iPod in iTunes, hit "iPod Options". In the window that appears, look at the bottom and put a check beside "Enable Disk Usage". Enabling this feature means you will have to manually eject the pod from your PC everytime you connect it (You'll get pop up messages about this when you hit OK). Click OK and now your ready for a 3rd party program of your choice. Go here and read about how to look for programs and to follow a step by step instruction on using PodUtil or others to load things back to the PC. Pod Util you have to pay for the full version but you can use a free trail version for the purpose you need and its based in your home contry of England so... http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-co mputer/

My itunes library and ipod playlist disappeared?

i'm not sure what happened, but i intentionally deleted a bunch of mp3 files from my library (about 75% of my music folder) after uploading them to my 30 gig new generation Ipod. I believe that after this action, my Itunes library disappeared - including my Ipod playlist (the playlist i defaulted my Ipod to sync with). Now, whenever i open up Itunes, there's no music in my library or anything. I still have my 10 gigs of music on my Ipod that i had uploaded prior to this, however, i want to add more songs onto my Ipod. The problem and question here is, i'm afraid that when i sync my Ipod with a new playlist, will all of the songs on my Ipod be erased?
i had the idea of downloading IpodRip to retrieve the songs from my Ipod to my computer, then just starting from scratch and adding all the songs at one time, however, IpodRip would only open with errors and not retrieve my songs.
i hope someone understands this situation - i have a difficult time explaining it in type without sounding confusing. i'm not very feature-savvy with Itunes or my Ipod.

You can use a keyboard command to prevent your iPod auto-syncing with iTunes. While connecting the iPod to the computer on Windows with iTunes 7 installed hold down the Control and Alt keys (or Shift + Ctrl keys in older versions). This will stop the iPod from auto-syncing with iTunes and the iPod will appear in the source list. Wait until you are sure the iPod has mounted, and that it will not auto sync and then you can let the keys go. This may take between 20 to 30 seconds depending on your computer: iTunes 7 Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows
Your iPod should appear in the iTunes source list from where you can change the update setting to manual and use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Also when using most of the utilities listed below your iPod needs to be enabled for disc use, changing to manual update will do this by default. Check the "manually manage music and videos" box in Summary then press the Apply button: Managing content manually on iPod
Once you are safely connected there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. If you have any iTMS purchases the transfer of purchased content from the iPod to authorised computers was introduced with iTunes 7. A paragraph on it has been added to this article: Transfer iTunes Store purchases using iPod
The transfer of non iTMS content such as songs imported from CD is designed by default to be one way from iTunes to iPod. However there is a manual method of accessing the iPod's hard drive and copying songs back to iTunes on Windows. The procedure is a bit involved also it was written long before iTunes 7 so it requires a little adaptation as the iPod preferences are no longer in the location described. Also it won't transfer playlists or videos as far as I know. However if you're interested it's posted in this thread: MacMuse - iPod to iTunes
If you prefer something more automated then there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. Have a look at the web pages and documentation, this is just a small selection of what's available, they are generally quite straightforward. You can also read reviews of some of them here: Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
TuneJack Windows Only
iPod2PC Windows Only
iGadget Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
YamiPod Mac and Windows Versions
Music Rescue Mac & Windows
iPodCopy Mac and Windows Versions
Whichever of these retrieval methods you choose, keep your iPod in manual mode until you have reloaded your iTunes and you are happy with your playlists etc then it will be safe to return it auto-sync. I would also advise that you get yourself an external hard drive and back your stuff up in case you have problems again. Relying on an iPod as your sole backup is not a good idea and external drives are comparatively inexpensive these days you can get loads of storage for a reasonable outlay.

Need help restoring iTunes Library and iPhoto Library after re-install???

some history, my 5 1/2 year old iMac started as Tiger, upgrade to Leopard and then to Snow Leopard...the latter being done after Snow Leopard came to market. Over a week ago I developed a Disk error that could not be fixed by the repair disk and everything else that Apple could come up with. The iMac at this point was pretty unresponsive. (It had been running great for years) Anyhow the decision was made to do a complete restore. Time Machine had made a backup just the previous day or two earlier plus I have close to 2 years of other SL backups. So per Apple, we did a full install of Leopard followed by a upgrade to Snow Leopard, followed by installing all the updates. We then reinstalled iWorks (with iTunes and iPhoto) and installed those updates as well. So now I had an empty itunes and iPhoto.....Now it gets confing for me! It was late at night and the Apple folks were shutting down. They simply said, Go to your last Time Machine back up date and hit restore and you will be all set. Well...what ever it restored, I can't find my music or photos. I called the next night, again it was late and we only had a short time but this person had me do a system Migration...to restore everything back to the way it was before......So now I have 100 gigs of everything I recognize from my applications to all the stuff in my User file and it would appear everthing else. The problem is....I can't find my old iPhoto library or my itunes library anywhere and I am scared to death that I have lost them despite all my Time Machine Back-ups. Worried and concerned!!! Bill

Bostonfan49 wrote:
Thanks Pondini/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png/___sbsstat ic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png All is well. Everything is intact and fine. I used a 4 month old Time Machine Back-up to avoid restoring the iMac with my daughters 60G of MacBook stuff that I didn't need. After the Restore and all the updates, I ran the Repair Permissions and Verify Disk and have No errors...for now/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png
Yay/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/migration-img-not-avail.png
If you need to, you should be able to selective restore things from later backups, via the "Star Wars" display. See #15 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum)., if you're not sure how to do that.
I am going to watch like a hawk and if it does occur then I know I probably have some HD issues.
Good plan. You might want to run this: [Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509]. Run the Extended tests.
I also think I may do something like a Carbonite back-up in addition to my external HD.
That will be excruciatingly slow. See #27 in the FAQ for some other suggestions.

Missing most of library and all playlists, any ideas ?

A week ago, I closed several programs via "Ctrl" , "Alt", "Delete", because I was having trouble closing them in the normal fashion. Anyhow, when I went onto I-Tunes I noticed that my music library was missing over 4,000 songs. All of the playlists were missing as well. Now, all of the songs and playlists are still in my I-Pod (Classic, 5th gen., 80 gig, video). Can all of this data be loaded back into my computer from the I-Pod ? All of the songs are still within my hard drives, does that make it any easier ? The I-Tunes was set to automatic sync. If I need to, I'd buy a new computer - but, could I load all the music and playlists into that (from my I-Pod) ?

This can happen many ways,Malware,Antivirus scan,an auto update (Alot of programs are set to go on the net when your on in the background of windows and update themselves, like antivirus), a computer glitch causing the iTunes library file to be corruppted, the list goes on and on.
First scan the PC with antivirus AND a malware program (Malware is a general term for adware and spyware) with something like Ewido http://www.ewido.com
Go here to learn what a iTunes library is and does http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93732 then here to rebuild it http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313
If that doesn't work, you will have to add songs back to iTunes by going to file>add folder to library OR delete a hidden file so iTunes will auto search the whole system and add them back. Then make your playlist again.
When backing up your music you should also backup the iTunes library.xml file This file will contain EVERYTHING so when this happens again, you import it in iTUnes and all your playlist, ratings ect ect will appear. There is an artical about backing up a playlist, usually if you backup the library you don't have to do this but heres the artical none the less http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93763

Help with iTunes Library and External Music Management

Okay, this nightmare has been getting worse and worse over the past few weeks so let's break it down so people can understand what I'm trying to do.
1) I have music on both my internal laptop drive and external drives.
2) I want to have two libraries, one for the internal drive featuring all the music on my internal drive (and possibly some stuff on the external since that's how it currently is), and the other which is ALL my music from all my drives.
3) I want all new podcasts/itunes store content to save to my external drive.
4) I want the iTunes music folder to reflect which library I'm running (that is to say, if I am in my internal library, the iTunes music folder would be on the internal drive so if anything is copied to "itunes music library" it would copy to my internal, if on the external drive the itunes folder would be on the external drive and anything copied would end up there)
5) I want iTunes to keep each library organized.
6) for my External library I would LOVE to keep all my playlists, and iTunes store purchases in the library (something that didn't happen when I created a new library)
IS THIS POSSIBLE!?!
Basically here's what i did in the past. created a new library on the external and added all my music on the external to it. this caused it to organize everything fairly nicely. I then copied imported the XML data from my old internal library so I would get my playlists and iTunes store stuff to show up, along with anything on the internal drive. this cause MAJOR duplication issues (i have 3 copies of songs now in my external drive which Im going to have to sort through). I tried multiple libraries but everytime I switch back and forth my iTunes music folder keeps changing. (ie. the folder location will carry over to any library - not stick to just the one) This is a HUGE pain in the ###.
Basically, if I'm on the road I want to be able to open iTunes, it automatically launch my internal library which has everything in my internal drive, know that the music folder is "my username/music", and then when I come back home and able to plug into my external drive be able to launch that external library and it know that my music folder should now be "externaldrive/music".
i cannot seem to get iTunes to save this folder preference PER library. is this even possible!?! I just want this stupid thing to work!
Message was edited by: ehmjay

As long as you don't have an existing library that is synced with a device or holds oodles of carefully crafted playlists, ratings etc. then...
Hold down shift as you start iTunes. You should get an option to choose or create a library. Click create, browse to root of the external drive and click save so that your library is say X:\iTunes where X: is the letter of your external drive. All new content downloaded to the library will stay on the external drive.
See this user tip for a backup strategy.
tt2

How do I share iTunes Library and Playlists

I had a desktop mac with 2 login accounts, we enjoy having our own spaces, mail, desktops, prefs, etc.. but we do not wish to duplicate nor keep either one out of our digital assests, ie music, photos, etc..
I used to have an alias to the other users itunes library and all was fine. He is the predominant music purchaser in the house and I have full access to even his latest purchases.
Upon buying a new machine, 1.66GHz duo core mini we seem to have lost this ability. If I make an alias now, when I launch itunes it says cannot find the folder itunes, it seems to now know its a folder it must find and not an alias to one. I have read ideas about sharing and fast user switching, not really the solution I am looking for or used to have. I think many couples find themselves in a similar situation. Seems silly that we now have to be logged in one side to play/stream music in the house and make sure we are logged into the other side whenever we connect the digital camera.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Chrallan
1.66GHz Intel Core Duo Mini Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Does this help?:
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer

How do i unsync my iphone from itunes library and sync it to a different one without wiping my phone

I bought an iphone 5c and synced it to a windows 7 thinkpad laptop. I backed it up on this device and transferred music off there to my iphone. I recently had an acer aspire e15 laptop and downloaded itunes so i could now do everything i did on my old laptop on to this one, but it isn't letting me unless i sync my phone and wipe its memory. Although i can restore my phone it doesn't restore the music. So is there a way to unsync from one itunes library to another without wiping my data, or is there a way to transfer the music off my phone to my new itunes library so when i restore my phone its easy to restore the music i had on it previously.

The warning message provided is all iTunes content on your iPhone will be erased, not all settings and data. The same applies when selecting to transfer any photos from the new computer. If you had a computer backup for your old computer that included your iTunes library and all photos on your iPhone that were transferred from your computer that could be transferred to your new computer, this wouldn't be a problem.
iTunes includes an option to transfer all iTunes content on your iPhone that was purchased/downloaded from the iTunes Store. With your iPhone connected and without syncing, at the iTunes menu bar go to File and select Transfer Purchases From - the name of your iPhone. Or with your iPhone connected, right click on your iPhone under Devices in the iTunes source list and at the menu window that appears, select Transfer Purchases.
There are some 3rd party utilties that provide for transferring photos from an iPhone that were transferred to the iPhone from a computer, but the original resolution of these photos will be lost. When transferring photos from a computer, the photos are optimized for viewing on the iPhone. The same utilities provide for transferring music from an iPhone that was not purchased from the iTunes Store.
Contacts, settings, and photos/videos in the iPhone's Camera Roll are not affected by this.

IMAC deleted all photos, itunes library, and other files! need help on how to recover lost files. everything else is working fine.

After installing the current update for the Mac I noticed that all my pictures, Itunes library and some apps and other files disapeared from the computer. Anyone know any voodoo to bring them back?

rccharles on file recovery...
"Stellar Phoenix Macintosh - Mac data recovery software, recovers data from damaged, deleted, or corrupted volumes and even from initialized disks."
They have a trial version, so I guess you can see if your data can be recovered...
http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-data-recovery.htm
FileSalvage is an extremely powerful Macintosh application for exploring and recovering deleted files from a drive or volume. FileSalvage is designed to restore files that have:
    * been accidentally deleted.
    * become unreadable due to media faults.
    * been stored on a drive before it was re-initialized/formatted.
http://subrosasoft.com/OSXSoftware/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id= 1
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11073082#11073082
Your best bet for repairing you HD is DiskWarrior from Alsoft...
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
If that shouldn't work, your best bet for recovering your data is Data Rescue II...
http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php

I have tried and failed to copy my iTunes library and playlists from my Windows 8 desktop to my Windows 7 laptop using an external hard drive. Can it be done? Help would be appreciated.

I have tried and failed to copy my iTunes library and playlists from my Windows 8 desktop to my Windows 7 laptop using an external hard drive. Can it be done? Help would be appreciated. I have followed instructions found online but the library of music doesn't pull in. Thanks!
Nate

Migrate an iTunes library from one computer to another
These are two possible approaches that will normally work to move an existing library to a new computer.
Method 1
Backup the library with this User Tip.
Deauthorize the old computer if you no longer want to access protected content on it.
Restore the backup to your new computer using the same tool used to back it up.
Keep your backup up-to-date in future.
Method 2
Connect the two computers to the same network. Share your <User's Music> folder from the old computer and copy the entireiTunes library folder into the <User's Music> folder on the new one. Again, deauthorize the old computer if no longer required.
Both methods should give the new computer a working clone of the library that was on the old one, with ratings, play counts, playlists etc. preserved. As far as iTunes is concerned this is still the "home" library for your devices so you shouldn't have any issues with iTunes wanting to erase and reload.
I'd normally recommend method 1 since it establishes an ongoing backup for your library and unlike copying with Windows Explorer the process can be resumed if it is interrupted and it will continue to the next item if there are any read/access errors.
Note if you have iOS devices and haven't moved your contacts and calendar items across then you should create one dummy entry of each in your new profile and iTunes should merge the existing data from the device.
If your media folder has been split out from the main iTunes folder you may need to do some preparatory work to make it easier to move. See Make a split library portable.
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library or a backup then then seeRecover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device for advice on how to set up your devices with a new library with the maximum preservation of data.
tt2

When my hard drive died I lost my itunes library and now I'm being told that I can't synch my ipod with new songs unless I delete all existing because I can only have one library at a time

when my hard drive died I lost my itunes library and now I'm being told that I can't synch my ipod with new songs unless I delete all existing because I can only have one library at a time

Copy all the content on your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes. Then go ahead and sync the iPod with your new library.
See this older post from another forum member Zevoneer covering the different methods and software available to assist you with the task of copying content from your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452022?start=0&tstart=0
B-rock

My itunes won't launch even after reinstalling. Looked in itunes folder and somehow lost itunes library? HELP!

My itunes won't launch even after reinstalling. Looked in itunes folder and somehow lost itunes library? HELP!

The first thing I'd suggest is to get a good antispyware checker and give it a go at your system. Some recent spyware has been reported by other users to shut down iTunes or prevent it from launching. From user reports, Ewido seems to be the best at catching it. You can download a free version of Ewido here.
If that doesn't cure the problem, try deleting the iTunes preference files:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes.pref
and
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Data\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes.pref
You might have to turn on "show hidden files" to find them. (Right click "my computer", select open, select Tools menu -> Folder Options. Select View tab, "show hidden files" radio button is in the center scrolling panel.) Delete them or if you want to be able to put them back if it doesn't help, drag them to some other location. This will force iTunes to run the setup assistant the next time you launch iTunes. Note that you'll have to go back and set any preferences you've changed from the default.
If that still doesn't work, try this:
Bugie: Perform a Thorough & Complete Uninstall and Reinstall of iTunes/QuickTime.
Hope this helps.

Lost my itune library and content on my window based laptop

I have lost my iTunes library (all songs, playlist, artist etc.) and do not have backup. I have approx. 80% of my library on my iphone5 and ipod nano. My laptop is window based operating system (window 7 professional). My iphone was just updated to ios8.1. Anyway to import my 18.2 GB of music back to my laptop? Thanks
Kaivon

Thanks for your help. You were a big help and saved me hundred of hours in re-creating my itunes library of thousands of songs by downloading them again. I managed to get my purchases back using the instructions you provided and used the listing of software providers to download iRip and recover the rest of my music and playlists from both my iphone and ipod (I had different playlist on each). I basically recovered 99% of what I had lost so that was a huge help. Once you download iRip you really do use only one click to restore your iTunes library and playlists - super easy. Thanks again.

I redirected iTunes to an external drive and moved my iTunes library and folder, but my hard drive is still low on space. How can I be sure that my music is all on the external HD ONLY, especially with the new iCloud technology?

I redirected iTunes to an external drive and moved my iTunes library and folder, but my hard drive is still low on space. How can I be sure that my music is all on the external HD ONLY, especially with the new iCloud technology? It doesn't look like I created any more space by doing this, AND I totally lost all my iTunes playlists. I'm not sure if because I added old library materials manually if this messed up my playlists, or if the new location is just not reading my moved library. In any case, I followed step by step instructions and found a few holes and thought I'd just "figure it out" but I guess I'm not as smart as I thought since I'm still scratching my head many hours later.
Thanks for any support ;-)
Eaglerocker

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) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
If this is to a new computer and you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.

Help! Lost iTunes Library and all playlist

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