HELP! MY ENTIRE LIBRARY IS GONE!!!!!

i opened iTunes for the first time over a week only to find that it is all gone, not one song, from store or CD, is left!!! what happened? does anybody knows what to do?PLEASE HELP!

same thing JUST happened to me. I opened itunes, purchased an album, went to my library, and all that was there was the mentioned album. I had over 900 songs. there better be a way to fix this. In my itunes folder, it says my library is damaged, and I did nothing to it, so there better be a way to fix it. With as slow as itunes works, I'm not exactly in the mood to spend hours upon hours ripping my CDs again.

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Itunes loses library . I updated to 10.3.1.55 and i open Itunes and my entire library is gone

Itunes loses library . I updated to 10.3.1.55 and i open Itunes and my entire library is gone, put all the music back in itunes then next time i open it the library is gone again.I am using window 7 and after a few weeks of this it is driving me crazy.PLEASE HELP

I am afraid troubleshooting this is difficult if it is intermittent. That is why I suggested making copies of iTunes library.itl and iTunes Library.xml then you can restore these copies if the lirbary disappears. Then you only lose data since you copied them.
You can check for plugins by running iTunes>>Help>>Run Diagnostics. You don't need any of the check boxes ticked. Any plug ins will be shown.
Also you can run iTunes in "safe mode" by holding ctrl shift while starting iTunes. This runs iTunes without plug ins.
Think about other software that uses iTunes data - instant messaging that shows what's playing, and anything that might use the iTunes library.
If the problem occurs every time, you can use MSConfig to look for conflicts, but that is not feasible for an intermittent problem.
I would not expect to see a "saving library" message when closing iTunes, that does suggest that something may be slowing it down.
Are you using the default set up- for iTunes, that is everything on your c: drive or are you using an external drive or network drive?

Help! our library is gone.

We opened up itunes tonight to buy some new songs only to find our entire library is gone. We opened up the itunes music folder in our C drive and found some of the songs (most of the A's and some of the B's) but that's it. We have no idea what happened (nothing else is wrong w/our computer, we haven't lost any other files that we know of, the computer did not crash, etc). Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Hi Smrecek,
This happened to me too and I don't know what caused it. I was doing some major uninstalling of programs (like PowerDVD) for HDD space and my songs (except for the As and some of the Bs) were gone. None of the things I deleted had anything to do with itunes or music. I even lost my pictures and some of my videos. The damage seemed to be confined to the "My Documents" folder. I know they weren't just moved because I checked the available space on my C drive and I had too much.
Anyway, if you have an ipod, there are 3rd party softwares you could use to transfer your songs back to your PC. If you don't have it backed up somewhere, then I'm sorry, I don't think it's possible to recover your music except to re-rip them from CD.

The entire library is gone and a reinstall made things worse...

For a few days now I have been trying to fix a video playback issue since upgrading to ITunes 7.02. In the process of trying different fixes, the entire library has been lost--my music folder, picture folder, and document folder are empty. I re-installed ITunes and followed the instructions to recreate my library, but it doesn't work. I know, I am an idiot for not having a backup, but I don't. The library has to be on my computer somehwere. Also, the newly installed ITunes now has 6 of each of the playlist folders...90s music, recently added, recently played etc. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Just for a little bump and to add one more thing. I just added a GIG of RAM to my laptop--could this have triggered the problems I am now having?

I signed into itunes today and my entire library was gone with the exception of an album that I recently purchased. Where is my music and how can I get it back?

Please help!

Signed into iTunes where?
Gone form where? iPod? ITunes library on computer?
You can redownload iTunes purchases by:

My entire library is gone

This morning my library was working fine, and I just re-opened iTunes now and there are absolutely no songs inside. Is there any way to recover my library so that my play counts will be intact or will I have to readd the files?
Also, why would it do this? I've never had an issue with it before.
I'm using iTunes 6.0.5.20 if it helps.

Unfortunately - or perhaps from your point of view, it's Fortunately ; - ) - in the last month or so we have seen a number of posts on these boards reporting lost iTunes Libraries.
But no one has come up with an explanation as to why this is happening so the only anwser I can provide is to restore the Library by following the instructions of this article in the Apple Knowledge Base.
Note that this will restore your Library to the date of the .itl file in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder. Any changes since that date - songs added, play counts, ratings changes for example - will not be reflected.
You can add any recent music files, though, by choosing a method from the Add to Library section of this article but iTunes will have no knowledge of any information relating to their previous existance in the Library.
If you do use a Previous iTunes Libraries .itl file to recreate your Library, would you please report back and let us know the date of the most recent file in the folder.
One final thought: if you want to be prepared in case this situation reoccurs, start a regular back-up strategy for your iTunes Library files - making copies of them and storing them in a separate location where they will be available when you need them.

Please help - entire library is missing

Hello guys,
I am currently experiencing some problems with iTunes, I hope someone can help me. After not having used my PC since September, I accessed it yesterday. After installing the iTunes update, everything was still normal, but after the computer had to be restarted for the HP update, ALL my media files are gone. Not only is the library wiped, the actual folder where the file should be is empty.
I will explain what I did below.
Also, please excuse my English, it's not my first language.
Okay, then let me explain my problem from the beginning. Maybe someone can tell me what I did wrong.
I am from Germany, but I am currently in the US as an exchange student. At home, I used a HP PC with Vista, but I decided to buy a little netbook (Asus eeePC)to take with me. The most important thing for me was (and still is) my music, my iTunes library. It is 86.4 GB big and consists of everything; songs, TV-shows, movies, apps, podcasts, audiobooks - you name it. In short, it's the result of years of listening to and collecting music; and it's not mine alone, the whole family uses it. I researched ways to copy my library unto my new netbook, but with a file that size, it's not that easy. Eventually, I decided to use a backup and re-create the library on the netbook. However, this did, for reasons unknown to me, not work, the backup was (from the 2nd disc on) unreadable. I created 2 more backups, tried to read them with different PCs - the same problem every time.
Finally, I had to leave without having accomplished anything. But I took my iPod touch with me, it had most of the files on it. I hoped that I could somehow transfer the files from my iPod. However, shortly after I arrived, it was stolen. I bought a new one, but of course all the files on it are gone.
In he meantime, my family at home created a new backup and send it to me - but this one, again, is not readable. Now I researched other possible ways on how to get my files over here. I decided to use a torrent this time. I had someone install a VNC client on my PC so I can access it from here, and then I installed utorrent and created a torrent from my entire library, send it to myself per e-mail and started downloading on my netbook. I was really happy to finally have found a way - but I should be wrong.
Since I had access to my iTunes after so much time, I decided to open iTunes and listen to a few songs. However, as my PC has not been used since I left in September, there were some available updates. Unsuspecting, I installed the new iTunes version and also a HP update. After the iTunes update everything was still okay, but after the PC had to be restarted for the HP update to work, my entire library was gone! And I checked, not only is the library empty, but the actual song-file is gone, meaning when I open, eg, "C:\Users\Chris\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Linkin Park\Meteora" the folder is totally empty.
That's how it is now. I decided not to do anything big, as I am afraid I'll mess it up even worse (though I don't think that's quite possible - there is nothing to mess up left, afterall).
Please please please, can somebody help me?

If you don't have any other back up, and the torrent files you sent to yourself are gone, then your music is gone.
Nobody can help you recover data that no longer exists, but I can offer some sympathy. Sorry to read your story.

Help! Whole Iphoto library is gone.

So I have been having a few problems with the computer shutting down lately but I haven't noticed any major problems when rebooting. But then I went to open iPhoto and my entire library is gone. When I go into finder they are all still in folders under the iPhoto library but when I try to resync the folders to the iPhoto library while the application is open but it won't let me. I tried syncing a new set of pictures and it worked and saved to iPhoto but those are the only pictures that show when I open the application please help!!!

Your database has been corrupted.
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
2. Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new *iPhoto 6* library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Rolls and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Roll Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD

I'm so frustrated-Unable to download from ITunes and my entire library-GONE

Just upgraded last night and am so mad, my entire library is gone! I also am unable to preview/download anything from the ITunes Store. I can only play ITunes radio-anyone know what to do??????

Hopefully you did not do a clean install of OS X since that would erase everything on your drive. If you just did a standard upgrade install (which is the default option), you might be OK.
First, a question: Are your songs listed in iTunes but simply display the "!" next to them indicating that the files are missing? If so, and if you ripped the songs from CD, you can re-rip them and retain a lot of your tag data.
When you insert the CD and start importing it, iTunes will ask you if you want to replace the existing songs. Select the Replace Existing option and iTunes will transfer tag data (though sadly not play count or rating) from the original item to the new one without duplicating the entries. This is certainly time consuming but it's awesome that it preserves tag data.
If your library displays no songs at all, one of two things can be going on. Either the original library file is gone (which is the case if you did a clean install/erase of the new OS) or iTunes simply can't find it.
I suggest the following:
1) Open iTunes and determine where the active library is. You can find it under iTunes>Preferences>Advanced>General.
2) Search your computer for the files "iTunes Library" and "iTunes Library.xml".
If the only instance of those files is in the location indicated in iTunes, then you may be out of luck. Someone else may know of some way to recover the original but it doesn't look good. If, however, there is another instance of those files, close iTunes, then hold down the Option key and re-open iTunes. iTunes will prompt you to select a library. Select the second "iTunes Libary" file (the one not listed in iTunes) and see what happens. You may get lucky.
Also, if the actual music files are still on your computer, you may be able to import them again, though you will likely lose any tagging you did.
As for the the iTunes Store, perhaps this is elementary, but did you authorize the computer for iTunes purchases? if you are using a new Library file, you will need to do this again. In iTunes go to Store>Authorize Computer and enter you ITMS login information. Once authorized, try to open a purchased song.
I hope this helps! Good luck!
Scott

Entire library disappeared

Fired up iTunes this evening, and suddenly, my entire library was gone. Same with playlists. I manually manage my music on my iPhone, and I can no longer do so without completely wiping out the current contents (says the phone is synced with another library).
How can I recover my library? All the song files are still in place...
Help!

Even if you don't have a Vaio, the same troubleshooting method applies.
Here is a poster that used SysInternals to find that Carbonite online backups were conflicting with itunes:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10604888#10604888
If it only happened once, though, it is going to be tough to figure out why it happened.
You'll have to rebuild your library, and from now on, make frequent backups of that important ITL file. Did you recently update itunes a new version? If so, you can use the ITL file from the day you updated. It will be missing any changes between now & then, but at least it's a start.

The newest v. of iTunes has wiped out all playlists and my entire library

Updated to newest v. of iTunes, go on today for the first time. My entire library is gone, all playlists, everything! I plug in my iPod, and it tells me its synched to another iTunes Library, well this iPod has never been synched with any other library or computer. Complete debacle, and if its an easy fix, its still wasting my time. Maybe a mod should jump on here and tell me the fix.

iTunes doesn't actually care what the name of the file is, or update it, it just use the same one it opened last time.
The instructions were to copy the dated .itl file into the main iTunes folder and give it the standard name of iTunes Library.itl. While the archive version will often work from within the Previous iTunes Libraries folder iTunes will then start putting other supporting files in ..\iTunes\Previous iTunes Libraries instead of ..\iTunes. Next time you upgrade you'll find you have a new folder at ..\iTunes\Previous iTunes Libraries\Previous iTunes Libraries
The repair instructions are now slightly different.
Copy your active library file into your iTunes folder. If present, rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Click the icon to start iTunes and immediately press and continue to hold down the shift key until asked to chose or create a library. Click choose and browse to the library file in the iTunes folder. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

Please help before it kills my entire library!

I’m sure this has come up before but I have to ask.
When I add new songs to my iTunes, it will “misplace” older ones and adds exclamation points to them?
At first I thought this was because I had to have my hard drive replaced and it lost the original songs but the more songs I add, the more get “lost” and now its started to affect the songs that I have purchased from iTunes recently so I KNOW its not due to the hard drive replacement. What can I do? Way too many of my songs are exclamationed now. I backed up the list several weeks ago because I had a suspicion this was what was wrong. The weird part is, even though the songs are gone in iTunes, it doesn’t delete them from the iPod. Even if I clear those songs. It will add the new ones just fine, but it won’t delete the old ones. There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason to the deletion of my songs. They just go as I add more. I have 330 songs and 70 of them are exclamationed. I had more but started deleting them before I figured out what was happening. So far, I seems to only happen when I add new music, no matter where its from. It even happens when I purchase from iTunes. Please help before it kills my entire library!
I have an 8 gig iPod so I know its not because its full. Oh, and Im running on an older Gateway, but I can’t even begin to tell you what year or anything and OS is Windows XP Pro. I also have the latest version of iTunes and update regularly. Any other info you need?
I haven’t needed to lately, but Im scared for if I need to restore my iPod. (I have had to do it once before) Im sure that it will delete the songs that have been preserved that were deleted on the tunes. One more thing, it APPEARS to be mixing up the artwork on the iPod itself with other artists. For example, my Kerli artwork is now my Matchbox 20 artwork and so on. That problem is only with a few songs though.
Any ideas? Thanks SO much for trying to help!

Check your Preferences > Advanced > iTunes Music folder location to make sure that it is correct. Also, is "Keep iTunes Music folder organized checked"? Have you tried to Consolidate Library? (Note: I'm not saying to do that, yet, just asking if you have.) Have you used Windows Explorer to actually locate your music?
I've seen where iTunes could be "missing" a song but not indicate it with the exclamation mark until some action is attempted -- moving, dragging, playing. For me it would be because I forgot to turn on the external drive where my music is stored. But then, once I mount the drive, I still have to point iTunes to its Music folder again.

HT201272 my entire previous tunes library is gone. what do i do?

my entire previous tunes library is gone. what do i do?
i tried to download from the cloud but it says something about this computer is not authorized to do so.
this is soooo incorrect!
help... all my usic and stuff is in limbo!

What do you mean the "itunes library is gone?" What happened to it? More detail, please.

I run an itune 10.4 and would like to back up my entire library to a DVD, because I do not have an external hard drive to back it up to (as the "help" topic is sugesting). Is it possible and if so, can someone help me please.

I run an itune 10.4 and would like to back up my entire library to a DVD, because I do not have an external hard drive to back it up to (as the "help" topic is suggesting). Is it possible?...and if so, can someone help me please.

This is no longer done via iTunes.
Use whatever CD/DVD burner software is installed on your computer.
Add the iTunes media folder to the list of files/folders to burn to disc.

Entire library disappeared! Help!

hi
I opened up iTunes and played some music this morning. Left the computer on, touched nothing and I ve just come back to find the entire library empty, music, podcasts all empty. (The other user's library on this same computer is still there.)
all ideas and help gratefully received
thanks
andy

You mean the mp3 files are still there, but they don't show up in iTunes? This happened to me in v6.x over a year ago.
I never figured out what happened, but now I back up the iTunes files every week (scheduled).

HELP! MY ENTIRE LIBRARY IS GONE!!!!!

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