Help! restoring itunes playlists?

I just got back from a trip, and somehow while I was gone my roommate messed up my itunes library... I don't know exactly what happened. Basically, I opened itunes (7.0) and found nothing-- no music and no playlists!
I found the itunes folder that is usually in the Music folder in the applications folder. This had all my itunes music in it, thankfully. So I moved that folder back where it belongs, and now itunes has all of my music and folder art back.
BUT I don't know how to restore my playlists! And I had DOZENS of them I really want to get back. Is there any place on my computer that those playlists might have been? (other than my music folder?) everything in my music folder now is new-- all my music and artwork, but the itunes library file has today's date.
I also have the most important playlists on my ipod. Is there any way for me to get them off of there and onto my computer? I am worried about connecting my ipod b/c when I do, it automatically updates, so I don't want to wipe out the playlists on there.
Any advice?

Well go ahead and have the big bottle of wine anyway! It's good for you.
Ok, yes this works method will save your playlists, but not Smart Playlists. If you have any Smart Playlists, best thing to do is open the Edit Playlist window and take a screen shot of the rules so you can easily recreate them.
For normal playlists, all you have to do is right-click on the playlist you want to save. Change the Format pull down to XML. Then OK to save the XML file somewhere (to your external hard drive would be ideal). That's it.
When you get your computer back and put your library back on it, you can File -> Import... and pick those XML files to recreate the playlists.
This is a good way to back up you playlists anyway, so I typed all that out.
But the easiest way to preserve everything is to simply drag and drop the entire iTunes folder to your portable HD, which includes the database files found in that folder plus the iTunes Music folder (and sometimes other folders). This will save everything. So when you get the computer back, you only have to copy the entire folder back then open iTunes and everything should be there.
Patrick

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How to restore itunes playlists

My itunes library and playlists were intact one day and gone the next. I did not have any problems with my computer and the Music files are still on the hard drive of my computer. Is there any way of getting the library to recognize the songs again and restore my playlists.
Thanks

See Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash.
tt2

HELP restoring library & playlist - Itunes 7.7

Before replacing main HD I copied to external with diskwarrior. Now I want to get back my music & playlists to Main Hard drive. Went to apple store and genius said to do as follows:
1- Open Itunes in Main Hard Drive and select all and remove all songs (move to trash)
2- Go to exernal HD and drag music folder in main HD (will ask do you want to replace and say replace)
3-Opt +ITunes - choose a library - and choose folder that you just put into main hard drive. When I do this it says (I tunes library file could not be found in the folder Music - Please choose another folder" And songs are grayed out.
QUESTION- when I choose another folder I get the same message - however when i navigate in my hard drive I do see the music library with my music in it.
Please advice what I am doing wrong - HELP!!!
All I want is to restore my old library of songs with playlists.
thanks,

You can still drag the songs if the iPod is set to manual update, you don't have to create a playlist to update. If you are having trouble seeing exactly what's there click on the chevron > to the left of the iPod icon in the Source list. This will display the various icons for the iPod itself, Music, Movies, TV Shows and Playlists. Try dragging your song directly to the Music icon in this list. Click on Music to see the traditional song view: Managing content manually on iPod

Can I restore iTunes playlists to my iPhone4 without using the iTunbes backup on my computer as potentially causing a problem that has required a replacement handset?

Recently had to get a replacement iPhone4 due to a problem with either the firmware or software. Did a complete factory reset and then restore from backup and problem continued so did a full factory reset without restoring from backup and problem still continued so took it to Apple Store who gave me a replacement handset.
New / Replacement handset works perfectly so far and have resrored Apps from App Store, re-entered contact and calender entries (manually) and now want to put a playlist or two from my iTunes Acc back on the handset but don't want to restore from my computer in case the original problem re-occurs.
Is there any way to do this from the handset?

The following user tip might be of some help:
Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device

Help restoring itunes

hi all, I need some help please.
I just have got a new laptop so i backed up my library onto 4 dvds and I have come to restore however it keeps hanging on the same track on the restore dvd 3. I cant find a way around it. All the data appears to be one the disks, how can i get the data manually into my library by dragging and dropping from cd please?
thanks

You are doing better that I am. I have 7 back up disks and I have no idea what the porcess is to "import" them. All I was told by itunes support was to import them and I have no idea where to start.

Help with iTunes Playlist and iPod!

My first problem is that my Recently Added playlist disappeared and I can't figure out how to add it back to my list of playlists!
And secondly, when I plug in my iPod into the USB cord into my computer, it connects with iTunes but then a Yahoo! Music Player automatically opens with it.
What can I do? Thanks!
Dell XPS Windows XP

cujoftw wrote:
wow ... I get a headache just trying to read what you just said. I went and read how to migrate my library and found that you can only migrate purchased media.
No, you can easily migrate your entire library from one working compter to another.
If you fail to backup or migrate your library and find yourself with nothing but a new empty computer and a device full of content iTunes is designed to only recover the iTunes purchased content, however third party tools can help recover everything if needed.
tt2

Help with itunes playlists

We're having issues with our new computer and had to send it back to Gateway. We saved all our music/videos/photos on a portable hard drive. When the computer came back we redid itunes. It took forever getting all the playlists back in order.
Now we're having the same issues and have to send it back to Gateway for the last time. If they can't fix it, they are giving us a new computer. My question to everyone here, is there a way to save not just the music, but the actual playlists for my husband, myself and kids? It took hours to remake the playlists and drag each song over to each list. I was just hoping since I have to go through this nightmare again that there may be a way to save individual playslists. I have a feeling I'm out of luck. I'm gonna need a big bottle of wine to do this all over again!
Thanks for any help!

Well go ahead and have the big bottle of wine anyway! It's good for you.
Ok, yes this works method will save your playlists, but not Smart Playlists. If you have any Smart Playlists, best thing to do is open the Edit Playlist window and take a screen shot of the rules so you can easily recreate them.
For normal playlists, all you have to do is right-click on the playlist you want to save. Change the Format pull down to XML. Then OK to save the XML file somewhere (to your external hard drive would be ideal). That's it.
When you get your computer back and put your library back on it, you can File -> Import... and pick those XML files to recreate the playlists.
This is a good way to back up you playlists anyway, so I typed all that out.
But the easiest way to preserve everything is to simply drag and drop the entire iTunes folder to your portable HD, which includes the database files found in that folder plus the iTunes Music folder (and sometimes other folders). This will save everything. So when you get the computer back, you only have to copy the entire folder back then open iTunes and everything should be there.
Patrick

New Mac user needs help restoring itunes.

Recently converted from PC to Mac. Backed up my itunes music library on the PC and restored it to the Mac. Later found small percentage of songs somehow never got to the mac. Attempting to re-run the restore and am now receiving the error "Attempting to copy to the disk "Macintosh HD" failed. The disk could not be read or written to". I still have all the backup disks and the complete library on my ipod. Any help would be appreciated.

If the complete library is on your iPod then the easiest way to resolve this is with Podworks
http://www.scifihifi.com/podworks
Regards
TD

How to restore iTunes playlist?

I just installed iTunes 10.5. All of my music shows up fine, but my playlists are all gone. These took ages to create.
I tried moving one of the backup files from /User/Music/iTunes/Previous iTunes Libraries but there isn't one more recent than 2 months.
Where did my iTunes backup go when I did this install a couple days ago??

Sorry, but your only option would be to use the previous iTunes library. I'm guessing you didn't read up on iTunes 10.5 before you downloaded it. It's not the final version so it basically wipes everything. I recommend that you create a library backup file and some playlist backups next time you get everything situated just incase your computer dies or something too. This website clearly explains how to not only backup playlists, but also restore them when or if you need to http://support.apple.com/kb/TA47831.

HELP - My iTunes Playlist shows 10 not 11 Podcasts

I have created a wordpress blog with my late father's sermons from 20 years ago. All MP3 files. And I have created a feedburner that feeds the blog items to iTunes.
There are 11 messages on the blog. But only 10 show-up on iTunes. The OLDEST podcast does not not appear. Though ALL 11 messages are on my iMac iTunes home computer playlist.
Does iTunes only show the most recent 10 podcasts?
Am I doing something wrong?

.and I can't find the settings window anywhere as you showed above.
I can only check this in iTunes '11 on my Mac:
When you select one of your Podcasts in list view, you should see a "Settings" button in the footer of the iTunes window. Press it to reveal the "Settings" window.

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.

Help with iTunes playlist sync

Hi,
It seems that newer versions of iTunes (9) do not sync my playlist in the right order. My playlist is a 'smart' playlist and has a ruleset designed to filter for additions to my library that have been recently added within the last couple of months. The problem is that the library order (sorted by 'Date Added' in iTunes) does not sync in said order on my iPod touch 1st or 3rd generation. I am not sure how it is syncing but it's not alphabetical either, it appears to be random as I have looked at all the metadata fields and none sort the playlist how it is showing up on the iPod. If I remember correctly, I had no issues with this with earlier versions of iTunes before 9. So far i've tried, re-installing iTunes and wiping my iPod and resyncing everything which hasn't worked. Just want my playlist to sort the same way on the iPod as it is in iTunes.
Details of the smart playlist i'm working with:
Match All = checked
Date Added - is after - ##/##/####
Genre - does not contain - Podcast
Genre - does not contain - Audiobook
Genre - does not contain - TV Shows
Kind - does not contain - Movie
Grouping - does not contain - book
Kind - does not contain - video
Time - is less than - 30:00
Limit to = unchecked
Match only unchecked items = unchecked
Live updating = checked

Smart playlists are not working correctly in iTunes 9.
Also, your playlist is kinda messed up.
Try this...
Match all;
Playlist is Music
Date added is after ##/##/####
Time - is less than - 30:00 (do you have any songs longer than 30 minutes? If not, delete this)
Live updating enabled
++++
I would not use these...
Genre - does not contain - Podcast
Genre - does not contain - Audiobook
Genre - does not contain - TV Shows
Use *Kind does not contain* instead of *Genre does not contain* because the Genre may not be a podcast or TV Show or Audiobook.

Help restoring itunes library

I recently had to replace my OS, and when I did so ended up "losing" a pretty huge number of songs. They're all still on m ipod; however, when I sync they don't go over to my library.
I'm guessing the best way to take care of this is to completely wipe all music-related content from my computer, uninstall itunes, and then reinstall itunes. When I sync for the first time I'd hope to repopulate the library (of course, I'd make a backup, etc.).
Any thoughts on this?

So sorry...wrong forum. I'll cross post on the proper forum.

Can I restore an iTunes playlist?

I inadvertently deleted my iTunes "Purchased" playlist. I would simply create a smart list based on dates but I have several years worth of purchases in the "Purchased" playlist that I have tweaked over the years.
Is there a way to restore iTunes playlists without restoring the whole iTunes database?

I figured it out. I created a smart list with "Purchased" equals "true". Then I purchased something on iTunes which gave me a new green Purchased folder. I selected everything in the smart list and moved them to the green purchased folder.

Help restoring playlist on iTunes

Hope someone here can help.
I was weeding through a playlist on iTunes, deleting some podcasts in anticipation of updating it on my iPhone, when the entire playlist disappeared.
I still have the playlist on my iPhone, but I am hesitant to try to synch my iPhone till I'm sure that the playlist won't be deleted.
What do I need to do to restore the playlist?
I'm running iTunes 8.2.1 with, I think, OS 3.0.1 on my iPhone.
Thanks --
Susan

Nobody replied here, but I found the answer from slapphappe, so I wanted to post it here in case anyone else has had this question:
http://slapphappe.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/how-to-recover-an-itunes-playlist/
The gist of it is to create a new on-the-go playlist on your iPhone, then select the entire playlist that was deleted on Itunes (but still resides on your iPhone) so that you re-create that playlist.
Hope this helps someone else. I'm very grateful to slapphappe for posting that and to have recovered my playlist!

Help! restoring itunes playlists?

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