HT1451 Cannot recover iTunes library based on teh tutorial, next steps?

I'm working OS X 10.7.4 on my Mac but get a "Open" option on step 8, followed by message, "The file iTunes.library.itl cannot be imported because it does not appear to be a valid exported file." Now what? Thanks, BJ

a) this is just a nudge if you're getting over Christmas or
b) Have I defeated the best Apple brains?

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TS2972 Running iTunes 11.0.2 on Windows 7. Intermittently apple tv cannot see iTunes library.

Running iTunes 11.0.2 on Windows 7. Intermittently apple tv cannot see iTunes library anymore. Sometimes I have to go so far as to restore to an earlier restore point to get it to work. How can I trace the network communication to see what is happening?

I have same problem....Mac library working fine but Windows 8 library is not showing in Apple TV. U found any solution?

Sign out of one itunes account and sign into another seperate account on same macbook. Cannot access itunes library for 2nd account

Sign out of one itunes account and sign into another seperate itunes account on same macbook. Cannot access itunes library for 2nd account. How do I do this?

iTunes account is not the same as iTunes library.
iTunes account is what you use to purchase from iTunes.
iTunes library is what is on your computer.
You can have items from multiple iTunes accounts in one iTunes library.

HT1414 My screen shows a USB cable pointing to the ITunes icon. What is my next step? I can't do anything from there on.

My screen shows a USB cable pointing to the ITunes icon. What is my next step? I can't do anything from there on.

Using iPhone/iPad Recovery Mode
http://ipod.about.com/od/iphonetroubleshooting/a/Iphone-Recovery-Mode.htm
Saw this solution on another post about an iPad in a school enviroment. Might work on your iPad so you won't lose everything.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘iPad is disabled’ fix without resetting using iTunes
Today I met my match with an iPad that had a passcode entered too many times, resulting in it displaying the message ‘iPad is disabled – Connect to iTunes’. This was a student iPad and since they use Notability for most of their work there was a chance that her files were not all backed up to the cloud. I really wanted to just re-activate the iPad instead of totally resetting it back to our default image.
I reached out to my PLN on Twitter and had some help from a few people through retweets and a couple of clarification tweets. I love that so many are willing to help out so quickly. Through this I also learned that I look like Lt. Riker from Star Trek (thanks @FillineMachine).
Through some trial and error (and a little sheer luck), I was able to reactivate the iPad without loosing any data. Note, this will only work on the computer it last synced with. Here’s how:
1. Configurator is useless in reactivating a locked iPad. You will only be able to completely reformat the iPad using Configurator. If that’s ok with you, go for it – otherwise don’t waste your time trying to figure it out.
2. Open iTunes with the iPad disconnected.
3. Connect the iPad to the computer and wait for it to show up in the devices section in iTunes.
4. Click on the iPad name when it appears and you will be given the option to restore a backup or setup as a new iPad (since it is locked).
5. Click ‘Setup as new iPad’ and then click restore.
6. The iPad will start backing up before it does the full restore and sync. CANCEL THE BACKUP IMMEDIATELY. You do this by clicking the small x in the status window in iTunes.
7. When the backup cancels, it immediately starts syncing – cancel this as well using the same small x in the iTunes status window.
8. The first stage in the restore process unlocks the iPad, you are basically just cancelling out the restore process as soon as it reactivates the iPad.
If done correctly, you will experience no data loss and the result will be a reactivated iPad. I have now tried this with about 5 iPads that were locked identically by students and each time it worked like a charm.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Try it and good luck. You have nothing more to lose if it doesn't work for you.
 Cheers, Tom

HT1451 The file itunes library cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of itunes

The file itunes library cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of itunes

Either you've downgraded iTunes without rolling back to an earlier version of your library file, or the library file is corrupt. Restore using the following method.
Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library as iTunes Library (Corrupt) and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library. (If you see the .itl extensions then you should include them in the renamed files.) Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
If your last previous library is from a while ago you may want to look in the iTunes folder for .tmp files. On occasion one of these may be a more recent version of your library and can be renamed in a similar fashion, editing the extension this time.
See also TS1967: No content shows up in iTunes after updating.
tt2

Help recovering iTunes library after a disk failure?

Due to a faulty external hard drive, I have a daunting iTunes recovery task ahead of me. Does anyone have any tips that might help make my life easier? (In exchange I offer the tip that you should NEVER depend on LaCie external hard drives!)
Here's the situation:
- My iTunes library is located on an external hard drive (for space reasons)
- The external drive housing that library will no longer mount and based on the sounds that it makes when trying to spin-up, I am not optimistic that I will be able to retrieve anything from it.
- Thankfully, I made a copy of the "iTunes Library" folder onto another drive about a month ago (excluding podcasts).
- I have made some changes to the library since the backup (e.g., added songs, changed album/artist names slightly, etc.) which may have slightly affected the directory structure (e.g., changing the artist name will change which directory the file is in,), but the changes are probably not major and affect only a small fraction of the items.
Here's what I need to do:
1. I need to create a new library on the replacement external drive (easy enough)
2. I need to copy the iTunes files from the backup to this new library and hope that iTunes is able to "find" them there based on the directory structure (iTunes had auto-organized the library into directories based on artist, etc.). It would be a nightmare to have to go through songs one-by-one and "locate this missing item in the Finder"... or to have to delete then re-add the songs which would cause me to lose my playcounts/ratings/playlist inclusions. (Any advice about how to do this?)
3. I need to re-download podcasts (which were not backed up)... but it would be very nice to be able to do this without losing track of playcounts. (Is there any way to do this?)
4. I need to find a way to search for all still-missing songs (i.e., ones that were added or whose details have changed since the backup) so that I can manually replace these (either delete, re-rip from CD, or re-buy from iTunes). (Is there a way to create a new playlist containing all "missing" items, that is, items that iTunes can't find in the iTunes library?)
5. To avoid having to ever do this again, I need to set up some sort of auto-backup from one external drive to another. Time Machine isn't up to the task (can't back up external drives, as far as I can tell), and Backup doesn't just make a mirror. (Any advice on how to best accomplish this?)
Thanks for the help!
-Mike

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

Cannot move iTunes library from Time Machine Backup onto new Macbook

I'm trying to move my iTunes library off my iMac onto my MacBook. I thought I could grab it from my Time Capsule but when I open the Time capsule it shows as a sparse bundle which I cannot do anything with.
Is this the best way to do it? I would imagine it would take forever over wifi...
Can I transfer using Migration Assistant and an ethernet cable? Does migration Assistant ask me to use an ethernet cable as an option?
Thanks

I forgot to mention the iMac is running snow leopard and macbook pro is Mountain Lion

How to recover iTunes library from Time Machine on external drive

Dear Forumers,
I was not able to solve this problem, hence I decided to open this discussion.
Recently, I clean installed Yosemite so my new Mac is completely empty.
I have my time machine backup on my eternal hard drive and would like to restore only specific things - such as iTunes library.
How do I do it?
I can locate the iTunes app in the backup file in the external drive but that is just the app - I still don't know how to recover my playlists and songs.
Moreover, I do not have those songs in the Mac - previously they were in a separate organised folder created by me (inside the "music" folder) and iTunes used it.
Does iTunes have a copied library of this all?
Or do I have to copy this folder into Mac and then manually reopen all the songs and sort them into playlists?
Any advice?
Thank you in advance.

See Pondini's TM FAQs, for details.

Cannot transfer iTunes library to iPhone 4S

for some reason I cannot transfer my iTunes library music to my iPhone 4S. I keep getting errors. I tried EVERYTHING!
HELP!!

I have a similar problem. I have a iPhone 4S. I have a couple of albums of music that I was to copy from my computer to my phone. I have rebooted both, I have done Edit > Preferences and clicked on Reset warnings and Reset cache. I have then done a File > Devices > Sync "IPhone name".
I still have music on my PC that I want on my IPhone but it's not there.
What can I do please?
Thank you very much!!!

Cannot consolidate iTunes library--"not enough room"

Hello,
I'm totally frustrated here. Just purchased a 3T Western Digital NAS drive to keep my family's media libraries. There are three of us each with our own iPhone, laptop, & iTunes library (although we do share an Apple ID). I set up a share on the NAS for each of us, then mapped it on each computer as a network drive. Then I changed the iTunes Media folder location in the advanced preferences to point a new folder on the mapped drive. Next step was to consolidate each library to force iTunes to copy/move the library to the new location. This worked perfectly for the first two libraries and each one is able to sync it's respective iPhone with no problems. My problem occurred when trying to consolidate the third library, received an iTunes error that stated "There is not enough room on <share> to copy all of the requested files." This is not true, I show that there is still a little more than 2T of free space still available on the NAS drive, and I am able to copy files there outside of iTunes without difficulty. I read elsewhere that I could consolidate the library in smaller chunks by selecting items in iTunes, right-clicking, and choosing consolidate files. This worked for about 1/3 of the music, and then I ran into the 'not enough room' error again. Here is the pertinent information for the troublesome library:
Operating System - Windows 7 Ultimate, SP1
iTunes version - 10.4.1.10
NAS Drive - 2.00 TB free of 2.71 TB
iTunes Library - 345 GB (10,129 files)
If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this, your help would be greatly appreciated.
TIA,
Debbi

To get an idea of what is being stored where download & run the script iTunesInfo which should output something like this:
I'm interested in the block of 4 results starting ITL location. If your profile name shows up somewhere replace it with <Name>. It is also worth checking under Edit > Preferences > Advanced to see where iTunes thinks your media is supposed to go. My script estimates the setting based on the location of the first media file it can actually find.
tt2

Recovering iTunes library database .itl via time machine

In short, when I go back beyond a week in time machine I cannot find any .itl or even any of the .itdb or .xml files on my mac that I can restore with time machine. The only version that is there is for the current library which is missing 99.9% of the content.
The context:
1. I had itunes folder on my hard drive and an external with all of the content. Over the years the external must have been disconnected or what not as a sizeable media folder had also developed on the hard drive.
2. In order to free up space on the hard drive I consolidated the media and moved the library to a second external that had much more free space.
3. I ended up deleting the iTunes library on the hard disc on or around 6 april 2015. I believe I deleted the whole folder.
no dramas - everything worked for weeks
4. Today I noticed that the iTunes library was pretty much empty but for purchased music. All the podcasts, playlists and basically anything not purchased was gone.
5. I look into the iTunes folder on the hard disc and I noticed that there is a music folder with two songs that my kid likes to play. It leo has all of the usual library xml files and the .itdb / .itl files (which to be honest I have never noticed before, I had only remembered ever seeing the .XML files).
6. The "new" .itl file was created on Sunday 26 april at 5.30 pm. The whole iTunes folder it sat in on my hard drive also did not exist before this time.
7. If I use time machine and scroll back further in time than sunday there is no iTunes folder on my hard drive.
8. I thought I would just need to find the .itl file that predated this new library that was created on Sunday. Trouble is I can't find one. On any disc, hard disc, the first external or the second external. The only iTunes folder I can find with any of the database files needed is the one created on Sunday that is empty.
9. I have all of the media organised on the second hard disc however I don't want to reimport and lose all the metadata that I have built up since 2001 at least.
THE QUESTIONS
A - where should I be looking for the old iTunes database files using time machine if I used the advanced features of iTunes to move the database to the new disc
B - Can I perform some sort of system wide restore that would take me back in time to a point before last Sunday to get my old iTunes database back?
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance
Len

Eeeek!
Thank you for your reply.
I did a bit more digging back through time machine and I found an iTunes library with the required files from as far back as 10 April.
If I did delete the iTunes folder on 10 April - I really wonder how it continued to work for 16 days straight without a hitch (whilst I was rebooting throughout). Very odd.
OK so if I have to use the old one from 10 April the only problem I can think of is that the database will probably be looking for the media on the old location (mainly external no 1 and a bit on the internal hard disc) as opposed to external no 2 where they all sit consolidated.
That might not be a huge problem as the media still sits on external no 1 (too scared to delete it!).
Couple of questions:
1. If I restore the 10 April library and the database was pointing to the old location on External no 1 plus a few pointers to now-non existant files on the hard drive - is there a way of redirecting the library to External no 2 where ALL the files would currently be?
2. If I trashed the iTunes folder on 10 April - might it still be somewhere in the backup?
Cheers
Len

Cannot transfer iTunes library from old hard drive. Pls help.

My old laptop is broken, so I purchased a "rocketfish" housing so I can extract the info from the hard drive through USB.
The problem is I cannot figure out how to merge my library from the old laptop hard drive to the one on my PC. The iTunes file is there, and I've tried to drag and drop it into the file on my "C" drive, but it still dosen't show up in iTunes.
Please help if you can.

OK what you can do is use the File -> Add to library... command and then point to the music folder on the rocketfish drive (or you can just drag and drop the folders from the external onto your iTunes library window). This will add them, but not playcounts, playlists, ratings, etc. They will come in as new.
The other thing is, if your iTunes preferences are set to copy added files to the iTunes folder, then when you add them, they will be copied from the external to your internal drive. So you need enough room to hold all the files. Alternatively, you can uncheck that option and have them added to the library but they will remain on the external drive. But to play the files you need to have the drive connected and powered up.
Patrick

Move/Recover iTunes Library?

Hello everyone. I know I posted a question on here before regarding moving my iTunes library, but I have another question about this same issue. I have a DELL PC running Windows XP and it has a lot of things wrong with it, all software related, that the computer needs to be reloaded from the ground up. How can I move and recover my iTunes library? If I go on my laptop and log into my iTunes account, can I recover all of the songs I already purchased and put them in my library on my laptop?

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 entire iTunes 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. 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 recommend method 1 since it establishes an ongoing backup for your library.
Note if you have failed to move contacts and calendar items across 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 of it, then see Recover 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

Cannot access iTunes library via FTP network drive.

Hi,
I am trying to point iTunes on my MacBook Pro to my library which is on a networked drive mounted via an FTP connection but it keeps saying that it cant connect to the library coz the "iTunes Library.itl" file is not writtable.
Any idea how I can rectify this issue?

Apart from the user permissions issue which could probably require you adjusting user permissions on the files on the mini, you cannot have the library file open in two running iTunes concurrently.

Cannot get iTunes library to load???

Help! For whatever reason, I cannot get my new apple tv to access my iTunes library. I followed all instructions and had no problem accessing netflix. Just can't seem to get my library up. Any ideas?

I think I have the same problem. I can access the itunes store, youtube etc from the apple tv, I can play items on my playlist on the apple tv by switching to apple tv speakers on the bottom of my itunes page. But when it comes to loading my library the wheel just keeps on turning. There does seem to be a connection to my itunes as changes to my library name in itunes is reflected on the apple tv under "Computers"
I am not sure that this has anything to do with it, but I do not have a "SHARED" library in itunes even though my Home Sharing is switched on, which is verified by the fact that I can see my library name and play music on the apple tv.

HT1451 Cannot recover iTunes library based on teh tutorial, next steps?

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