I wiped out my iTunes library. Help?

In trying to create more HD space, I moved my iTunes library to an external drive, then deleted it from my internal HD. To make a long story short, I'm trying to recover my iTunes library from my Time Machine backup of yesterday. All works well when a window pops up that says "the operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access iTunes" (the folder I'm assuming).
I've tried every workaround I can find on the web, but nothing is fixing the problem. Any suggestions?

You don't see a bunch of files and folders in an iTunes folder in your Music folder?
Pull it back out of the trash. Restore it from a backup. There's not much we can do without you being proactive and telling us what you did and what resources you have.

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A virus wiped out my ITunes library.

A virus wiped out my ITunes library. So I installed a new Itunes library.Now my IPod won't sync to the new library without eliminating everything in my iPod nano and replacing with the "new" library--which has one song in it. How do I fix this!?

Go to the iTunes Store, log into your account, and click the Purchases link under the Quick Links. From there you should be able to re-download some or all of your purchased content (note that not all content has been licensed for re-downloading in all countries at this time). You can also do this from an iOS device.
For more information, see:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519
You'll need to repeat the process for each iTunes Store account through which you purchased anything.
Once you get things back, I highly recommend that you make a backup and keep it current. Content can be removed from the iTunes Store at any time with no warning, which would render it unavailable for redownloading.
Regards.

SW upgrade wiped out my iTunes library and also now iTunes will not launch

I just completed the recommended Sw upgrade for iTunes and now iTunes will not launch and my iTunes library is TOTALLY EMPTY.
Clearly, I am NOT A HAPPY CAMPER. I have lost a substantial investment of $$ and time in losing my iTunes library - so Apple should be paying me for my loss.
I need help, can you, will you help me? I want my iTunes library back and I'd like to reinstall the previous version of iTunes, because it worked fine.
Barbara Bowen
Apple, 1983-1993

You don't say which versions so we don't know to which version you wish to revert. Reverting won't get back your library anyway, if it is truly gone.
Have you checked if your library is truly gone? Have you looked in the iTunes folder and the media folder inside of it? The library has two main components, all the media files for the individual tracks and the iTunes Library.itl file which give them the structure you see in iTunes. Sometimes iTunes just loses track of the library file which can be re-linked, and what's really important anyway are the media files.
If the library is truly gone you can restore it from the backups you make of your computer. Backups are a responsibility of any computer owner ever since computers were invented. If you don't have backups then it may be possible to redownload items purchased from the iTunes Store.
I know I have glossed over some of this but it's not worth going into details on how to do all the different things until we know precisely what it is that needs doing.

How can I find out which iTunes library my computer is using?

I have a desktop Mac Mini at home that my wife uses and a MacBook Pro that I use at home and in the office. I wanted to be able to access all the music we have on both machines from both machines, even when I am out and about and have no network connection for my MacBook Pro. So, I uploaded all the music we had on iTunes to Dropbox, and this now syncs on both computers. So, whenever either of us adds music to iTunes, the songs are saved on both machines within the Music folder in Dropbox, which syncs in real time across both computers. So far so good.
However, what I am finding is that, when either of us adds new music to our respective iTunes, it only shows on the computer on which it's been added. So, within a matter of weeks, our computers no longer show the same music in our respective iTunes windows, even though the music is present on both machines in the synchronised Dropbox folder.
I realised that the computers must start using different iTunes library to each other when new songs are added to either machine. So, I figured that, when we add music to one of the computers, if I pointed iTunes on the computer that has the less up-to-date music to the latest library that is being used by the computer with the more up-to-date music, this would ensure that both machines showed the same music in their repective iTunes windows. The problem is that I cannot work out which iTunes library is being used by the computer with the more up-to-date music on it. I know how to choose a different library when I open iTunes (hold down alt) but that doesn't help, because I all I want to do is to FIND OUT WHICH LIBRARY IS BEING USED BY ITUNES ON THE COMPUTER WITH THE MORE UP-TO-DATE MUSIC. I simply can't find a way of getting iTunes to show me which library it is using, although this must be the simplest thing in the world. An additional issue is that I want to playlists we have created to appear on both machines - will that be the case if I point the less up-to-date iTunes (on my wife's Mac Mini) to the library of the more up-to-date iTunes (on my MacBook Pro), since my computer with the more up-to-date iTunes shows all the playlists, whereas my wife's doesn't?
So, can anyone help? Plus if anyone knows of any software that can automatically ensure that two different Macs both use the same and most up-to-date iTunes library and therefore always show the lastest music collection, whichever machine the music has been added to, that would be fantastic. Thanks.

You could have all the computers point to the same library but it can't be opened by more than one at any time.
No answer for knowing which library is in use other than selecting it at startup. This question gets asked here occasionally but I don't think it is a high-demand feature since most people have just one library. I guess you could put in an empty playlist with the library name so you have an identifier.

I had to restore my computer to factory settings. It wiped out my itunes and it was not backed up. How do I get the music, including music I did not buy from itunes back on computer?

I had to restore my computer to factory settings, this wiped out my itunes and I did not backup. How do I get the music (including music not purchased from itunes) back on my computer?

Assuming the music is sitting on your iPod, try Detune:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/35334/detune
Just be careful that you don't allow the "empty" iTunes to wipe your ipod.

Is there any way to put all the music FROM my iPod back onto my computer? My school tech person not only wiped out my iTunes, the wiped out my back-up hard drive.

Is there any way to put all the music FROM my iPod back onto my computer? My school tech person not only wiped out my iTunes, the wiped out my back-up hard drive.

Hello cgbuehling
You can, but only the purchases that were made from the iTunes Store. Other content that was imported from a CD or other sources will not transfer over.
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1848
Regards,
-Norm G.

Hard Drive Failed - iPod synced with previous iTunes Library - HELP!

The hard drive on our Dell laptop recently failed. We had to replace it and completely reinstall the operating system, which wiped out everything, including iTunes. All of our music currently resides on our iPod (thousands of songs!). After reinstalling iTunes on the new hard drive, iTunes will not sync up because it says the iPod is already synced to another iTunes library.
That library was deleted when we wiped out our hard drive.
HOW can we rescue the songs on our iPod and download them to our new iTunes? It's telling us that if we sync, all music on the iPod will be erased!
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Connect your iPod to your computer. When you get the message that it is linked to a different library and asking if you want to link to this one and replace all your songs etc, press "Cancel". Pressing "Erase and Sync" will irretrievably remove all the songs from your iPod. When your iPod appears in the iTunes source list change the update setting to manual, that will let you use our iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Check the "manually manage music and videos" box in Summary then press the Apply button. 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: 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. The transfer of content sources such as songs imported from CD is designed by default to be one way from iTunes to iPod. However 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 read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
SharePod Windows Only
iPodRip Mac & Windows
YamiPod Mac and Windows
Music Rescue Mac & Windows
iPodCopy Mac and Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
If you have any iTunes Music Store purchases the transfer of purchased content from the iPod to authorised computers was introduced with iTunes 7. You'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
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, 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.

Was updating iPad to iOS 5. Received unknown error during restore. Didn't sync. Appears to be wiped out. Can anyone help? Thanks!

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Try removing the Genius database. In the "Finder" go to the /username/Music/iTunes/ folder and delete the "iTunes Library Genius.itdb" file. This may allow the program to launch again. This file will be recreated upon first use of the "Genius" feature.

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I am running out of space on my 2 TB external hard drive (partitioned so that 15% for timemachine and 85% for itunes library). I want to buy a 4 bay enclosure that has JBOD (no need for raid I have another backup).
My question is this how does jbod treat an itunes library?
1. Will jbod work with itunes library?
2. Will I be able to add the additional drive to the itunes partition or does jbod not like partitions and will make me reformat to get this set up?
3. If I ever removed one drive from the enclosure will itunes still work with the drive that is still in the enclosure?
4. Has anyone tried this, and is it worth it.
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Hi, i hope someone can help. I had to return my laptop to work and it contained my ITunes library (i have spent a fortune). I thought that i had stored all the purchased songs on a memory stick but when i put this into my new laptop it won't work. I have all the songs still on the Ipod and was hoping that i could somehow tranfer them from the Ipod to the laptop to create the same ITunes library again. I could kick myself now for not getting it done properly, can anyone give me a glimmer of hope?

You can use one of the many 3rd party programs that copy music from the iPod to the computer.
One of the most recommended is Yamipod. This is a free program that transfers music from iPod back to the computer. However, it does not transfer playcounts/ratings etc.
Another free program is Pod Player.
SharePod is also freeware.
If you want to recover just the structure of playlists from the iPod (and not the actual song files themselves), there's iRepo for Windows. which I understand has this feature along with all the standard features for these programs.
iPodRip also has the feature enabling you to reconstruct playlists.
There is also CopyTrans. This does preserve ratings/playcounts etc if those are important to you but this program is not free. It also supports video transfer.

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My wife and I both have Nanos. We each have separate logons on Win XP. We each have our own iTunes with our own playlists. However, we both use the same folder for our iTunes library. For the first time, I ripped some CDs on her Win XP logon on her iTunes. Now, the tracks show up in her iTunes library but not on mine. Is there a way to make iTunes scan the library folder to make it update my library with the missing tracks?
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Heston

But, if I add the root folder (D:/Music), then won't iTunes duplicate files that I have already added from that root folder? The folders where the new files were placed are all subfolders of the same root folder, so adding those folders wouldn't seem to make sense. I can, of course, manually launch each new file to add it to the iTunes library, but how laborious! If there is truly no "scan function" (sync) in iTunes, it needs to be added. I have had an iPod since 2002, and just switched from Media Jukebox to iTunes this year. Media Jukebox does what I am talking about above, plus much more, but, alas, it will not play the BS protected iTunes purchased files...

ITunes library help - moved to external drive and now my apps are gone?

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I followed the instructions from Apple support to move itunes to an external drive, did what it said (obviously I messed something up). I then started itunes and missed the part where it says to tell itunes where the library was, and consequently itunes created a new library with none of my apps or anything in it.
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If my ipod was stolen and I have the serial number, can I find out what itunes library it is synched with?

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No, you can't get any such information from a serial number.

After updating to most recent version, everything not purchased through store has disappeared from my iTunes library, HELP NEEDED ASAP!!!

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You're welcome.
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tt2

I wiped out my iTunes library. Help?

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