ITunes 7 Library Corruption

I am running iTunes 7.01, and am having a serious problem with itunes corrupting my library. At first I tought was maybe it is my PC, but the iTune library is the ONLY thing getting corrupt, and it is now happening 4 or 5 times a week. Every time I run itunes I make a backup so that I don't lose any more data. The first time it got me I lost all the changes I had made after upgrading to iTunes 7. I still cannot figure out how to add "Interactive Booklets" back to the library as booklets instead of movies.
I want to know how one can get support for iTunes for serious problems like these. There support pages kind of suck, I recently bought one of those red nanos, does that entitle me for itunes support?

I've been unable to launch itunes (7.6.2) ever since the latest updates. Actually, I could launch in a library-less test account, and once after deleting my entire preference (although upon the next restart I had the same problem).
What is iwow?

Similar Messages

ITunes Music Library corrupted by Update 5.0?

Yesterday iTunes was normal. Late last night Software Update presented me with an update to iTunes (5.0) which I declined to install. This morning, when I launched iTunes several unexpected things happened:
1. iTunes hung searching for (or loading) the Library for nearly 30 minutes. On launch I saw the loading progress bar, then was busy with other things (in other Spaces desktops) till I noticed it hung. I cancelled this loading operation and continued launching, then...
2. iTunes reported a damaged Library which would be renamed "iTunes Library (Damaged)" and that a new library would be created.
3. iTunes very quickly began rebuilding my music database, searching for album art, etc. -- all of which I stopped as quickly as possibly.
4. iTunes launched with a completely bare browser (new installation: utterly without any of my stuff), which was a shock to say the least, but all the previous occurrences began to add up. I quit iTunes.
5. I went directly to the Music/iTunes directory and began investigating. I found that...
6. iTunes had created a brand new file named < iTunes Music Library.xml > at 12:53 PM (it's now 1:53 exactly) and a file named < iTunes Library (Damaged) >.
7. Previous iTunes libraries I have collected over the years (by manual backup and in Time Machine) are named < iTunes Library.itl > (I assume ".itl" stands for iTunes Library).
8. I went to System Preferences/Software Update/Installed Software and confirmed that the most recent software update was "Java for Mac OSX 10.6 Update 6 Version 6.0" on 11/11/11; as expected, I had NOT inadvertently installed the unwanted iTunes update last night.
Before I begin bleating my own opinions, I would love to get more informed comments and answers to a few perhaps obvious questions.
Q1. What happened?
Q2. Could it have been related to the update I declined to install? (Pure coincidence would be positively mystical.)
Q3. If not (Q2), then why the radical change in Library name and tag ( iTunes Library.itl --> iTunes Music Library.xml )?
Q4. Can I use my manual backups (or Sync, or Time Machine) to restore the previous Library and get my hard-wrought, very coveted collections back as they were? If yes, how? If no, what then?
I do not yet plan to update my Mac OS to Lion for a number of reasons (therefor making the Apple Cloud service unavailable to me), so I'd intended to be cautious about related updates, such as the updates to iTunes, iPhone (...) and wait a bit. The DotMac/MobileMe account I've had since the beta days will remain active till summer and I figured I'd have plenty of time to think about it and to formulate a strategy for dealing with dreaded software/hardware obsolescence issues and so on.
Thanks to the community for any help forthcoming.
-- Bill

Some clarifications (hopefully):
The iTunes update flashed by me pretty fast on the night of Nov 15 as I quickly chose not to accept it. I seem to have mistaken the version number. The newest version of iTunes showing at the Apple site is 10.5.1 (I thought I'd seen a 5.0, but obviously not). I just looked in the Applications folder at the iTunes app version; it's 10.5, and the Date Modified is October 12, 2011. As mentioned above, System Preferences/Software Update/Installed Software shows no recent update to iTunes. It seems Software Update was trying to update iTunes to version 10.5.1 on the night of Nov 15th..
Also, I spent a bit more time today trolling about some loosely related discussions on these lists, and believe I might have misunderstood the three types of file I mentioned, so I looked more closely at them:
Music/iTunes Folder:
< iTunes Music Library.xml > Shows created Aug 3, 2008, modified Nov 16 at 12:53 PM.
< iTunes Library.itl > Shows created (12:52) and modified (12:53) yesterday (Nov 16.).
< iTunes Library (Damaged) > Shows created Oct 12, 2011, modified Nov 15, 2011 at 7:55 PM (when update was cancelled).
Applications Folder: iTunes (app) - version 10.5 - created Jan 14, 2008, modified Oct 12, 2011 (Finder info);
System Preferences/Software Update/Installed Software: iTunes 10.5 installed Oct 12, 2011 (nothing more recent)
Why was the "iTunes Library (Damaged)" file created a _month_ ago and only modified when I declined the iTunes 10.5.1 update? I can't get any sense from this. Now past 2 AM on the 17th. I'm calling it a day on this. Hope to get iTunes up and running soon.
-- B.

HT3819 My iMac had a corrupt seagate HD that had to be replaced my imovie files & itunes video library are missing when I picked up my Mac from Apple?

I purchased my 27" iMac in October 2010 after attending classes we discovered my computer needed new graphics card, hard drive, and a total rebuild after owning it only 6 months. Apple rebuilt my new computer, several months later same issues began yet again, slowly Apple began replacing defective parts they installed, my computer still hasn't worked as it should and has been in and out of Apple all the time sometimes they keep it for weeks! running tests?? February 10, 2013 I took my imac back in because it has been taking upwards of 6 minutes to make 1 single edit in imovie after 6 days of editing my project I could No Longer save in itunes, external HD, or export my imovie videos (they are 4 min up to 20 min max) Apple informed me that my Hard Drive was corrupt a bad batch of Seagate HD had been installed and my computer was again affected by this and it needed to be replaced and they couldn't get it to respond at all my itunes library was missing, etc. We saved my videos on my external HD I brought in with me. The Genius bar said they would call me in 3-5 days for me to pick up my computer. 9 Days later not hearing back from them I went in to get an update February 19, 2013 No one can tell me what was done except my HD was replaced they can't answer my questions about my itunes library being reinstated or my videos, music is missing, podcasts, etc. I was even using icloud, empty? They tell me IF I find anything wrong or not working again to just bring it back. My iMovie videos ALL the edits are missing ? I can't find ANY of my videos in my itunes my Library is empty as it is in imovie except for 2 videos? HELP! I can't imagine having to re-edit my entire video with sound effects, fronts, graphics, etc. I spent weeks on this :-( I'm at my wits end with my iMac.... I have searched in my previous itunes library EMPTY ! Waaaah! I want my mommy....

The Apple Store is not responsible for data loss and generally does not do any backups of your data before performing any repairs, though in some cases, as seems to be the case in yours, they guide you to making your own backup. Here's what they say on the "getting service page" (when I've taken a system in for service a similar statement was presented to me when I agreed to the service):
Many repairs require Apple to replace or reformat the hard disk, which will result in the loss of your data. Please make sure you back up your data on a regular basis to minimize your data loss. Learn more about backup options. Apple and Apple Authorized Service Providers are not responsible for any damage to or loss of any applications, data, or other information stored on your Mac desktop while performing service.
Since you say that you backed up your videos before the drive was replaced, why can you not just restore them? And did you not back up anything else?
If you didn't make any sort of backup of your other data prior to taking the iMac in for service, then sorry but your data is almost certainly gone. Regular reliable backups are a must, particularly when dealing with content you spend a lot of time creating. You may be able to re-download any content you purchased from the iTunes Store or Mac App Store, but anything else you'll have to recreate or re-obtain from the original source.
Regards.
Message was edited by: varjak paw

ITunes 7.6.1 Library corruption & possible solution

For two or three days itunes have been crashing with -50 errors (cannot save the library file) just after trying to play a song after a fresh launch. Otherwise if quitting without playing any music, I would get a dialog upon normal quit which informed of unexpected quit and invalid disk access errors (multiple crash reports sent to apple over the past 48 hrs)
I have over 30,000 tracks and do not wish to rebuild/reimport/recreate the library again
Booting from Install disk and verify & repairing the disk with disk utility was successful (invalid free space corrected) but did not help with apparent itunes library corruption.
Deleting the various itunes related prefrences from user/lib/prefs and user/lib/prefs/byHost did not help. Reinstalling a fresh copy of itunes downloaded from apple did not help
Trying to rebuild the library created new a library that would still crash with -50 errors
(after taking something like an hour to create a fresh library with assosiated loss of perfectly good album art that was fine before the corruption started) Other weirdnesses included the name of my podcast download folders and my library name in itunes windows changing to japanese/korean/chinese
solution? Disable iwow, turn it off or uninstall it.

I've been unable to launch itunes (7.6.2) ever since the latest updates. Actually, I could launch in a library-less test account, and once after deleting my entire preference (although upon the next restart I had the same problem).
What is iwow?

HT5654 itunes update error - corrupted, How do I get my itunes library back on my computer?

Itunes update error - corrupted. How do I get my Itunes library back on my computer? And if I "rer-install" will my devices , ipod, ipad, etc... be recognised and still contected?

See Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.
tt2

ITunes 8 Causing Library Corruption

Since installing iTunes 8 I've had some issues of library corruption such as a song suddenly being named under a different artist/album/track number etc. Only the bitrate seems to be accurate under these files. Was curious if anyone else had had issues with this at all.

I am also getting corruptions. I usually keep iTunes open all the time since I stream my tunes to my AppleTV through my stereo. If I quit iTunes, it says saving iTunes Library and then quits. Then when I restart it starts and gives me a "Importing" message and then says my library is corrupted. I have to then reimport all 7000+ songs and iPhone apps. This is happening none stop and is very reproducible. This has only been happening with iTunes 8.

ITunes Library corrupted in weird way, how do I correct or rebuild?

For the record, I'm running iTunes 8.2. I have 27K+ tracks total. All of my CD rips are ripped twice, one for Lossless for home use and the second as 256K AAC for iPod/iPhone use. My tracks sit on my home Leopard Server, but the iTunes library is on a local machine (Mac Mini 2009).
Several point releases ago (probably in iTunes 6 or 7), iTunes had a problem where certain tracks got ripped from CDs as protected tracks (.m4b). I didn't realize it until l started doing an inventory of my library (purchased from iTunes Store). Over time, I had deleted many of the protected tracks (reripping them to .m4a format) but many of them were still files (.m4b) on the server. I ended up manually deleting all of those files recently. Best I can tell, all the tracked that search as "protected" in my library are songs purchased from the iTunes Store but not yet converted to unprotected AAC. (about 70 tracks).
But those "phantom" protected tracks still show up in weird ways. First, they were incorporated into playlists over time so I have that editing to do. But they also still show up in Smart Playlists, as if they are still listed in the library somewhere. Also, they show up in shared library functions, like if one of my laptops is sharing the main library, or even with third party apps like Simplify Media.
My theory is that the iTunes Music Library still lists these files but its only used for stuff like Smart Playlists and sharing. If this is the case, how do I excise the bad data from the library? If I do a rebuild (dragging the XML file to the desktop), will the references to the bad data just end up in a new XML file (this seems to be the case in every major iTunes update in recent months). If I rebuild without it and do a reimport of the files, what happens to my iPods, two iPhones and all their data/apps?
Thanks

The iMac 500 doesn't have a DVD drive, and I don't have a firewire cable to hook it up to the 800 in Target Disk mode.
Anyway, I am wondering if it has something to do with my network layout? The iMac 800 is on a different router than the iMac 500. This doesn't interfere with normal network operations - but does iTunes intentionally block this to prevent sharing outside one's own network? If so, isn't there something that can be installed on one or both of the computers to get around that?

ITunes Music Library File Corrupt

Hey,
Yesterday I was putting some podcasts on my ipod shuffle, when itunes froze. I force quit it, and when i booted it up again, it said that the iTunes Music Library File was locked or that I don't have permissions for it. I replaced it with my previous library, except now I have a library that's like four months old. Is there any way to import the songs/podcasts from my music folder into my music library? Or perhaps to repair the damaged Music Library File?
PS I don't have any .AACs.

Do you still have a copy of the problematic library file? (or of the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file that was in the (home)/Music/iTunes at the time? If so, use the File->Import function to import either of these files.
(First make a backup copy of your current "iTune Library" file just in case.)
If the import won't work because it says the file is locaked, go in the finder and select hte file, do control-I to bring up the get info box and make sure the file's preferences are set to read and write. If that doesn't help use the Disk Utility application in your Utilities folder to "repair permissions" on your hard drive.
Finally, if these methods don't work, then you can manually add the missing music (but this won't bring back any ratings, playcounts, etc associated with the tracks in your old library). Go File->Add to Library and select your music folder. It will go through the files and only add the ones not already in your library.
By the way, AAC files wouldn't affect this problem one way or the other.

ITunes musical library located on a WD 2TB, ext. drv. Computer destroyed by virus; ED survived. Bought new laptop, connected ED. Not able to see library. ED shows as 'G:' 95% full. How can I reconnect my old library to new laptop?

I had my iTunes musical library on an ext. drv. WD 2TB, ‘MY BOOK ESSENTIAL'. Three weeks ago, my computer was infected by a virus that fried it. It did not affect the external drive. I bought a new computer: a laptop, Dell XPS, Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium. I have been able to connect the WD external drive; however, I am not able to see the musical library in my iTunes or Explorer. ‘My Computer’ shows the external drive as ‘G:’ 95% full. It reads, 32.1 GB free of 1.36 TB. When I click on the drive to see its contents, it shows nothing. The library in iTunes also shows nothing. Can anyone help, please? How can I reconnect my old musical library to my new laptop and iTunes? Many thanks.

Hmm, viruses don't generally "fry" drives. They can make bootable operating systems not bootable, hide data, and corrupt executable files. Software can potentially wipe all the data from the drive but it shouldn't be able to physically damage the drive. Bah! What's done is done.
As to unhiding your files assuming they are just hidden....
Hit Start > Run, type in CMD and press enter. Type the following at the prompt and then press enter:
attrib -h -s -r g:\*.* /d /s
This tells windows to clear the hidden, read-only, and system flags from all files on the drive, assuming of course your profile has the power to "see" the files and change them.
If that doesn't work then you may need to take ownership of the drive first. The drive may have security settings that make it "belong" to an account on your old system. Right-click on the drive in Windows Explorer and click Properties. Click the Security tab, the Advanced button, the Owner tab, then the Edit tab. Make yourself the owner, then you can make any other changes to the security settings you want to back on the Permissions tab. (If you can't change the owner log out and log back in as Administrator). For iTunes your account (or everyone) and SYSTEM need full access to all files. Any changes you make should be applied to "This folder, subfolders and files", should be inheritable and you should also replace the permissions on all child objects.
tt2

TS1717 how to restore my itunes music library when an apple download stuffs up

how to restore my itunes music library when an apple download malfunctions

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. 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.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. 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

Once again - upgrading iTunes - reports library file damaged, all missing

So, I've finally figured it out. When ever I upgrade iTunes, the new version doesn't like the old library file and marks it as damaged.
All content is lost - as far as itunes is concerned. But it's right there on the hard drive. In the itunes folder.
Making a new library file and point the preferences to the content still results in nothing showing up.
No, I have not sync'd since this happened. I have many files in the itunes folders on my HD where the content is not loaded on my itv4.
Is there a magic key combo to have it 'look' at the actual HD contents in the itunes folded and 'find' it ?
No, holding down SHIFT when launching itunes and then creating a new file is not the solution, nor selecting the old library file (says it's damaged).

For general library squiffiness following an upgrade the easiest thing is to restore your last backup, but I guess if it were that simple you wouldn't be here.
*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. 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.itl* as *iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl* and then rename the restored file as *iTunes Library*. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch (Windows) or Music Folder Files Not Added (Mac) and Super Remove Dead Tracks (Mac) for tools to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working *make a backup!*
tt2

ITunes folder is corrupt

My iTunes folder is corrupt on my external hard drive and it is all gibberish (i.e., name turned to symbols and punctuation marks, etc.). I'm fairly certain that it's not my hard drive because I am able to open and use other files on the drive. I am currently using Mac OS X. Unfortunately, I have no other backup of my music. Please tell me that I can recover my 4,000 songs somehow. Thanks for any help!

Use the tool in this backup tip to copy the files that can be read over to a new known good location. One of SyncToy's strengths is that it will keep on working after coming across a file it cannot copy. Windows copy will just fall over.
Once you recovered as much media as possible use the following technique to explore any available backups of your library files, and then update it to match your media folder.
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 youshouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. 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.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. 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

My entire iTunes music library is missing. It's like iTunes reset itself and started over. How can I get my music back?

How can I get my music library back? When I launch iTunes there's no music. It's like iTunes started over completely and I can't find any of my music anywhere.

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. 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.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. 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.
In the unlikely event that all the media has been inexplicably and permanently removed from your computer, see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

HT1660 My "itunes library" folder is empty. My libray music (prior to upgrading itunes) is now in an .xml file in my itunes location under my music. How do I extract/convert this .xml file to a Itunes database and restore my Itunes music library??? Than

My "itunes library" folder is empty. My libray music (prior to upgrading itunes) is now in an .xml file in my itunes location under my music. How do I extract/convert this .xml file to a Itunes database and restore my Itunes music library??? Thanks, Tom

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. 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.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. 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

Itunes xml file corruption

I'd like to ask the community if anyone else is having trouble with corruption of their iTunes XML library file?
Back on October 20th, my iTunes library completely imploded: roughly one third of all songs stopped playing, all my Digital Copy movies refused to play. I had just upgraded my iPad to iOS 6 and pretty much everything imploded. The solution was to basically delete the iTunes XML files, re-install the software and then re-import all my uploaded music.
Yesterday, I connected one of my iPod Classics and saw the same error messages that started the first round of trouble: there were 7 files that iTunes claimed it could not sync with my Classic because they were the "wrong format". I checked each in turn and they turned out to be from 3 of my 650 or so albums. In each case I could click on the iTunes entry and nothing would play: no error was reported.
In each case if I pulled up the track information, I could see that the references for these 7 songs had been corrupted. So for example, the track "We Didn't Start The Fire", from Billy Joel's album, "Storm Front", had "Song Information" that said it was actually located in /iTunes/Crowded House/ - no album name or song name were included. Every one of the 7 "wrong format" songs had corrupted "location data" like this. The choice of the tracks that were corrupted appears to be largely random. However, I have noticed that corruption only seems to occur when I add new material to my iTunes database.
The first instance was a complete meltdown and required a clean re-installation of iTunes - literally hundreds of song entries were corrupted. This time around only 7 seem to have been impacted [though i concede it could be more].
I tried asking Apple support for help and although they were able to walk me through the repair process, they have been unable to explain why this corruption is taking place. I wonder if anyone has any ideas? For what little it may help:-
I am running iTunes 10.7(21) on a Mac Mini (OS/X 10.7.5(11G63)) with the 2.3GHz Core i5 and 8Gb of RAM.
My iTunes Library "XML" file is in my local home directory [default location], but because it's now well over 200Gb in size, all the music files for iTunes are stored in a QNAP NAS [works fine, local Apple folk helped me configure it].
It's difficult to triage exactly what's happening without having access to something like XMLspy and being able to work through the iTunes XML file piecemeal, but it does look like something during the "add songs to database" process is corrupting that file, and, interestingly, it adds new content fine - it's existing entries that get corruption.
My music library is not *that* big: the XML file is 15.2Mb on disc, iTunes is currently holding 659 Albums an about 7827 songs.
Does anyone else have ideas as to what might be causing this? It seems to be a relatively recent development, and since I rebuilt the database completely 6 weeks ago, this most recent damage is definitely a recent thing.
Suggestions gratefully received.

The XML file is a readable subset of the data in the main library file. If the library database becomes corrupt the easiest approach is to restore an earlier version.
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. 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.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
The images are from Windows XP but you get the idea. Your Mac library file may omit the .itlextension.
See MusicFolder Files Not Added and Super Remove Dead Tracks for tools to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working I'm told Carbon Copy Cloner can do the equivalent of this Windows based backup tip.
tt2

ITunes 7 Library Corruption

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for