ITunes 9 erased all my music files

I just upgraded to iTunes 9 today and all 5,000 songs, all music files, ratings, etc are gone. I tried moving the Music Library.xml file to the desktop and reloading, but to no avail. File-Library-Import didn't work. Fortunately all my music files are backed up, but I'm not eager to rate and set up the folders again. I certainly expect better from Apple than this. Anyone else having that problem? Or, more importantly, has anyone have a good suggestion for getting it back to where it was?

Are you simply copying your music files to an Ex.HDD or using the Time Machine facility?
A similar thing happened to me when I upgraded to iTunes 8.whatever. I learnt to use Time Machine for backing up. Now everything is backed up every hour and when things go wrong during upgrades (which is often - believe it or not) all my files, playlists and ratings etc. are there to be retrieved.
Nothing can retrieve your lost files unless they're still sitting in the previous iTunes libraries folder. If they are you should be able to reactivate them. Just delete the new library file and move the old one out of the archive folder into the iTunes folder. If you're lucky it should kick in..... It's worked for me before.
Good luck.

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Any way to reverse how iTunes re-organized all my music files on my comp?!?

When I changed my "iTunes music folder" location to the big folder on my computer that has all my music files (over 900), I accidentally checked the box that said "keep iTunes music folder organized"!
Now, iTunes has re-organized my big music folder into a million folders organized by artist. Not only that, but the stupid thing changed the names of all my music files, too!!!
is there any way i can reverse all this?!?!
I cant believe checking that little box changed so much!!! DAMMM YOU iTUNES!!!!
please help!!

Why not? It did exactly what you told it to do.
yes thats true... it's just that I didnt think it would "re-organize" the files in such an extreme way (i.e. separating them into a tonne of different folders and subfolders and changing the file names).
Thanks for the heads-up, guys! I will check out TagScanner...

ITunes Match Erased all my music

My seven year old mac recenetly crashed and my hard drive was deemed "unrecoverable", so in an effort to AT LEAST save my music from my iPhone I tried using iTunes match. When I went to switch it on a warning popped up saying that if I enabled it, it would erase all my music from my device, so I clicked cancel.
Now all my music is deleted anyway.
I have tried going into iTunes on my iPhone and looking under the "Purchased" tab to redownload it, except that that folder is empty too.
Is there anyway I get my music back??

do you know if anyone at Apple actually reads these strings and attempts to solve these issues???

6.0 Upgrade erased all my music files

Could anyone please help me retrieve these lost and/or invisible files?
There are no music files left in my iTunes music folder. They were there minutes before the upgrade. Others have reported the same experience.
Everyone, make a backup of your music folder before any iTunes upgrade. I didn't and I have no backup as my iPod was linked to another computer.
The last version that worked for me was iTunes 4.9. I do not like the look since 5.0 and the fact that you can no longer search by composer.
Apple has removed almost all previous iTunes versions from their web site. I don't know why because they have all previous iPhoto versions and upgrades still available. Apple, please post prior iTunes versions on your website.
If you want to return to version 4.9 look at the fine instructions in this forum. If you want to download iTunes 4.9 I found one link at www.techwhack.com:
http://appldnld.m7z.net/content.info.apple.com/iTunes4/SBML/osx/061-1868.2005062 7.Tnpl6/iTunes4.9.dmg
RB

I too lost all my music, but on advice from Apple Support, I downloaded a new version of itunes. Here is where I am now. I found my music on my hard drive, however each time I attempt to "import" as suggested, my emac won't light the "choose" button on the import dialog box. When I click the entire folder, choose lights up, but no songs are delivered.
Searching with spotlight, is how I found the music files, but it seems that I have to go through the whole process of "add to library" all 1,536 music files... one at a time. Choose all is not working, so if this is indeed the only way, then....it's gonna' take awhile. Suggestions?

ITunes not finding all my music files.

My itunes says it cannot find alot of my music files yet they are in the folder specified in my Itunes preferences iTunes Music Folder Location.
How can I get iTunes to confirm the location and correct this?
On a side note I find that my iTunes changes the location specified for the "iTunes Music Folder Location" from time to time. Why would this be happening?
I am using iTunes 8.1 (50)

Thanks for the quick response.
Yes the folder is located on an external drive so it could be that it was not turned on at some point. That being said how do I get it corrected in iTunes? Is there an quick way to fix this? How do I get rid of the ! in iTunes?
Thanks and I look forward to your reply.
...Bruce

ITunes not importing all my music files

My little brother was using my laptop and "unintentionally" uninstalled itunes. Well, he then "unintentionally" deleted the file that itunes used for my library.
Luckily, he didnt actually delete any of my actual music on my hard drive. I downloaded the latest version of iTunes and installed it. I went to import my music from my hard drive. It went without a hitch (or so it seemed). As I was looking at music to put on my ipod nano, i noticed that several tracks from a Pimsleur foreign language learning CDs were not in my itunes (I took a basic japanese course for a trip I was taking). Tracks 1, 2, 9 and 10 were there, but 3 - 8 were absent. So I went ahead and tried to import them by importing a file. It didnt work,I tried to import the entire folder again, it didnt work.
My previous iTunes library had no trouble recognizing these CD tracks. All of my music is in MP3 format, btw just to clear up anyone thinking incompatibility issues. What can I check? What can I change? I have yet to uninstall iTunes to see if that would fix this issue. Anything I can try in the mean time?

CasperGemini wrote:
Can you right-click on the file, and choose Open With > iTunes?
If this doesn't work, I'd suggest re-importing the original CD into iTunes (or at least the tracks that are not working correctly).
CG
I did as you asked and tried to play it in Itunes. It worked. It played just fine. I tried to import it again. This time it imported them, but instead of importing them correctly, it doesnt have any of the tag information but a name, disc number and track number. No artist, composer, genre, etc.
The only thing I can think that is different is that I "upgraded" to the new version of iTunes instead of keeping the old version. I checked my other program, media monkey, they show up in it just fine, minus the genre. I think there is a problem with iTunes.
Anyone else have this problem?

Every time i close my itunes it erases all my music from the application, all the music is still in the itunes folder but i have to reload my music to itunes every time i turn on my computer. is there any way to keep from having to do this?

i am looking for a solution to this problem so i can use itunes faster and more conveniently instead of having to completely reload all my data into itunes EVERY time i open it up.

Would you rather upgrade to windows 8, BlackBerry or Android phones? Do you honestly think those don't have problems?
You waited a lot and chose to buy an early production model. Mistakes happen all the time a factory retools and workers relearn new skills necessary to keep US happy.
Exercise your rights.... Send it back for a new one.
In any case, I feel your frustration. Btw, I love Apple but use a Blackberry

How Do I delete all the Music Files at on

Without reformating my Zen Vision:M how do I erase all the music files from the player. I have found that even though I have approx. 0 gig of music on my computer the Zen tells me that I have 9 gig. I want to remove all the music files and re-sync with the pc. I have also fixed a great deal of the "unkown albums" on my computer to have the names and art so I don't want to duplicate the music. Oh and I would like to be able to do this without reloading the firm ware. THANKS!!

You should be able to use Zen Media Explorer to do this. Just use it like Windows Explorer: highlight the albums (folders) you want to delete, hit delete and it should take them off the player (may take some time).

I have 2 computers (1 Pc and 1 MAC) and 1 Iphone.The I phone is synchronised with the PC. I want to synchronised it also with my MAC, without erasing all my music and files. Someone can help me to find the answer ?

I have 2 computers (1 Pc and 1 MAC) and 1 Iphone.The I phone is synchronised with the PC. I want to synchronised it also with my MAC, without erasing all my music and files. Someone can help me to find the answer ?
i have already try the copy/paste thing with the ID of the file "iTunes Music Library.xml" it didn't change a thing. each time I relaunched Itunes, the ID is the first I have in the MAC.
I have more than 5 000 files of music. I don't want to recreate one by one all my playlits.
Many thnaks for your answers.
Constance

You can sync iphone with one and only one computer at a time. If you sync to another, it will erase the current content and replace with content form the new computer. There is no way around this.
Put everything on one computer and sync from there.
BTW, you posted in the Home Share forum. Your question seems to have nothing to do with home share.

I downloaded itunes it wasnt working correctly so reinstalled it would it erase all my music if i try to download more of it

i downloaded itunes it wasnt working correctly so reinstalled it would it erase all my music if i try to download more music on itunes

Reinstalling iTunes hould not delete you music files. However, you never know, Things go wrong sometimes. I would back up your music just in case.

How can I import all the music files on my computer directly into my iTunes library?

I recently cleaned my computer of all junk files and this resulted in a loss of all my music from my iTunes library. All of the files are still on my computer but I can only find them one at a time is there a way to speed up this process?

Ok, go to your downloads in itunes and right click on what you wish to remove and click delete, then confirm the dialoague box and it should remove it. I did this with a free tv episode to test it out. Just now worked. If you have problems try updating itunes and then try again.

HT4623 My iPod Touch is te 4th generation with iOS 4 only... The desktop that it used to connect with was broken and I couldn't update my iPod touch as all content is linked to the iTunes on that broken PC. What should I do?I won't erase all my music reco

My iPod Touch is te 4th generation with iOS 4 only... The desktop that it used to connect with was broken and I couldn't update my iPod touch as all content is linked to the iTunes on that broken PC. What should I do?I don't want to erase all my music recording. (couldn't back up easily...) my dairy, my financial record made on apps...
If I got a new Mac book pro soon, would it helps backuping everything?

awesome121, he does not an an iCloud account. You need iOS 5 or later for iCloud and the poster said he has iOS 4.
awesome121 wrote:
DO you have a icloud account?

HT1349 I have recently moved home from the UK to the Cayman Islands, my PC in the UK has been destroyed as it was 240v but my ipod will now not sync with itunes on my new laptop can anybody help as my ipod holds all my music files

Now with a little more space, I believe this to be a simple fix just not for me! I have recently moved from the UK to the Cayman Islands and there lies the problem, 'voltage' ....
My UK PC was 240v and has now been destroyed so when I secured a new laptop 110v and downloaded itunes I was told by 'itunes' as my ipod was linked to another PC it would not/could not sync to my ipod. As the ipod holds ALL my music files this is a major drag. Can anybody tell me how to unassociate my ipod with my old PC so I can sync with my new laptop.
Regards Rob

All computers sold in the past 10 years are univeral insofar as voltage is concerned, so it may have been destroyed but not because of voltage. The right thing to do is to restore the backup that you must have made of your old PC to your new laptop. Then you will not lose anything when you sync the phone.

Does iTunes match need to locate the actual files or just see its record in your library database? I am currently traveling in US and I have US and Australian iTunes accounts. But all my music files are on a hard drive in Australia.

Does iTunes match need to locate the actual files or just see its record in your library database? I am currently traveling in US and I have US and Australian iTunes accounts. But all my music files are on a hard drive in Australia. Can I start using itunes music match while I am travelling without the actual music files attached to my itunes?

In your situation I strongly recommend you read over that KB article. The international iTunes Stores are not cross-compatible.
My understanding of how it would work is that when activating iTunes Match on your US Store account, any songs you have in your iTunes Library that were purchased from the AUS Store account will NOT be matched. As I understand it, those files will be uploaded (which means you need the files on a local HDD). I also do not think it is possible to have iTunes Match active on more than one store ID on the same computer. But since iTunes Match is not available internationally yet, that point is moot for the moment.
To be honest you might want to wait until the service is available internationally so you can guage how will it will serve you.

My PC computer was wiped (virus) including itunes. How do I transfer the many playlists and music to the new re-installed itunes?? Ipod is synced to old itunes. I have all original music files on external hard drive. Please help?

My PC computer was wiped (virus) including itunes. How do I transfer the many playlists and music on my ipod to the new re-installed itunes?? Ipod is synced to old itunes. I have all original music files on external hard drive. Please help?
New itunes is trying to wipe the ipod. But have many many playlists (many hours making) which I want to save. Any help would be appreciated.

If you want to just extract the playlists from your iPod, plug it in iTunes. When it appears under devices, right->click on it and choose Export Playlists. Save them to a location such as your desktop and them import them into your library once you have copied and imported all of your music back into it.
See this older post from another forum member Zevoneer covering the different methods and software available to assist you with the task of copying content from your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452022?start=0&tstart=0
B-rock

ITunes 9 erased all my music files

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