ITunes deleted most of my music

Today I opened my iTunes and almost all of my music was not on it. My playlists are gone and I sycned my friend's iPod for her and that is gone too. The music is still on my computer but in all kinds of locations. Is there a way I can take what is on my iPod and put it back in the same order on my iTunes? I don't want to have to go through my whole computer and put all the music back on my iTunes. I may not find it all and it will take to much time. Thank you for any help!

Had you not synced your iPod the user tip Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device might have been more useful, but there are links in there which should point you in the direction of your purchase history.
This migrate iTunes library post gives you an idea of what you should have done. For the future keep a backup of your library and never delete the old library until you've proved the new one is working properly on the new computer.
If you've not done too much with the drive on the old computer since you deleted the media, then an undelete tool might recover most of them. FreeRecover looks like a promising free tool for this... Select the drive, use the options to get file paths and check file integrity, then, presumably, you can restore anything that has been deleted from the iTunes folder that has a good integrity score.
tt2

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Itunes deleted most of my music and videos!

HELP!
I was watching a movie in my itunes last night. It froze so I re-started my computer then iTunes started re-opening. It started by "verifying" something and I stupdily stopped it. Once iTunes finally opened it had deleted all my movies and most of my music (about 40G worth of music...)
The other weird thing is that my HD still has the same amount of space used on it.
Can anyone help?
I'd rather not re-load all my CD's again

Had you not synced your iPod the user tip Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device might have been more useful, but there are links in there which should point you in the direction of your purchase history.
This migrate iTunes library post gives you an idea of what you should have done. For the future keep a backup of your library and never delete the old library until you've proved the new one is working properly on the new computer.
If you've not done too much with the drive on the old computer since you deleted the media, then an undelete tool might recover most of them. FreeRecover looks like a promising free tool for this... Select the drive, use the options to get file paths and check file integrity, then, presumably, you can restore anything that has been deleted from the iTunes folder that has a good integrity score.
tt2

I went to put music on my itunes from my ipod and it deleted most of my music off of it and i dont know how to get it back. PLEASE HELP ME. :-|

i went to put music on my itunes from my ipod and it deleted most of my music off of it and i dont know how to get it back. PLEASE HELP ME. :-|

- Unsync/delete all music and resync
To delete all music go to Settings>General>Usage>Storage>Music>Tap edit in upper right and then tap the minus sign by All Music
- Reset all settings
Go to Settings > General > Reset and tap Reset All Settings.
All your preferences and settings are reset. Information (such as contacts and calendars) and media (such as songs and videos) aren’t affected.
- Restore from backup. See:
iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes
- Restore to factory settings/new iOS device.
If necessary, you can redownload most iTunes purchases by:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store

After installing the latest itunes update most of my music cannot be located. A box pops up and says the song cannot be found. What can I do?

I installed the latest itunes update and now I can't play most of my songs. A box pops up that says it cannot be located and asks me if I want to locate it and when I click on Yes it gives me all my files on the computer (dropdown box) and I don't know how to find them. Some of my songs will still play.

turingtest2 wrote:
The "missing file" thing happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then say no when asked to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. I can provide a step by step guide if you give me the two paths.
In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps and locate the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes.
tt2
Having the same issue.. All of playlists were deleted as well as the majority of my music can't be located. It seems the only music that can be located is the music I have purchased directly through itunes/iphone.
The location where itunes thinks my music file is:
"file://localhost/C:/Users/MY NAME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/"
The actual location where my music file is:
"C:/Users/MY NAME/My Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/"
This is weird because I have not moved my music and it was working fine before I upgraded to the new iTunes...
My steps:
1) update itunes to latest version
2) plug in old phone take backup in itunes
3) plug in new phone and restore from that backup
I didn't notice the issue until I looked on my phone and all of music was missing from my phone along with playlists (minus the music I purchased directly from iphone/itunes.
Then I looked in itunes in my music library and saw itunes can't locate my music files. I also tried replacing the previous itunes library file as noted in the support link above but didn't do anything..
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,

I own an iPod shuffle (4th generation). For some reason, the only music that will sync to my iPod are the songs I purchased off of iTunes. (Most of my music is copied off my CD's)

My iPod shuffle only syncs music that was purchased from the iTunes store. Most of my music has been copied off of CD's and none of that music will sync to my iPod. Please help!

Sorry for the typos, I hope my message still gets across!

I updated my ipod and it deleted most of my music,especially the songs and albums i bought off the apple store!how can i restore them?

I updated my ipod and it deleted some of my music,especially the songs i bought off itunes!how can restore the songs?

See this article for more information if need be.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519
B-rock

HT201272 Has itunes deleted anyone else's music and won't let them download it again?

My itunes deleted my music and won't let me download it again even though i've already bought it. Thoguhts?

These articles may help:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2715
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1967
To redownload content, iTunes must be signed in with the Apple ID used to purchase the content and must be authorized for that account.

Iphone deleted most of my music

This morning i went to check my itunes most of my music is gone... i had over 10,000 songs now only show 1040 songs that same amount thats on my iphone. need help on getting my music back =(

First, what is currently selected in the left hand column in iTunes?
If Music, is it Music at the top of the list or under the iPhone? If under the iPhone, it is just showing the iPhone.
In all likelihood, even if the music is not showing in the iTunes Library, it is probably still on your hard drive, and you can reimport it into iTunes.
This article discusses adding the music back to rebuild your iTunes Library:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301895
Hope this helps,
Nathan C.

ITUNES DELETED STUFF ON IPOD. music won't go back onto ipod?!!

So, this is the second time this has happened and I have had enough. I have about 3,500 songs on itunes and ipod right? So I decided to add some new cds to itunes, delete old music, clean up itunes so my ipod is more organized. I plug my ipod in, and I'm like okay..updating why is this taking so long?? I come back about 20 minutes later and the amount of songs in my ipod decreased it said. so im like ajghhgdjfkg not again?!!!! NO! so basically, when i updated my ipod, everything got deleted except like 100 songs, but what good is that.
I still have alllll my music on itunes, but it won't go back onto my ipod!! WHY? it does the little hold on symbol thing and says to wait, saying its updating, but its not. why won't my music go onto my ipod, and more importantly WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN EVERYTIME I PLUG IN MY IPOD?! last time it took like 6 hours just to get my music back on. HELP!

With the iPod connected to the computer, go to the File menu in iTunes and choose Transfer Purchases from (iPod's name)
CG

I opened my iTunes and most of my music was gone, it said "Previous iTunes Libraries" at the top and had playlists from a few years ago (that I've long since deleted). How can I get my old library back?

Please help!! About a week ago I opened my iTunes to find that all but 200 something of my songs were missing (I had 1,000 something the day before) and all of my current playlists were gone. They've been replaced by playlists that I had nearly four years ago and have long since deleted. It also says "Previous iTunes Libraries" at the top. I am SO frustrated because everything is gone!!!

Nevermind, once I posted this topic it gave me some helpful related topics on the side and I found my answer! Would have been nice if it could have given me those before I posted this!!! Anyway, if anyone else sees this and is having the problem, press and hold the Shift key while double clicking to open itunes on your desktop, then it will ask you to select a library and just choose the one with the most recent date!! (Use the Opt key instead of Shift for Mac users). I owe alot of thanks to the person on the board that helped me, been frustrated for DAYS!!! THANK YOU!

Plugged in iPhone to PC and it deleted most of my music

So last night I plugged in my iPhone to transfer some purchases I made to my PC. I recently reinstalled windows so I had to reauthorize my computer and after syncing I went from around 300 songs that I had on my phone to 60. I tried every possible solution I could find. Going to itunes and searching for missing songs would pop up a greyed out "Purchased" button which doesn't do anything when I click it. I tried going to the Purchased option in the Store but it only prompts a "Apps" and "Books" buttons , no music or anything else. There are no hidden purchases I have checked that as well. Going to the Purchase History I can see everything I purchased but troubleshooting the problems doesn't seem to fix anything. I would be very grateful for some help since this is my music collection that I've had for years and spent a lot of money on. Thank you.

Did the method you used preserve your library? If the library has the tracks you expect to see do they actually play? Reinstalling may have led to inconsistent permssions. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.
Alternatively, if iTunes has entries for tracks that it can no longer access then these would need to be deleted before you could redownload from the cloud. See Download past purchases for details.
For the future see Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy.
tt2

ITunes deleting songs from my music folders?

Okay, this has happened to me TWICE now since the upgrade. I've plugged my iPod in and I get a message saying there are songs on the iPod not in the library (I only connect my iPod to this computer, there's NO way songs could have gotten on from anywhere but my library). It asks me if I want to transfer them to the library. The first time, not knowing quite what it was asking, I'll admit, I clicked on "Transfer." I realized seconds later that a good 90 files that had been on my iPod were deleted from my music folder entirely. I had to retrieve them from the recycle bin and reimport them (one at a time, because iTunes wouldn't allow me to do them en masse for some reason).
Earlier tonight, I plugged in my iPod and got the same message. This time I just cancelled the box, and it did it AGAIN -- deleted 88 files that I had to dig out of the recycle bin and reimport. This, of course, also means shifting them each back to all of the playlists I'd put them in and, in the case of several files that I didn't rip from a CD (short TV soundbytes and the like) having to retype the "artist," "album" and so on information. Needless to say, all of the ratings and play count information was eradicated as well.
Can ANYONE explain to me why this is happening and what I should do to prevent it from happening again? I'm using a 512mb iPod shuffle on a Dell Inspiron 5100 with Windows XP, if it matters.
Dell Inspiron 5100 Windows XP
Dell Inspiron 5100 Windows XP
Dell Inspiron 5100 Windows XP

It has now done this THREE times, and this time it didn't give me the "transfer files" prompt first. I simply plugged in my shuffle and lost 108 sound files. Someone, PLEASE help!

ITunes deleted all my purchased music from my iPod

I just got back from vacation and hooked up my iPod and suddenly I got messages that my purchased songs weren't authorized (this is on the one and only computer I have ever used for my iPod).
After entering my username and password, it used up one of my 5 "other computer" authorizations. Now, I just added 1 GB of RAM, so maybe that's it, but this is bullcrap.
I'm glad I've only bought 42 songs and I can tell you that I won't be buying anymore through iTunes anytime soon. I'll stick to CDs from now on.
As usual, DRM hurts the paying customer and does nothing to stop the pirates.

I don't understand what you are upset about. If you had deauthorized your computer and then reauthorized it would have fixed you problem without losing an authorization. But you've only used 2 and have 3 left, and you can cancel some when (or if) you hit 5.
Are you planning on leaving them in your will or something?
Why are your songs gone from your computer? If you only needed to reauthorize this will not delete them. Have you tried a search?

Itunes deleted my 30 gigs of music and I didn't have it saved in itunes or on computer, is there any way of getting music back?

Itunes deleted 30 gigs of music from my ipod. And I don't or didn't have it saved in Itunes or on my computer....is there any way of getting my music back? Alot of the music was not purchased from Itunes....mostly from cds I dont have anymore! PLEASE HELP!

If the lost music is no longer on your iPod, on your PC, or in another backup somewhere, you are out of luck. You can download most iTunes purchases again at no cost via iCloud. See this article for more information and assistance.
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
For non-iTunes purchased content, you'll need to redownload or rerip them from their original source.
B-rock

ITunes match wont locate my music?

Ive had iTunes match for a while now. today i decided to tidy up my macbook and delete all my music (as its in the cloud). so when i done this i went into itunes and most of my music has a little locate icon next to it i tried to play it and i asked me to locate the file (which i deleted) so i pressed cancel and it started playing. (through the cloud i assume). my query is do i have to do this individually for each song? as i have thousands it would be very annoying and time consuming.
Any one have any ideas??
Thanks

Hi,
Yes, this was the wrong way to delete music. You should have deleted it from your iTunes library. Have you backed up your music files to an external drive? itunes is looking for the original file but is not finding it because the file is not there.
If you had deleted the tracks using iTunes, you would have received a pop up asking if you wanted to remove file from cloud or not, then another asking if you wish to keep file or move to trash.
What you need to do is now delete the track from iTunes library. You will get option to remove from cloud or not - you should leave this uncheck. As the file has already been delete, you will not get the next pop up. You will now see each track with a download cloud icon. You will now be able to stream or redownload if required.
By the way read this user tip Do not install MacKeeper
jim

ITunes deleted most of my music

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