Itunes has deleted half of my music files, help!
hello -
i had a rather large collection of existing mp3's, and recently purchased a ipod 30gb 5th gen for my fiance, and in the process of loading music onto it, seemingly half of my collection has gone missing, and itunes has decided to re-arrange my folders at random, which i had previously spent hours arranging.
suggestions?
ITunes rearranges the files and folders only when the option to do so is checked under Edit•Preferences•Advanced•General. I think by default the option is unchecked and iTunes asks about it during install. After rearranging, it may look like lots of files are missing but they're probably just tucked into the Unknown Artist folder, where iTunes stashes any poorly tagged MP3.
Rest assured, iTunes always asks before deleting files, and actually it asks if the user wants to keep the file or "move to Recycle Bin," so the user can always retrieve from the Recycle Bin if he changes his mind.
Similar Messages
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Using the "consolidate" function has deleted 50% of my music files
Hi there, Any help appreciated: I stupidly thought that because I had music files in a couple of locations as well as itunes that using itunes to consolidate them would solve the problem. As the itunes help menu says for "consolidating your library":+Depending on how you've imported songs, videos, and other items into iTunes, your library can include items that are located in various places on your computer's hard disk or other locations. You can make sure that copies of all the files in your iTunes library are in your iTunes folder so that, for example, it's easier to move your library to a new computer.+ Now itunes can't "find" at least 50% of my tunes because it clearly hasn't copied anything: they are GONE. Supposedly "Files located outside the iTunes folder remain in their original locations, and copies are placed in your iTunes folder". This has not happened. I have searched my hard drive and they haven't been relocated anywhere I can find em, not even the recycle bin, or down the back of the couch. When I try to play or "get info" on a song I get an error message saying "the song could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to try to locate it?" Not only has itunes deleted half my music but it also created a big pile of folders by artist, with lots of handy subfolders by album, that usually contain NOTHING. There appears to be no rhyme or reason which music it has deleted. Has this happened to anyone else and is there a way to "locate" my lost music files and undo this?
Many thanks for any suggested solutions...ITunes rearranges the files and folders only when the option to do so is checked under Edit•Preferences•Advanced•General. I think by default the option is unchecked and iTunes asks about it during install. After rearranging, it may look like lots of files are missing but they're probably just tucked into the Unknown Artist folder, where iTunes stashes any poorly tagged MP3.
Rest assured, iTunes always asks before deleting files, and actually it asks if the user wants to keep the file or "move to Recycle Bin," so the user can always retrieve from the Recycle Bin if he changes his mind. -
iTunes has deleted all my music except for the genre I was listening to yesterday. It has also deleted my purchased movies and all my podcasts and playlists. Grrr. Is there a way to find it all again???
Hey there MotherMarthaMayhem,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
This article provides information and troubleshooting tips that may help you find the media that recently went missing from iTunes on your MacBook Pro.
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads - Apple Support
Cheers,
-Jason -
I recently got a new laptop, it has no music on it and I have been plugging my iPod in and listening to music that way. Tonight it decided to sync with my iTunes and deleted all of my music. Is there any way I can get my music back?
See:
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities
Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data - How-To Geek
Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device: Apple Support Communities -
iTunes has recently began corrupting my Music and some of the Podcasts. An exclamation mark appears at a random selection of songs - about a thoussanad of them - and they will not play as iTunes says that it cannot locate the file. This also has happened on a number of Podcasts. Any one else encountered this?
This 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 cancel when asked to try 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.
Alternatively, if you are running Windows (you've posted in iTunes for Windows, but your sig mentions Mac OS X...), and 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 -
How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7. HP computer intel Dual Core. Thanks for any help!
Hey idw3,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities, and thanks for the question. Follow the instructions on this article to move your iTunes Media folder to an external hard drive:
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Regards,
David -
Just updated iTunes Cloud. Noticed that some music files are missing, entire playlists. They were here a few hours ago, now they are not.
But they are still on the cloud menu on my smartphone.
Files uploaded to cloud from CDs, legit, no boots or anything like that.
My iTunes is 10/7.0.21. I have the newer version on a desktop and don't much care for it, so have resisted updating on the laptop, which is my primary computer.
I've rebooted the computer, turned off iTunes Match and turned it back on again. No change.
Lots of questions. How can my cloud catalog be different on different devices? How can I get this stuff back on my lap-top cloud? Anyone else having problems like this? I'm trying to trim my physical collection by importing stuff to the cloud and discarding the physical media. Am I shooting myself in the metaphorical foot?
Suggestions much appreciated.You might want to post this over in the iTunes Match forum.
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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 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 -
My film I rented from iTunes has frozen half way through downloading and won't finish downloading, any ideas?
TRy to close itunes by double tapping the home button then slide up all of the open apps and try again.
another option is to turn off your ipad, logout from your itunes account and try again downloading the movie. If it still gives you error, call apple support and ask for itunes agent to see if there is something wrong with the movie you are trying to download -
My iTunes has deleted my music library- how do you fix?
I tried importing a disk into my iTunes library, and it asked me to name the file. So I did, but now my iTunes has that name displayed on the top and all my music and playlists are gone. I tried uninstalling and re-installing, but it didn't fix the issue. How do I revert back so I can have access to all my songs, videos, books, etc? HELP!!
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.
Given your iTunes windows is currently showing up with the wong name you will need to hold down shift as you start iTunes, then click the option to Choose a library and navigate to the correct file. Should all be good now, 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 -
How do I batch delete all my protected music files from iTunes.
Hi, in a moment of stupidity, while I was working on a backup folder of my friends files (from his broken computer - copied them to my PC so he could get them back onto his new PC) I managed to copy all of his songs from his iTunes folder into my iTunes library. I don't know how I managed to do this, maybe it was the fact that I was really tired at the time.
I own all my music - none of my music is copy protected (it is either downloaded from legal sites where the bands themselves [usually unknown or alternative artists] release their music, or I ripped the music from CD's I bought) and all of his music is copy protected.
Now thing is, I have upgraded my PC before realising I did this, so now I don't have the original iTunes library (formatted PC and reinstalled XP from scratch) - is there any tools out there that will find and delete all your copy protected files from iTunes?
I could go through song by song and when it comes up with the "Authorise computer - This computer is not authorised to play "******" Would you like to authorise it" and delete those songs, but as this is a very slow and time consuming process and considering I have 8,551 songs, I would prefer a faster way.
I would go and re-rip all the songs, as I have the original discs, but this would take very long, and put quite a bit of strain on my CD drive, and this would not account for all the songs I have spent years finding on the internet/demo songs from friends bands.
Any help is appreciated, as I would love to be able to remove all of his songs so they don't keep popping up in my iTunes library
Thanks in advance.
Dale.I have never tried this and am not at a computer with iTunes, but can you delete from a Smart Playlist? If so, you could make a smart playlist that shows songs that are of kind Protected ACC. Then select all and delete from that playlist. But I am not so sure if you can delete from a smart playlist.
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itunes has removed my downloaded music from my library. I still have all of my purchased songs and videos but the downloaded songs are missing. I still have the downloaded songs on my cpu just not in my itunes library anymore. How do I get these songs back in my itunes library?
Copy them from the other user account you were logged in with to your own account. Or if you are using iTunes 10.3 or later and live in the use, redownload them via iCloud beta. See this article for more information.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519
B-rock -
ITunes has deleted my library file twice in one week
A week ago, I opened iTunes to find that my entire library file had been deleted. The files were still on my hard drive but all were missing from itunes. In addition, all of my iPhone apps were gone and all of my podcast subscriptions were deleted. I spent hours restoring everything and now they are gone again. I opened iTunes just now and everything is gone again. I am given a welcome screen as if starting iTunes for the first time. What is going on here?!? Again, all of my files are safe on my hard drive. It is just the library file that seems to be getting deleted.
Once does seem to happen occasionally. Twice suggests active interference. Sony VAIO computers used to ship with their own media managment software that would delete the iTunes library file. It is also possible that AV software might interupt the process by which iTunes updates the database file. Look at your advanced settings to see if you can't exclude the iTunes folder from real-time scanning.
As for restoring things, this method should sort you out...
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!
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.
tt2 -
ITunes has deleted random selection of library and refuses to import
A week after installing iTunes 9.1, it has deleted a large random proportion of my tirelessly preened library. Upon attempting to re-import my files, iTunes runs a loading bar as if it's accepting them, but imports only some randomly selected, if any.
Has anybody else encountered this problem upon installing iTunes 9.1?
I'm considering reinstalling an older version and importing my last saved library?
Any help would be o so very appreciated and rewarded handsomely
Thanks,
Diazcheck if you have read & write permissions for your iTunes music folder. in finder, right-click on it and +get info+. unlock the little padlock (you may have to enter your admin password) and change the permission settings. next, click on the little gear-shaped icon and +apply to enclosed items+ like so
you may also give everyone read & write access. if this doesn't help, try the same on your iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music folder).
any help ?
if not, try reinstalling iTunes the proper way. click here and follow the instructions.
if you want to install a previous version after all, here are the steps:
to downgrade to a previous iTunes version, you could try this user tip that seemed to have worked for some:
+1) Quit iTunes.+
+2) Delete iTunes from your Applications folder.+
+3) Go to your ~/Music/iTunes folder. Delete or rename the "iTunes Library" file.+
+4) Open the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder and look for the backup of your old pre-9 library; it should be dated at about the time you first ran iTunes 9. Copy it back out to the ~/Music/iTunes folder, and rename it to "iTunes Library".+
+6) click here to download iTunes 8.2.1. The page says it's for G3, but the Read Me file says it'll run on G4, G5, and Intel too. Open the disk image and run the installer.+
+You should now be able to run iTunes 8.2.1 again.+
+And your iTunes will restore to before you upgraded and you won't lose anything+.
JGG
edited by the Jolly Green Giant (where Green stands for environmentally friendly)
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