ITunes keeps deleting my library

When I launch iTunes i get an error stating that my iTunes library is damaged and then deletes all my movies, music and podcasts from the library. If I plug my ipod in iTunes then deletes everything from it. This is driving me to insanity!!! Can anyone help?

I've just reloaded everything onto the library and imported a couple of new CD's without a problem so it's certainly not every time I try.
Have called a mate who's a system's man so he's going to have a look at the PC itself tomorrow or Tuesay. If it's a problem with the PC he should be able to sort it, if not we'll have to look at iTunes again. Either way I'll post here in a couple of days and let you know mate.
Cheers

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ITunes keeps deleting my library on closure (NOT VAIO)

Let me start off by saying, iTunes honestly blows. Really wish I could sync my phone without the use of this garbage software...
Now that that's out of the way. I'm running 64-bit itunes 10.4.xx and import my music file only to have it delete everything every time I close my itunes. I have itunes set as an exception on my antivirus so that's not the issue. I just give up, it did this to me when I had 32 bit also. Which crashed ALL THE TIME.
Somebody help, I'm so done trying to troubleshoot.

If turning off continuous backup didn't fixt it, then something else is interfering with iTunes saving the library when it closes.
Antivirus software has done this in the past although not recently.
Music software on the Sony Vaio can do it, but suspect any music software that may access the iTunes library.
If necessary, you can use MSConfig to do a selective startup to identify the problem, but this is a bit of a pain.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2292?viewlocale=en_US

ITunes keeps losing my library every 2-3 days!

iTunes keeps losing my library every 2-3 days. Completely erasing all songs and playlists. This is incredibly annoying and forces me to redo it all AGAIN.
Any way for me to solve this problem?

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. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
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.
Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to a recent state. Look for a recent .tmp file that is similar in size to the .itl files in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder. If it has happened repeatedly you may want the earliest such file generated since the last iTunes upgrade.
If applicable, 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.
I've noticed more of these missing library posts of late and a common factor to most since I started asking is AVG Anti-Virus. It seems in some cases it might be at least part of the reason why the library file disappears. Try excluding the iTunes folder from any AV scanning process.
tt2

When I update itunes it deletes the library file, and when I restore that file from the previous libraries or my backup, itunes will run but tell me "the iTunes library file cannot be saved. A folder was specified instead of a file" How do I fix this?

When I update itunes it deletes the library file, and when I restore that file from the previous libraries or my backup, itunes will run but tell me "the iTunes library file cannot be saved. A folder was specified instead of a file" How do I fix this?

Hi there Br0x,
You may want to try rebuilding the iTunes library as an initial troubleshooting step. Take a look at the article below for more information.
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451
-Griff W.

My ITunes keeps deleting my songs my IPhone and it keeps doing it after it loads the songs how do i stop it?, my ITunes keeps deleting my songs my IPhone and it keeps doing it after it loads the songs how do i stop it?

my ITunes keeps deleting my songs my IPhone and it keeps doing it after it loads the songs how do i stop it?

that didnt help because when i plug in my iphone to the computer it doesnt show my iphone in itunes all it does it pop up saying if i would like to download and update my ios software to ios 7.1.1 . when i put it in to DFU mode it didn't do anything and thre computer did not recognise it and neither did itunes. so i dont quite understand how to do this ill keep on trying and see if im in luck.

How do I stop itunes from deleting my library. I have a custom built pc. Running xp pro

How can I stop I-Tunes from deleting my library everytime I turn off my pc. I have a custom built PC running windows XP Pro SP 3. I have uninstalled Sony software as this has been suggested as being a sauce of conflict. but it still keeps deleting all my music.

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. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
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.
Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to a recent state.
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.
I've noticed more of these missing library posts of late and a common factor to most since I started asking is AVG Anti-Virus. It seems in some cases it might be at least part of the reason why the library file disappears. Try excluding the iTunes folder from any AV scanning process.
tt2

Why does iTunes keep deleting music from off my iPhone

Ok so my music from iphone keeps deleting itself. I keep having to restore this dumb phone only to lose my information days and sometimes hours later. This is the final straw for me. I've restored this phone 20 times in a week! Im tired of dealing with all of these technical issues so when my contract is up I'm done with this thing. Is there ANYTHING I can do in the meantime to keep from losing my music.

I'll continue the discussion. I find the item in question. There was an app that I had deleted from my iTunes but was still on my iPhone dspite numerous syncs. I deleted the separately from my iPhone and no longer received the warning message described above.
Now however, when I delate an app in iTunes not only does the app stay on the iPhone but I do not even get the warning message.
My next step is to perform a restore. Perhaps this will clear up both this problem and a series of other issues like the wi-fi on/off randomly greying out on the iPhone and having all of my music on the iPhone disappearing after a sync.

ITunes keep deleting my track numbers

For some reason several of my albums are losing there track numbers along with other id3 info. Why?

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. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
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.
Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to a recent state.
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.
I've noticed more of these missing library posts of late and a common factor to most since I started asking is AVG Anti-Virus. It seems in some cases it might be at least part of the reason why the library file disappears. Try excluding the iTunes folder from any AV scanning process.
tt2

My itunes is deleting my library extras and genius.

Ever since I downloaded the new version of itunes, I keep loosing all my music. I download it again and as soon as I close itunes it throws my library extras an library genius in the trash and I have to start all over. I have an ipad and iphones and am affraid to sync them. No idea what went wrong, I don't know how to fix it. I've never had problems with an apple product so this is frustrating.
Thanks, Emily

Check out this Apple article -> iTunes creates an empty library file in Windows
Do you have the Sony VAIO Entertainment Platform installed and running on your computer? If you do, it might be conflicting with iTunes.

Can I delete iTunes without deleting the library?

I want to delete iTunes and install a previous version without deleting my library.
Is there a way?

Some of this will depend upon how far back you want to revert. Some iTunes upgrades irrevocably change your library file so it will no longer work with earlier versions. I don't know how this goes in the recent versions of iTunes. The media files will work, of course, but you then have to start with a blank library and repopulate it, losing some things like date added, play count, etc.

ITunes Keeps Erasing Entire Library

Hello,
Since the most recent iTunes update, my iTunes has started to erase my entire library. I have re-imported all of my music, books, videos, ringtones and TV shows back into iTunes at least 20 times, only for iTunes to dump the lot the next time I open the software.
I have tried to resolve this by uninstalling iTunes and reinstalling 3 times to no avail. I am at a complete loss as to why this is happening.
I am running Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Firewall.
Any advice on a resolution to this would be sincerely appreciated.

Have you worked through the following document in the course of your troubleshooting to date, scott?
[iTunes creates an empty library file in Windows|http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2715]

ITunes keeps wiping my library.

This is the 4th time this has happened. I have several playlists and albums, along with many songs from CDs and some LEGALLY downloaded for free from Nico Nico Douga (it has a sister site that allows you to download their videos as MP3s.) What happens is on seemingly random occasions (including today) I start up iTunes like normal and find that my playlist tab is set back to literally nothing but the defaults. Not only that, but all of my songs, except for a few purchased albums from the iTunes Store, are gone. It's as if it keeps wiping everything that it doesn't recognize as a purchased song. I'm starting to find it incredibly annoying, since I have to remake all the 12 playlists I have (because I like to be organized, not the point here,) and find the songs in my Music folder. I have no idea what's going on; again, it's like it just decides one day to delete my stuff. I close it down like normal without force-closing of ending any processes, and I see no sign of trouble beforehand. My iPod Touch also seems to be perfectly fine, with all of the playlists and music intact. Also, like I stated earlier, I can drag my music back in, as it's still on my computer. It simply seems like iTunes wipes itself back to when I first installed it.
This never happened on the old iTunes before the playlist and album system changed, nor did it occur on Windows XP. It's a pretty recent issue. There is only one thing that I noticed before this wipe that happened today. I was getting out of my car to work and iCloud complained it couldn't connect to the internet, which it does normally when I start up my iPod. There was also one time it occurred when there was a power-outtage during an update, which wiped my iTunes Library and my iPod as well. Since then it has only been iTunes that has been effected.
Please, does anyone know why this is happening? I am positive I am treating the program right; I never have any crashing or device-recognizing issues. If this keeps up, I don't think I could deal with using iTunes any longer...

See this post.
tt2

ITunes keeps saving my library and data to my desktop

I can't get I tunes to quit saving to my desktop. I have already gone to Preferences-> Advanced and have My Music folder chosen from My Documents.
I've deleted the saved libraries, data files, album cover artwork from the desktop and started over many times. It keeps saving it back to the desktop.
I tried consolidating my library.
I've even uninstalled Itunes and installed a previous version. I'm now back to the latest version.
Help would be appreciated!

Okay, I found out for myself what the problem was:
Somehow iTunes decided to no longer knowing where I store my ituneslibrary.itl and switched back to default (users/mymusic/itunes).
I needed to start iTunes with pressed SHIFT in order to define the old folder on the external drive as the new one.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/recovering-itunes-from-an-ext ernal-hard-drive/

How do I make iTunes stop deleting my library?

So my iTunes library (playlists and all) will spontaneously delete itself when I close it out, but only every once in awhile and not every time. However, the songs are still listed under "My Music>iTunes>iTunes Media". This started to occur shortly (but not immediately) after I transferred songs from a zip drive to my cpu that had been converted to .wav format via a 3rd party program. Thinking that iTunes had somehow become "infected", I uninstalled then reinstalled iTunes, re-adding the songs that I saved on a disc drive. Everything was great for a couple days, then boom, library gone again. Any suggestions? I'm a noob and I appreciate any help!
-Dan

Same EXACT thing keeps happening to me. Started happening when I downloaded the newest version of itunes

My iTunes is creating duplicates of playlists and hanging up. running latest version of lion, and iTunes using match and iCloud. please help. I have uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes. deleted all library files and is doing same thing.

I am runing lion and latest version of itunes. I have match on, home sharing on and using icloud. my itunes started hanging up and required me to force quit. then upon restart of itunes and restart of computer itunes would take upwards of 15 minutes to open and was using >90% of CPU and would be lagging in response if responding at all one of the playlists I had created on my ipad had over a hundred copies of the same playlist. after repeated restarts I uninstaled itunes and reinstalled. this didnt rectify the problem. I assumed library file had somehow become corrupt so I deleted library files, reimported all my music and synced with genius and match. and let the computer go over night. when I woke in morning all my music was back but I had all the extra playlists again and itunes is hogging all the cpu and was minimally responsive and hanging up after each click.
I thought this might be a virus or something but installed ESET cypersecurity did a complet scan with no threats found. I am at a total loss and do not know where to go from here. I hope one of you can assist. Thanks!

I had this exact issue. Spent over an hour on the phone with apple support, they couldn't resolve. Here is what I ended up doing, that worked.
1. Turned iTunes match off on all my iOS devices
2. Deleted the offending playlists from the iOS device they originated on
3. Started iTunes, let it run (literally) for an hour before it became responsive. First thing I did, before clicking anywere else was disable iTunes match. If I clicked anywhere, it would clock for another hour.
4. Let iTunes run overnight, by morning it had cleaned out the repeating play lists. This got my Mac/iTunes back to an operable state.
5. Restore iPhones from backup in iTunes.
What was causing my issue was a single playlist that was created on an iPhone, then suddenly showed up with several thousand duplicates on my other iPhone. The culprit playlist did not, for some reason, duplicate itself on my two iPads. Apple support seemed to think it was because the problem iPhone tried to sync the playlist to iCloud over and over again unsuccessfully, then it finally went through and populated the thousands of blank/failed playlists which then tried to propigate to iTunes and my other iOS devices. Seems like a reasonable theory.
I have not yet re-enabled iTunes match. So, no idea what will happen if I decide to go back down that rabbit hole.

ITunes keeps deleting my library

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