ITunes Library file corrupt or unreadable -- unable to be saved

When I open itunes, I have to import my library everytime... and it says that the library file is corrupt or unreadable and cannot be saved. Can anyone else with this issue, please?

hmmmm. perhaps try running a chkdsk over the drive on which your iTunes library file is stored:
How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
does that find/repair any damage? if so, do you still get the same message from your itunes?

Similar Messages

ITunes library file corrupt after updating?

Just the other day I updated to the latest iTunes software. This is the first time I've tried to use it and it keeps freezing (the swirly rainbow icon) until I eventually have to give up and force quit. My iTunes library is on an external hard drive which has admittedly been taking longer and longer to boot up each time I connect it, I don't know if this is related.
After doing some research on here I created a new test iTunes library on my hard drive and it worked perfectly, so it must be a corrupt library file? I followed the advice on an old thread and replaced the corrupt library file with an older one from December.
It worked....but here's the complication. Since that last backup in December I started using iTunes Match. When I opened the older library file, I saw that iTunes Match wasn't turned on, so I turned it on and it was saying that none of my library had been uploaded to iCloud except for iTunes purchases. I quickly exited, because frankly I couldn't bear the thought of all my library having to be uploaded to iCloud again (it took days and days...and days!). The music is still on the iCloud, but if I open that older version of my iTunes library it doesn't seem to think that it is.
Any idea what I should do?
Thanks for your help

hmmmm. perhaps try running a chkdsk over the drive on which your iTunes library file is stored:
How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
does that find/repair any damage? if so, do you still get the same message from your itunes?

ITunes library file corrupt PLEASE HELP

My sister and I both got new iPods for Christmas. I had an extensive library, while she was brand new and I just added songs to hers. We have Windows XP and I figured since we have different screens, we'd have different iTunes. I just updated hers and went to open my iTunes. What opened was a blank screen and the message "The file or directory C:\Documents and Settings\Kaitlyn\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk utility." I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT TO DO AND I AM HYSTERICAL. If someone could PLEASE answer me, you would save my Christmas. Thank you.

This is an image of what my iTunes looks like right now. If I follow the instructions on the website, everything will come back? I mean, I had SO MANY songs a few hours ago and now it looks like this...
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b360/thesongiknow/Forum%20Stuff/itunesempty.jp g
I'm sorry I'm asking so many questions. It's just that I am so nervous about losing everything. Also, on that site, it doesn't say that it's a corrupt .itl file... will it still work?

ITunes library file is corrupt

Hi All,
Today when I tried to open my iTunes library it kept crashing and I figured it its because the iTunes library file is corrupt. How do I repair it? Thanks!
FYI I just installed the most recent

Hi,
In your itunes folder there is another folder called previous itunes libraries. You will be able to retieve the last library immediately before the recent up date.
Close itunes then you will need to move the iTunes Library.itl to trash. Move previous itl file to replace the one you moved to trash - you will need rename it to iTunes Library.itl.
Jim

File or directory \ipod_control\itunes\itunesprefs is corrupt or unreadable

Every time I connect my ipod (30g video) to my computer it pops up the "ipod setup assistant". Then I get a message on the bottom right of my computer screen that says "file or directory \ipod_control\itunes\itunesprefs is corrupt or unreadable, please run chkdsk. I ran chkdsk and it didn't help. I'm sure this is an easy problem, but I am clueless. Can anyone help?
Dell Windows XP

Greetings,
What you want to do here is to Restore your iPod using the latest iPod Updater.
Restoring: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60983
iPod Updater: http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/
We have been discussing the chkdsk issue since Nov 2004, when it was introduced by some particularly buggy iPod firmware.
For more info visit our thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=179452
and the Apple KB article on the issue: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300554
Feel free to post back should you require further assistance. There is a whole stack of information on the chkdsk issue, but I won't seek to bore you with it here...
I add a note of caution - in that chkdsk issues usually affect Gen4+ iPods, and you have a Gen5. If the Restore does not solve your problems, let us know. I have been consulting on some cases where a hardware fault was to blame, and the user had to get their Pod changed out...
Kind regards,
Gopha

Album art displays very slowly; iTunes library file is corrupted?

Since I have updated to the latest version of Leopard, my album art in the iTunes music folder displays at a snail's pace, where before it was fast as lightning. It appears my iTunes Library file is corrupted, because when I created a new iTunes library file, all my art work on my tracks displayed very fast, no slowdown at all. Also when I logged in as a different user, same thing. No problems with my album art being displayed. Is there a way of fixing a corrupted iTunes library file? I have a lot of music, videos and TV shows, all neatly arranged in various playlists I created. Just to do it over again would take me weeks. Also since I've been backing my internal drive using Time Machine, can I go back and retrieve my iTunes library file before it became corrupted? Thank you for any help you can give me.

You should be able to retieve your pre-corrupted library file from TM, provided the corruption didn't happen to far back.

Why are ITunes Library files stored on Buffalo Pro 1TB NAS being corrupted?

I'm having a flaky problem with the ITunes library files (Mac version) stored on a Buffalo NAS. Frequently, ITunes says the ITunes library file is damaged and creates a new one.
Moreover, there are temp files that ITunes apparntly creates that apparently become the new Library and XML files when ITunes shuts down. Apparently, this is done behind the scenes while ITunes is shutting down, but lately, these files are no longer being renamed or deleted. Often multiple temp files will accumulate.
Lastly, and most oddly, if I try to rename one of these temp files to ITunes Library based on best guess from size and date which is the ITunes Library file, it sometimes works, but it sometimes doesn't. When it doesn't, I will find a "phantom" ITunes Library file and ITunes Library.xml that cannot be selected, opened or deleted. They are greyed out in Finder. Since the file exists, a rename or copy will fail, saying a file already exists with that name, but I can't select it to delete it. Often when this happens, the actual file name seems to "flicker" between temp file and Itunes Library file. If I try to click on ITunes Library, it disappears, but a new temp file instantly appears. If I try to click on the temp file, that disappears and the ITunes Library file appears.
Rebooting the NAS fixes the phantom file problem. I delete all ITunes library and temp files, and reindex from ITunes, but it only starts all over again.
If I do the same process in Windows, ITunes will only find about 10% of my files and then stop. (I have about 16,500 tracks total.) Windows doesn't seem to have any probelms with "phantom" files.
Checks on the NAS disk array show no problems.
Any thoughts?

lmdoc50 wrote:
Had to reconstruct iTunes library.
Yes, but how?

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 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 Library File Cannot be Saved. The Disk Cannot be Read From . . .

I use a MacBook Pro with a healthy battery. My iTunes songs are on a USB drive. The Database and XML files are on my MacBook. Power went out in my house and the USB drive shut off. The MacBook stayed up and running. Power came back, powered on the USB drive, open iTunes, and bang: This sorry error: iTunes Library File Cannot be Saved. The Disk Cannot be Read From or Written to.
The disks are healthy, did an fsck and ran disk verify/repair. No problems. Restart iTunes, same error. Obviously a corrupted Databse file. This wouldn't be a big deal if only the XML info would be useful and actually restore critical info such as play count and dates which is essential for the Not-So-Smart Playlist dependencies to work.
This is the third time I've been burned with corrupted iTunes "Database" files. I use "Database" in quotes because a true Database wouldn't crap out like this. It would be recoverable. It would understand a simple SQL "Where" statement. It would have a maintenance script and some means for recoverable backup beyond the lame process of copying the XML file. Or it would at least read in the info the XML file.
I am becoming disillusioned with iTunes and I'm beginning to yearn for my old Linux box running GTKPod which never failed me....

OK, here's an update - After doing the restore as mentioned having everything seemingly work, I erroniously downloaded the iTunes 7.4 & 7.4.1 updates. Now, about 80% of library is non-responsive, ie: shows up in iTunes, but clicking to play does nothing at all. the other 20% of my library plays, but it's not the song it is supposed to be playing. For example, clicking on a song from say, ABBA prodes a wonderful Gorillaz track :-/ (The same Gorillaz track which will not play if I select it...)
I reiterate: WE NEED A MEANS TO BACKUP OUR LIBRARIES RELIABLY!!!!!!!!!!

I downloaded the Special Edition of 'Avatar' with the included 'Extras'... I use to see them in my iTunes library, but, can no longer locate them anywhere on my computer or in the iTunes library files! What happened?

I purchased 'Avatar' The Special Edition with the included Extras with a gift card. I had enough money in my account to cover this purchase. I only got to watch the 'Extras' for one or two times, and now, they have vanished! They no longer appear in my iTunes library or anywhere on my computer! Where are they and how do I regain access? The movie, itself, is still in the library...only the downloaded 'Extras' are gone!

Visibility of the Podcasts section is controlled from within the Edit > Preferences dialog.
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.
Missing tracks
Typically this can happen because a file or folder is accidentally shunted to the wrong location. iTunes can also get confused if it expects to be talking to an external drive which isn't there. If will often reset the default media folder location and may have trouble finding files in the old folders.
Select one of your tracks that is missing in action. Press CTRL-I to Get Info. Cancel when asked to try to locate the file, then look at the location given on the summary tab. This where iTunes thinks the file ought to be? Now find out where it actually is. Post back the two locations for comparison. I should be able to give you some steps to reconnect everything once I can determine which of the things that might have gone wrong is most likely in your case.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

ITunes Library File Size Limit?

I've been struggling to get my AppleTV to work as advertised since I bought it on the day it was originally released. I'm a big music fan and wanted to use it mostly as a music device. My iTunes library is huge. I have my entire CD collection ripped in lossless, as well as AAC for my iPod. I also have lots of other music, some DTS audio files, etc... and very detailed organization.
At any rate, I could always get the AppleTV to work if I just set it up to sync and play the files locally, but never to properly stream in a manner that's useable. And any syncing would take FOREVER. I'm on an N network, and I was getting speeds around 100KB/second. And then after it finally would get setup, I would often get pauses up to a minute where the AppleTV would freeze between menus while "thinking". It would take me 5 minutes just to navigate to a song and start playing it.
I tried all sorts of troubleshooting. Test libraries always worked fine. I've rebuilt my iTunes library from scratch, suspecting a corrupt library file, even though there was no other evidence to support this theory. No dice.
I'm finally giving up, and deciding that AppleTV has a limit to how large an iTunes library file it can handle. My iTunes library file is 160MB. Just the library file. You figure it's only got 256MB of RAM, and it's no wonder it can't handle it. I'm not sure how large the AppleTV OS is, but I suspect with a library file that large that the ATV has to do lots of going back to the HD to retrieve information it just doesn't have enough room for in RAM.
So my new strategy is to set up a secondary iTunes library just for my AppleTV that contains just music I want to sync, and any video I may want to stream. If I want to stream video, I'll launch this new library. If I want to listen to music without my computer on, the AppleTV will have a selection on it from this new library. If I want to stream my huge library, well, now I can use my iPhone as a remote to control my large iTunes library, and use the AppleTV with airtunes feature. And this works wonderfully, 100% responsive with no "waiting".
At any rate, I'm very disappointed that I couldn't get the AppleTV to work as advertised. I wish Apple would specify that there's a limit to how large a library it can handle. I've been screwing around with this for a long time and am essentially giving up, although the iPhone remote / airtunes solution works well for me.
Maybe down the road they'll come out with a new hardware revision with more RAM that can handle things better.

Well, I was hoping I could send you a private message, Greg Neil, because I don't know if you'll ever see this message. Regardless, your iTunes library is NOT the problem no matter what others have told you. 7000 files it's child's play. My iTunes library currently has 14,639 music files in it and 129 Movies ripped at 3000kbps. The library size is NOT the problem. If your network is slow then that will be what is hurting you. The second fastest behind 'n' (i always forget this bit of trivia) should be fast enough for streaming music and most movies. I know that because I've done it. Having said that, go out and buy a bit of ethernet cable and hook it directly into your machine and see if you can stream that way. If you can't then you need to take back your aTV because, in that case, it's the problem. If your network is of adequate speed per what I and the previous poster have mentioned and it still won't stream at all wirelessly then TAKE IT BACK. Mine has streamed fine in the past however, I eventually just hardwired it via ethernet to prevent any drops ever. Hope this helps. I just wanted you to know that going to that amount of trouble to make it work should not have been necessary, and btw, aTV running all your favorite music to your home stereo is worth the price of the device itself. You shouldn't have to suffer.
All the best,
A fellow music lover

ITunes Library File Not Valid! What the Heck?

I have 11,500 songs in my music library and am running iTunes 7.0.2. My iTunes Library file from time-to-time becomes corrupted, on probably at least a weekly basis. I have no idea what's causing this.
Here's the typical scenario ... iTunes works fine, I quit it, and the next time I open it it shows the dialogue box that says, "Importing 'iTunes Libray.xml'..." Then it organizes the files and a dialogue box indicates "iTunes Library" does not appear to be a valid iTunes Library file ... Renamed damaged file ..."
When it's finally all done, I get my music library back minus all my playlists as well as EQ and volume settings.
This happened today and my most recent backup (done earlier in the day) was also corrupted. This is why I've learned to keep a set of four recent backups just to insure I have a reliable and useable one not more than a couple of days old. But it seems a very unnecessary hassle and I'm always losing adjustments made to my database!
Anyway ... would anyone among our distinquished and experienced iTunes geeks out there have a clue as to why this is happening OR any suggestions as to what I might do to help alleviate the problem?
Is anyone aware of a program that will search for corrupted files within your music library? I suspect this might be part of the problem.
Thanking you in advance for your help!
PowerBook G4 17" | 80GB Video iPod Mac OS X (10.4.5)

It seems like the ITL file is not being properly written after iTunes closes. Then when you re-open iTunes, it cannot load the ITL file and creates a new one. Forcing you to recreate your Library manually, again and again.
Several things to check:
-Double check to see that the ITL file or the folder it resides in is not read-only.
-Using Windows Explorer, right-click on the file (or folder) name, go to Properties.
-If it is, then close iTunes, change it, and reopen iTunes.
See this thread to reset the iTunes preferences: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1216090#1216090
And see this post to use TweakUI to check the location and validity of your My Music 'Special Folder': http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=487067&messageID=1197027
Once the main cause of the inability to save the ITL file is corrected, you'll need to recreate your Library one last time to finally save it. No way to resurrect the original one, unless you had backup copies of the ITL file.

Library file corrupt - error 1450

I have had some irritating problems with iTunes since installing the new 7.3.1 version last week.
The error message I got originally was:
The iTunes Library file cannot be saved.
An unknown error occurred {-1450}
I have uninstalled and re-installed the program, but the error continues when I re-import the music folder. The music appears in the "Music" folder in iTunes, but the same error as above occurs when iTunes is trying to process the album Artwork. I have tried deleting the tracks that the error comes up on, but the error continues on other tracks, apparently at random.
Please can you give me some advice to fix this problem, as iTunes and my iPod is pretty unusable at present.
AMD semperon 3000+ Windows XP Pro

I don't use adobe mobile packager for this purpose; however there are some basic things to worry about during packaging so that your file won't be corrupted:
1> Did you Entered Correct UID order for an edition (2nd or 3rd Editions)?
2> Did you create .key and .cer files ? (key and certificate) ?
3> Did your Swf run normally in the mobile phone before packaging ?
4> Did you make sure you entered a valid path for your application to be installed during extraction ?

ITunes Library File Locked

Hi,
Have been using iTunes 10.5 on my WinXP machine - no problems. During a movie download tonight, iTunes crashed. Tried to reopen and got the infamous error "iTunes Library file locked or on a locked disk..." Tried several remedies listed.
Verified that MyMusic folder and contents are not READ ONLY. I am unable to rename, edit, or move the file...she's locked up tight.
Tried repairing the Windows Registry assignment using the Tweak UI utility discussed in another thread. No joy.
Tried starting iTunes from another account on the PC - iTunes boots fine.
Pulling my hair out (what little is left)...Any ideas out there ???
HELP !

Fixed. For those using WinXP...Here's what I had to do:
It was a file properties thing as mentioned in other posts, but to change the file properties...
1. Boot Windows in SAFE MODE by holding F8 down during bootup
2. Log on as Administrator
3. Navigate to the iTunes Libary.itl file (My Music/iTunes)
4. Right Click and pull up the file properties
5. Under Security, re-add the user account to the file permissions
6. Then change file permissions to FULL (Read/Write/Edit...)
7. Reboot & Viola !
Once you unlock the write protected status (which got defaulted to the Adminstrator account), iTunes opens just fine.

ITunes Library file corrupt or unreadable -- unable to be saved

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