ITunes library file greyed out

I've managed to keep the same iTunes library since 2003, surviving the transition from WinXP to Mac. It (and my music) resided on an external FAT32 USB drive (FAT32) for about a year, and I recently migrated it over to a larger FireWire/USB combo drive formatted FAT32.
Over the past month, I've been accessing the drive (named "SHERRY") from my home server. It's connected via USB and named "Sherry" on the AFP network as well.
Last week, I physically connected the drive to my Mac via FireWire for faster access. iTunes couldn't find the majority -- but not all -- of my songs, saying it couldn't find the "Sherry" network share. (All the MP3s are physically present on the hard drive.)
Now, iTunes won't open the library at all -- it's greyed out when I try to select it (using the alt-click-icon method to start iTunes.) Opening the default iTunes library on my Mac works fine, and I'm still using iTunes 7 so it's not a compatibility issue.
Rebuilding the library from the XML file won't work either, because only about 3K of my 20K+ songs show up if I do that.
Is there anything I can do to revive my library? Or do I have to restore from my months-old backup on the old hard drive?
I'm trying to start DJing professionally here soon and I need access to my playlists and library so I can import them into another program. Please help if you can.

Re-posted with a clearer explanation. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1706571&tstart=0

Similar Messages

Itunes library is greyed out

Hi,
I hope someone can help as this has been driving me crazy the last few days.
I imported some cd's into my itunes library & connected my ipod classic to my laptop (Win 7) expecting it to sync the music, it didn't. The music I imported is visible in my itunes library but is greyed out.
I keep my music on my external (G) drive & itunes points to my G drive correctly i.e. Edit>Preferences>G:>itunes music folder. I'm runnning itunes ver 2.0.1 (this updates automatically). My G drive itunes folder contains all my music folders plus: itunes Library (database file) & Library XML doc file. My C drive itunes folder contains: Album Artwork Folder, itunes Media Folder, itunes Library Extras Folder, itunes Library Genius Folder, itunes Library File & itunes Music Library XML doc file.
I've not experienced any problems before but it appears to have happened since the update.
Thanks.
Gary.

I'd try repairing permissions on your main drive. My guess is you'll see a long list of differing iTunes permissions. Also if you have a TM backup of that library from 6 months ago when you put it away you should be able to restore the itl file from that. But I'd try the permission repair first. If that works & iTunes lights up, make sure that it is pointing to the media file in the external drive and that "keep iTunes Media folder organized" & "copy files to iTunes..." are checked. All of these settings are in advanced preferences.
Then run TM (or super duper or something) and back everything up (including the external drive).

How do I add media files to iTunes when my iTunes library file is out of date?

My 2007 iMac died. My last backup was done 7 months ago. My iTunes media folder resides on an external drive, so all of my iTunes media files are unaffected, but when I set up my new 2012 Mac Mini using my last backup, my iTunes library file will be 7 months behind. In the past 7 months, I have added around 2,000 new media files to iTunes. So my question is this: what is the best way to add those 2,000 files into iTunes? Is it as simple as drag-and-drop? They are already in the iTunes media folder, I just need to tell iTunes they exist. Thanks for any help!

File > Add to library and select /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/ folder.
Anything in that folder not showing in iTunes library will get added.

All of my iTunes library is greyed out on my IPod

Some time ago, I downloaded some songs and when I synced them to my iPod, they were greyed out and I couldn't play them on the iPod touch. ( I can still play them in my iTunes library on my computer. )
Today, I had to 'restore' my ipod, so all of my music was wiped. I synced my itunes library to my iPod, and all of the music is there, but it's greyed out and I can't play any of it. None of the 800 songs are able to be played.
I've tried resetting my iPod already and they are still greyed out. I don't think restoring it again will help, as that is what got me this problem.
what can I do?

You should have de-authorized your mac before reformatting its hard disk.
Authorizing information is stored in a file on your hard disk and might get lost under certain circumstances like mainboard exchange, major hardware changes ...

Unable to insert photos from iPhoto into a Word document. File "iPhoto Library" is greyed out and won't let me choose it.

Unable to insert photos from iPhoto into a Word document. File "iPhoto Library" is greyed out and won't let me choose it.

Choose it from where? See this user tip by Terence Devlin for how to access photos for use outside of iPhoto: How to Access Files in iPhoto
Have you tried dragging the photo from the iPHoto window into the open Word document window?
OT

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?

I have multiple libraries on an external drive. Somehow all the iTunes library files i.e. iTunes Library.itl, xml, itdb, Media folder, etc disappeared! Only the music files remain. Now when I start iTunes w/option it can't find any of the old libraries!

Help! I 'm using an old G4 powerbook, Mac OSX 10.5.8, iTunes ver 10. I have multiple iTunes libraries on an external drive. Everything was fine for a while, then all of the iTunes library files, i.e. iTunes Library.itl, xml, itdb, artwork folder, Media folder, etc mysteriously disappeared! Only the music files remain (thank god) So now when I start iTunes w/option key to choose a library, I can't choose any of them because iTunes won't recognize them. Because all the library stuff is missing. So can I re-create the library files? (I don't care if I lose my ratings)
Or should I create a new empty library on the external drive, then manually move all the music files to the Media folder in the new library?
I tried some stupid ideas like creating a new library just to start iTunes, then going into prefs and advanced, then under iTunes Media folder location, selecting the location of the old library on the external, to see if iTunes would then find all the music which is still there, but no workee.
I'm out of ideas, and I searched the archives.
Help! anyone?
Scott

I don't know if this is me adding files to iTunes when the external wasn't connected
it is.
is it OK to just keep deleting that library on the Air?
i wouldn't - at least not until i
mount the external
point iTunes media folder location back to the external via preferences > advanced
consolidate my library via file > library > organize library
The ntfs hasn't seem to be causing any problems, but I've always wanted to know.
in order for your Mac to write to NTFS drives, it needs some help by installing e.g. the NTFS 3G driver. apparently that or something similar is installed on your Mac already. preferably, it would be formatted for Mac but then windows machines would need to have e.g. MacDrive installed to recognize the drive.

Trying to back up iPad to external hard drive, "iTunes library file cannot be saved. The disk you are attempting to use is full."

This issue is somewhat complex so I will try to explain it as clearly as I can. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
It all began when I kept getting popups from my iPad saying that I had not backed up since May. I realized that was pretty dangerous so I decided to finally try syncing it to iTunes, though I had avoided doing so for so long because I knew that when I tried there was no room on the computer. I then remembered that I have an external hard drive with plenty of storage space, so I got that out and set it up with a folder to move iTunes and the backup into.
On iTunes I went to the Advanced Preferences and changed iTunes Media Folder Location to the G: folder, with the keep organized box checked. I also copied the previous backups from the original C: drive to G: so that I could delete the ones on C:.
I used Junction Link Magic to link my now empty MobileSync backup on C: to a new (JLM would not work unless it was empty) backup folder on external hard drive G:.
I plugged in my iPad to iTunes to sync it, and while it was backing up I checked the new folder on G: to make sure that the backup was being put there. It was.
However, about halfway through I got the message "iTunes library file cannot be saved. The disk you are attempting to use is full."
My question is Why? If it is being made in a 1.5 terabyte hard drive now, and not the computer, why is there no disk space? My guess is that it must still somehow be saving to the computer. But how? And how can I get it to save solely on the G: drive where there is enough room?
I am running Windows XP and the latest version of iTunes.
An additional but not as crucial issue:
Much of my music has been lost, with the being displayed next to the songs in the iTunes library, and only 50 (purchased) songs remain on my iPad. This was because those missing songs were stored on a different external hard drive ( I:). However, I copied many of the music folders on I: over to G: so that everything could be together. I am wondering if it is possible for me to get these songs back onto my iPad. But this is not my most important issue right now, because I believe that once I get the first issue solved I can simply plug in I: and G: at the same time while syncing the iPad, and get the songs back.
Note: I have come to realize the iTunes program itself is still under Program Files in the C: drive. Does this have to do with anything?

Short term, free up some disk space. Long term, move the library to a bigger drive.
tt2

"The iTunes Library file cannot be found or created..."

I'm getting this error upon opening iTunes:
When I try to open iTunes with the option key, it asks me to find a library. I can navigate to my library and see the file, but it is grayed out and can't be selected. Prior to this i had been getting an error about iTunes not being able to save the library, but I thought it was coming from my backup app.
Any ideas? I can no longer open iTunes or access my music or videos.
Thanks!

OK.. I finally found an answer buried among a million other posts.
To fix this, click to open the iTunes app and immediately hold down the "Option" key. This will allow you to either create a new iTunes library file, or point the app to where the library is. In my case, I repointed it to the Music>iTunes folder where my library file was and this worked.
This is the link that helped me figure it out:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589

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!!!!!!!!!!

ITunes doesn't create an "iTunes Library" file

I'm desperate - since a couple of days every time I restart my computer iTunes library is empty, I have to move all the content to the library again. And subscribe to all the 39 podcasts again!!!
Next day... everything starts from the beginning!
I've read the support pages for iTunes and found out that my iTunes doesn't save an "iTunes Library" file in the Music/iTunes folder. Instead, it creates hundreds of temporary files (iT 1.tmp, iT 2.tmp, iT 3.tmp, and so on).
It happened before upgrading to iTunes 10 - I upgraded thinking that it could help, but nothing changed.
Anyone had a similar problem? Please help me!

Yes, I moved the iTunes folder to the shared folder
Made an alias and moved it to my Users/myhome/music and removed the alias symbol.
If you moved the entire iTunes folder and created aliases, that would be the reason that iPhoto and iMovie can't find the proper file. You should only have moved the 'iTunes Music' folder
Many applications don't perform well when files are to be opened and stored using an alias.
I'm pretty sure iTunes creates an updated .xml file every time you make changes, but it's at the wrong location for iPhoto and iMovie to find it.
I tried what you did, by moving my (test) iTunes folder to the Shared folder, create an alias, renamed it to 'iTunes' and put it at ./Users/Username/Music.
Neither iPhoto and iMovie were able to find my (test) music files.
Those apps. will only look at ./Users/Username/Music/iTunes for the .xml file and obviously cannot find it using the alias.
I tried the same procedure using a symbolic link (a 'better' alias) and that worked out alright. You can create a symbolic link by using the Terminal (take a look at this brief tutorial), but it's more convenient to use SymbolicLinker. After installing it, you can then easily create a symlink of a file or folder by control-clicking on it and choosing 'Make Symbolic Link' from the contextual menu.
If you want to know more about symlinks in general, take a look at this Wiki or Google for "Symbolic Link Macintosh" (without the quotes) to find more articles.
While symlinks do work in this case (at least on my system), I will give you the link to the article which describes the 'Apple preferred way' to share your music (in case symlinks don't work on your system).
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer tells you two methods. You can use either of them.
M
17' iMac 800 MHz, 768 MB RAM, 200 GB HD, DL burner Mac OS X (10.4.8) iTunes 7.0.2

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 content / format

I am using the iTunes library file to process song titles for a label program, and I have two questions about these files:
1) There are two library files on my disk, Library.xml, and iTunes Music Library.xml. When double-clicked, the latter opens with Firefox, and the former opens in TextEdit. Library.xml is the file I use, which I parse with Perl and generate input for a PostScript label program. The question here, what is the purpose of these two files; i.e., how are they used by iTunes?
2) I need to extract the Total Time and the Size parameters, which are given in (very large!) integer format. I have found that Size is nearly a constant multiple of Time, so apparently Time is redundant. Also, I can't make any sense of these numbers, except to use the resulting ratio for one and then to apply that ratio to all the others. When I do this, I get nearly accurate results, but they are always off by 3 to 5 seconds. As for the Size, I tried to make sense of the large integer in terms of sampling rate and size 44.1/16-bit), but without success. So, if anyone has the secret to these parameters, I would appreciate knowing it! Thanks much in advance for any help on this.
PS: I will post some specifics here if needed. For example, Total Time 182437 shows up in iTunes as 3:02 (182 seconds). The ratio here is 1,002.4010989011, which, when applied to another title with a Total Time of 222477 gives 221.9 seconds, or 3:42; this item shows up correctly in iTunes, but not all do when I use the same ratio.

Oops! I forgot that. My hunch was correct, though. Unix reports exactly the same sizes as the iTunes file. My error was not dividing by 1028. (I thought the finder was the culprit!) Thanks for all the help.
By the way, why are there two .xml files for the library? The Library.xml file is the one I am using, because the structure is pretty obvious in a text editor.
For your information, I belong to the Illini Folk Dance Society at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Illinois. We have some 200 titles on 78 rpm records, already digitized, and approximately 600 or so on 45 rpm, which I am now in the process of recording. After that, there are many LP recordings to do (our total collection consists of approximately 3000 titles), although they can keep for a while. After lots of experimenting, I decided that the quality of the 78s and 45s merited the 44.1/16-bit recording levels, and that is working out nicely, and it keeps the files to a reasonable size. I started out with Garage Band (all the 78s were done that way), but got fed up with that pretty quickly, especially the tight link to iTunes, so when Audacity came along, I started using it, and am very happy with it. We have one 250 gig hard drive, and I plan to add another. Also, I plan to put everything on CDs, which is why the present project. I wrote a PostScript program to print the titles on the labels in circular arcs, and am writing a Perl script to parse out the titles and sizes, grouping things in sets that will fit on one CD. If you are interested in the PostScript program, I will gladly send it to you. The Perl script is fairly trivial.
Well, I just passed my 75th birthday, so I better get cracking! Cheers.
Ed
[email protected]

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.

ITunes library file greyed out

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