ITunes library/playlists issue

I have recently lost my playlists and part of my iTunes library on windows, however in iCloud my complete collection and playlists appear. Is there any way to sync my itunes from the up to date content currently sitting in iCloud?

Hello Tosh_1968,
It sounds like you have iTunes Match items that you would like to download to your computer.
First go to your Songs view and click Edit in the menu bar, and choose Select All. You may have to enable the menu bar on your PC:
To turn on iTunes menus in Windows 8 or 7, do one of the following:
Press the Alt key.
This will turn the menus on and off temporarily. This will change back to the default, the iTunes menus being turned off, when you next close iTunes.
From: iTunes: Turning on iTunes menus in Windows 8 and 7
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5610
Then Right click any one of the highlighted songs and choose Download.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
All the very best,
Sterling

Similar Messages

My macbook pro logic board died. I had all my music on an external drive. How do I get my iTunes library, playlists etc. from my dead computer onto my new one?

My logic board died on my old macbook pro. I have a new one, but I want to get my iTunes library off my old hard drive and put it on my new one. I had set up my old MBP to store all my iTunes music on an external drive, so I have the music. The iTunes program was on the old MBP hard drive.How do I essentially recreate my previous iTunes library, playlists, etc on my new laptop?

You will need the iTunes Library.itl file which generally lives in ~/Music/iTunes/. You can recover this from the backups you were making before the HDD died. Otherwise, you cannot recreate the library.

Alphabetizing different between iTunes Library & Playlists ?

The alphabetizing different between iTunes Library & Playlists appears to be different, for example, look how The ... bands are listed between the two.
Am I seeing this right? If so, is there a setting to correct it ?
Should they alphabitze the same way so everything matches ?
Should Apple correct this ?
thanks,
tnixer

txchain wrote:
I'm trying to keep the focus on the functionality of the program.
Cross referencing is almost inherit to any developed program like iTunes.
There are two features to this program that Alphabetize differently.
Should Apple correct this if it is true ?
They're different kinds of data. Songs are tagged with artist names and so on, and iTunes uses that data to organize your music like a library, using library alphabetization — i.e., ignoring articles. Playlists are user-defined categories, for which library alphabetization is less obviously appropriate. They're not cross-referenced — they have no connection to each other unless the user creates one.
If the organization of that data matched, from one function to another, the program could cross reference (and list them) with no contradiction.
Maybe it's why playlists slow down the music library?
Having hundreds of playlists will slow down iTunes because iTunes frequently needs to "look through" your list of playlists — when creating smart playlists, for instance, or when you control-click on a song and see "Show in Playlist" in the contextual menu. A couple dozen playlists won't slow things down at all, but iTunes isn't really designed to work well with hundreds. It really has nothing to do with your playlists not matching your tags; the two kinds of data are entirely separate within iTunes.

I just recently updated my iPod Nano 7th Generation, and, after the upgrade finished, my iTunes library, playlists and all, vanished. How can I restore the playlists and songs to iTunes?

I updated my iPod Nano 7th Generation, and it wiped my iTunes library. I no longer have my playlists or movies. I was able to recover my music, but the many, many playlists I had, I could not recover. Is there any way I could recover them?

Hello apbvieira,
It sounds like your iPod Nano is not recognized in iTunes anymore after a recent update. I recommend the following article to help you get that in order named:
iPod not recognized in My Computer and in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1369
1. Start with the iPod Troubleshooting Assistant
If you haven't already done so, use the iPod Troubleshooting Assistant that applies to your iPod. This will often solve your issue.
If you're still experiencing the issue after going through each of the steps in the assistant, continue with the steps below in this article. The most likely solutions are listed below (for both USB and FireWire (IEEE 1394) iPod connections). Check each section starting from the top of the list to see if that is what's keeping your iPod from appearing.
Note: To determine if your iPod syncs via USB or FireWire, check the table in the Additional Information section below.
This step will get you started, but there are additional steps in the article if you need them.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Regards,
Sterling

New computer / itunes library possible issues

I'm about ready to transfer my itunes library/songs to my new laptop. I've scanned the forums to find out the obvious stuff, so now I have a few additional questions.
First, my current condition. All of my music (8000+ tracks) is sitting in an external hard drive. The latest library files have been burned on a CD, and I haven't plugged in my ipod since. My new laptop has itunes 8 loaded, nothing else. Conventional wisdom tells me that all I need to do is load the library files, then plug in and transfer the song files, and then my music, playlists, play counts, etc should be fine.
Here's my concern: my old desktop (where my itunes library resided) was too wimpy to handle all the GBs of my collection, so the library is programmed to look for song files directly on my external hard drive. Will this be an issue? Further; I have less than 1000 songs originally loaded on the desktop itself, and even though all those songs are on the external hard drive, I believe itunes is still pulling from the desktop drive (I know this because if the hard drive is not connected, itunes can still play these few tracks and no more; I didn't have the nerve to delete these tracks to test further).
Whatever the solution, I would like to keep all my play counts, but if that is not feasible, I can live with it (its the music, not the stats that matter, eh?).
So in summary; can I plug and play, and if not, what's the smoothest way to get my library to recognize all my tracks? Thanks!

OK, I finally made the plunge, with 95% success (more on that later).
First, I ran with the assumption that I had consolidated my files on the external hard drive long ago (back when I started using the external) and that I didn't need to do it again.
I assumed this based on two things. One; when I temporarily changed the internal drive folder name, the files still played via the external and didn't play at all when the external was unplugged. Two; I found a post on another message board that said that if itunes cannot find it's programmed path, it'll go with the default itunes path.
Anyway, the following steps I took were successful:
I had downloaded v8 on the old computer to match with the new.
I copied both itunes library files onto my external drive.
I made sure that the external drive was F: for both computers. (a step I found on another discussion board)
I copied the library files over the blank library files of the new laptop.
Then I set my itunes preferences to organize files.
Then I consolidated my library to the new compter's drive as my means to download from the external (something that I also found explicitely on another message board).
So, everything seemed to work, except that those files that I had originally loaded on the old computer's drive never transferred from the external to the new computer. This only represents a fraction of my music, so I'm mostly relieved that the system works. I realize had I consolidated the first time, as I was instructed, I wouldn't have this problem (so much for being ultra careful, but still making an assumption leading to a shortcut leading to a 'd'oh!' moment).
I'll start a new thread later on ideas on how to move over the remaining music without messing up what's already there. But at least this finishes the thread on moving from an external to a new computer. Thanks!

Apple TV ( 2&3) - iTunes Match playlist issue

After the latest firmware update none of my ATVs (3 of, 2 ATV2 and 1 ATV3) allow my ITunes Match playlists to be selected using either the ATV remote or iPhone Remote App. When playlists are selected the ATV appears to reset (white LED flashes and connection to iPhone dropped). It is however possible to access playlists successfully using the iPad Remote App??? This ***** as I have my music library stored in the cloud and regularly played music via the ATVs, my son had some of his own playlists which he now gets upset he can't access. Come on Apple sort this out , your loyal customers are getting frustrated by your one step forward & another step back software upgrade program.

Thanks for the advice on how to contact apple.....they don't make it easy!!!!!
However you are incorrect, other people have had this problem, search in iTunes- iTunes Match- discussions for "ITunes crashes when loading playlists on Apple TV".
Interestingly my ATV had an update tonight ( looks like a roll back to me) as the crashing problem has cleared but the previous issue I was having ( and had not reported yet) has reoccurred. The problem is that I have many playlists in ITunes and subsequently in Match however my ATV only shows the first 24 - again frustrating and similarly you can access all the playlists if you connect with iPad remote App but not with the iPhone remote app??

Sharing iTunes library/playlist, only one user can run iTunes

Greetings everyone
Just got a new aluminum iMac, setting it up for the wife and kids. From the descriptions here, I have set up several accounts to share a single iTunes library, by creating aliases in each user's iTunes folder that point to the shared library. It seems to work great: I only have to import music ONCE (instead of once for each user), and if one user creates or changes a new playlist, everyone sees it, which is exactly what I wanted.
However, I have run into a small problem, and it is this. Under this setup, with everyone sharing the same library, *only one person can be running iTunes at a time.* If user A is running iTunes and doesn't quit the app when the computer is switched to User B or C, they get the message
----- +"The iTunes Library is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file."+
----- Switch back to User A, quit iTunes, and then the others can launch iTunes fine (though again, just ONE of them). Same behavior regardless of whether the user is admin or not.
So, is there any way to enable more than one user to run iTunes at once under this shared scenario? I'm thinking iTunes may not allow multiple users to access the library file at once, so it may be necessary to have users quit iTunes or log out before switching accounts. Let me know if there is a workaround or if anyone has gotten this to work....
Thanks in advance!
sno-man

Hi, I just read your post here - I'd like to do exactly what you were able to do, that is, sharing one iTunes library with multiple user accounts on my iMac so that we can both use/add to the same library (I also want to do this with iPhoto, so I'm assuming it's the same process); would you mind quickly telling me how you were able to do this? I've been checking around and can't find a reliable answer. I'd appreciate it - thanks!

How can I migrate my iTunes library, playlists, etc from XP to Windows 7?

I apologize if this has been asked and answered before. I cannot find a relevant article with google or the
search here on Apple support.
My iTunes library is on an external drive. iTunes keeps a few folders in XP
on the C: drive under
Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple,
Documents and Settings\Mike\Application Data\Apple,
Docuemnts and Settings\Mike\Local Settings\Apple, and
Docuemnts and Settings\Mike\Local Settings\Apple Computer.
I copied these folders to my external drive and hooked it up to my new computer
that runs Windows 7 where I had already installed a new copy of iTunes.
I tried copying the folders that were on the (XP) C: drive to my best guess as to where
they would go on the (W7) C: drive. Microsoft being Microsoft, they cannot let
the names of anything remain the same.
I set the preferences on my W7 iTunes to point to the external drive as my library
location. Nothing happened. I tried restarting iTunes, but still my existing data was not
acknowledged.
I then used the import files from folder option, using the location of the ITUNES folder
on my external drive. This ran fairly quickly. But, to my dismay, all my ratings were
lost and (thinking about it, not surprisingly) none of my playlists were there either.
So, does anyone have any experience on what files should be copied from XP to W7
and where? It seems to me this should not be that difficult. After all, the data is
all there, right?
One article I read suggested using the iPod as a backup device to transfer the files.
Would this work? Would it also transfter the playlists, ratings, etc? My concern
(again based on another article I read) is that I will wind up with duplicate copies
of all the music in my music library.
(As a precaution, I have backups of my iTunes library and the (XP) C: folders on
two other external drives. Also, the XP PC still has iTunes on it, so I could easily
reconnect the external drive there and do other stuff if necessary.
When I purchased my new iPod, it took almost 24 hours to transfter my music library
to it. It also takes almost 24 hours to do the drive to drive backup. (Maybe my new
computer will be faster.) Based on this experience, I would like to avoid having the
migration of data take that long.
If the changes I made to the W7 PC need to be undone, I can easily just remove iTunes
there and start again.
I hope my question is clear and I thank you for your time.
Cordially, MZ
PS: The XP box is an IBM and the W7 box is a new Dell. Both are desktop models.

You will need the iTunes Library.itl file which generally lives in ~/Music/iTunes/. You can recover this from the backups you were making before the HDD died. Otherwise, you cannot recreate the library.

How do I gift an itunes LIBRARY playlist to someone on itunes STORE?

I have an itunes playlist in my music library on my mac. I want to duplicate the playlist to my itunes store account so i can gift the playlist to another person. how do i do this without a) manually recreating the playlist (it's long) and b) not use icloud? thanks.

John;
Thanks. It appears that the only way to do so is to go back to iTunes 10.x - so lame. And thanks for the feedback link - I have left my feedback which I share below. I also email Tim Cook so someone on his staff will at least see it and not just the support folks.
My feedback:
I cannot believe you dropped the ability to gift a playlist from my iTunes library to a friend with the "redesigned" iTunes 11. Apparently iTunes 11.0 IS REDESIGNED TO SELL LESS SONGS. What a complete and utter failure on your part - you're literally shooting yourselves in the foot if you have taken away the ability for users to actually BUY MORE PRODUCT from you and share their experience with iTunes. And during the holiday season. WHAT WERE THE GENIUSES OF ITUNES APP TEAM THINKING???? Aren't you in the business of selling iTunes songs? And it also makes such a great last minute gift too. And seeing how you release iTunes 11 back in Nov, you could have easily made this fix before the holiday season, but instead have not and instead let your users discover the miss in frustrating attempts - (go check out the apple support forums - your product teams check those forums, right?).
I think one forum user has you tagged perfectly - you're starting to become and act like Microsoft. I should know, I was there for 18.5 yrs before I couldn't stand it anymore.
-Victor

My itunes library/playlist has gone after i compressed the music folder unaware of flow on effect.

Please hekp me reinstate my itunes library and playlists after my attempt to compress the windows music folder to save hard disk space. I have gone back to the music folder and unchecked the compression box and it looks like the music is reapperaing in itunes but none of the playlists, purchased music or apps have appeared. This is very frustrating aspent hours cleanin up unplayed music , old playlists the kids had done and recently purchased a substantial amount of music. I had synced the recent playlisst to my iphone yesterday and am loath to do another sync incase itunes wipes playlists from my iphone. Cn someone please help.

You can do a reverse sync to get playlists from your iPhone to your computer. This user tip should help you with this...
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive

Previous itunes library playlist damaged - how to recover?

my powerbook g4 is acting weird, lately. yesterday, i had to re-install all my previous accounts into mail, today, my itunes library (itunes 6.0.4) shows up as a damaged library and therefore cannot be opened. i would have to initiate a new playlist, which takes a lot of time. isn't there any chance to recover the damaged library? and why is it damaged at all?
thanks in advance

If you've got a recently synched iPod you could use a
tool like SENUTI to retrieve you playlists.
hm,...what does it cost? well,...it shouldn't be an option to download another software to run a mac, right? i mean, aren't they suppose to be more reliable than pc's? which means: isn't there another option other than downloading a software solution?

My iTunes Library/Playlist Just Disappeared

Hello, I hope you are well.
I have been using iTunes for years without any major problems. Today, it was fine during the afternoon, but after I shut it down and turned it back on, iTunes greeted me with the screen telling me to add songs to my Library.
The Library that I have been using for years just disappeared, and there are no playlists at all. I checked for the music files on my computer, and they are all there - both the hundreds I've purchased directly from the iTunes Store, as well as the hundreds more that I've purchased or obtained elsewhere.
I just spent the last hour searching up a way to retrieve my Library. I found that there are hundreds of people with the same problem, but most of them do not seem to care that they've lost their Library information. I know that I can probably just drag all the song files back into iTunes, but I really do not want the song information - play counts, ratings, etc. - to disappear, as I've spent a lot of time organizing my Library.
Please help. Thank you very much. I am running Windows 7 Professional and am using the latest stable version of iTunes, 9.0.1.8. I also have an iPod Nano that has all the songs and is pretty much updated to the latest iTunes Library (before it reseted itself), if that helps.
Message was edited by: VictorLy

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!
See also Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

Transferring Itunes Library & playlist from existing computer to new comput

I bought a new MacBook Pro and need to transfer all my Itunes music from my old mac book pro to my new one. How do I do that, playlists & all?

Probably the most straightforward way to get iTunes onto your new computer is to network the two over ethernet and copy your iTunes folder across. This works fine if you have been using iTunes to completely manage your music and all your songs are in iTunes Music not in different folders. If the songs in your library are not all in the iTunes Music folder you can consolidate them. When you consolidate, any songs in the iTunes Library that are not in the iTunes Music Folder are copied to the Music Folder and the Library is updated to point to those new files. Files already in the iTunes Music Folder have no changes made to them:
Copying all your iTunes files to one location - Mac
OS X 10.4 - Connecting two Mac computers using Ethernet
OS X 10.5 - Connecting two Mac computers using Ethernet
Another way is to put your original computer into target disk mode and copy the data over Firewire: How to use FireWire target disk mode
Copying the whole folder brings with it the iTunes Music folder and also the iTunes Library (iTunes Library.itl in Windows) database file which holds all the information about your songs (Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, Last Played, Date Added, etc). You'll get more information including the Folder/File structure in this article: What are the iTunes library files?
When you copy the iTunes folder make sure you put it into the same location on the new computer. This has to be the exact same place, on a Mac this would be in Username/Music/. Everything has to be exactly the same on the new computer including the Mac user account name. When you open iTunes on the new computer it will be the same as on the original one Songs, Playlists, Play Counts, Ratings etc. You should also use the same version of iTunes on both computers.
If you have any iTunes purchases in your library don't forget that you'll need to authorise your new computer to play them: About iTunes Music Store Authorisation and Deauthorisation

Manually transferring iTunes library/playlists from a G4 to a G5

Does anyone have a step by step list of how to manually transfer a iTunes library and playlist from a G4 with Mac OS 10.3.9 to a G5 with MAC OS 10.4.8?
Thank you - Scott

And you can connect them together with a Firewire cable using "Target" mode on the G4 if you don't already have these two computers networked together or both able to access the same storage space.
Patrick

Large iTunes Library Streaming Issues

I left sync on and it filled up the 40GB drive with about 7,000 of my songs.
I then went to the sources in Apple TV and selected my iTunes library for streaming. The screen displays:
Loading "iTunes Library" and the spinning icon shows for about five minutes. My screen then goes blank, and the AppleTV resets itself. When it comes back on it asks me for my language choice, and then asks if I want to recover my AppleTV, continue, or reset to Factory settings.
I have tried this a few times with the same results each time. Any help is very much appreciated.
Hardware - Apple TV, Mac Mini, 500gb external drive with music and movies
Network - Linksys cable modem and switch with a wired connection to the Apple TV.

Well the journey continues. I "factory reset" my Apple TV last night after another unsuccessful attempt to stream my music through Apple TV. It can see my iTunes Library under "sources." It says that it is loading and then after six minutes or so (I timed it) it restarts the box and presents me to select my language preference as it did when I initially installed the AppleTV. Once I do this it gives me three choices. I can "Restart" or "Restore Factory Defaults" or "Recover". If you chose "Restart" the machine reboots again. If I try and stream again, six minutes later I am asked what Language I want. If I try recover, it tests the system and says everything is good. I decided to perform a Factory Reset, and this did not work either.
I have a large iTunes Music Library, and have been using it successfully streaming through Elgato's EyeHome product for a couple years. We have had issues with new software updates, but they were very quick to provide solutions.
HERE IS WHERE I AM CURRENTLY AT:
I went to my computer, turned off iTunes, went to my iTunes folder and copied all of the files from the iTunes directory (remember my music is on an external drive) to a folder in another location. I was surpried to see my iTunes.xml file was over 150mb in size. I then restarted iTunes and of course had no music in it. I am now importing my file library in again to see if it helps. Maybe I has a corrupt iTunes file.
Anybody else with any ideas? Apple?

ITunes library/playlists issue

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