ITunes Match has deleted my music files. How and Why?

I have used iTunes Match since January 2012 however I have noticed that fewer and fewer of my songs are available on my linked devices (iPhone, iPad). When I go to the iTunes Media Library folder to see the original files, many are missing. Typically there are only 1 or 2 song files in an album folder and the rest are just not there.
On an IOS device the songs still appear in the playlists but if selected it will just jump down the list until it finds a song that it decides it can play.
My iTunes library folder was transferred on to a 2GB network attached Lacie drive as it was too big to put on my MBP Retina in July 2012. Currently I use a 2009 iMac for the main iTunes however it is still pointing to the iTunes folder on the Lacie. MBP and iMac are authorised with iTunes store and Home Sharing is on. MBP is set to use Home Sharing, so is not syncing with Match. Apple TV 2 can also access Match and Home Sharing.
To fix this I am now working my way through a backup from June 2012 and manually checking and synching my 1200 top level iTunes folders. Honestly most album folders have only 1 or 2 tracks so I am copying back all the missing tracks one folder at a time. (iTunes has 14000 songs). I cannot merely replace the corrupt new library with the old library backup as the last 12 mths of acquisitions would disappear.
Further there are tracks that have been renamed and filed incorrectly. I have tracks labelled as Bowie or Daft Punk, in Bowie or Daft Punk playlists that are actually from an album of recordings of bird and animal sounds from sub tropical tropical rainforests. Now that kills the party when Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger crossfades into the sound of the mating call of the green tree frog let me tell you.
I have rematched my library several times over the last 12 months. When moving to the Lacie and MBP, then again when moving to the iMac for iTunes but leaving the files on the Lacie.
It's a big mess that will take me about 12-15 hours of filing to (mostly) fix. I'm up to "J".
Why and how did my original files disappear off my Lacie drive? This software/service should not have those rights.
I am a Mac fan and a college IT Teacher so run a well organised home network and am just at a loss.
Please advise.
MBP Retina 256GB 16GB 10.8.4, iMac 21" 2009 500GB 4GB 10.8.4, iPhone 4s 32GB 6.1.3, iPad2 32GB 6.1.3

iTunes Match does not have the ability to remove local files.
The service operates by comparing the selected iTunes Library with the iTunes Store content and 'matching' or 'uploading' - it is very straightforward a 'match' provides equivalent access to iTunes Store content as a recognised 'purchase'; upload simply copies a 256k AAC variant into the cloud. There are no elements of this activity that can erase the local library content.
Would suggest you explore possible alternative causes of file loss. Given the pattern described of selective deletion, leaving many Songs intact - would suggest making at least 2 secure offline Song file backups and starting the library again from a fresh install of iTunes once a thorough sweep of the system has been completed for virus. It is also worth assessing the physical security of the system - who has access & with what privileges.
To access Songs from the cloud, you would have to manually delete the Song from the library or open an empty library - so even when accessing content, iTunes Match provides no local deletion capability.

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ITunes Match has stopped uploading - every file errors and says waiting - I have tried to delete the files and use other formats etc. I have had the service since Day 1 and NEVER had an issue. It didn't start until the Delete from Cloud switch to Hide

iTunes Match has stopped uploading - every file errors and says waiting - I have tried to delete the files and use other formats etc. I have had the service since Day 1 and NEVER had an issue. It didn't start until the Delete from Cloud switch to Hide from cloud - the files that do not upload show grayed out on my other devices.

Have you confirmed that you successfull purged iTunes Match by also looking on an iOS device? If so, keep in mind that Apple's servers may be experiencing a heavy load right now. They just added about 19 countries to the service and I've read a few accounts this morning that suggests all's not running perfectly right now.

ITunes Match is deleting my Audio Files, How do I stop this?

I have asked this question before, but have not had time to get into it.
I use Radioshift(A Rogue Amoeba program) to record a few hours of radio everyday. It sends the audio files to iTunes in a folder named radioshift and into sub-playlists matching each radio station name. iTunes match will intermittently delete all of these audio files when it goes through its process of upload/download. It is strange because it won't occur all of the time, but periodically it will wipe all of the files out and this continues for a period of time and then a few days later it leaves them alone. I have tried moving the files to other playlists and it doesn't help. I've emailed Apple on the issue and not gotten a response. Does anyone else have this issue or know how to resolve it?
Clay

Hello @adam100 ,
Welcome to the HP Forums!
Uninstalling HP Connected Music should do the trick. If it is uninstalled, then you files cannot be displayed as HP Connected Music files.
You can always install it later if you want it
Mario
I worked on behalf of HP.

ITunes Match for the iMac - Music Files on an iPod?

I subscribe to iTunes Match and have an iPod Classic 160GB. Is it possible to use iTunes Match for my entire music library on my iMac & iPhone BUT put the actual song files on my iPod Classic? The problem is my music library is large, won't fit on my iMac Flash hard drive and iTunes Match is perfect. But I can't figure out how to get those songs onto my iPod Classic because iTunes Match is enabled on iTunes.
I would like to keep my iTunes library on the iMac using Match and have the physical songs be on the iPod Classic.
I tested this by putting 1 album on the iMac hd. Then syncing the iPod. Then deleting it from iTunes (the cloud icon came back so Match is doing it's thing and I deleted the physical song files). Sync'd again but this time I checked Manually Manage Music & Videos in the iTunes iPod Settings window before hand, thinking that would tell iTunes to not worry that the 1 Who album wasn't physically on my h/d anymore. But it didn't work. It removed the that album from the iPod Classic.
Is this possible and I don't have the correct settings in iTunes or on the iPod? Or is this a limitation of using iTunes Match?

Hey thanks, Jim... Actually I do have a back up of my entire library on an external drive. Is the process just dragging the songs and albums from the Finder (from the external drive backup) onto the iPod when I plug it in to iTunes and they copy over? Is it possible to create new or update existing Playlists with this method? But is key is to never sync the iPod with iTunes or do I need to check Manually Manage Music & Videos?
Or am I looking at this completely wrong. lol

Should Itunes Match be deleting the music on my iphone and IPAD

Still trying to get this figured out. I'm almost certain that yesterday, when I first did Itunes Match, that all the music that was already on the Iphone and Ipad was not deleted (despite the warning to the contrary) when I toggled the Itunes Match switch on both.
I'm almost certain that yesterday, even after turning Itunes Match had been turned on, the music was not deleted and as new songs were added (ie CDs ripped)they showed up on both devices with the cloud Icon.
That is consistent with what I read here:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1163607/toggle_between_itunes_match_and_local_sy ncing.html
However, today, I re-downloaded some music after getting the higher quality versions with Itunes on my Mac. I turned Itunes Match off on both my Iphone and IPad, thinking I would do a quick manual sync to the Mac, get all the songs put on each and then turn Itunes Match back on both.
I did so, but when I turned Itunes Match back on each, Itunes Match deleted all of my music, replacing all songs with the cloud icon now forcing me to redownload everything. That seems inconsistent with what happened yesterday and is also inconsistent with the article above which seems to indicate that Itunes Match should be smart enough to realize the songs it doesn't need to delete.
Is the above article and my experience wrong?
Thanks for the help!

What you are experiencing is normal. As soon as you turn on iTunes Match, it should wipe out all your songs that were manually put on your device and you will have to redownload. Its idiotic to me, but that is the way it is supposed to work. People have stated they sometimes fool the process, but it is supposed to remove them all.
Hope this helps. Down the road I wish they made it so you could do both, icloud and manual sync.

ITunes match has destroyed my music library. Help!

So basically several years ago I bought an external hard drive to combat low storage space on my laptop, and moved all my iTunes files to there. However, the hard drive is broken, so most of my music could only actually be played on my iPod, the only songs I could play from my laptop were ones which had their files saved on to the laptop itself. I saw about itunes match and thought that would enable me to save songs from my iPod on to the cloud, thus allowing me to access all my songs from my laptop too. However, instead my ipod has now also lost all the songs that were saved to my hard drive, and only has the few songs I had saved to my iPod. So right now it seems I've paid £21 for the privilege of losing the vast majority of my music library. Is there anything I can do about this?
On a side note, this issue has made me realise how terrible and counter-intuitive apple tech support is.

Sorry to here about your problem. I'm afraid that there is nothing you can do to recover your lost music. Itunes match works by scanning your iTunes library on your computer not your ipod.
Possibly, you could see if you can get someone to recover the music from your ext hard drive.
jim

Itunes is randomly deleting my music files

Im having an issue with itunes, i have my music stored in several locations and wanted to consolidate my library, so i choose an external drive and started exporting all my music from my itunes library to my external drive by changing the library location and making itunes consolidate my files. However its seems to only copy albums and all my eps and singles which i have spend years ripping from all my vinyl, copies over then deletes from the external drive while iTunes copies it! anyone had this issue? its totally frustrating. how can itunes delete my music? it may not be downloaded but its totally genuine and mine to with as i wish. I don't really want to leave my music on my mac as it just takes up to much space.
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Can any help me?

I don't think that is the solution. If you check back, this is a perennial issue that does not have a solution. So far.
In synching up files there will be various conflicts and having another text based list to compare before and after results of the sync might have some ability to determine what was deleted.
Synching contacts is just as prone to random damage

Where does iTunes Match look for my music files?

When iTunes Match scans my "library" which library is it looking at - simply the list of songs within the iTunes interface? Or is it looking for the actual music files? How does keeping most of your music on an external hard drive affect this process?

I don't know this for sure, but I suspect the scan process is reading the 'iTunes Library.itl" file and not scanning the actual files. So keeping your files on an external drive shouldn't affect the scan, although I would recommend having the external HDD connected to your computer while the scan in is progress just in case.

ITunes match has wrecked my music library!

So here's the scenario. I have just under 25,000 songs in my iTunes library. I also have a subscription to iTunes Match and so far it has worked perfectly until around 48 hours ago.
For no reason I can work the metadata for my library has changed in the cloud and those changes have been pulled down to my Macbook Air (the only place I have match turned on). I now have around 10,000 songs that have a blank album title and all list the same artist (not anyone who appears in my library!), they still have the correct track names, artwork, track and disc numbers.
To check it was actually incorrect in the cloud I enabled match on my iPad and that shows the same, incorrect, results.
So here's my dilemma, I somehow need to get the cloud version to roll back to around 48 hours ago.
I have a backup of my library file (but not the actual library), if I replace the library file I get back all the correct data however now those 10,000 songs get a file not located error as my library was set to keep organised! When I then use locate it replaces the correct data with the incorrect data!

Thanks for that Michael. Unfortunately the problem seems to be with the copy in the cloud. If I turn on match on my iPad I see the same, incorrectly labelled, library. I did actually try deleting the entire local library and redownloaded but it's made no difference.
It seems something has happened to the cloud copy that has corrupted a lot of the metadata so if I can't roll back the cloud version somehow I have a big problem!
I have just under 8,000 tracks that have been affected, of those around half are sat on my iPod with the correct metadata but I don't think there's anyway to recover that back into iTunes.

HT204406 iTunes Match has deleted thousands of songs from a media server

I just just bought iTunes Match and begun to use it on my Mac Book Pro, mac Mini, iPhone and i Pads.
I had different tracks on each device.
The MacMini is used as a media server + had 000's of tracks installed (ripped from CD's) which were not on each my Mac Book Pro and other devices due to HD / space limitations.
When iTunes Match was added on the Mac Mini all ripped CD tracks disappeared (thousands) and only the tracks purchased from iTunes Store appear.
have tried turning off iTunes Match on the Mac Mini but the tracks are still missing.
Any advice on how to recover the tracks? (without having to do a recovery from Time Machine as it is not up to date).

I think its something related to the iTunes/Apple passwords stored in Keychain Access.
Ive had iTunes Match since it first came out way back when (in 2011 I think?). I had this issue up until a few months ago on two of my Macs when all of a sudden the problems disappeared.
Then yesterday I decided to go through the Keychains on one of my macs and because I am OCD i started deleted saved passwords/logins/etc that I thought I didnt use anymore. I deleted so many logins, local items, system items, and system roots....
I have now gotten this error message three times on this mac.
I dont know which type of stored login or system item I deleted that would cause this. But based on cause and effect Im pretty positive this narrows down where to look for a solution.
Rich

ITunes match has deleted a playlist and all my itunes library are showing errors on my mac, it wont update

I have logged into iTunes on my Mac and found that one of my playlists has been wiped and that every single of my 12000 songs has an error saying that it cant be loaded in itunes match when they are all there.

Kind of a similar issue. I have long recordings of a radio show I like to catch up on on my mobile devices. All of this kind of media were greyed out and yet initally played. Then they would not play after a sync but could be seen. Also palyback position was lost despite being set in options. Crudley fixed by turning iTunes Match off on the device and resync. KInd of defeats the object of the subscrition though. :-(
Obviously its a great idea to have everung backed up in the Cloud but there's still a lot of user niggles coming to light it seems. Good luck.

My iTunes has deleted my music library- how do you fix?

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Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl.
Given your iTunes windows is currently showing up with the wong name you will need to hold down shift as you start iTunes, then click the option to Choose a library and navigate to the correct file. Should all be good now, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

My music files etc were all located on my old laptop which was stolen. I have just plugged my iphone in to my new computer and it has deleted all my files. Has anybody got any ideas on how to retrieve the files?

My music files etc were all located on my old laptop which was stolen. I have just plugged my iphone in to my new computer and it has deleted all my files. Has anybody got any ideas on how to retrieve the files?

WINDOWS?
Connect the iPod to your PC. If iTunes starts syncing (ie erasing) your music automatically, hit the X in the upper right hand corner of iTunes display, to the left of the search box, to stop it.
In Control Panel, Portable Media Devices, double-click your iPod.
In the Tools menu -> Options, in the View Tab, check "Show hidden files and folders."
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Portable Media Devices\NAME of IPOD (F:)\iPod_Control\Music
Select all the music folders, and drag and drop them into a folder on your hard drive, or directly into iTunes.
And you're done! The iPod music folder structure is strange and inexplicable, but once you move your files into iTunes you can set it to automatically organize your folder by artist and album to clean that up. (To do this, in iTunes Edit menu, choose Preferences and in the Advanced tab, check "Keep iTunes Music Folder organized."
might be out of date worth a try

Recover lost deleted corrupted music files tracks from iTunes match icloud

Just spent an hour on Apple's tech suypport line, all to figure out how to recover lost/deleted/corrupted music files/tracks from iCloud / iTunes Match. Here's how to do it:
ASSUMPTIONS: You're in iTunes on your computer, logged into your iCloud account.
Within iTunes, in the left-hand pane, select your Music library. Alll your tracks should appear in the right-hand pane. Those that are missing from your disk should be marked with an asterisk icon to the left of the track. Do the following...
...select all the missing/lost/deleted tracks (using the option button), and hit the delete button.
NOTE: when the delete dialog box comes up, make sure you do ***NOT*** click the "Delete from iCloud" selection!!!
...once deleted, select all the same tracks again, then hit the right mouse button, then select "Download".
All the tracks should start downloading, one by one, from iCloud.
NOTE: If I were you, I'd perform this operation on discrete chunks (no more than 500 at a time), just to be safe.
Good luck!

You can also recover the missing tracks from the backup you are keeping on an external HDD. You are backing up, aren't you?

HT4914 Once I deleted my music files can I get them back via I cloud? I have Itunes match on.

Once I deleted my music files can I get them back via I cloud? I have Itunes match on.

I actually deleted my backup :-) That's the problem. But thanks.
I've managed to get some back but via a slightly different method.
Because the files weren't there, when I deleted them from my library they actually disappeared from the list.... So I created a new library (backed up my original one) and then synched that with Match so that all the files appeared. I'm just going through the ones I'm missing clicking 'download' and then when they're all back on my hard drive I'll revert to the previous Library which will hopefully pick up all of the recovered files.
Bingo!

ITunes Match has deleted my music files. How and Why?

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