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

Similar Messages

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.

How do I get iTunes Match to upload my music library from my external hard drive? It only got some of the music and not a lot of it at that.

I'm trying iTunes Match and not having a great time of it so far. It only got a fraction of my music from my music library. I contacted support and they told me that it would recognize my external hard drive and take all of the music. My collection is all from CDs with the exception of a few from iTunes. I just want more of my collection to be available.
Can anyone help with that

The issue is not related to the external drive. iTunes Match has difficulties matching tracks ripped fom CDs because they may differ slightly from the versions on sale in iTunes. You can try the match again. Otherwise do a search of this forum. There are already many discussions on this subject here that may help you.

ITunes Match is syncing my music library using 3G but I have the option switched off.

Hi,
I have found a problem syncing my music using iTunes Match and my iPhone has used 2GB of my data plan in a day. The steps to reproduce the problem are:
Precondition: iPhone is using iTunes Match and has a list a few songs in the cloud without syncing.
Steps:
Switch on 3G connections in the settings. (Settings > General > Mobile data > Mobile data & 3G ON)
Start syncing a list of music.
Switch off the option to use data plan to sync music (Settings > Music > Use data plan > OFF)
Result: iPhone continues downloading all the songs of the list using my data plan.
Expected result: iPhone stops syncing the music because there is only a 3G connection and the option is switched off.
This is why I would like to make a complaint to Apple. How can I do it?
Thanks.

Everything that is on your device should be in your library too. If that is not the case then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device. See also Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy.
Once you have secured your content you can work on resolving the sync issue.
When the media on the device won't update as expected during a sync the method that usually works is this:
Export the contents of the camera roll. (You should do this routinely anyway.)
Backup the device, unless you have a recent backup that you would prefer to restore.
Restore as a new device. (The general restore process doesn't seem to clear things out before reloading, so there can be issues with missing artwork or incorrect capacity calculations.)
Restore the chosen backup.
In some cases it might pay to use the recovery mode method given in HT201263: If you can't update or restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch at step 3 to ensure that a device has been completely reset before reloading your content.
tt2

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.

ITunes match and my household music library

I'm looking for ideas / tips here, as to what other people do.
My family shares the music library on 1 MB Pro. So there are a lot of songs in the music library that 1 person might like, but the rest do not. But I notice that all the music library's songs are now on my iPhone via the cloud. So when I shuffle, I'm getting all the songs from the music library to play, including those of my 7-tr old girl, ha.
Prior to signing up for iTunes match I only had on my iphone the 600 or so songs that I really enjoyed, and would shuffle thru those. I'm assuming the obvious suggestion will be to create a playlist of those same songs and then just shuffle that list. Any other ideas or suggestions are also appreciated.
Thanks

Out of interest, how many songs are we talking about that you want excluded?
I have another possible solution if there aren't too many.

I downloaded music from iTunes onto my iPad. I enabled iTunes Match on my PC (where most of my music is stored). When I turned on iTunes Match on iPad it said the iPad music library would be replaced.How do I use iTunes Match without losing iPad music.

I bought music from iTunes and downloaded it to my iPad. I have enabled iTunes Match on my PC (where most of my music is stored). When I turned on iTunes Match on iPad it said "iTunes Match will replace the music library" on my iPad. All of my iPad music is saved on iCloud, and some of my PC music is on iCloud. If I use iTunes Match will the music previously downloaded on my iPad be lost?
Thanks!!

You need to either sync the iPad with iTunes so it will transfer the purchases to the iTunes library or download them from the purchase history. Then let iTM work on the "new" tracks in the library then all the music will be available on the iPad.

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

TS3297 itunes match and when I try to add my main computers music library I see "iTunes Match has encountered an error. Please choose Sign Out and then Sign In from the Store menu and try again." but signing back in always results in the same

I just purchased itunes match and when I try to add my main computers music library I see "iTunes Match has encountered an error. Please choose Sign Out and then Sign In from the Store menu and try again." but signing back in always results in the same error message. Somebody has to have an answer to this.

Did you try setting itunes to run with administrator privileges?
Since I changed that I no longer have this issue

Now that iTunes Match has hosed my library completely...how do I EASILY get back the albums and songs they didn't match from my hard drive?

iTunes match is a mess. I am not going to go into all the details unless specifically asked but it's useless. Now that I've turned it off I have found that the songs that iTunes could not Match to the iCloud iTunes is no longer able to find! So it wants ME to manually match each song to the location on my hard drive. This is an Apple joke right?
There has got to be a better way! Restore from backup...love to! Will that pull all my music if I was using iTunes Match at the last synch? Help a girl out...I just want my music back.
Sincerely,
And Irish girl who is NOT smiling!

The details are important - you'll have to spill them all, at lest the relevant ones, because this isn't a game of 20 questions. But I'll bite anway -
Are you using iTunes on a Mac or a PC?
iTunes 10 or iTunes 11?
Did you add the files before turning on match, or after? or both (if both, which batch were the missing files in)?
After you turned on match, did you delete your files thinking you no longer need them?
Did you have iTunes set to copy and organize your files, or had you taken the manual route? (the settings are in iTunes Preferences, under "Advanced")
Have you recently renamed your hard drive, or some of your folders, or moved a folder that had music in it?
Does the location of your music library in iTunes Preferences --> Advanced match the actual location of your music?
Right-click one of the missing songs, and choose "Get Info" - does the location of the file match where it really is on the hard drive? If not, what's different?
Do you care about things like play counts, last played dates etc.? If not, you can just re-add all your music files (basically, start over fresh)

ITunes Match has been crippled on iTunes 10.7. Anyone else experiencing this? Please help!

Running iTunes 10.7 on 10.6.8
So, I am still on iTunes 10.7 (yes, I have been with iTunes 11 and have tried iTunes 12, but in my opinion, 10.7 is hands down the best version of iTunes to date).
I have been using iTunes Match on iTunes 10.7 for over a year without issue. Anytime I launch iTunes or wake my computer up from sleep, it automatically starts doing an update and any new songs are instantly added to the cloud. It was reliable and worked flawlessly until about 4 days ago.
A few days ago when things started acting weird, the first thing I noticed when I opened iTunes was that it no longer updated iTuens Match automatically and the iTunes Match tab was missing under the iTunes Store tab where it normally always appears.
I manually tried updating iTunes match by going to the top of the page, under Store < update iTunes Match (at the top of the page) than iTunes Match appeared.
It did the 3 step process, but once you hit 'done' at the end. The iTunes Match tab disappeared The iTunes match column disappeared and if I right click any of my tracks, ALL my music had the 'add to iCloud' button (files that were already in the cloud).
I didn't lose any of my music. On my iPhone, all my music still appears when I have iTunes Match on.
Here is what I have tried to fix the problem:
1. Completely removed my Apple ID identity from iTunes: Turned off iTunes Match, deauthorized the computer and signed out of the Apple ID
2. Removed iTunes Store cache and quit iTunes
3. Did 'repair disk permissions' in disk utility
4. Changed my iTunes folder to 'iTunes 2' so it would create a new iTunes folder. When I opened in the new iTunes. It was a blank slate. When I reauthorized my computer and turned on iTunes match, it still wouldn't work. When I hit 'update iTunes Match from 'store' at the top of the page, it goes through the 3 step update, but once it is done, iTunes match disappears and none of the songs in the cloud appear (this is what leads me to believe that maybe I am not alone, and maybe Apple has stopped allowing iTunes 10.7 users from using iTunes Match)
5. I once again did step 1 and 2 and re installed iTunes using the saved DMG file.
6. I did an smc reset (this was a long shot chance of doing anything, but I wanted to exhaust all my options)
7. Restarted my computer
I also noticed that you can now longer download the iTunes 10.7 file from the Apple downloads page. When you try to download, you get this error message:
An error occurred while processing your request.
Reference #30.7ed16bd1.1425254177.1b62a8
This is another possible signal that worries me. That Apple maybe removing online tools like iTunes Match on older versions of iTunes.
Is anyone on here still on iTunes 10.7? Is iTunes Match still functioning normally for you? Do you have any tips on what I can do to fix this problem? Are there any library or preference files associated with iTunes that could be causing the problem?
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.

Happy to report that iTunes Match has returned to working like normal on iTunes 10.7 on my computer today. If any iTunes engineers read this thread, I really appreciate the fix.
Has it returned to normal for you?

I subscibed to ITunes Match and all my music has disappeared from my Ipod touch and will only play through WiFi so I cannot play music in my car. How do I get it back please

I subscibed to ITunes Match and all my music has disappeared from my Ipod touch and will only play through WiFi so I cannot play music in my car. How do I get it back please

You'll need to switch off iTunes Match on the device & sync the iPod with iTunes as hopefully you've kept all your music on your PC.

Itunes match has expired and i've lost more then 5000 songs... are they still in the cloud somewhere if i do take a new itunes match subscription?? HELP!!!!

where can i find my lost tracks now my itunes match has expired???

Hi,
If you do not have a back up or the tracks were not on your hard drive, you will have lost all your music except for itunes store purchases.
Read this https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4112.
Jim

Can´t find all my movies from itunes in apple tv. has already restarted apple tv and have the latest update for both itunes and apple tv. my music library works however

can´t find all my movies from itunes in apple tv. has already restarted apple tv and have the latest update for both itunes and apple tv. my music library works however

Welcome to the Apple Community.
Have you looked in home videos

HT204406 Since updating to ios6 on my iPhone 4S iTunes Match has not worked. The app stays open for about five seconds before crashing. With ios5 it was great and worth paying for. Now it is utterly useless. Apple, please listen and fix this problem.

Ever since I updated to ios 6 on my iPhone 4S, iTunes Match has not worked.
I have been through the process of deleting my iTunes control files, and that worked temporarily, but now I cannot listen to music through the service.
It shows my artists and albums, then takes forever to access the songs (often more than 10 minutes - and yes, that's using WiFi), more often than not crashing before it gets to that point, then repeatedly crashing when I try to open the Music App, so I can't even access things I've downloaded.
Has anyone else found a solution?
Apple, please listen up - I am paying you for the iTunes Match service that is utterly useless. Fix it please.

After some troubleshooting, I decided to order a new battery. I replaced the battery and was then able to get it to restore, however--after I restore it and it comes time to restart the phone, it gets stuck and doesn't turn on.
Sorry, your repair ruined the iPhone.
She does not have apple care and even though she loved this device, she isn't going to buy another iPhone because of all the problems shes had with this one (it's just over a year old).
After you ruined the iPhone with DIY, Apple won't touch it anymore. You should have asked before all these had happened.
I'm an android user myself and I love rooting/flashing new ROMS, so if jailbreaking her phone or doing some kind of super-restore with 3rd party programs might help, I'm all for it-
Yeah, all Android user can think of is Jailbreaking, read this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3743

ITunes match has destroyed my music library. Help!

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