Itunes playlists missing

Recently I opened iTunes on my laptop only to find that my playlists, ratings, play count, lyrics, etc. are missing and no where to be found. And I don't know when it happened as I haven't used it in quite some time. I put a lot of work into the ratings and lyrics and don't want to lose them. Can you help? I need a step-by-step fix because my adult onset ADD will kick in and I'll get lost! LOL

Hi salesmanbryant,
If your playlists appear to be missing in iTunes, you may find the following article helpful:
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451
Regards,
- Brenden

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Entire iTunes Playlist Missing

Hi,
My entire iTunes playlist is missing. All that's inside my iTunes music folder is displayed here.
What happened?

Reinstalling iTunes won't fix rhis type of problem. At a guess the Temp File.tmp contains a (possibly) partial version of the library.
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 as iTunes Library (Corrupt) and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
The image above is for Windows but should give the idea. Libraries created by older versions of iTunes on a Mac don't use the .itl file extension. Your screenshot doesn't show it, so don't add it to the file you copy & rename.
See MusicFolder Files Not Added and Super Remove Dead Tracks for tools to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
tt2

IPod not recognised by iTunes & Playlists missing

Part 1;
iTunes no longer recognises my iPod - I've tried a few things to fix this (including removing & reinstalling iTunes) but have had no luck
Part 2;
there are no longer any Playlists on my iPod.
This seems to have happened as a result of an aborted attempt to install the latest iTunes update. The iPod was connected at the time.
So firstly I need to be able to get iTunes to recognise my iPod (the laptop is recognising the iPod).
Then I need to restore my playlists (& play counts etc). The music on my iPod is not the same as the music in iTunes so to sync from there isn't a solution.
The iPod is a three year old 60gb photo. The iPod itself did have around 13,000 files & when I check the properties whilst connected to the laptop these do show, however on the iPod's own 'about' list, only around 7000 are shown.
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i bought a new iPOD classic and thought i would simply be able to sync my itunes into it. But no - i have been able to manually put on 3000 odd songs but have another 7000 to do - and now my iPOD keeps getting disconnected with an error message saying folder ( or file ) not found and error number either 162 or 172 - can anyone assist ?
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I'm tearing my hair out. Got a new iphone went to sync and now all my iTunes playlists are missing. Please help

Basically my iTunes playlists have gone missing. They were there yesterday and today I got a replacement iphone. I connected it to itunes and they were gone I was left with just 3 songs I had downloaded from the itunes store. I've read previous posts about recovering them but I can't find 'previous iTunes library' the folder with the dates in for exaple itunes library 2012-03-09.itl - all I can find is music - itunes then one a few options but none that has the dates on
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Please help

Can you copy over the library again from the old computer?
And yes, backup is advisable.
tt2

My iTunes playlist page is frozen and I cannot connect with purchase store. I miss an update download this week and I am not sure if this is needed to fix a bug. How can I recover this download to update?

My iTunes playlist page on PC is frozen and I cannot connect to store for purchase. I missed an iTunes update download this week and I don't know if this would fix a bug. How can I recover this download to have the latest update.

It would be best to post this question under iTunes category. I am sure there are a few people having the same type of problem.

HELP! My iTunes playlists are missing. I updated to 11.0.4

I updated iTunes to 11.0.4 and all my playlists are missing. I followed the advice on the iTunes website and it didn't work. I am unable to set up NEW playlists also.
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I updated iTunes to 11.0.4 and all my playlists are missing.
Are only playlists missing or also the songs and movies?
Or is simply the sidebar with the paylists not showing? To reveal it, use the command "View > Show Sidebar ⌥⌘S" from the main menu bar.
I've tried that and it didn't work.
I followed the advice on the iTunes website and it didn't work.
What advice did you follow? What exactly have you tried so far? Is this, what you tried:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451 ?
Yes, I tried that.
I am unable to set up NEW playlists also.
Is the command "File > New > Playlist" grayed out or ineffective? What exactly happens when you try?
It isn't 'grayed' out, just ineffective. No new playlists can be set up.
Thank you. I appreciate any help.

ITunes Purchased Playlist missing tunes

Hi,
The purchased playlist in Itunes is missing a few tunes. They are in my Library, just not in my purchased playlist. On the purchased menu on my Apple TV all of the items that I have purchsed are there. How can I get the purchased playlist in Itunes to be identical to this.
Thanking you in all in advance
Greg Simms

You can just drag it in there. In fact, you can drag anything in there. It's just a regular playlist and end users can change it anyway they want.

ITunes purchases Playlist missing

Hi, Bought a new MacBookPro after previous one was damaged. My list of purchases from itunes is missing despite authorising etc. All purchases are recorded on my Apple account but wont show on screen. Has anyone come across similar?

Got the same problem. iMac died (after less than 18 months!) and Apple replced logic board. Apple adviser told me that to recover all my itunes purchases all I had to do was log in to my itunes account and they would be pulled off their server. This hasn't happened.

ITunes 11.0.4 playlists missing & cannot create new playlists

This morning all my playlists are no longer showing in the iTunes "PLAYLISTS" display.
I've tried going to backups (grabbed an old .itl file) but the playlists still do not appear. Also pulled the "Previous iTunes Libraries" most recent .itl with no change. There is no ".xml" file in either the recent backups (Time Machine) or "Previous iTunes Libraries" folders.
Figuring all is lost (and that'd be a shame cause there are a LOT of static and smart playlists to rebuld), I tried creating a new playlist. "New Playlist" doesn't show, either. Most revealing, perhaps, is "New Smart Playlist" shows a Library rule pull-down that exposes all my Playlists and Smart Playlists.
So the library has them all but apparently can't show them?
Yes, I'll submit a bug FWIW... Perhaps someone else has noodled through this one before.

Oh, that's tricky...
I've been running iTunes since day one and am not sure when this was added...
When looking at the sidebar, I saw this:
It was a little tricky taking this screen shot, cause the option is transient. IF you hover on the right side of the sidebar on the PLAYLISTS line, the link "SHOW" magically appears for a couple seconds:
Might I kindly suggest to the UX folks on the iTunes team, that requiring a hover over a blank section of real estate on the screen to expose a control is not an optimal user experience.

How do I find out where iTunes thinks missing files are?

I have several hundred "missing" files in my iTunes library but they are all actually on the computer. But I don't remember where the were previously. I add dozens of songs at a time to my library all the time and there is no Earthly way for me to constantly remember where they were before. I don't just want to reimport the files because I have several hundred playlists with these files and it would be completely stupid to edit them all one at a time when all I need to do is to move them back to where iTunes thinks they should be. So where is that? The Windows media player has a column that displays file location. Why doesn't iTunes? (This is so stupid. It makes things -not just this- so much easier when you have the file location in the music list in your music player.)
Is there a way to find out where iTunes thinks the missing files should be at?

Chris CA wrote:
How do I find out where iTunes thinks missing files are?
The exclamation mark means ITunes doesn't think they are anywhere.
If you right click - get info on a song then view the Info tab, you will see where iTunes last used it from.
I'm not a newbie. I know quite a lot about iTunes. You sound like you don't though because if you did you would know that this is not true. If you "right click - get info on a song" (pressing cancel to the Locate popup) "then view the SUMMARY (not info) tab" you will see "Not Available" where the file location usually is. I wouldn't have asked this question if I hadn't gone through the steps already.
Thanks for trying though. Next time, please try the advice before you give it.
I add dozens of songs at a time to my library all the time and there is no Earthly way for me to constantly remember where they were before
You should not have to remember anything about where they were.
I agree.
Are you always moving them around?
When I install a new hard drive. Yes. I generally keep everything organized and I let iTunes keep the folder organized but several years ago I used windows media player to organize my media.
Frankly I don't know HOW the recent songs/videos/etc. go missing. But some do. Maybe I accidentally move a folder without realizing it. Mistakes happen. Then I need to move it back but since I didn't know I did it in the first place I can't possibly be expected to remember where I moved it from.
Do you have iTunes prefs -> Advanced Keep ITunes music folder organized ticked and Copy files to iTunes ... ticked?
*OF COURSE!* Again, I'm not a newbie.
I have several hundred playlists with these files
Why would you have several hundred playlists?
I don't mean to sound rude but you sound like an Apple fanboy. Are you trying to tell me how I should use my own program? The answer to the question is I am a salsa instructor/DJ and I am constantly adding songs and videos to my library. Every month I have various salsa events, classes and performances that I do. I use my iPhone for the music. I need to maintain the playlists because students/teachers/studios/clubs/bars/churches/etc. call me back and want a repeat of the great salsa night I gave them a year ago. Naturally my playlists are highly organized into folders. So, I still have them and I need them.
Apple has its own ideas about how people should use its stuff but everyone is unique and our needs therefore are unique too. Apple doesn't realize this and still wants us to do things "the Apple way" even though "the Apple way" only works well for people who want their hand held through everything. This is why I say you sound like a fanboy. You don't know my situation and question if I need hundreds of playlists. I do.
I just need an answer to the question.
Thank you for your reply though. It gave me hope, for a time.

Playlists missing on new iMac 24"

Playlists missing on new iMac 24". I have a backup of everything on my MacBook Pro - it has the correct playlists and all the files in it. What do I have to copy to get them on the new computer? Too many important playlists to redo if I don't have to.
Thanks!

See my user tips Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy and Make a split library portable. The first shows how I would normally recommend preparing to move your library from one computer to another. Back it up to an external drive, then restore to the new computer. The other goes into some detail regarding the structure of the library. Essentially if you've copied over the media already you simply need to copy the main iTunes Library.itl file and a some supporting files and the artwork cache.
I don't use iTunes Match so I am not familiar with it. I thought it included playlists, but perhaps that feature doesn't work properly when the library is bigger than the 25,000 tracks allowed. Either way backup and restore via an external drive is still the best way to move a library from one machine to another.
tt2

Podcast playlist missing in Podcast App

Just posted the following under iTunes Feedback. If you agree, please post also.
Thanks,
Okay, you removed Podcasts from the Music App on the Iphone and moved them to the Podcast App. Where did the playlists go? I don't just listen to 1 Podcast. I built a playlist to listen to a mixture of Podcasts. This is step backwards. Please return this missing functionality.

I had this problem when they first came out with the Podcast App so I stopped using it and went back to playlists in regular itunes app. When IOS 7 and 11.1 rolled around I tried the podcast app again because it was supposed to support playlists. The first time I sync'd it up the playlist showed up in My Stations under iTunes Playlists and it worked well enough for a bit. Somewhere in the journey the iTunes Playlists entry stopped showing up in the app as did the playlists themselves. I've deleted the app, reset the phone, and installed the 11.1.1 update today and the playlists still will not show up in the App. I have not restored the phone from a backup because I'm sick of dealing with the fallout every time I do that.
About the only thing that has really changed is my desire to listen to podcasts as much as I was because it has become too much of a pain. If I wanted to work on my computer and software instead of use it I'd get a Windows machine.

ITunes Library missing

I performed a Windows XP SP2 update today, IE7 was installed. I didn't like it, so I performed a System Restore.
After all of this, my itunes library is nowhere to be found. All my music, playlists, etc. are not showing in itunes.
Also, itunes is not recognizing my second ipod (I have an iPhone and a Shuffle) - I get the "The ipod is synced with another library" message.
When I go into Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General Tab - it shows the correct file path for where my music should be.
Thoughts on where my library went to?

Try doing a search on your hard drive from the top (root) level for "iTunes Music" or "iTunes Library" or "Album Artwork" and see what you find.
If you find more than one folder of, say iTunes Music, be very careful. One is probably an empty folder iTunes created when it didn't find your real folder. The other should have all of your music in it.
iTunes will probably NOT recognize your music if you just drag it to the empty folder. Instead, drag the music into the iTunes playlist and let it recatalog. Be careful how you have iTunes set in preferences. You'll want it to duplicate your music. Otherwise once you throw away the old folder, the aliases will be to missing tracks.

Some playlists missing on phone

I have Cellular data turned on, I have tried turning Mtach off and on, I have tried signing in and out of my account. There are several playlists missing on my phone. I can't see any songs or reasons that would keep them from syncing. Any ideas?

See my user tips Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy and Make a split library portable. The first shows how I would normally recommend preparing to move your library from one computer to another. Back it up to an external drive, then restore to the new computer. The other goes into some detail regarding the structure of the library. Essentially if you've copied over the media already you simply need to copy the main iTunes Library.itl file and a some supporting files and the artwork cache.
I don't use iTunes Match so I am not familiar with it. I thought it included playlists, but perhaps that feature doesn't work properly when the library is bigger than the 25,000 tracks allowed. Either way backup and restore via an external drive is still the best way to move a library from one machine to another.
tt2

Iphone 4 not showing playlist correctly :( (compared to itunes playlist)

Hey apples
When i sync my itunes playlist to my iphone 4, it syncs correctly, just to clarify that (at least, somewhat correct). However, since the IOS 5 update, my Iphone playlist is not showing all the music it's supposed to compared to the itunes playlist.
I have double checked my itunes library, and it's fine there, but once i enter the Ipod app (or music app as they call it now....) it doesnt show all the recent tracks i added to the library. Funny thing is, they were there before the IOS 5 update....
All the songs that are missing in the playlist (but are there in the very same itunes playlist!) ARE on the iphone, as i checked that too a few times.
I could just make a new playlist and sync it, that should work, but i really want to know why it happened, since it might happen again next time i update.
Is IOS 5 buggy or *** is wrong ?
PS: Using itunes 10.5 on windows 7 64 bit
Best Regards
Seehuusen

I have exactly the same problem. Some songs are missing and the order of the songs is different, unless I sort by song name on itunes.

Itunes playlists missing

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