Library file damaged - help?

Hey so it appears my library file is damaged. I'm not sure how that happened, but I would like to not lose all of my ratings and play counts, etc. I believe the library on my iPod should still be intact. How can I get iTunes to reconstruct a library based on the info in my iPod? I don't want to connect because I am worried it will overwrite it the other way...

I recovered the library but it was missing a lot of information. Anyway I decided there was no way to recover the rest of the information so I moved on. (I am just posting this so I can list the question as resolved.)
I did find out why it (probably) broke, however - I suddenly removed the secondary hard drive from my modular bay in my laptop, which is where most of my music and my library files are stored. I didn't lose any of my music but I think I probably corrupted the library file in doing so. Usually I use the "safely remove hardware" option but I didn't in that case. Guess I learned my lesson.

Similar Messages

Help... iTunes Library file damaged

Since moving some files to defrag my hard disk, I now get the following error message when I run iTunes:
The file "iTunes Library .itl" does not appear to be a valid iTunes library file. iTunes has attempted to recover your iTunes library and renamed this file to "iTunes Library (Damaged) x .itl [where x is 1,2,3,etc]
This is happening every time I try to run iTunes so there are a series of the damaged files in iTunes folder and each time I run iTunes there is a new set of Audiobooks, Music, etc. playlists in iTunes.
Can anyone help??
Thanks
Dell Latitude D600 Windows XP Pro iPod 20Gb

Earlier this month, my entire iTunes library disappeared from my Mac G5.
There were more than 50 songs I purchased on iTunes, plus more than 1,000 from my own CD collection as well as some original songs I wrote using GarageBand.
The songs were displayed on the iTunes rundown, but when I clicked to play, a prompt told me that it was unable to find the song.
Multiple searches were fruitless and the iTunes folder shows none of these songs to exist.
Much of these same songs are still on my iPod.
A few of the iTunes-purchased songs are also on my Mac G4 Powerbook.
The difference between the G5 and G4 is that I’ve not upgraded the latest iTunes version on the PowerBook…however in late March, I did upgrade on the G5.
No other new applications have been added to any of my computers since around the first of the year.
So I am asking you and everyone else (especially the Aplle people):
How can I recover those songs I bought from iTunes?
Why did this happen?
Have other Mac users experienced this?
Is there a flaw in the new iTunes version?

ITunes Library File Damaged; How Do I Get My Playlists Back?

My PowerMac G4 was in Sleep mode, and the power went out in my house for two seconds. iTunes was open when the computer went down as was Stickies. Upon starting up my computer, I found all of my Stickies memos were gone, but worst of all, I got a window telling me the iTunes library was damaged, so I had to go through a new iTunes setup. After iTunes found all of my music files (nearly 10,000 songs), I now have all the songs retrieved but my hundreds of playlists are gone. My 80Gig iPod still has all of the playlists, but of course, if I sync it with my computer, I'll lose them from the iPod. Is there any way to get my playlists back without having to go through the arduous task of creating them all over again in iTunes? Help (And thanks in advance to anyone who can offer me some enlightenment...)

Do you have a backup of your library files?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93063

Once again - upgrading iTunes - reports library file damaged, all missing

So, I've finally figured it out. When ever I upgrade iTunes, the new version doesn't like the old library file and marks it as damaged.
All content is lost - as far as itunes is concerned. But it's right there on the hard drive. In the itunes folder.
Making a new library file and point the preferences to the content still results in nothing showing up.
No, I have not sync'd since this happened. I have many files in the itunes folders on my HD where the content is not loaded on my itv4.
Is there a magic key combo to have it 'look' at the actual HD contents in the itunes folded and 'find' it ?
No, holding down SHIFT when launching itunes and then creating a new file is not the solution, nor selecting the old library file (says it's damaged).

For general library squiffiness following an upgrade the easiest thing is to restore your last backup, but I guess if it were that simple you wouldn't be here.
*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*. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch (Windows) or Music Folder Files Not Added (Mac) and Super Remove Dead Tracks (Mac) for tools to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working *make a backup!*
tt2

Itunes: Itunes.exe File damaged == HELP ME!

When i conect my iPod to itunes, it say me that a itunes file is damaged (\iPod_Control) and it say to do a "CHKDSK"

Your iTunes installation might be damaged. You need to re-install iTunes.
Go to START > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs and uninstall iTunes from the Add/Remove Programs list.
Then download the latest version from this website (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) and install it.
Hope that helps.

ITunes Library File "Damaged"???

Recently, I opened iTunes and it said that my iTunes Libary File was damaged, so it had to create a new blank one, meaning that, iTunes opened, and I had no songs. I had to go to my iTunes Music Folder and drag the whole folder into the Libary window in iTunes. I tried restarting and reopening the program, but each time I have to do the same thing. Is there some reason why the file would be damaged? If so, is there a way I can recreate it?

honestly, I'm very happy overall with my MacBook. I'm sure I vented in the forums here more than I should have
My problems today were the result of the last Security Update, I'm sure and it's seems I'm not alone. Also, I'm sure Apple will address it as soon as they can. After too many kernel panics (one of which when I had iTunes open and updating my iPod) resulted in the broken library. But, I've lost my library before in a similar fashion. I wish Apple would give us some utilities to do maintenance on our libraries and even replicate them across multiple machines without needing a .Mac account!
Oh well!

What is causing this? The file "iTunes Library.itl" does not appear to be a valid iTunes library file. iTunes has created a new iTunes library and renamed this file to "iTunes Library (Damaged) 4". This happens everytime I start iTunes lateley. Help!!!

Everytime I open iTunes lately...I get all my music thrown out of the library and this annoying message come up...The file “iTunes Library.itl” does not appear to be a valid iTunes library file. iTunes has created a new iTunes library and renamed this file to “iTunes Library (Damaged) 4”. Is this how an apple works? It doesn't? Why all of a sudden is it doing this? Please help. Thank you.
David

Did you happen to bring this iTunes library over from a windows machine? You might read this kb article to see if it helps http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451

I have a damaged library file, and a few questions?

My laptop shut down instantly because of a charger/battery problem and when I started itunes up again I got the message (importing itunes music library.xml) I thought it was going to double my library so I clicked stop and when itunes opened only half of my collection was there and all playlists/smart playlists are gone.
Can someone give me some advice as to how I can bring the songs back into my library with all of the tags I have edited, (Album, Comments, Sort Album, Genre etc..)
I had the option to copy files to itunes music folder checked, so does that mean that every edit I made in itunes would change the file names in the music folder?
I still have the Itunes database file - (iTunes Library (Damaged) (date modified 15/01/2012 12:02). But there is no exact file called (itunes music library.xml)
I do have a some sort of document with that name listed as an XML Document (date modified 15/01/2012 13:55) (about 2 hours after the problem occurred) but it just opens a webpage. I can also open it in a notepad etc.. and it brings up loads of encoding detail.
Is there any way to restart that XML import?
I am sure I still have most of, if not all of my music, but it's very important for me to get back the tag info.
It would also be great if I can get back the smart playlists and date added, but this is the least important.
I'm in the middle of a slow process of transferring the itunes folder to my old laptop to see how it looks before I make any changes here, but I'm not sure how many songs I had exactly, do you think there would be any reason songs got deleted because of this? There are no songs in my itunes collection stored in folders other than the itunes folder.
You are saving my life if you can help me here.
Thanks.

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 youshouldn'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!
tt2

I downloaded the new iphoto to my macbook pro. Now when I open it, there is a message telling me that "your photo library is damaged or unreadable and cannot be opened. Please restore from a backup." What do I do I had 16,000 pictures.....PLEASE HELP!!!!!

I downloaded the new iphoto to my macbook pro. Now when I open it, there is a message telling me that "your photo library is damaged or unreadable and cannot be opened. Please restore from a backup." What do I do I had 16,000 pictures.....PLEASE HELP!!!!!

Try download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In Library Manager it's the FIle -> Rebuild command)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

"The Itunes library file cannot be saved" Error Message (-54) please help!

Hello, I was loading a music cd onto my itunes library today when I started getting this recurring Error message stating: "The Itunes library file cannot be saved. An unknown error has occurred (-54)"
It just keeps popping up, and now it let me play anything without getting it. So in a panic I realized that nothing is backed up, so I started backing up my itunes using a blank dvd and even that failed in the middle of burning. I guess it has something to do with the error message?
This scares me since I'm very careful of the types of discs I put into my Mac, and I know that disc in particular didn't have any kind of virus (its been playing in my car for the last two years actually) and it was burned on my PC using itunes a while back when the system was clean.
My music is like my life and this message is freaking me out, how do I get rid of the message without damaging my library? or what happened to make it appear?
I'm afraid of how to proceed next.....Someone please help!

I suspect some anti-virus software is incorrectly interpreting the rewriting of the file and is causing a problem.
Either way, you should definitely update your anti-virus software and definitions to the latest, and run a full scan of your system. Then tell the security software not to scan the iTunes itl file/folder.
If that does not help, you may want to recreate your iTunes library:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313

Itunes library damaged - help!

My Itunes library became damaged today. All of the sudden I have only 158 songs in my library instead of over 4000 and all of my playlists are gone. There is a "damaged" Itunes library icon in my music folder now which was created at 10:45 this morning and modified at 1:16p.
Also my IPhoto has been acting strangely for the last couple of weeks. I've had to recreate my photo library a couple of times over that time and some of my photos have disappeared altogether. I downloaded the IPhoto Manager program last night and had some luck with it but I'm wondering if these issues are somehow related.
Thanks for you help.

Restore that backup you take regularly... Ah, OK.
*Empty/damaged 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 (Empty)* 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.
See Music Folder Files Not Added and Super Remove Dead Tracks for clean-up tools , if required.
tt2

Itunes damaged library file

My itunes has been working reasonably well but I have had many issues with it crashing over the last year or so. I just got a Sonos device and after having problems with indexing my songs the support guy looked through my itunes folder with me and we found a load of library files as follows:
itunes library (Damaged)   Created 15 Sep 2012, modified and last opened 16 Sep 2012
itunes Library Extras.itdb   Created 16 Sep 2012, modified and last opened today
itunes library genius.itdb   Created 16 Sep 2012, modifed and last opened 8 Dec 2012
itunes library.itl               Created 8 December 2012, modifed and last opened today
itunes library.xml             Created, modified and last used 15 October 2008
itunes music library.xml    Created 18 May 2009, modified and last used today
We moved all of these files up a level to the music folder, which didn't help with Sonos, and the support guy at Sonos then suggested I 'Reset' my itunes folder location in the Preferences.
THe issue with Sonos was that it was picking up some but not all of the songs and I couldn't see any sort of pattern to it. The number of songs I have is fine and there is very little if any DRM left in there.
It looks as though I need to do something to sort out these library files but I'd prefer to get some guidance from you guys on this forum.
Any thoughts?
Thanks
David

All these files should reside in ~/Music/iTunes. You don't need the damaged file, or the iTunes library.xml file. That is an old library file as yu can see from the date. One troubleshooting step that sometimes helps me is to delete the iTunes Music Libray.xml file and let iTunes rebuild it. Although I'm not really sure it will help in your situation.
The other question I would ask is about the format of the music that isn't bring found by the Sonos device. Are you sure it works with the files that aren't bring recognized?
I'm afraid I don't have a lot of input beyond that, though.

Error message 13026 the itunes library file cannot be saved? and damaged fi

this just started to happen today--i tried to open ituens and then it said that the library was a damaged file and i basically had to re-upload all of my songs, vids, etc over again. Now when I try to organize my library an error message: 13026 comes up that in essence says that the itunes library file cannot be saved an unknown error has occured. When i did upload the library again, half of the album art never appeared.
My questions are has anyone else experience this? How should I fix this? Should I uninstall and reinstall itunes completely?

Hi there - I am having similar problems, I keep on getting damaged library file error messages, which means I have to reimport my entire music collection files again after deleting the damaged library files. Obviously I lose my playlists every time. I've also had to uninstall and reinstall Itunes several times. I have checked permissions on my iTunes folder as well as the Itunes Library Genius file as above and have 3 types with full control: Fiona PC, Fiona PC administrator and System. I can't seem to change individual permission types away from everything being allowed. Is this part of the problem? would appreciate any help, thanks Fiona.

Please Help. My iTunes Library Is Damaged? For The Second Time

No one seems to help.
ive posted this lots.

If your 'iTunes Library' file is damaged and you don't have a recent copy of it, I'm afraid you will have to rebuild your library.
You will loose all playlists, ratings, date added an podcast subscriptions.
Trash the 'iTunes Library' file in ./Users/YourUsername/Music/iTunes.
Open iTunes. You will have an empty library. Drag and drop the 'iTunes Music' folder on the empty library.
The 'iTunes Music' folder is default at ./Users/YourUsername/Music/iTunes.
If you stored your music at another location, drag and drop that folder.
Hope this helps.
M

Damaged Library Files/ itunes unable to save library file

I would really appreciate it if somebody would take the time to read this and help if possible. We have 4 Ipods in my family and all of us are experiencing this problem with our libraries, so you can imagine the frustration.
I get this error message every times I open itunes:
1st: This appears: "Importing I-Tunes Library.xml....."
2nd :"The file ITuneslibrary.itl does not appear to be a valid ITunes library file. ITunes has attempted to recover your ITunes library and renamed this file to "ITunes Library (damaged).itl"
When Itunes opens there are no songs in my library.
I can rebuild my library and all my playlists but it continues to happen on subsequent openings of the program and it will attach a number after the (damaged).....and will just add on numerically each time I get the error.
Once I rebuild the library and playlists, a process that takes hours, I get this
error while in itunes:
"The itunes library file cannot be saved. An unknown error occurred (-1450)"
Thus, I am continually starting completely over with my library, playlists, etc every time I connect my ipod or go into itunes. I have tired removing itunes and reinstalling the program but the same errors occur. This has been happening for several months. I have seen numerous posts on this topic but nobody every answers. We have 4 Ipods in my family and all of us are experiencing this, so you can imagine the frustrtation. Can anybody help?
Thanks

Look man, I've had a personal experience with this error myself, and I know how frustrating this is. I have found a very probable solution, so this is my post from another thread that should hopefully solve your problem. Believe me, I know first hand what this error does. Here it is....
"I may have found a solution for some of you and possibly me for this problem. I found this article while searching google and it seemed to make perfect sense. It's an issue with memory or virtual memory. Cuz this "error" seemed to appear after I had nearly 2000 songs in my library. I don't think it had enough memory to save the library because it was way to big.
Here's the article: http://sonnoprofondo.net/tech/2006/41 I'm pretty that's the only problem causing this error. Good luck!"
*Let me know if this was your solution*. I just know first hand what this is entails and how I've spent many nights trying to get rid of it. Now, I'm trying to help anyone I can because I don't want other people to go through what I had to. Best of luck!!!
*Here's a thread that may also be of help from this forum.*
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5914750#5914750
Btw, this isn't guranteed to work, but it has fortunately worked for me. It seems to be an error specifically with windows for some reason. itunes has worked flawlessly for me now for about 3 weeks and I am very happy. If it doesn't work let me know and i'll see if I have any more suggestions. Again, good luck!!

Library file damaged - help?

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