Library.xml incorrectly labeling song paths.

I am trying to carry my Library.xml file over to my new Windows 7 PC from XP. I have to slightly edit the paths for them to work, but I came across what seems to be a very large problem. The paths for my music files are incorrectly labeled.
Example: file://localhost/C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/USER/My%20Documents/My%20Music/iT unes/iTunes%20Music/
It is using forward slashes "/" however, that is not how Windows labels them. Both Windows XP and Windows 7 uses the "\" not the forward slash "/". So why is iTunes exporting the library with forward slashes, when that is not the correct way? I need this fixed so I can correctly transfer my music and its rating/preferences etc over.
Thanks.

Editing the XML is not the way to preserve all the data in your iTunes library. The XML file is provided for 3rd party programs to access and while it is possible to rebuild most of the information by importing the XML data into a clean library it is an overly complicated way of managing a simple transfer. More importantly any devices you have will see this as a new library rather than your existing library and which will mean resyncing all the content needlessly.
Your example would suggest that your iTunes Library and your iTunes Media folders are in the typical layout, i.e. an iTunes folder containing the library files, Album Artwork folder and the *iTunes Media* (or iTunes Music) folder which holds all your media. In this layout the library is portable and can be moved or copied to any new drive or path. The relative paths from the library database to the media files remain unchanged and when you open the library in its new location iTunes works out the adjustments on the fly.
At the simplest level you simply copy the iTunes folder from the Music folder on the old computer to the Music folder on the new one, install iTunes and it just works...
If, however, your media *is not* already inside the iTunes Media/iTunes Music folder then you should consolidate your library before the transfer OR arrange for any unconsolidated media to be at precicely the same path on the new machine.
If your iTunes Media or iTunes Music folder *is not* inside the main iTunes folder that holds your library, e.g. you'd previously changed the location of the Media folder to an external drive, then the library files need to be copied to the parent of the media folder first. Once copied you can hold shift when starting iTunes to open the library files in the new location. Test that iTunes works in this new location before transferring. This parent folder (or the library files and media folder if necessary) can then be copied from one machine to the other. If the parent folder isn't called iTunes you can rename it on the target machine, otherwise iTunes will pick up the folder name as the window title - great for "Steve's Test Library", not so good when it reads "C:\". Obviously moves, copies & renames take place with iTunes closed.
Since your media folder is called *iTunes Music* you will originally have installed iTunes 8 or earlier. With iTunes closed you can rename this folder as *iTunes Media* to match the default layout in more recent builds. Again iTunes will just accept the change without any issues.
P.S. As to the representation of paths using / in the XML, this is perfectly acceptable provided any program that uses the paths can substitute with \ if required to suit the local file system. On a Mac, for example, the forward slash is the correct directory separator. If you still decide to edit the XML and import that then don't "correct" these and everything will be fine.
tt2

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My iTunes Music Library.xml includes 2 location paths for files

A while ago, I copied and consolidated my itunes-songs from internal drive c: to internal drive f:
I changed the location of my "itunes library" accordingly to look at f:... - all went well and all songs were playing from the new location (I thought).
However, after a while I decided to delete the OLD physical location of the mp3-files on c: and now about 2.000 songs in my iTunes are missing and have the well know "!" mark in front of them.
Now, in the itunes music library, there are 2 different locations for my songs listed - although there is only 1 location given in the settings.
Most songs are - where they should be - at localhost/f:/....
But the missing songs still are listed at localhost/c:....
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One point where this seems to occur consistently is if you reboot or turn off Windows while iTunes is running, and have a largeish music collection.
Explanation: Programmatically, iTunes main window apparently responds OK (=TRUE) to the Windows WM_QUERYENDSESSION message and at the same time starts to write the *.ITL and *.XML files to the hard disk. Meanwhile, Windows continues to end the session because - after all - it was OK'ed by iTunes. Now, if the iTunes music library is "large enough", Windows will finish ending the session before iTunes has finished writing said files, and the next time you run iTunes they'll turn up corrupt. This is a huge caveat during iTunes reinstallation, because most of the time a reboot is needed whilst iTunes will necessarily be running at the same time (consequently, if you have a largeish music library, always back up the *.XML and *.ITL files before reinstalling or updating iTunes!!!!)
This is nearly an elementary bug, and a sad indication of the level of testing done by the Apple to products before they're released.
Workarounds: I myself just frequently backup the *.ITL and *:XML files to a different directory, and restore if file corruption occurs. Another workaround is to have another program (say, Notepad.exe) with an edited but unsaved file currently open. When Windows session ends, you will have one extra chance to delay the session end, so that either you remember to close iTunes first, or if iTunes was closed first, it'll have enough time to complete writing the library metadata back to disk.
Asian and European phone giants have nothing to afraid about iPhone, if iTunes and iPod classic are any indication of its quality.

I no longer have iTunes library.xml on my PC but I have all of my songs. How do I download them to my iPhone - it won't allow me to drag and drop though my PC recognizes the device.

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My husband and I are using the same iTunes account on all mac & pc computers, but the libraries are different on each machine. We always manually manage our music (no auto sync). iTunes is up to date on the PCs. My husband uses our joint iTunes account on his pc, but once again, has a different collection in his library from those on the other machines. He can't load any music from his PC to his iphone 4. I can load music from my mac library to my iphone 4s, but cannot load from my pc library to my iphone 4s. How can I switch my main library that it syncs with from the mac to the pc?
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Recovering iTunes Song List (iTunes Library.xml not updated)

How do I recover the iTunes library song list? My computer recently crashed, so I had to get this new one. The old hard drive is working fine. I just need the song list to be able to identify the songs that I have yet to copy unto my iPod (I arrange the library by 'Date Added'). Since my music files are located in a variety of places, it would be very difficult for me to locate each without being guided by the list.
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ITunes Music Library.xml not updating when adding new songs

I have about 150.000 music tracks on my iMac and iTunes didnt have any difficulty with it. When using the songs in DJ program Native Instruments Traktor Pro, this program checked the latest update of the iTunes Music Library.xml file and everything went ok. Whenever I changed a smart playlist or added songs, my Traktor looked at the updated .xml file and Traktor updated it's own files.
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Can I manually edit the iTunes Music Library.xml file

Here's why.
Noticed on my Apple TV that there were a number of podcasts that when selected would say "Apple TV cannot play the current song".
Looked in iTunes and these podcasts are no where to be found. Did some searches in Spotlight and also, turned up zeros. Not found.
I then looked directly into my iTunes Music Library.xml file and sure enough there are the records.
What is odd is that the location of all the bad songs have a similar invalid path.
Bad path.
<key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/Volumes/iTunes/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Podcasts/KQED/podcast.mp3</string>
Correct Path
<key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/Volumes/iTunes/Music/Podcasts/KQED'/podcast.mp3</string>
Now, all of these have dates that lead me to believe this was due to an iTunes upgrade back in September of 2005. It doesn't look like they are causing problems with iTunes itself. However, it is quite annoying for my Apple TV.
Question. Is there a different way to fix this than just manually removing the entries from the xml file?
I haven't tried to edit the iTunes Music Library.xml file just yet as I want to make I don't totally screw things up first.

I did some additional testing here and I deleted the track information from the iTunes Music Library.xml
On start up of iTunes, it does not add the deleted file back in. On the Apple TV, it still shows the bad file.
What I think that means is that even the Apple TV gets its playlist information from another source.
I have also started on another track which is to remove all of my podcasts from iTunes. Which I have now done.
The only ones left are these bad tracks that only show up in the iTunes Music Library.xml file and more importantly on my Apple TV.
I'd put this on the podcast or the Apple TV thread, but still believe this is an iTunes issue.

Hosting iTunes Library on WHS - What to specify in library.xml?

I have my iTunes library on a Windows Home Server. I used to use iTunes on Windows but is now moving to Mac. I exported my library into library.xml and figured I could edit the xml file to reflect the path as the Mac sees it, but I can't seem to figure out the right syntax.
In the original Windows based xml file the path looked like this
<key>Location</key><string>file://localhost//server/Music/Al%20Green/More%20Greatest%20Hits/01%20Let's%20Stay%20Together%20%5BLong%20Version.mp3</string>
I thought the syntax would be something like this
<key>Location</key><string>smb://server/Music/Al%20Green/More%20Greatest%20Hits/ 01%20Let's%20Stay%20Together%20%5BLong%20Version.mp3</string>
The import of the library works but it does give an error that some of the files could not be found. When I double click on any of the songs nothing happens.
Any ideas?
Message was edited by: BrianBS

Nobody? Really?

Moving iTunes Library to external HD--song could not be used

I wanted to move my iTunes library to an external HD, because my internal drive was running out of space. I looked around on here and found directions how to move my iTunes Library to an external hard drive. I followed those directions, and everything seemed copacetic the first time I started iTunes after the move and pointed it at the moved library. Songs played and everything was great.
But tall subsequent times I've started iTunes, I get the dreaded "song could not be used because the original file could not be found" message for every song I've tried.
I looked around on the discussion boards here some more, and seem to be seeing that there is no general solution. There's no good way to tell iTunes, "Go match up all the lines in the iTunes database with all the song titles in such-and-such a location."
I also read the article about "What are the iTunes Library files." I see that there are 2 basic files. One is a database file called "iTunes Library," and the second is a text file called "iTunes Library.xml." I opened up the XML file and looked around a bit. Here is what I find:
Every song in the XML file seems to be referred to with a relative path, such as: <string>file://localhost/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Krys%20Mach,%20Jo%20Az usa,%20Jerome%20Mokar/Native%20Spirit/01%20Cave%20Dweller.m4a</string>
The thing is, that's not the right path, unless localhost happens to be pointed at my external HD, which I don't know why it would be.
I suspect that this is the exact same problem inside the database file, too.
I'm looking around for a definition of localhost... the only thing I'm finding is in /etc/hosts, which looks like:
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
I think it's odd that localhost is in there twice, but maybe that's normal.
Anyway, enough rambling, the basic question is, how can I tell iTunes that my files are on my external HD instead of wherever it thinks they are on "localhost," which I'm sure somehow resolves back to being my internal HD. Can I do some tricky grep-ing through the database file and strategically replace all occurrences? Or is that just asking for trouble?
Thanks!
Rodney

I don't know if this is at all useful to other people having similar problems, but I did get all my songs back more or less, and this is how:
1) With iTunes shut down, I went into my iTunes directory (ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTune), and moved my "iTunes Library" and "iTunes Library.xml" files to someplace else.
2) I started iTunes while holding down the Option key.
3) When iTunes popped the "Quit / Create New Library / Choose Library" dialog, I selected "Create New". I chose the path back to where my original iTunes Library used to live and where my music is; ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes.
4) iTunes started up with a completely blank library. I went and looked in the above directory, and yes, there was now a very small "iTunes Library" file there.
5) Under the File menu in iTunes, I chose "Add to Library". I then navigated to the location of all my music, which was ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music.
6) When I selected this folder, iTunes started going through a bunch of gyrations of scanning, organizing, adding... I don't know what all it thought it was doing, but it finished 24 GB of music in about 3 minutes.
And now my music is all playable again! Of course, all my playlists are toast... completely gone, since they were in the old library.
The thing I notice is that iTunes moved all the artist folders... For instance, my album by the group Baka used to be in "ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Baka" with previous versions of iTunes, but now iTunes 8 seems to want to flatten that out and it moved that directory to reside at "ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/Baka". So, while it works, it looks messy. I liked it better when all the artist folders were down a level in the directory /iTunes Music/. Then the only things in the iTunes folder were the database files, a few other files iTunes has created over the years, and the iTunes Music folder.
But whatever... at least I don't have to add thousands of songs back into iTunes manually.
Just as a side note, I took a clue from the directory flattening out, and I tried one other thing: I put all the artist folders back down in the /iTunes Music/ folder, and I moved my original "iTunes Library" files down into that folder too. Then on startup, I tried pointing iTunes at the original library which was now down one level. But that didn't help... the individual song paths in that database are apparently still pointing onto my internal HD.
Rodney

Appear to be losing songs in my library says cannot find song to play?

when I request my itunes library to play a song - it comes up with "cannot find do you want to locate" I did locate and the ones that will not play are there but are grayed out? This appears to have happened after the last update. Help. Thanks

You moved or renamed something.
Either your iTunes Media is in a different location, or a folder in the path to it has been renamed.
iTunes uses an XML file to locate your songs. It works like the hyperlinks in a webpage. If the path to a song doesn't match EXACTLY what is in the XML, it pops the error message up. All it takes is a simple move or name change for that to happen.

The itunes library.xml file doesn't make sense.

I edited all 2,000+ songs' file path locations in the library.xml file and even after that itunes only saw half of the files, if it saw half of them why didn't it just put all of them???

I would seem that you are.
The XML file is provided for 3rd party support. It allows other applications to interrogate your library. iTunes doesn't normally have any cause to read it back or make use of it.
Create a smart playlist with the rule Checked is True. Drag the contents of this into a new playlist called iPhone Tunes (or similar), Select the Songs list and CMD-click on any empty playlist. Delete the initial playlist. Sync your device with iPhone Tunes. Drag new stuff into it when you want, delete stuff when it gets too big.
That's the simple way of reworking your current selections into a more flexible set up. There are other things you could do like create smaller size-limited playlists along the lines of "Recently Played", "Recently Added", "Not Played In Ages", "Top Rated", along with say a regular list called "Essentials" which, once set up, would allow you to have some rotating content on the device without having to do any extra work.
tt2

Importing Library .XML File Error

Ok, So I had to do a System recovery on my Gf's computer ( windows vista 32 bit). I transfered all computer data and iTunes libray to an external hard drive.
Now when trying to import the iTunes playlist from the .XML file I get a message that reads " Some of the songs in the file ""iTunes Library .XML"" were not imported becuse they could not be found. The playlists will still show up in iTunes but they are all empty showing no songs in.
How can I find a list of what the songs are in each playlist in th .XML file so that I can rebuild the playlist?
When looking at the .XML file in IE I do see what appears to be all songs listed along with track id #'s but they are within a bunch of other coding.
Is there any other way to view all the songs that are attach to each playlist so that I can rebuild the paylists?
What I believe happen was the music files got moved around when the tranfer happened, so now it thinks they are gone but really the song files are just in another spot.
Any help would be great!
Thanks!

When you did a File-o>Library->Export Library operation on your old iTunes a 'Library.xml' file was created.
Part of that files looks like:
        <dict>
            <key>Track ID</key><integer>1512</integer>
            <key>Name</key><string>More Than a Feeling</string>
            <key>Artist</key><string>Boston</string>
            ......bunch of xml elements deleted for clarity.....
            <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/C:/Users/Jimmy%20O/Music/iTunes/iTu nes%20Media/Boston/Boston/01%20More%20Than%20a%20Feeling.m4p</string>
        </dict>
The location of your song is in the <key>Location</key> portion of the file. In this case it is:
<string>file://localhost/C:/Users/Jimmy%20O/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Boston/B oston/01%20More%20Than%20a%20Feeling.m4p</string>
If your song file is located somewhere else just correct the path to the file in the Library.xml file and re-import it with File->Library->Imort Playlist...
The '%20' in the path is just an encoding for a ' ' (space character).
Hopefully the path has just changed for all your songs and you can do a global replace.

Why do i have to itunes library xml files?

Along with iTunes Library, there are two xml files i have; itunes music library.xml and itunes library.xml, do i need them both? I only ask as the file path information in itunes music library.xml are not up to data(i moved my library to an external HD) and would like to know if it would be safe to delete it.
The links in itunes library.xml have seem to been updated.
Thanks
"If it's not broken, don't fix it...
........I never learn!"

Google is your friend! (To quote:)
iTunes Music Library.xml
This file contains some (but not all) of the same information stored in the iTunes Library file. The purpose of the iTunes Music Library.xml file is to make your music and playlists available to other applications on your computer. In Mac OS X other iLife applications (like iPhoto, iDVD, and iMovie) use this file to make it easier for you to add music from your iTunes library to your projects.
Actual article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660

HT1473 I click "add file to library" and then the song i want, but it doesn't come up

Im really POed at the new iTunes on so many levels. first, the iCloud makes all songs i bought when i was 11 and deleted when i was 13 again. me and my little sister share the same account, but we have different computers so we don't have each other's song. now, thanks to iCloud, we do. i do not want carrie underwood or justin bieber, abd she doesn't want david bowie and led zeppelin. right now, the icloud isn't working, which is fine right now, but it's not right.
ok, about "adding music and other content to iTunes." you used to be able to drag a file from your documents to your library and it would be copied onto it. i am under the impression that that isn't the case anymore. I've tried a billion times and it hasn't worked. even when im on the led zeppelin section of my library and i drag "over the hills and far away" it won't budge; there's still only 6 albums and 10 songs. so i clicked "add file to library" and then the song i want, but it doesn't come up. and i did this a zillion times with a bunch of different songs, and nothing.
another problem is that the files are screwy. "houses of the holy" is on the album physical graffiti, not houses of the holy. if i edit the song's info to physical graffiti, all the other songs that are supposed to be on houses of the holy go into physical grafitti. when i go to song info, they still say houses of the holy. i just tried changing it again, and now all my led zeppeling albums are labeled houses of the holy. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS!?!?!?!?!
#NewiTunesSucks

Go to edit-preferences-advanced-
uncheck 'keep itunes media folder organised'
Then make changes and see if itunes keeps the new info...
But warning! if you allow iTunes to organise your files in the future these change will be undone I believe.

ITunes library xml from windows to mac using external drive.

Hi there!
I'm a newbie on mac computers.. I've recently purchase a macbook pro retina.
So, I used to use iTunes in windows XP. My old computer crashed and I can't re-open it and save files...
Now, the only file I have from my windows library is an "library.xml" file.
The mp3 files that I had in previous iTunes playlists are in my external I: Drive. (not in Itunes folder).
I was searching in apple communities to see how I can transfer playlists in my new iTunes on mac.
But I can't find a solution to my problem... and unfortunately I don't know if there is...
I've try to set the iTunes media folder location my external hard drive, from Preferences-->Advanced-->iTunes media folder location.
Then I go to file-->library--> import playlist and I open the "library.xml".
The result is that I have all my playlists in tact, like it was in my previous iTunes.... But THERE IS NOT ANY FILE ON THEM!!!
So, I have only the playlists... Could you help me to set my I: drive as default path of itunes library, to get my playlists WITH the mp3s?
PLEASE HELP!
Thank you in advance.

Should I change the Preferences-->Advanced-->iTunes media folder location back to default folder?
That should be set to wherever you want iTunes to store media in the future (though it sounds like you are planning on keeping this unchecked anyway). It has no effect on where iTunes looks for existing files. That is already determined when you first add the file to iTunes or through later consolidating.
In theory you should be able to start iTunes with a blank library, use the import function to add that .xml file and it should still point to the files on the external. If that is not working then I guess it is possible all those %20 space designations may be causing problems. It's strange you are seeing those coded that way but it is likely some carry-over from Windows. The purpose of adding a test file to the external, then adding it to iTunes, then looking at the .xml is to see how Mac iTunes lists the path for a file on the external added when using the Mac so you can use that as a model for changing other paths if necessary.
Holding down the option key while starting iTunes (make sure you are using the correct key) or immediately after starting it should invoke a screen asking if you want to make a new library. If this is not working for you then I have no idea why because it works for hundreds of other people I have told to do this.

Trying to open iTunes I got a error message of msvcr80.dll can not be found. I thought that it was an iTunes program problem. I tried reloading iTunes and then got an error message of a program is trying to acces a library file incorrectly. How can I reso

When trying to open ITunes, I got an error message of msvcr80.dll can not be found.
Assuming that it was an iTunes file, I reinstalled iTunes.
Trying to open again, I got an error message of an appication is trying to open a library file incorrectly.
How do I resolve this problem.
Neither my PC with Vista nor my my laptop with windows 7 will work?
Thanks

Hello Msvcr80.dll,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information on this, take a look at:
iTunes 11.1.4 for Windows: Unable to install or open
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5376
Check for .dll files
Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes and C:\Program Files\iTunes and look for .dll files.
If you find QTMovie.DLL, or any other .dll files, move them to the desktop.
Reboot your computer.
Note: Depending on your operating system, you may only have one of the listed paths.
Uninstall and reinstall iTunes
Uninstall iTunes and all of its related components.
Reboot your computer. If you can't uninstall a piece of Apple software, try using the Microsoft Program Install and Uninstall Utility.
Re-download and reinstall iTunes 11.1.4.
Best of luck,
Mario

Library.xml incorrectly labeling song paths.

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