Mass corruption of iTunes library

On hundreds and hundreds of songs in my iTunes library, I now see the following message when I try to play them: "The song “xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx” could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
I've seen this message before, but on a manageable scale, and I was able to recover all of them on a one-by-one basis. I couldn't use the same method this time because there are just too many of them. Is it possible that there might be one-click fix for this situation?
Yes, these songs files could be opened until this happened and, yes, this must have happened suddenly and recently. I would have noticed it if it had happened before.

The path you outlined says you click on your music folder in the sidebar, then cluck on the itunes folder, then click on the iTunes Media folder etc.
iTunes itself does not know where your media files are located. Whenever you add a track it puts the file in the correct media folder then makes a note of it in its database. iTunes not finding the track means either the database is corrupt (something that has not happened to me in 10+ years of using iTunes) or the files are not in the directory iTunes thinks they are. Usually finding one file will get iTunes to try to re-locate others based on the same pattern.

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ITunes video purchases corrupting my ITunes Library

Got a season pass for this season of "Mad Men" - but thus far two of the downloads have corrupted my LIbrary and seem to be lost for good (along with the other episodes that were in the Library).
In both instances, when ITunes crashed, this alert message came up on the screen: +"The file "iTunes Library" 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)"."+ - but when I look for these supposed files on my computer they are nowhere to be found.
Now - I am pretty new to the ITunes store - I've imported some music from other sources over the years and never had this kind of problem so am wondering: do people just EXPECT Itunes to crash and so back things up a LOT? My computer is pretty old and does not have that much storage space - do I have to back up each one of these TV episodes from ITunes just to be sure I'm not going to have to re-purchase them from the ITunes store?
Do people have any other suggestions about keeping these videos from corrupting my Library files?

Fortunately for me, the folks at ITunes restored the lost episodes to me - but I would still like to know if anyone has any words of wisdom about what I can do to prevent this from happening in the future.

Corrupted my iTunes Library fiddling with Vista User IDs

Had been using iTunes on my new laptop for a month, having succesfully copied my library (22gb) from my old computer. Then I realised that my C:\ drive was filling up rapidly and I had not been using my E:\ drive. I followed instructions I found online to move my data onto the E:\ drive. That all seemed OK until I noticed that the data had been simply copied and was still filling up my C:\ drive (iTunes, being so large, was the main culprit).
The iTunes Music folder location, in Advances Preferences was pointing correctly (for each separate Vista user account) to E:\username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music. So I reasoned I could delete any iTunes folders I found on C:\. This is what I did.
The biggest mistake I made was not testing everything worked OK straight afterwards. This was two weeks ago and I have only just gone to play music that I can see is still there in iTunes. The music will not play – it cannot find the location. (There are a handful of files that do work, that were downloaded after I did all this.)
I did a search for *.m4 and the search results shows them sitting in C:\Useraccounts\Public\Public Music\iTunes Music\artistname. However, if you look in the folder it says it is empty. I cannot get either the library or the individual files to point back to this folder.
I cannot see any iTunes library files in the Recycle Bin for any user account.
At worst case I guess I can rebuild everything from my iPod which has not been synced since I messed around with the user accounts, or from a complete backup I took a week before this happened. However, if I have to follow this route I guess I will lose the items I have downloaded since. (By the way, I do not have the iPod set for disk use.)
Can anyone please help me:
a) rebuild the corrupted library?
b) ensure afterwards that all iTunes data is off the C:\ drive?

Had been using iTunes on my new laptop for a month, having succesfully copied my library (22gb) from my old computer. Then I realised that my C:\ drive was filling up rapidly and I had not been using my E:\ drive. I followed instructions I found online to move my data onto the E:\ drive. That all seemed OK until I noticed that the data had been simply copied and was still filling up my C:\ drive (iTunes, being so large, was the main culprit).
The iTunes Music folder location, in Advances Preferences was pointing correctly (for each separate Vista user account) to E:\username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music. So I reasoned I could delete any iTunes folders I found on C:\. This is what I did.
The biggest mistake I made was not testing everything worked OK straight afterwards. This was two weeks ago and I have only just gone to play music that I can see is still there in iTunes. The music will not play – it cannot find the location. (There are a handful of files that do work, that were downloaded after I did all this.)
I did a search for *.m4 and the search results shows them sitting in C:\Useraccounts\Public\Public Music\iTunes Music\artistname. However, if you look in the folder it says it is empty. I cannot get either the library or the individual files to point back to this folder.
I cannot see any iTunes library files in the Recycle Bin for any user account.
At worst case I guess I can rebuild everything from my iPod which has not been synced since I messed around with the user accounts, or from a complete backup I took a week before this happened. However, if I have to follow this route I guess I will lose the items I have downloaded since. (By the way, I do not have the iPod set for disk use.)
Can anyone please help me:
a) rebuild the corrupted library?
b) ensure afterwards that all iTunes data is off the C:\ drive?

Ipod nano corrupted and itunes library is frozen

I was getting songs on my ipod from another computer and as soon as I connected my ipod nano 3rd gen the computer said that itunes wasnt working anymore. when i connected it to my computer it said my ipod was corrupted so i tried restoring it but my itunes librabry keeps on freezing. I need help?? when i disconnect my ipod it says connected eject before disconnecting.
Message was edited by: ipod nano currupted

hey i found out that my ipod was frozen!!!
I looked online to see how to fix a frozen ipod and it worked!!!

Help! (please :) I have a 1GB iPod that's loaded with music for which my computer can no longer find the original files-due to external mass storage crash during recent move. Is there a way to import iPod music back into my iTunes library on computer???

Help! (please I have a 1GB iPod that's loaded with music for which my computer can no longer find the original files-due to external mass storage crash during recent move. Is there a way to import iPod music back into my iTunes library on computer???

Or If there is any purchased music then you can try to transfer purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1848
If you're in the US you can reload purchased music
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519

How do I stop itunes from corrupting it's library on almost a daily basis?

How do I stop itunes from corrupting it's library on almost a daily basis? It's actually becoming infurating to use, and what's happening is I am losing my downloads since the last automated itunes backup (having to rename & replace the current corrupted library with the last backup which is usually a day or two old). What can cause this? Is there ANY alternative to using itunes for Apps (which is the sole use I have for it)? If not, APPLE PLEASE REMOVE THE NEED FOR THE DATABASE SO IT DOESN'T HAVE THE ABILITY TO CORRUPT ITSELF... :'(

Things you see in iTunes are stored in various sub folders in your main iTunes folder as in:
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/message/13025536 and https://discussions.apple.com/message/17457605
Start iTunes and immediately hold down the option key. Create a new library somewhere. Go to your old iTunes folder and drag items to the window for the new library. Maybe only grab a folder or part of one at a time. It will copy these items to the new library (so you need lots of extra room on your computer).

How can I delete a corrupted itunes library

My iTunes was freezing at the beginning after I have tried to load some mp3 files.
I got an advice to click "option" with the iTunes icon and I could build a new library.
Now, How can I delete the old corrupted one which is almost 100Gb??

Hold the option key while clicking iTunes.
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451

ITunes library mysteriously dissapeared (not the actual files where they are stored) and once I transfered songs back to iTunes, some purchased songs had been corrupted (missing tags

Last week, I purchased around 9-10 songs. The previous day, I had played songs from my iTunes library... everything working normal. The day after purchasing those 9-10 songs... I noticed that my entire songs in my library (and playlist) where gone, essentially being re-set like new. I updated my iTunes version, re-started my PC and still... nothing was showing up except those 9-10 songs. I did the next logical thing which was to check the actual music folder that stores the songs. They where all there. It did not make any sense as I had not done or noticed anything unsual while using iTunes before. Now, I want to mention that I use a DJ software (mixvibe) with the ION Discovery DJ that pulls tracks from iTunes. For the past couple of months they both have worked great. Fast forwarding to my issue, I went ahead and copied all the music back to iTunes. I spent a good hour making sure that everything worked and re-created my playlists. One thing that struck me as odd was that while checking everything... some songs that I had purchased recently and even a couple of months ago that I've used on my mixvibe software... had the track info deleted. The only information was the track name, ex. (01 - Bird One). For some reason, they were dumped into a "Unknown Artists" file. There was a good 20-25 songs that had this issue. The one thing that I noticed was that when I would highlight the song within the Uknown Artist folder... All of the information including cover art was showing up at the bottom of the folder (if you are familiar with Windows 7 you know what I'm talking about). How can it be that all of the actual information was still there yet not showing up in iTunes? I had to manually go one by one of those 20-25 songs and add all of the track info (as much as I could). I was also able to recover some of the cover art but not all. It seems like the files got corrupted. Can I re-download these tracks again or how can I get them to how they were originally? HELP!

I find the best way to do this is to right click on the song in iTunes and convert then select convert ID3 tags to V1.1 this usually completes the tag and adds all the missing info, provided it is in iTunes corectly.
Were these songs you Dled or ripped form a cd directly?

HT201272 Having a bad day my iTunes library got corrupted and my back up disk has failed how can I restore my purchases from the iTunes store

Having a bad day my iTunes library got corrupted and my back up disk has failed how can I restore my purchases from the iTunes store? When I try it tells me the pruchases have already been downloaded to this computer.

Does your purchased rmusic appears under the Purchased link under Quicklinks on the right-hand side of the iTunes store home page (music can't be re-downloaded in all countries) ? If they do and you don't have the cloud symbol against them so as to re-download them, then do you still have the entries for them in your library i.e. where you would normally click on them to play them ? If you do then try deleting them from there (iTunes will be seeing them and assuming that you still have them somewhere) and they should then get the cloud symbol for re-downloading in the Purchased link.
If you aren't in a country where music can be re-downloaded then you could try contacting iTunes support and see if they will grant you a re-download : http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact/ - click on Contact iTunes Store Support on the right-hand side of the page,

ITunes library file corrupt after updating?

Just the other day I updated to the latest iTunes software. This is the first time I've tried to use it and it keeps freezing (the swirly rainbow icon) until I eventually have to give up and force quit. My iTunes library is on an external hard drive which has admittedly been taking longer and longer to boot up each time I connect it, I don't know if this is related.
After doing some research on here I created a new test iTunes library on my hard drive and it worked perfectly, so it must be a corrupt library file? I followed the advice on an old thread and replaced the corrupt library file with an older one from December.
It worked....but here's the complication. Since that last backup in December I started using iTunes Match. When I opened the older library file, I saw that iTunes Match wasn't turned on, so I turned it on and it was saying that none of my library had been uploaded to iCloud except for iTunes purchases. I quickly exited, because frankly I couldn't bear the thought of all my library having to be uploaded to iCloud again (it took days and days...and days!). The music is still on the iCloud, but if I open that older version of my iTunes library it doesn't seem to think that it is.
Any idea what I should do?
Thanks for your help

hmmmm. perhaps try running a chkdsk over the drive on which your iTunes library file is stored:
How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
does that find/repair any damage? if so, do you still get the same message from your itunes?

ITunes to iPod Sync corrupts iPod Music Library - Data Usage Chart Incorrect

Issue 1: Syncing Music Library
Issue 2: Data Usage Sync Displaying Incorrect Data
Conflicting Device: iPod Touch (5th Gen- Model MD717LL/A- 32GB)
Conflicting Device OS: iOS 7.0.4 (11B554a)
Capacity of Device: 28.01 GB
Current (As of February 18, 2014 at 11:30 PM EST) Total Space Used on Device: 19.05 GB
Current (As of February 18, 2014 at 11:30 PM EST) Total Space Available on Device: 8.95 GB
Conflicting Device 2: iTunes for Windows Vista (iTunes 11.1.4.62)
Back Up Config: iCloud
Option(s) selected on iTunes (in iPod Menu):
-Sync with this iPod over Wi-Fi
-Sync Music
     -Entire Music Library
     -Include Music Videos
     -Include Voice Memos
-Sync Movies
-Sync TV Shows
Number of Songs in iTunes Library: 1245
Number of Songs in iPod Library: 1395
Note on Previous Data: This is due to errors with purchased songs from iTunes. I have a downloaded version of the purchased songs with added lyrics as well as a iTunes download for a fresh version of the song (has the cloud icon next to them).
Mutual Step(s) Leading to Issue(s):
- 1 - Open iTunes
Individual Step(s) Leading to Issue 1:
- 2 - Alter, Add, Change, Remove, or Edit any Music in my iTunes library
- 3 - Connect to iPod either via lightning to USB cable or Wi-Fi
- 4 - Click on the "iPod" button on the Navigation Bar
- 5 - Click "Sync" at the bottom of the screen
Individual Step(s) Leading to Issue 2:
Issue: Syncing Music Library
Issue 2: Data Usage Sync Displaying Incorrect Data
Conflicting Device: iPod Touch (5th Gen- Model MD717LL/A- 32GB)
Conflicting Device OS: iOS 7.0.4 (11B554a)
Conflicting Device 2: iTunes for Windows Vista (iTunes 11.1.4.62)
Back Up Config: iCloud
Option(s) selected on iTunes (in iPod Menu):
-Sync with this iPod over Wi-Fi
-Sync Music
     -Entire Music Library
     -Include Music Videos
     -Include Voice Memos
-Sync Movies
-Sync TV Shows
Number of Songs in iTunes Library: 1245
Number of Songs in iPod Library: 1395
Note on Previous Data: This is due to errors with purchased songs from iTunes. I have a downloaded version of the purchased songs with added lyrics as well as a iTunes download for a fresh version of the song (has the cloud icon next to them).
Mutual Step(s) Leading to Issue(s):
- 1 - Open iTunes
Individual Step(s) Leading to Issue 1:
- 2 - Alter, Add, Change, Remove, or Edit any Music in my iTunes library
- 3 - Connect to iPod either via lightning to USB cable or iCloud
- 4 - Click on the "iPod" button on the Navigation Bar
- 5 - Click "Sync" at the bottom of the screen
Individual Step(s) Leading to Issue 2:
- 2 - Connect to iPod either via lightning to USB cable or iCloud
- 3 - Click on the "iPod" button on the Navigation Bar
- 4 - Hover over data usage bar
Description of Issue 1:
-When following steps, sync completes by corrupting all music files on the iPod Touch and not syncing altered/changed/added/removed/edited music with iPod.
-All music is either not shown or greyed out/inaccessible.
-When tapping a seemingly accessible song after sync, song immediately skips to next seemingly playable song. This process repeats until all songs are skipped. After the song is skipped, the song is grayed out/inaccessible. A download circle eventually shows showing the process of downloading the music file again. The file is never downloaded and remains stuck at 0% downloaded.
-Music purchased from iTunes is shown as downloadable and will download properly from iTunes if clicked on
-No known cause
Description of Issue 2:
-When looking at the data usage bar for my iPod Touch the status shows approx. 512 Mbs of data over capacity of the iPod and all data shown is categorizes as "Other"
-No known cause
-Causes Sync to Fail
-No Other Symptoms Seen
Affected Functions with Issue 1:
-Music Playback on iPod Touch
-Playlist Creation on iPod Touch
-Successful Sync Process
Affected Functions with Issue 2:
-Proper and Valid Sync with iPod
Failed Attempted Fixes for Issue 1:
-Restart of iPod
-Restart of iTunes
-Restart of Computer
-Hard Reboot of iPod
-All Combinations of listings above
-Multiple Syncs
-Ejecting iPod-> Removing USB from Port-> Connecting USB to Port again
-Deselecting "Sync over Wi-Fi with this iPod" option-> Clicking "Apply"
-Trying all of the above with and without the Music app running (including in the background).
Failed Attempted Fixes for Issue 2:
-Restart of iPod
-Restart of iTunes
-Restart of Computer
-Hard Reboot of iPod
-All Combinations of listings above
-Multiple Syncs
-Ejecting iPod-> Removing USB from Port-> Connecting USB to Port again
-Deselecting "Sync over Wi-Fi with this iPod" option-> Clicking "Apply"
Successful Attempted Fixes for Issue 1:
- 1 - Open iTunes
- 2 - Connect to iPod either via lightning to USB cable or iCloud
- 3 - Click on the "iPod" button on the Navigation Bar
- 4 - Navigate to the "Music" Tab on the Navigation Bar
- 5 - Deselect "Sync Music"
- 6 - When pop-up comes up click "Remove"
- 7 - Click "Sync"
- 8 - Wait for Sync to Finish
- 9 - Reboot iPod
- 10 - Reselect "Sync Music"
- 11 - Click Sync
- 12 - Wait for Sync to Finish
Successful Attempted Fixes for Issue 2: N/A
Unattempted Known Fixes for Issue 1:
-iTunes Match (I do not want to pay extra for this service)
Unattempted Known Fixes for Issue 2:
N/A
Annoyances of Issue 1:
-Having to delete all songs and redownload all songs onto iPod, it's very time consuming and frustrating due to the fact this doesn't always work.
-Having every song I bought on iTunes show twice- one downloaded with lyrics and one not downloaded without lyrics.
Annoyances of Issue 2: Disrupts the iPod Sync process (does not let it complete or even start- no error messages occur though) and I am unable to see the proper state of my iPod.
After Effects for Issue 1: A copy of any song purchased off of the iTunes Store is
After Effects for Issue 2: N/A
Occurrence Rate of Issue 1: Every Sync
Occurrence Rate of Issue 2: Occasionally during sync or daily iPod status check.
Origin Date of Issue 1: January 1, 2014 was the first noticed occurrence of this.
Origin Date of Issue 2: January 1, 2014 was the first noticed occurrence of this.
Note: If there is anything else needed please tell me- I would like to find a better solution or have this turned in as a bug. Thank you for your help!

Were you ever able to solve this problem? If so,
how? If not, did you see the same slowness copying
the files in Windows Explorer from the NAS to the
iPod?
No I wasn't. To be honest I have essentially given up as even if I can fix it, disk space is cheaper than life is long!
Using the NAS in general is no problem. In fact, once iTunes got beyond the initial working out of what needed to be removed from and copied to the iPod, having all my MP3s on the NAS and copying direct to the iPod was no issue.
Following some sage (and frankly scary!) advice at ilounge (http://forums.ilounge.com/showthread.php?t=163611), I've decided to keep two copies of my MP3s. The fact that my fiendish NAS plan has failed is hurting more than the not-all-that-traumatic reality of duplicating 140GB of files if truth be told!

HT1473 My itunes will not open at all - I repeatedly get the message"itunes library is corrupted...not installed correctly...please reinstall itunes" I have tried opening all my itunes folders but nothing will even open.

My itunes will not open at all - I repeatedly get the message"itunes library is corrupted...not installed correctly...please reinstall itunes" I have tried opening all my itunes folders but nothing will even open.

Let's try a repair install of iTunes first.
Restart the PC. If you're using Vista or 7, now head into your Uninstall a program control panel, select "iTunes" and then click "Repair". If you're using XP, head into your Add or Remove Programs control panel, select "iTunes", click "Change" and then click "Repair".
Can you launch your iTunes now?

ITunes corrupted, must be reinstalled. Now 'the file iTunes Library itl. cannot be read, created by newer version of iTunes.'

My iTunes programme on Windows PC has suddenly become corrupted and must be reinstalled. After two attempts, I installed the requisite 64 bit version, but it won't open as "The file 'iTunes Library itl.' cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes." Where do I go from here (bearing in mind very little technical knowhow!)?

There are two things you can try here:
If you updated fairly recently, you can recover a backup copy of the library file made when you updated.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967?viewlocale=en_US
This gives you the library as it was when you updated.
Or you can recreate your library from the xml file, this will be more up to date, but not all the metadata is recovered.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
At the end of the article it tells you how to add files you your library if you don't have an xml file.
Anywhere it tells you to drag a file to the trash in either article, I would drag it to the desktop or another folder of your choice in case you need it later.
The second article also include links to general troubleshooting if iTunes will not start after recovering/recreating your library.

ITunes Library.itl gets corrupted every time I restart my CISCO VPN enabled laptop.

Hi,
iTunes Library.itl file gets corrupted everytime I restart my laptop.
I am using Lenovo T410 with Windows 7.
This is causing alot of problems as all my iPhone songs and apps get deleted after every sync.
Please help.

I have the same problem.
I have removed and re-installed iTunes. The music files are still intact but the library gets erased every time I restart the PC.
This means I have re-scan all my music files over and over again.
Also, an inspection of the iTunes directory reveals lots and lots of temp (iT*.tmp) files, all of them are about the same size as the iTunes library database (10mb in my case) so it looks like iTunes is not closing down correctly / writing the temp file back to the iTunes library (iTunes Library.itl)file.
Can anybody help?

ITunes Library.itl corrupt

iTunes Library.itl corrupt. This is what i get when i open my itunes from this afternoon. i have instaled and removed and reinstatled itunes at least 3-4 times and still happens and also have run a chkdsk check more than once and it still comes up. can any one help thanks you

If deleting the files will help you out, and Windows is not letting you delete the files because they are corrupt, try Move on Boot. This little program has helped me out of a couple of jams. It's free and on Cnet:
http://www.download.com/MoveOnBoot/3000-2094_4-10491692.html?tag=lst-0-1
I'm not sure if this will help, but might be worth a try.

Mass corruption of iTunes library

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