My Garageband project crashed, the file lost/damaged! How to recover it?

Question

Guys,
I've been working my garageband project when suddenly the window was closed and the notification asked me to reopen, report or ignore it.
This is my second time my project crashed. The first time, I chose 'reopen', and my file reopen. All the midi datas still there, but the sample sounds were empty. So I had to put it one by one. What a job because I had more than 15 instruments there.
But those jobs was better then what I experienced today. After my project crashed, I chose 'ignore' with assumption I would open the last saved file. But it didn't. I really lost my file. The size for one GarageBand projects is about more than 1 MB. But my file after crashed is about 56 KB! So some solutions like 'right click' and 'show package content' didn't work at all because I worked with midi data, not live recording. I tried to find the script file at projectdata and compared it with my other projects, they have more bytes than my lost project file.
So, if you have a same problem like me, just choose 'reopen'. I hope it will save your midi data so you don't have to work it out from beginning (just like I have to do after write this post ... x) )
So guys, is there any idea how to recover my crashed file? I've sent a report to Apple and still waiting their answer.
Thanks a lot
Andito

Answer 1

Reinstalling iTunes won't ever repair damaged libraries or find lost files.
Unlike nearly all Windows software double-clicking an iTunes Library file does not necessarily open the selected database. Rather, iTunes opens the last database it successfully opened, or if that was in the "normal" <User's Music>\iTunes location, but is missing, it will create a new empty library.
You can open an alternate library file, or create a new one, by holding down shift as you start iTunes. Although you can open the library files in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder this way, your library will perform better if you restore the archived library database to the main iTunes folder in the way that I have described.
Your most recent library may be present in the main iTunes folder as a .tmp file, or recoverable via a file undelete tool, however either of these files, if found, may be partially corrupt getting you no further forward.
The two most recent releases of iTunes were June 11th and March 28th 2012..
Yes I read your post, but I don't know if you know all of the above. If you had a full backup of your library you could just restore that. It is possible that what you've tried so far hasn't yet brought back the most complete version of your library that is available to you. As a last resort you will have to work with what you have and add in whatever media is not in that version of your library, accepting the loss of recently added ratings, playlists & play counts.
You can simply add the entire iTunes Media folder using File > Add Folder to Library folder which should ignore everything already in the library and only add new (to that database) stuff. If there is any chance that your iTunes media folder contains .m3u playlist files the import process will also import all of those, which may not be what you want. iTunes Folder Watch would then present a better approach.
tt2