My iTunes has cloud music only?! Playlists gone?!

I was listing to music about 30 mins ago, then closed iTunes and now just opened it again and all my playlists are gone and all thats in my music is cloud music which totals about 5 GB's but my iTunes folder in my music is 35gbs which is what it should be.
What the **** has gone wrong?

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. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
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.
Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to a recent state.
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!
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
I've noticed more of these missing library posts of late and a common factor since I started asking is AVG Anti-Virus. It seems it might be at least part of the reason why the library file disappears. Try excluding the iTunes folder from any scanning process.
tt2

Similar Messages

I have been a customer of ITunes and Apple since 2007. Movies, Apps, Music and books Itunes has been my only source for my media needs.

I have been a customer of ITunes and Apple since 2007. Movies, Apps, Music and books Itunes has been my only source for my media needs. 397 Apps 759 Songs over 100 Videos 13 books 3 IPhones 2 IPods So here is my problem with ITunes I purchased an App and it is identical to one I have already brought. The App description did not say anything that it would not do what I was trying to do. I wrote sup[port and asked if they could issue a credit. Mari at support wrote back and said he checked with his supervisor and they could not issue a credit. I told them what a good loyal customer I have been to Itunes and Apple and they still refused. Granted the App did not cost a lot of money (3.99) but it’s the principle. With customers having options to shop anywhere I would think a business would do whatever it takes to retain the loyal customers they do have Occasionally I rush to buy an App without fully understanding if it meets my needs. According to ITunes support that has occurred nine times. Here is the last reply that I received Roger, I know how frustrating it can be when things don't work the way they should be and I do apologize for the inconvenience that this may have caused you. I am sorry but we could not be able to grant your request as we have made 9 exceptions on you. For more information on Apple's requirements for using the iTunes Store, please refer to the iTunes Store Terms and Conditions:http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html Again, I am hoping for your kind understanding regarding this matter. Sincerely Mari iTunes Store/Mac App Store Advisor

"The App description did not say anything that it would not do what I was trying to do."
You've already had 9 refunds? You understand that apps are sold on a non-return policy, presumably. You bought an app that didn't claim to do something that you wanted from it, and now that you've found that it doesn't, you want your money back.
Perhaps you've failed to explain your point properly but I can't see why you expect any sympathy from users here, not that it would make any difference. Only the store staff can issue refunds if they think appropriate. Chalk it up to experience. You could even contact the developer in advance of a purchase if you want to be certain an app does what you want. Then if it really fails to live up to the promise you would at least have a better argument for a refund.
tt2

ITunes has lost music playlists

I opened up iTunes and all of my playlists were gone. In fact there was no music anywhere. So I redowloaded what I could and the purchased music is okay, but im still short about 600 songs and I dont know which ones. Is there a way to go back to the original or to just even find out which ones Im missing besides going throw the iPod and narrowing everything down? And is there a way to not re-create every playlist that I had before? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

Hello sk8rmom4ever
Check to see if, in iTunes Preferences, Show iTunes in the Cloud Purchases is check to show your purchases. If you recently updated iTunes, you may need to revert to a previous version of your iTunes Library.
Downloading past purchases from the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519
No content shows up in iTunes after updating
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967
Regards,
-Norm G.

All music and playlists gone after newest iTunes update?

I just updated my iTunes and when I opened it back up my whole library, music and playlists, were gone? What happened and what do I need to do to get it all back?

This seemed like it was working but I have way to many iTunes files and folders all named the same in various spots. I beleive I need to delete some of them but I'm not sure what to delete and what not?

Where is my music and playlists? Opened iTunes to find my music and playlists gone, as if I just loaded iTunes for the first time.

Running Windows 64 bit. This has happened before. It was running great for the last 8 months (including this morning), syncing no problem with a variety of Apple devices. Opened it today and it is like I have a brand new iTunes loaded up with no music or playlists.
Please assist getting my music back and playlists (took hours to rebuild playlists last time). Why does this happpen?

There's a couple of ways to get through to the authorisation controls in the 11.0.x versions.
The control is still in the Store menu, but first (if you're using iTunes versions 11.0.x) you might need to bring up the menu bar to see the Store menu.
If you're using 11.0.x, click on the wee boxy icon up in the top-left corner of your iTunes to see the "Show Menu Bar" control, as per the following screenshot:
Then you'll find the control in the Store menu:
Alternatively, if you don't want to bring up the menu bar, it's still possible to get into the authorise controls via nested menus accessible from the wee boxy icon. Here's a screenshot of where to find them:

ITunes has lost all my playlists!

...and Party Shuffle is missing as well (I presume since it has no playlists from which to shuffle as the pre-loaded pl's are also missing) but all the actual music seems to be intact. I think this happened after the second-to-last update- 7.4.3 has given me no problems other than it did not help iTunes restore my lists nor did it help me figure out how to do so. My iPod (5thG Video) is working fine and I can go indefinitely w/out syncing it- don't want to lose all my work on that as well- but if I can't convince iTunes that I have playlists, can it pull all that stuff off my iPod if necessary? I never find what I'm really looking for when I try to use the manual or articles....
TIA anyone with an idea about this!

I don't know if you've tried using the old library file - every time itunes is upgraded it saves the old library file in a separate folder. Maybe the new file got corrupted somehow? Although if you upgraded after you lost your playlists this might not work. The itunes playlists are saved in the library file, unless you exported them or recently made a CD backup of your itunes library. You can try this if you haven't already:
1. Close itunes and go into the itunes folder (usually my music>itunes) and look for the 'itunes library.itl' file. Move this onto your desktop. Leave the 'itunes music library.xml' file where it is.
2. Also in the itunes folder you should see a 'previous itunes libraries' folder - open this. You might only see one file; if you see more than one use the file from the date you noticed the problem. Copy this file into the itunes folder to replace the one you just moved, then change the name to just 'itunes library' or 'itunes library.itl'.
3. Try opening itunes now - you should see everything the way it was at the time of upgrading, but if itunes only saves the most recent library you may have lost the playlists ....:(
If there is another way to restore playlists I haven't found it yet - I lost my playlists about a month ago because I didn't know how the library file worked, and I was going between 7.4.3 and 7.3.2 and I must have overwritten the old library file. After that I found on the apple website how to do it correctly.
If that didn't work and you have a disc backup of your itunes you can try opening the contents of the discs in windows so you can see what files are on there, and look for a copy of your old library file and copy that into the itunes folder in step #2 instead. But don't restore from the backup discs in itunes if your music is still showing up - when I tried that I got duplicates of whatever music files were on the discs.
There is also a program called copytrans that you can use to copy the music and supposedly your playlists off your ipod back onto your computer, but I didn't have any luck with that; again I just got duplicates of my song files and not the playlists themselves. And the free version only does 100 songs at a time.
If I've learned anything from this experience, it's to save a copy of the library file before doing any updates because it's a lot easier than all this copying stuff - you just go under File>Export Library and save the file somewhere. Then if you have any problems you can just import that file and all your playlists will be restored.

Where is the MUSIC ONLY playlist???????????

I'm posting this again because I feel there is no other way to get the opinion heard. If you agree with this post, please respond with your thoughts.
I wake up in the morning and I just want to hit the shuffle button and play music while I get ready for work. But wait... I can't do this!!!!!!!!! My "Library" is now full of audio podcasts and video podcasts, TV episodes and Music videos.. oh yeah.. and Music.
Hmm this seems odd. I've got a Podcast library.. where in I can listen to only podcasts.... I've got a Video library where in I can view only video content. I've even got a radio library. And, of course, the LIBRARY which holds everything. However, there seems to be one library curiously missing from this MUSIC player... hmm what is it..... MY GOD! it's a MUSIC LIBRARY! The iTunes Music player is missing a MUSIC library!!!??? What the...... ! With all the excitement about Podcasts and Broadband video content.. The music is starting to take a back seat.. While I love all this new content, sometimes I just want to hear my good old music.
Don't tell me I've got to make some kind of gigantic playlist of all my music and update it whenever I add a new song? That would be a work around. Apple is known for being intuitive and easy to use... remember... "I'm a Mac"... "and I'm a PC".
So my point to Apple is, take this oversight and fix it. Please add a Music ONLY library to your iTunes Music player. Or some other feature that automatically lets the music be separated from all the other itunes content.
If you agree, please respond. Lets see if we can change the most popular music player in the world.
Rock on!

In addition to the Search Bar, I also make sure the "Skip when shuffling" option is checked for each and every podcast and video in my library. This way, even if I forget to select the Music tab in the Search Bar, I'm still guaranteed to never hear a podcst when I'm playing on shuffle.
http://web.mac.com/yensid98
15 iMac, 1GB RAM, 800 MHz Mac OS X (10.3.7)

ITUNES has lost music lib

Hi
ITUNES has lost my music library. It's still on the disk in the same location it's always been and itunes is still pointing to that directory however no music is displayed.
Any help would be appreciated.
thanks
Windows XP Pro

Sounds like the iTunes Library .ITL file got damaged.
Just drag all your songs back into the library.
Your ratings and playcounts will all be gone, though. This same thing has happened to me once or twice. I back up the iTunes library files once or twice per week. When it happens I just drag the saved files over to the iTunes folder.
What are the iTunes library files?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93732

Itunes has organised my ipod playlist alphabetically, how do it turn it off?

I recently synched my iPod to my laptop so I could arrange my workout playlist, and iTunes has arranged the playlist alphabetically rather than the arrangement I wanted. I know that this is probably a really obvious question, but how do I turn it off so I can see the playlist as I have arranged it.
Thanks!

If you select "Show my home page", then also check the contents of "Home page" (same settings tab as above). If it contains multiple URLs, all those URLs will be opened each time.
This drove me nuts for a while, as I had bookmarked all open tabs and used them as my "Home page", so kept getting an old news story on the news website I was using.

Music and playlists gone

Lately, my computer has been having some weird problems with memory. I tried opening itunes one day, only to discover all of my playlists and music gone. Is there any way I can re-import my old library? I'd hate to have to re-import every single song one by one.

File>Add folder to library and add the whole iTunes folder into your library, it should be in My Music

ITunes 9-Moving music to playlists

Has anyone figured out a way to move songs that you want to purchase to a playlist before buying? You can do it on iTunes 8, but with the upgrade I can only seem to put music to a wishlist. Not v. organized.

Windows Media Player could be affecting your files whether you've ever opened that program. It's worth turning off the feature that goes online and "fixes" tags on new media. It's at +Tools > Options > Libarary > "Retrieve additional information from the Internet."+ Uncheck that.
Now, there is no way that WMP should be wrecking the file structure in the iTunes Music folder, but then again there is no reason iTunes should be wrecking it either. Those "!" symbols have always meant that files have been altered by something other than iTunes.

I moved my itunes library and now when I open itunes all my music lisitngs are gone

Help...I wanted the other account on my computer (pc) to be able to listen to my itunes library. I followed the instructions from Apple,
(I thought correctly) and when I open itunes on my account all the songs are gone. Its as if I never had an itunes libary. When I go to the other account on the computer and open itunes, there is an older version of the library w/ only some songs but when I click on a song, it says it cannot be located. Which is why I tried to move the library in the first place.

What process did you use for moving the library?
I have noticed iTunes on rare occasions loses files. Don't know why. Keep back ups. Before updating a backup run a script such as Dougscript List MIAs so you can make sure you aren't deleting your only copy should one get lost from your main drive.
You might want to note that it is a mistake giving away the CDs. When you no longer posess the CD you relinquish the right to keep a copy of the music. Also, as you are finding, you no longer have a backup source for the music.

HT1451 iTunes keeps losing music and playlists

I am running the latest version of itunes on my XP machine, and upon opening it, my library was missing 2/3 of my music and all of my playlists were gone. I reimported all my music from the File/Libary/Import Directories function inside iTunes. I then used a product called TouchCopy to copy all my Playlists from my iPod back to iTunes. I opended and closed it several times to see that it remained unchamged. I opened iTunes again a couple hours later and it was back to the way it was, missing 2/3 of my music and all of my Playlists. I fixed it twice and it keeps happening after a certain unknown amount of time. I also unimstalled and reinstalled iTunes in between, and it still happened again. Any ideas what is wrong?

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. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
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.
Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to a recent state.
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!
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
AVG AntiVirus is one possible suspect in this matter. If you have AVG you should download the latest patch. Try excluding the iTunes folder from any AV scanning process. I'd be interested to know which AV package you use to see if others may also occasionally interfere with the library files.
tt2

The newest v. of iTunes has wiped out all playlists and my entire library

Updated to newest v. of iTunes, go on today for the first time. My entire library is gone, all playlists, everything! I plug in my iPod, and it tells me its synched to another iTunes Library, well this iPod has never been synched with any other library or computer. Complete debacle, and if its an easy fix, its still wasting my time. Maybe a mod should jump on here and tell me the fix.

iTunes doesn't actually care what the name of the file is, or update it, it just use the same one it opened last time.
The instructions were to copy the dated .itl file into the main iTunes folder and give it the standard name of iTunes Library.itl. While the archive version will often work from within the Previous iTunes Libraries folder iTunes will then start putting other supporting files in ..\iTunes\Previous iTunes Libraries instead of ..\iTunes. Next time you upgrade you'll find you have a new folder at ..\iTunes\Previous iTunes Libraries\Previous iTunes Libraries
The repair instructions are now slightly different.
Copy your active library file into your iTunes folder. If present, rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Click the icon to start iTunes and immediately press and continue to hold down the shift key until asked to chose or create a library. Click choose and browse to the library file in the iTunes folder. 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

ITunes and cloud music on the iPad

I have music in iTunes and the cloud that I don't want on my iPad. Is there a way to pick and choose what I want on my iPad? On my iPod, I plug in and choose the playlists I want. If I delete from the iPad will it delete from the cloud and iTunes?

No, deleting tracks from the iPad will have not effect on what is available in the cloud and in iTunes. Also, you can choose to sync the iPad the same way you sync the iPod.

My iTunes has cloud music only?! Playlists gone?!

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for