Purpose of .xml & .itl files

Perhaps I'm confused & simply need clarification on a couple of points. the .xml/.itl files are simply the database files for your library/playlists, correct? They have nothing to do with playback.
Also, did the upgrades create a second .itl file in the iTunes music folder & if so how do you tell which is which?
Thanks,
Debbie

The itl file is the file that iTunes uses, with all of the library data. The xml file has (I think) less data, and is meant for other program to access the library. They're both accessed anytime anything is done in the library.
Some upgrades made new itl files, but I don't think 5.x did. You can check by sorting by Date.
hudgie

Similar Messages

  • Can't find library (xml, itl) files

    Hi,
    I can't find the library database files (*.xml, *.itl) that are supposed to be in the ..My Music/itunes folder. I use Explorer to look at the itunes folder (which does exist in the My Music folder -- all my music files are in the My Music folder), but it shows no files. Also reports that the itunes folder is empty. I have used the View option tab to tell Explorer to show hidden and system files.
    What seems strange is that iTunes works just fine. I can see and play all my music, it has all my playlists, etc. My understanding is that info is all in the databases, but I can't find them!
    Another odd thing, when I click on the ../My Music/iTunes folder in explorer it takes several minutes with the hourglass icon before it actually opens.
    Searching the discussion forums, I see that I could export the .xml file and then use it to recreate the .itl file. I think that some info is lost when you do this -- such as play counts and date added. In anycase, I'm reluctant to do this since everything seems to be working just fine. I would however like to know where the database files are!
    Any thoughts?
    Dell   Windows XP Pro  

    Well, I bit the bullet and exported my library from itunes into a different location, moved the existing iTunes folder out of My Music, restarted iTunes, imported the saved xml library, and it looks like everything is fine. My library and playlists show up fine in iTunes, and the two library database files now appear in the iTunes folder in My Music. Can't really say what happened, but looks like this fixed it.

  • Damaged XML and ITL files

    Okay I can't recreate my iTunes library, what do I need to delete from iTunes on my computer, and whats the best way to re-create my iTunes music library, I have 10,000 plus songs, plus purchased music, and pod casts, and TV shows... Please help me out

    That's what's stumping me, why does it want to try to import the xml file to begin with? (Don't know what iLife is but doubt that I am running it.) It doesn't do it EVERY time I start iTunes but it's been more than 50% of the time! Doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason as to when it will do it and when it won't. Upon iTunes startup it will start "importing the xml file" and then after a while it will decide that the itl file is damaged and will rename the itl file as such and then create a new one that's then missing all play counts, ratings, playlists etc. Since this isn't what I want I close iTunes, delete this new itl file and xml file and copy back my backup itl file (renaming it back to itunes library.itl). I am then back in business. It's just annoying that I have to remember to backup the itl file every time I close iTunes now. But I'll do it rather than lose my ratings, play counts etc.
    At this point I don't think it's the iPod but something about this version of iTunes and the xml/itl files that's not working right together. Beats me as to what it is. I see there's a new iTunes version up now but think I'll wait a few days at least before installing it
    Thanks for the help.

  • Is there any way to use the iTunes .itl file or .xml file to see what files I had previously to re-download songs?

    I recently had to restore my computer and in the process of backing up my music library, half of my library from the letter 'm' onward was deleted.
    I want to see if I could use the existing .itl file or .xml file that was automatically saved by iTunes in the iTunes folder previously (which I backed-up in my external drive) to view my past library.
    I tried importing the library by going to File > Library > Import Playlist, but I got an error that said:
    "Some of the songs in the "iTunes Music Library.xml" were not imported because they could not be found.
    The .itl file was no help either in this case.
    IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO?

    How did you try to make use of the .itl file? Double-clicking on .itl files doesn't switch libraries but opens whatever is currently the default library. To switch between library files either press and hold down shift as you launch iTunes until prompted to choose or create a library, or swap out one library file with another as described in Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash.
    There is also a link there to tips on recovering media from your device or account history. You may also be able to undelete media from the drive if the space it occupied has not yet been reused.
    tt2

  • How to read an itl file from iTunes

    Ebooks are stored in an itl file in iTunes, not in an xml file, as with the music data.
    How can I read, extract information from an itl file?
    And why doesn't the iTunes developers use xml-xsl?

    Hi,
    Further to my earlier post, I would have thought that you would have been able to extract information about store books like you do for the store songs.
    Extract from http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1660
    "This file contains some (but not all) of the same information stored in the iTunes Library file. The purpose of the iTunes 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."
    If the info is not on the xml file, I cannot offer any other suggestions.
    Jim

  • Error message: iTunes Library.itl file cannot be found or created

    I just upgraded to iTunes 7.0.2 and it will not launch. The following error appears:
    "The iTunes Library.itl file cannot be found or created. The default location for this file is in the "iTunes" folder in the "MyMusic" folder"
    I have uninstalled, re-installed and tried all the possible solutions on the Troubleshooting section, including repair and nothing works. I have both a Library.itl and a Library.xml file in the following path: C:\Documents and Setting\user\My Documents\My Music\iTunes - not sure what to do next.
    Right now I'd take my old version back if I could figure out how to get it.
    Dell Dimension 5150   Windows XP Pro  

    When you get that message, does iTunes give you the option of locating the file? If so, then browse to the file and select it. If you don't get that option, I believe that holding down the shift key (or possibly the control key) when you launch iTunes should cause you to get the option.

  • "The iTunes Library.itl file cannot be found or created."

    I have tried all to suggestions for moving around the old library and this is still the only thing I have gotten from the upgrade, as of yet. The message appears when trying to get into iTunes thu any source; desktop shortcut, thu the start menu, or opening the library directly in the My Music folder.
    The full message reads:
    "The iTunes Library.itl file cannot be found or created. The default location for this file is in the "iTunes" folder in the "My Music" folder."
    I half expected a problem when i was told to upgrade, but I have got no idea how to fix this one. Any help would be great.

    Will iTunes open at all or do you just get the error message and when you click 'ok' the dialog box closes?
    I have successfully restored my library using the iTunes Music Library.xml file, which I figured out by messing around. If you want you can try this; note that it takes a really long time:
    1. With iTunes closed open the My Music>iTunes folder (if for some reason you had iTunes set up to use a different folder look in there). Move the 'iTunes Library.itl' file out of the folder onto your desktop, but don't delete it unless this restore works.
    2. Open iTunes; it should be empty. Go to File>Import. When the box opens you should be in the same iTunes folder; select the 'iTunes Music Library.xml' file.
    3. The library will rebuild itself, which takes a long time (I think it took an hour when I did it and I have about 25GB), but just let it go. Don't stop the process or try to close iTunes while it's doing this. You should eventually get all your songs and playlists back, but I don't remember if playcounts restore this way; you might lose those.
    4. Close iTunes - it should now save the new 'iTunes Library.itl' file. Then try opening iTunes again - hope this will work for you! If it does you can just delete the old 'iTunes Library.itl' file. If it doesn't you can move that old file back to where it was, and you'll be back to where you were before.
    Normally when the iTunes library.itl file gets corrupted you can replace it with an older version from the 'Previous iTunes Library' folder, but it sounds like you've already tried that and it didn't work. If this really is a registry issue I don't know how to fix that - maybe reinstalling iTunes?
    ps - I always export my library before upgrading now, because restoring from that if you have a library problem is a lot faster and it only takes a few extra seconds.
    Message was edited by: meeshala

  • HT203288 the itunes library .itl file cannot be found or created

    After new iTunes install.
    Clicking the icon gives me this error message saying"The default location for this file is in the "iTunes" folder in the Music folder.
    The xml files are present but no itl. file
    How do I get iTunes to recognize the library

    Will iTunes open at all or do you just get the error message and when you click 'ok' the dialog box closes?
    I have successfully restored my library using the iTunes Music Library.xml file, which I figured out by messing around. If you want you can try this; note that it takes a really long time:
    1. With iTunes closed open the My Music>iTunes folder (if for some reason you had iTunes set up to use a different folder look in there). Move the 'iTunes Library.itl' file out of the folder onto your desktop, but don't delete it unless this restore works.
    2. Open iTunes; it should be empty. Go to File>Import. When the box opens you should be in the same iTunes folder; select the 'iTunes Music Library.xml' file.
    3. The library will rebuild itself, which takes a long time (I think it took an hour when I did it and I have about 25GB), but just let it go. Don't stop the process or try to close iTunes while it's doing this. You should eventually get all your songs and playlists back, but I don't remember if playcounts restore this way; you might lose those.
    4. Close iTunes - it should now save the new 'iTunes Library.itl' file. Then try opening iTunes again - hope this will work for you! If it does you can just delete the old 'iTunes Library.itl' file. If it doesn't you can move that old file back to where it was, and you'll be back to where you were before.
    Normally when the iTunes library.itl file gets corrupted you can replace it with an older version from the 'Previous iTunes Library' folder, but it sounds like you've already tried that and it didn't work. If this really is a registry issue I don't know how to fix that - maybe reinstalling iTunes?
    ps - I always export my library before upgrading now, because restoring from that if you have a library problem is a lot faster and it only takes a few extra seconds.
    Message was edited by: meeshala

  • ITunes 8.0 - damaged library (.itl) file

    Help!
    Last night I downloaded iTunes 8 (8.0.1 I believe). The first time I opened iTunes, it created two library database (.itl) files. One is now called "iTunes Library (damaged)" and the other is "iTunes Library." The damaged file seeems to be unusable. I guarantee all of my music is legit.
    What I find is that iTunes now only contains a third of my music. All of my music is still on my PC, and my iPod is fine (though it still has the old data as I don't want to sync it until I hopefully restore my library). It's only the .itl file which is somehow corrupted or missing data.
    The question? How do I restore my library? Can I get it from the iPod? I have spend years categorizing my music and I have 4,000 songs. Recreating the genres, ratings etc. would take days.
    I run Windows Vista on a PC.
    Thanks so much for any help.
    Andrew.

    If it keeps happening, it will probably happen when you go back to v7.
    Check your security software - something is preventing itunes from saving the ITL/XML library files properly.
    Norton is a very bad culprit for itunes upgrades on not saving previous settings that allow itunes.
    Other typical reasons for the ITL/XML not saving properly are
    1) 3rd-party plugins for itunes that share the itunes XML file
    2) Vista permissions have gone wonky and you no longer have full control over your music folder & its subfolders

  • Several itl files - itunes process runs but itunes wont open

    This is a little complicated and I have now run into several related issues.  This all started a few weeks ago when  I attempted to move my itunes library from one external hard drive to a new and larger external hard drive on my windows vista PC.  I copied/transfered all of what was on the older driver onto the new drive.  That's fine and dandy.  I also at the time did some maintenance removing old music folders and itunes library files from several years of use. I had all kinds of duplicate music files (that got copied over at the same time) and a horde of dead links and playlists too.  Very messy.  In short my library had become unmanageable a long time ago, its size of close to 500 gigs.
    Everything copied over and itunes opened and worked okay. 
    However problems have now happened after (and it may be coincidental) loading the latest version of iTunes.  And at the same time using several programs to attempt to find and delete duplicates, fix playlists, located files and dead tracks etc.  These included "iTunes Library Tool Kit" and duplicate file finder, plus Steve MacGuire's vbs scripts.
    It all came to a head now when the other day iTunes would open (you can see the process running in TaskManager) but the window would not open.  Basically I followed http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1717.  And it seems to have fixed the "not opening" issue.  However.  Before going through and recreating my library I realize I have several itl files and several xml files and all kinds of dead or old itunes music files. 
    So I guess I'm asking .... is there some way of going back to square one?  Scrubbing any and all history of iTunes, and having iTunes recreate my library as if my PC was new to Apple and iTunes? 
    If so what is my best approach?  Should I erase old folders and files first? 
    I've attached an example of what I found after searching for .itl files.  (lines 2 - 5 were moved to the desktop)  thats where they still reside, but I stopped and posted this inquiry before doing anything else. 
    Don't know if it matters I have my library also located in iCloud.

    Hi there. If you want a clean start I'd suggest you shift-start iTunes and create a new empty library at F\iTunes, make sure the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced is set to F:\iTunes\iTunes Media and the options to Keep... & Copy... are enabled. I'd then move the existing media inside the iTunes Media folder before adding it to iTunes. Either use the Automatically Add to iTunes folder or move everything deeper inside, e.g. F:\iTunes\iTunes Media\Imports so that once iTunes has imported everything and moved it to where it thinks it belongs you can easily clean up any artwork, playlist files etc. that iTunes ignores.
    Note that a clean start like this will lose all ratings, play counts, playlists, date added information, and if you have any devices may mean that all media needs to be resynced. Chances are the media folders may still contain duplicates but these can be cleaned using my DeDuper script.
    Take a look at this backup tip... Ideally you would backup what you have before you get started, just in case you get over enthusiastic at some point, then redo the backup once you have the rebuilt library working as you want it.
    tt2

  • ITunes won't open because the iTunes Library.itl file is locked

    Recently our motherboard died. When we replaced it, we also had to wipe our hard drive. We saved our files, including my iTunes library.
    I reinstalled iTunes today, but when I tried to open it, I got this error message: "The iTunes Library.itl file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do not have write permission for this file." I can't find a Library.itl file, and I don't know why it's locked. What am I doing wrong?

    How did you try searching for the ITL file?
    If you do find it (it should be in \My Documents\My Music\iTunes), right click on the ITL file. Uncheck the "READ ONLY" box and do the same for the iTunes Music Library.xml file.
    Or you can try holding down the shift key while iTunes is opening. Create a new library and name it NEW. Then at least you can see if iTunes will open.

  • Consolidate Library, Not enough Space, itl files, genuius, external drive,

    In the interest of putting something back, thought I would post this
    Objective
    To have a single iTunes Library, on a Server PC, (Windows Home Server) so that if a change is made while on PC (a) or PC (b) we see the change.
    Setup
    PC (a) living room
    PC (b) kitchen
    Windows home server, on 24 x 7
    In doing this I made a number of errors, and hope you learn from this, and also found a couple of 'features' that made life harder.
    Standard approach
    1) in iTune preferences, alter the position where you want to store your data, so this could be
    //Server/Music/iTunes/Alison/Library
    You need the subdirectory as the Library is where your itunes will reside, and your internal itunes file one directory up.
    This process will change pointers in te internal itunes files, but still references the music in the various locations it is stored.
    2) Now go to the File Menu/ Library / Consolidate Library
    This will move all your music to teh location you specified above.
    At this point I ran into my first problem, despite having adequate space on the Windows Home Server (WHS) I would get the error 'not enough space to copy files'
    I believe the reason I was getting this error message was that some of the files paths were over 256 chat in length. There is also a limitation in WHS on this, but I believe the issue in this case was with iTunes, not WHS.
    To get around this issue, I changed the location of where I was going to consolidate all the files to, to an internal disk on the PC where my itunes library was. so Instead of;
    //Server/Music/iTunes/Alison/Library
    I used m:/iTunes/Alison/Library
    This worked, so I had all my data (now duplicated effectively, but consolidated) on the same PC.
    The reason people say use consolidate is that it makes the move easy and changes all the internal files, but as I couldn't consolidate to the location I required due to the error, I now have to move all the rest of the data manually.
    3) Copy the Library file on the local PC drive to the WHS Library Directory;
    Copy m:/iTunes/Alison/Library => //Server/Music/iTunes/Alison/Library
    4) I then edited the internal itunes files, so that it pointed to the WHS server location. I edited the itunes internal file;
    Settings\Alison\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml
    I did this in notepad, with a find and replace command,
    Find 'm:/'
    Replace '/Server/Music/
    The above bit does require some thought and if you have made it this far, have a look at the xml file structure, and you will be able to figure out how to alter the path.
    This has the effect of pointing the iTunes file at where the music is now stored, you can confirm this by starting iTunes and getting it to show the track it is playing in Explorer. If it is pointing at your new location you are good to go.
    Remember I only had to do this, as I was unable to consolidate to the location I really wanted to go to, due to the space error.
    Also note that I had 2gb memory on the machine I did the find and replace on, as Notepad is not memory friendly.
    5) Apple has some other internal files that need to be corrected as well;
    iTunes Library.itl
    iTunes Library Genius.itdb (if running genius)
    iTunes Library Extras.itdb (believe is genius related)
    sentinel (no idea, but saw this file !)
    To get these all corrected to the new WHS (or external drive) I created a iTunes Library.itl file with zero bytes in the directory Settings\Alison\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\, did this in notepad. I then started iTunes, and it created all of the above files with the new file locations. You can't edit the above files, apple encrypts them
    6) you now move all of the corrected internal files to the WHS home server location;
    //Server/Music/iTunes/Alison
    iTunes Library.itl
    iTunes Music Library.xml
    iTunes Library Genius.itdb
    iTunes Library Extras.itdb
    sentinel
    7) Now you repoint the itunes to the new location for the internal files, specifically the correct itunes library, there are a number of references on the net to do this that you press the shift key(PC) or the option key (Mac)
    I am running a PC, and pressing the shift key while clicking on the itunes icon on the desktop does not work. You have to hold the shift key while starting itunes from the Start Menu, Programs, Itunes. This will then give you an option of which library to look at, and look at the library on the WHS drive (or external drive)
    Thats it
    Hope this helps someone who has to battle with iTunes like I did. Due to the variosu errors, size of the library (200gb) and other issues, whole process took 2 days, if doing this again would have taken a couple of hours.
    DGW

    Hiya, that's sweet to post what you went through!
    I have a question, though - are you able to have both PCs running itunes at the same time?
    When I try this, I get an error message that the ITL file is locked on the 2nd instance I try to open. I'm using an exHD, not a server.
    Also - all that editng of the XML file doesn't save ratings, date added, and some other metadata. If you'd just moved the ITL file, that metadata would be intact.

  • ITunes automatically imports music after re-boots (damaged .itl file)

    Every time I start ITunes after my computer has been re-booted, ITunes starts importing my music library and says I have a damaged Music Library file (itl). If I allow ITunes to import my music files then it works fine (all playlists and ratings intact) even if I exit & re-enter the Itunes Application. However, as soon as I reboot the system I get the same damaged file dialog box. Also, I've tried waiting after I have booted the system for a long time to make sure it isn't conflicting with startup processes.
    I have a lot of songs and it takes ITunes a long time to import each time, and it is really frustrating. A temporary work-around is that I make a backup copy of the "itl" and "xml" files each time after I exit Itunes when I have made changes. Then after a reboot when I start Itunes, I stop it from importing the library, finding artwork, gapless scan, etc... I copy the previously saved "itl" & "xml" files into the ITunes folder and the ITunes program will then start up correctly with all my music files, ratings & playlists.
    _*A. COMMENTS*_
    1. Since the "itl" file I copy into itunes folder (as per my work-around)is an exact copy of the "itl" file that was originally in the ITunes folder after a reboot, I don't think the ITunes file is actually damaged, since ITunes will boot from this file after Itunes is started a 2nd time. This also shows me that it is not a path issue.
    _*B. SETUP*_
    1. Dell 3.4Ghz Pentium 4
    2. MS Windows XP Home Edition (service pack 3)
    3. Recently upgraded to ITunes 9.0.3.15 (did not resolve problem)
    4. McAfee Security Center virus/firewall software
    5. Ad-Aware spyware checker(resident)
    6. Spy-bot Search and Destroy spyware checker(resident)
    5. My Music files are located in C:\Documents and Settings\My Name\My Documents\My Music\ (itunes folder is also in same folder)
    6. My Itunes Library .itl file is 2,842 KB
    7. My Itunes Music Library .xml file is 16,580 KB
    _*C. WHAT I HAVE TRIED SO FAR*_
    1. I have re-installed ITunes
    2. I ran scan disk (fixed errors & checked physical disk). It did say it repaired something with an "XML" extension, but I didn't write it down because I thought it fixed the issue, but I don't think it was the itunes xml file
    3. I cleaned a bunch of junk files (internet cache, etc) and defragged
    4. I completely un-installed ITunes and ran a registry cleaner to remove all references to Itunes, Then I installed ITunes. ITunes imported my library and lost all my ratings & playlists however it found all of my artwork (not just automatically created from internet) I re-used an old .itl file for ratings/playlists. However I did try with the newly imported "itl" file and the same problem was persistent
    5. I tried restoring my computer to month ago when everything was working correctly
    6. I tried for hours looking through multiple forums and the ones that I found that have the same problem (only after reboots) were never resolved. Most of the others just tell people how to get their library back
    7. I tried to call Apple Itunes tech support on the phone and was told that Apple does not provide Itunes phone support for PC's. I did pay good money for 30Gb & 16Gb Iphones, so I am giving Apple Money. I would own a Mac however my profession uses software not supported by Apple.
    _*D. QUESTIONS*_
    1. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? I'm going to try to figure out how to start in some sort of safe mode and log the processes to see if there are any conflicts, but I'm running out of options.
    2. I did copy rather large 1200x12000 artwork from the internet into some of the CD's because I was printing them, however I later removed the artwork and replaced it with 300x300. I noticed the Album artwork Cache & Download folders seems rather large and convoluted. I was thinking about possibly deleting all artwork from my library and deleting these folders to see if there is something in there.
    Please Help, I've spent far too many hours trying to resolve this issue. I just don't understand that after uninstalling, and cleaning registry that re-installing didn't fix this issue.

    Followup:
    The link you posted wasn't really any help, but I believe I have finally resolved the issue (after 2 consecutive reboots without problems -- knocks on wood). I wish I could single out exactly what resolved the issue, but I went crazy and did a lot of things last night/this morning (and didn't have the patience to reboot after each single change).
    Here's a list of a few things I remember doing
    1. Installed updated hardware drivers using Uniblue driver update software (a couple were bundles that affected quite a few things). I booted up this morning only to get a repeated "REFMONINITIALIZATIONFAILED" dialog with the blue screen of death. I wasn't worried as I did a complete backup of all my personal files last night, anticipating a full rebuild today. So the next time I rebooted I used the "last known good configuration".
    2. I don't have any indexing programs (that I'm aware of), but I clicked the library file, xml files and all other files in the itunes library root directory and unchecked the "For fast searching, allow Indexing Service to index this file" box after right clicking and selecting "properties" and then "advanced"
    3. I rolled back ALL Uniblue SpeedUPMYPC2009 system tweaks (except internet) that were automatically done when I ran the program on 1/10/10.
    I have a strong inclination that one (or more) of the Uniblue system tweaks did something that prevented my library file from being accessed the first time after after a boot that I started ITunes. I apparently hadn't accessed ITunes for a couple weeks after I ran the Uniblue program, so it didn't register that it could have caused the issue. At some point in the future I'll try to pin down which tweak caused the problem, but for now I've wasted far too much dealing with this and don't care if my computer runs a few milliseconds slower.
    Thank you for responding

  • Songfile path not writing to .itl file when iTunes Media Location is changed.

    Running iTunes 11.1.4 on an Intel NUC with Windows 8.1. My iTunes library contains about 65K songfiles. All media is on a NAS.
    Frequently when I restart the PC the NAS is not immediately mounted. So if I don't check this before starting up iTunes, the iTunes media folder location changes to its default.
    I don't know if this is the cause of the problem, but a few days ago I started seeing a vast number of exclamation points indicating lost songfiles. All music is nicely organized in a parent folder on the NAS and iTunes had, until recently, no problem recognizing all of it.
    So the other day I changed the iTunes Media Folder Location in the program from the default (which it had switched to at bootup) to the songfiles' location on the NAS. I then let the software update the library.
    Still the exclamation points remained, with no discernible pattern. Within albums, some songs were recognized, some not. I'd say about two-thirds were missing, according to iTunes.
    I shut down iTunes, fired up Vim, and had a look at the library's .xml file. Sure enough, about two thirds of the songfiles pointed to the default media location, with another one-third pointing correctly.
    I edited the .xml file to line everything up properly, but came to find that this has no effect because the .itl file rules the roost. As soon as I started iTunes back up, the paths returned to the locations according to the .itl file, and these incorrect paths were also written to the .xml.
    Updating the media folder location seems to have no effect on iTunes's ability to find the files. I know I can rebuild my library using the .xml file (presumably best done after I have changed the paths to their proper file locations), but I don't want to lose playcounts, ratings, playlists, etc.
    So. It *seems* as if my .itl file is corrupt even though iTunes starts and the program is able to locate a portion of my media.
    Is there something I am missing? Some way to get iTunes to recognize the proper path for all media without a library rebuild?
    TIA.

    The "missing file" error happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible thatiTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
    Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
    If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.
    I've seen a suggestion that iTunes' own repair mechanism may work better when "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" is turned off.
    See also make a split library portable. Keeping the whole library on the drive removes the problem of the media folder being reset.
    tt2

  • Itunes will not sync photos - itl file corrupt

    Hello All,
    I recently upgraded to Windows 7 from XP.  The XP install had my drive partitioned and my itunes data was on the E drive.  Now with Windows 7 I have one partition (C) and I was able to restore everything from Itunes to the new drive.  All is well accept my photos which will not sync.  I renamed the itl file and let it create a new one and my photos will sync.  If I go back to the original itl file the photos stay there as long as I don't uncheck the syncphotos box.  I need to go back to my old itl so that my music libraries are correct - including album art, etc.  I don't know why this happened or if there is a way to get the itl file back to where it should be.  If I did not have so much music I would just use the itl file and recreate my music library.  I did see an article talking about moving the xml file to the desktop and deleting the itl file then restoring from the xml.  I am just afraid that my xml file has been updated so much since I had this issue start that it will not be correct.  Does the xml file only keep info on the music or is it a repository for all itunes data?
    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
    Regards,
    Rob

    Me Too.
    I have just updated the ipod touch software to 4.1. The update seems to have helped improve the very sluggish performance introduced with 4.0 but now photos just won't sync.
    These are the same photos that are on the ipod Touch from software 4.0. The other sync items seems to have worked.
    The sync gets stuck with either "Finishing sync" and barber-pole scroll or Syncing photos 4 of 4.
    Unchecking the "Sync photos" Allows the sync to complete.
    The "Remove photos/Keep photos" option appears when changing the "Sync photos" option. Keeping the photos leaves the previously installed images on the IPT. Using a PowerMac G5.
    Gannett

Maybe you are looking for