Rebuild corrupt iTunes library?

I've had this problem before, but the last time a simple DiskWarrior rebuild of my hard drive solved it.
All of a sudden (since going from 7.2 to 7.3.1), iTunes can't find any of my tunes. They're all right where they were, and if I click on one and find it manually for iTunes, it can play it.
Is there a way to force iTunes to rebuild its directory of the iTunes Music folder? Or will something else work? I've got thousands of tunes in there and I can't imagine manually finding all of them.
(Basically, every tune now has an exclamation mark in front of it.)
Stuart

Hi Stuart,
I just recently had the identical problem. 4,000 songs and most with the ! in front. On an album there would be 8 of 10 songs itunes could not find and they were right next to the 2 of the 10 it found.
Using the Apple method of rebuilding the library did not work for me. It would rebuild the library but I would still get most of the songs with ! marks. You could also add/import all your music again but you will end up with duplicates. Manually deleting 3,000 orphaned duplicates was not an option. I looked on these forums and did not find anything that worked so came up with a crude but effective solution. In the end, it took less time to do than I spent trying more elegant solutions.
What I finally ended up doing is backing up the entire library to another hard drive or you could do it to cd/dvd(which is a good idea any way) then trashing the old library. Yup, I nervously trashed all my songs. Itunes should not be running during this procedure. Then I needed to trash preferences in my home folder (your mac/users(you)/library/preferences). The preferences you are looking for begin with com.Apple.itunes. If memory serves there are 3 of them.
Now log out and back in again. Start itunes and you will get the same dialog boxes you did when you first used itunes. Answer the questions then you should see an itunes library with nothing in it. If there is a list of your music with the ! in front of the songs then there was a copy of the library xml that you did not trash somewhere in your system. If the window for itunes is blank then all is as it should be. Just go to your backup and drag your music to the itunes window. It will completely rebuild your library copying the music to your hard drive. For me, my itunes library is on another hard drive and I had to make sure that *before dragging and dropping* I went to itunes/preferences/advanced/itunes music folder location and selected the other hard drive. My boot drive is not big enough to hold the operating system, applications, and my itunes music. I didn't want another problem created by over filling my boot drive.
Everything now works as it should, I have a backup of my music and life goes on. While this is a crude method it worked for me.

Similar Messages

Rebuilding an iTunes Library: How to Do It & What to Expect

When iTunes is performing poorly--sluggishness, weird Podcast updating behavior, etc.--and you have tried everything, the prospect arises of rebuilding the iTunes Library. Instructions are simple. The idea is that the XML Library file will inevitably be "cleaner" than the possibly corrupted ITL file which is the file that iTunes edits in managing your iTunes content, and that after rebuilding your library from the xml file, you will have a fresh, clean ITL file. So, back up your machine. Then, go to your iTunes folder and TRASH the file "iTunes ibrary.itl" in the ~/Music/Tunes Folder. Do not empty the Trash. Also, MOVE the file "iTunes Music Library.xml" to your Desktop. Then start iTunes, select Import in the File Menu and select the iTunes Music Library.xml" that is on your Desktop. It could take hours depending on the size and you can just wait until the automatic rebuild is complete. Incidentally, I strongly recommend that you also disconnect your Mac from the Internet during this entire procedure; more on that later.
Here is the caveat in rebuilding your Library: Apple purposely does not document the ITL file and will only say that most but not all of the information is written to the XML file, a file that technically only exists so that third party applications might be able to work with the iTunes Library. So what information will be missing after you rebuild you library from the XML file? Here is what I found:
i. Music library and playlists: Good news, this remains intact. However, if your ITL file was corrupted you will discover some funny business. For example, there may be items such as Podcasts you have converted to Music files that reappear as Podcast files. You may find that there are files that are missing or files that you know you have, but seem to be missing from the new iTunes Library. There are various utilities or iTunes plugins such as those from the Doug's Applescripts site that will automate the discovery of these and other problems. Also, alas, the Date Added for all files will be today's date and time, not the day and time from as long as 10 years ago.
Your iDeivces (iPods, iPhones, and iPads) will see this rebult library as entirely new. Thus, you will need to decide which Playlists, Artists, etc. to manage/import into each of your iDevices as though they are brand new. Basically, this is a time consuming slog, but you will need to do it. All will be erased and reimported even though they are already on your device. Dumb but there you have it.
Movies, TV Shows, Audiobooks, Books, and Photos: These will remain intact with the same general caveats and iDeivce reimport issues as with the Music files. Namely, you will need to decide what you want to sync anew.
Apps: Here is something that is not included n the XML file. Fortunately, the fix is to simply drag the contents of the Mobile Applications folder into iTunes and drop it. The import will be automatic. However, there may be multiple versions of some of your apps. about which iTunes will warn you and ask for a decision. Unfortunately, the file names of the multiple version apps are not given. So, my technique is to keep the newest version and leave the older one where it is, keeping a list of all of the ones you did not import. After you are done with the import you can go to the Apps window in iTunes, find the imported versions of those files, right click the icon, and then select "Show in Finder." You will then know the file name of the kept file and by inference can identify and decide what you want to do with the other version. In may cases it turns out to be a downrev version that can be moved elsewhere. However, it could also be a version for, say, your iPhone, that does not work with your iPad. In this case, import it and keep it. I would suggest keeping all of the seemingly orphaned apps around for awhile just in case you later find you need them.
Good news: When you connect your iDevice(s) to iTunes you will find that iTunes accepts the apps already installed on them. You need do nothing further in most cases. Wonderful.
Podcasts: Hopefully you heeded my advice to disconnect from the Internet. Because Podcasts seem to be the most problematic of the Library. If connected to the Internet you may, for example, find that the Podcasts will begin to download episodes willy nilly and contrary to your preferred settings. You don't need this right now! So, that said, the Podcasts will be restored including Podcasts that may not currently have any current episodes in them. However, you may find that you will need to Subscribe to some podcasts even though you already had a subscription. In fact, some this having to Subscribe may persist over a few days. Just go ahead and do it of you want the subscriptions. Also, make sure that the Settings for each Podcast are as you like them. You can then connect your iDevice and set it up just as though it is new and iTunes will tediously build your new Podcast library on your iDevice just as with your Music files. Of course you will need to do this for each of your iDevices.
One other thing to watch in connection with Podcasts is your Music section. I ended up with almost 3000 podcast episodes that were not current that were listed in my Music section but greyed out and identified as Streaming content. Rooting these out was a simple matter of selecting for "Genre" and deleting all of the genre "Streaming" from the Library. This list had nothing to do with the settings for Podcasts. It may be a bug or just one of the symptoms of corruption of my particular original ITL file. Notably, I was connected to the Internet when I rebuilt my Library and this is one of the reasons I highly recommend disconnecting before the rebuild. However, this gremlin could occur when you do reconnect. I don't know and I am not about to test for it, So watch for this or for other funny business.
Cloud/iTunes Match stuff: If you had turned on iTunes Match I have no help for you. I have never used it. Intuitively, I suspect this could be an epic mess in the context of rebuilding your Library from the XML file. But maybe not--hopefully not!
iPads, iPhones and the Library: In my case it appears that much of the problem with my iTunes Library file had to do with anomalies and differences betwen what my iTunes Library thought was on a device and what was actually there. Do not be surprised if you feel that you need to restore one of your iDevices. However, prior to doing so consider making an encrypted backup of your iDevice. Encrypted backups include settings and other information that could take hours to reenter and is not included on regular style backups. After a restore, you can be sure that this restoration will be the canonical status of both what is on your iDevice and what iTunes thinks is on your device. Thus you can work with this and then modify it confidently.
Epilogue: For me, this procedure restored performance to iTunes that had been getting steadily worse for about two years. The new ITL file was about 1MB smaller than the old one. Incidentally, even though the ITL fle was modified by iTunes with most major iTunes versions, it traced its provenance back to 2004 when I got my first iPod. That is very long time and so the development of errors and weirdness is not terribly surprising.

Because the Nano was previous synced to another comuter/iTunes library.
See the following:
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities

Corrupted iTunes Library

My iTunes library seems to have become corrupted, and I want to replace it with a backup copy on my external hard drive. I emailed Apple, and they told me it can't be done. Instead, the library has to be recreated. Does anyone know if this is really true? Is there a simpler way? What's the point of exporting the library if you can't use it as a backup?

Run Apple's Disk Utilities and make sure your drive passes the check. No sense in rebuilding your iTunes library file if you still have drive issues.
Quit iTunes and then look in your iTunes folder (the one that's in your Music folder). Inside you'll see several files and folders. iTunes Library contains your playlists and music library and that's what has become damaged. You say you see nothing in iTunes at all so the old file was removed and replaced with a new empty one. Still, throw that in the trash and let iTunes make a new one for you.
You probably see a folder called Previous iTunes Libraries and a file called iTunes Music Library.xml. If you are lucky the xml file is intact. Start up iTunes and from the File menu select Import... then navigate to your iTunes folder and select the iTunes Music Library.xml file. It may take quite a while to load if you have a big music collection. Does this look reasonably current and accurate? If so, you are in business, but just to be on the save side, from the File menu select Add to Library and point to the folder that contains your music files. If there's any music in the folders that isn't in the library it will get added.
Assuming the above didn't work, you next best hope is that the Previous iTunes Libraries contains a fairly recent library. If so quit iTunes then duplicate the most recent one (or perhaps the next most recent one since the newest may be the damaged one) and put it in the iTunes folder. Rename it iTunes Library and start iTunes. From the File menu select Add to Library and point to the folder that contains your music files. If there's any music in the folders that isn't in the library it will get added.

I seem to have a corrupted iTunes library. I can't transfer the library to an external drive. The transfer hangs up on a specific tune. Anybody have any ideas. I am running OS 10.6 w/ a 2Ghz Duel core processor.

I seem to have a corrupted iTunes library. I can't transfer the library to an external drive. The transfer hangs up on a specific tune. Anybody have any ideas. I am running OS 10.6 w/ a 2Ghz Duel core processor.

Old Barry wrote:
via a usb connestion
So you are copyinbg the entire /Music/iTunes? folder to another drive by copying in a Finder window?

Corrupt iTunes Library file (.itl AND .xml)

I just got a new mac and decided not to put my music on it. Instead I kept my entire itunes library on an external hard drive. At some point, my hard drive must have disconnected while using iTunes and the library files became corrupt. When I see the files (in finder) on my mac, their size = Zero KB and their "kind of" = Alias. When I check out those same files on my windows computer, it says their actual numerical size (probably before they became corrupt). I've read that you can restore playlists with the .xml file but that is also corrupt.
Is there any way at all to repair/recover this library? PLEASE HELP I've worked very hard on creating this library.

I had this problem repeatedly and found that it seems to happen when you exit or restart Windows while iTunes is running. Note that when you close the iTunes window the program actually continues to run for a significant amount of time after its window disappears and even after the "saving iTunes library" message disappears. Basically iTunes starts writing out its library and then gets interrupted during the shutdown, causing the corruption.
I have solved the problem with the very pathetic solution of bringing up Task Manager, switching to the Processes tab, and waiting until the iTunes.exe process is gone from the list. Then I know it is done writing and it's safe to exit or restart Windows. I have never had corruption when I have done this.
(This isn't completely consistent with the posts above since one claimed that they restored a known good library after reboot and still had the problem. Perhaps that is something else, or perhaps the known good library had actually been corrupted before it was saved.)
Note that when the *.itl file is corrupted this way, it is pretty much always the case the the *.xml file is also corrupted. Since the XML file is text, iTunes is able to read what there is of it to rebuild the *.itl, but since the *.xml file is truncated, a lot of songs will be missing. It's a bit puzzling that Apple chose a library format that redundantly writes to two separate files but they write them out simultaneously so if one gets corrupted the other one almost always is corrupted as well.
The good news is that this problem is beyond simple to solve for Apple. The bad news is that for some inexplicable reason they keep releasing version after version with this same serious bug.

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

Is there a way to rebuild the ITunes Library XML file from my IPod?

After several promptings, I finally decided to install ITunes 7.4.3.1. Like a fool, I did not backup my entire library prior to doing this upgrade. Nothing is going to go wrong now mate, is it? Everything seemed to proceed just fine with the upgrade. I noticed that ITunes updated the XML Library in the process. Where the problems occured was after the upgrade, I was in the middle of listening to the latest "NPR Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" Podcast (I have some 3,000 downloaded podcasts in over 85GB worth of space) when ITunes crashed. When I brought ITunes back up, it had seemed to have reverted to an earlier backup ITunes Library XML file that I had made months ago.
I still have all of the .mp3, .m4a, .mp4 and .m4v files stored in my ITunes Music folder. Somehow when I brought ITunes back up, it had lost all of the music I had dowloaded from the ITunes store even though the files were still out on disk. It thought there were only 395 podcasts despite the 3,000 plus files out there.
Clearly, something went horribly wrong and I don't want to spend weeks downloading these files again when the only thing that really needs to be done is the ITunes Library XML data file needs to be rebuilt. It dawns on me that my IPod has an XML data file that save any updates I have not yet synced with it that it is quite current. Is there some way that I can sync my IPod with ITunes and copy the IPod XML data file into ITunes Library XML data file? I know that there must be some way to access the IPod since I can plug it into my Kenwood car stereo and read through the IPod's contents.
Is there anyone out there that has an idea that might be able to help me recover my ITunes library?
Thanks for any assistance,
--randyt00

The XML file is not used by iTunes. It is created for the use of other programs. Your library is in the itl file. SInce you still have the file you could simply add them to your library using the add folder option instead of downloading again.
What are library files
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93732
Rebuild library.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313

Is it possible to rebuild an iTunes library from the devices?

I recently got a serious virus on my computer and had to remove everything and practically rebuild the system. I forgot however (or didn't quite realise) to back up my iTunes library. I know I can reload the music I have on CDs but I am worried about all the music that I'd bought. Is there any way to retro build the library using my iPod devices (iPhone, iPod, iPod nano), i.e. transfer what is on the devices into a new iTunes library.
Many thanks for any help.

You should find this Zevoneer post useful:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9990366#9990366

Corrupt iTunes library .itl file - help turingtest2

turingtest2 - I've read majority of your suggestions for people who have had corrupt itunes libraries and I was wondering if you could help before I spend 2-4 hours trying to fix my library. Here is my issue:
I started iTunes today and found that only music in "the cloud" is showing up in my music library. I googled this issue and came across your suggestions.
My last backup .itl file is from December 30th so I don't really want to use this. I have made a ton of changes to my library since then.
The .iTunes Music Library.xml is fairly recent, however it is not as up-to-date as the library on my iPhone is. There are numerous playlists and changes I've made since then as well.
Is there a way I can export the format of my itunes library from my device? I'm not sure if the .itl or .xml is stored on the actual device, I assume it's probably not and just used for iTunes and then iTunes formats your device based on the converted .itl file.
I have all my music on my computer so that's not an issue, I just would like to have all the playlists I've created and changes I've made to my library. My ideal situation would be to grab this file from my device, re-create my library, then sync it up with this library, which will take some time but I'll still have the exact same setup.
Otherwise, I'll have to use the older iTunes Music Library.xml and try to re-create all my playlists and add/remove the changes I've made to the library.
Help is appreciated, thanks.

What are you seeing, a blank itunes library?
Add the music from your folders back into itunes, then.
Either drag & drop from a Windows Explorer screen into itunes - drop the top-level music folder onto the word LIBRARY near the top left.
Or do it through the itunes menu > File > Add Folder to Library

Rebuild my iTunes Library!

I accidentally changed the location of my iTunes library in the advanced settings. I have all my media files backed up on two different external drives. I thought one of my drives was where my iTunes library was stored (since I have so much music and movies I thought I had everything on my external drive as the library location. I was missing some files, so I accidentally chose to reset where the library was stored. But now when I click on any song, a message pops up saying that it cannot find the file and that I need to physically go and locate it. I have over 6,000 songs and cannot physically locate each one and now I am totally confused. Is there a way to have iTunes go and find all the music on my computer or backup and re-create the library. Help!!!! I am not sure what to do. I am running the most up-to-date version of iTunes and have a iMac running OSX 10.9.5, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7. Please help!!! I do not want to loose all my music!!!!!!

I think I may have it fixed. I had to close iTunes after pointing the library in the right location. All seems to be good for now. It looks like it is rebuilding.

Corrupted iTunes Library Issue - Help!

So I'm running an Intel-based version 10.6. Today I downloaded an Apple Update trying to fix a keyboard issue, and when i restarted found that my iTunes library is gone, save for maybe 400 apparently random songs. I have not lost any of the music itself, just the library. I can't seem to recover it - there's no evidence of the past library and restarting didn't magically bring it back.
Is there some step I'm missing to restore the previous iTunes library, or do I now have to manually go through and re-add everything? It's all scattered about different places, is the problem, and its about 22,000 songs. I have a 120G iPod synced to it, is there a way to sync just the library from the iPod to the iTunes?
My other idea is, since I'm almost out of space on the 120G iPod anyway, and since I have another way to charge it, maybe just backing all my music up onto a hard drive, deleting it all from the computer, buying a second iPod, and starting new and just not re-sync the old one ever (only charge it). Thoughts?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
PS - I don't want to erase all the music and re-add everything to iTunes from the iPod, because the last time I had to do so I lost some stuff.

The central file to everything is the library.itl file in your Music > iTunes folder. Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to that file. If you're lucky then it will be the one you need. If not then it is hard to determine where the file might be. Normally an update should not affect something like the iTunes library but if your file directory was having issues (did you verify with Disk Utility first?) then who knows? This is why one backs up before installing system software updates.
If you have a backup then let us know. You may be able to rescue a copy of the iTunes Library.itl from that and replace the bad copy in your iTunes folder.
Since your media are scattered about it may be a painstaking task adding them all again but it may come down to that. Again, back up...

Recommendations to restore/rebuild an itunes library?

greetings,
i've been trying different things without success... hopefully, someone has a suggestion for a better solution...
i use my old powerbook as my music server which is connected to my stereo. half of the music is on the internal drive and the other half in on an external drive. i keep the option to "copy files to the iTunes folder" turned off because the internal drive wasn't big enough...
recently the external drive failed. i have both drives completely backed up. i connected another larger drive as the external drive. i copied the iTunes folder and all music from the internal drive to the new external drive and manually merged the music files from my back up of the old external drive into that iTunes folder... i did find some duplications and thinned it out... so now i have an itunes library with all files in 1 place.
the part i'm having trouble with is to get iTunes to find and relink the files as the files from the old drive. presently itunes is still using the files on the internal drive for my testing... i'd backed up the libary with the "export" menu option... then i change the itunes preference to look for the music on the external drive... that did not get itunes to find the music on the external drive... this part i understand since itunes is not set up to "copy files" it is access the files still on the internal drive, but hasn't attempted to use the directory on the external drive...
as i expected from experince, if i try to access a song the which itunes has lost the like, it ask me if i want to locate it. when i click yes, it gives me an "open" dialog box and i can find it on the external drive and it reestablishes the link... with 2500 songs on the external drive, i don't want to do this manually...
if i manually drag and drop one of the songs on the new hard drive to itunes, itunes thinks the file is a new song and makes a duplicate entry in itunes list, but without the meta data (ratings, play counts, etc.) so this doesn't work... i've tried the "add to library" menu option under file. that unfortunately just duplicated every song in my library, without preserving the meta data and now the library which had 5000 songs, now has 10000 songs in the list... i quit itunes and renamed the library files with a temp name so i can open itunes and import the back up database. that process unfortunatly did not restore my library to the state before the "add to library" that duplicated all my song entires. the import seemed to start ok, but when it finshed, it said that it didn't find the songs and omitted the entries for the songs it couldn't find... so it lost about 1/2 of my songs, down to about 2500...
i can restore the names of the files i change and get back to the 10000 list... i should be able to find the copy of the file i'd copied to the external drive. so i expect that i'll be able to get back to the list of 5000... but i still don't have a good solution to relink the files...
so i'm a little uncertain about how to procede from here... if worse comes to worse, i can manually relink the songs and delete the duplicates... but that is not my preferred option...
my follow up to this is that i will be replacing my old powerbook in a few months and intend to transfer all the music and itunes library from the old computer to a newer model with a large enough internal drive to accomodate everything.. so i'll want to move everthing again in the not too distant future... but with the current problems, i'm not sure how to transfer files again even if i manually fix the links on the current set...
i'd sure appreciate any suggestions-
thanks-

You should find this Zevoneer post useful:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9990366#9990366

Corrupt iTunes Library .XML File for library with 3,000+ playlists.HELP!

Here is my situation. I've been ripping my cds to Lossless for almost a year now and I'm at about cd 3000. A few days ago my Mini got hung up on a cd and locked up. The cd drive even completely stopped spinning after about an hour. I did the only thing I could and turned the power off. It was totally unresponsive. When I re-booted I got the "iTunes Library has been renamed (damaged) error. I tried several fixes which didn't work such as simply renaming damaged(by removing the word damaged from the file name). Right now I have dragged the Library File and the XML file to my desktop and tried to restart iTunes to import the XML file but that's giving me none of my playlists. I have a playlist for every album in my library. I like this way so no need to comment on how it doesn't make sense to you. My database file is 43MB and the XML is just a few KB. My library is stored on an external drive. I will freak out if I have to create all these playlists again. I know that there is a playlist generator app that will automatically do this but I had these all last name, first name and aliases and how I wanted to find them so I put a lot of work into how I organized everything. What else can I try?

It's so funny you just replied to this because I've been waiting patiently for a week and I just now posted another snag I'm running into right above this post.
I never really had any kind of problems with all of the playlists. It never really hung up or anything like that at all & I'm using a very first generation Mac Mini. It would seamlessly play from any song I picked to any other song I picked by just clicking on it.
I had multiple reasons for using so many playlists if you want to read about them here:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1230475284

Corrupt itunes library.xml

The last time I opened iTunes, it told me my library file was corrupt and began importing my library XML file. iTunes doesn't keep a very good job of syncing the XML file with the library because only about 1/10th of the import was accurate. I lost all of my play counts and dates - added, modified, and last played. So, as it is, my library is almost informationally worthless. My question is, since I have the damaged library file, is there anyway to extract what wasn't corrupt from it, or to repair it by importing the music from my itunes music folder which contains all of my current music
Are there any common programs to do this? Any tips or tricks?
bmo

You might want to check versiontracker.com for iTunes utilities. There may be one that will salvage iTunes files. I don't have any personal experience with iTunes salvaging utilities, so I have nothing else to recommend. I do know that versiontracker.com is usually a pretty good place to check for useful utilities, if you don't find a specific answer by searching this discussion forum.
When you have your library repaired (hopefully a repair can be done) make regular backups of all your iTunes files you don't want to lose. The iTMS suggests this after each purchase I've made and I think it's a good practice to get in the habit of doing once a week, or once a month if you don't make too many changes to your library.

HT1449 Partially corrupted iTunes library after moving media folder

I moved my media folder to a new hard drive but somehow lost the library file in the process. I used my time machine backup to get an old library file and I placed it back in the iTunes folder on my home drive, but unfortunately it's a few months old, and additions to my itunes folder since then are invisible when I open iTunes. Is there a way to force the iTunes app to rebuild the library, thus recognizing my new downloads since the old library file was built? Songs I'd downloaded and copied from my CDs up to the old library build are working fine.

You probably should have done:
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the library.
To answer your question, drag the media folder on the other drive to the Automatically Add To iTunes folder. It will add anything that's not in iTunes and ignore anything that is.

Rebuild corrupt iTunes library?

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