Repair iTunes library

Hi,
I have two iTunes libraries on two separate external hard drives. Although the tunes list in the music library when I click to play the message comes back that the file could not be located. I think I may have to rebuild the libraries. Can someone remind me how to do this?
thks
Jim

Thanks.
I ended up calling Apple Support about this. After some wild goose chases, a guy had me add the ENTIRE LIBRARY to itself. iTunes doesn't add EXISTING ones twice. However, the dead tracks ARE added again. After that, you can go to File (holding option) Show Exact Duplicates. This will show all tracks and their new recognized twins, and delete all the older versions. This way removes all ratings, play counts, and removes song from playlists, but its easier than sifting through entire library and re-locating each track separately...
I was nervous about using the "Track CPR" script since it mentioned it might pull in the wrong song in some cases...

Similar Messages

Repair itunes library (damaged) file. Multiple iTunes libraries on an external harddrive. All libraries have been working fine. Do some "housecleaning" on a one of the large libraries 296GB. iTunes quit and now has damaged file. 296 GB still on HD.

How to repair itunes library (damaged) file. Multiple iTunes libraries on an external harddrive. All libraries have been working fine. Do some "housecleaning" on a one of the large libraries 296GB. iTunes quits and now has damaged file. 296 GB still on HD.

The duplication is unnecessary. Exporting creates a duplicate of the file. So now you'll have a duplicate of a duplicate. Exporting is not "working on" a file.
No it's not merging, it's exporting from one to the Finder and into another. No matter what lose something. If you export the Original you leave behind all the work you've done in iPhoto. If you export anything else, you lose the non-destructive editing and the ability to revert to the original. With merging you preserve that work. Yes, you can trash the old Library when you have completed the manoevre but no it's not the same thing as merging.
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue. But in brief:
Current gets you the iPhoto Preview, used for sharing via media browsers. It's a jpg, medium quality missing metadata. Original gets the file you imported, unchanged and then you can export different version of the current version at different qualities. If you choose to export anything except the Original you do not get a Raw. There's no such thing as an "edited Raw", and you lose the connection between the original and the exported version. That means you've taken a non-destructive workflow and turned it into a destructive one.
The Tiff will certainly be higher qulaity and less likely to suffer generational loss in future editing but the file sizes are vast, often more than 10 times the size of the jpeg.
Put it this way, it would be cheaper to buy Library Manager than the disk you'll need to contain all the Tiffs. Unless you plan on a lot of editing, I'd go for a high quality jpeg as a reasonable compromise.
To be clear:
So, I guess my new question is, how can I edit the Raw image and keep it in a RAW format that IPhoto recognizes so that I can reprocess without any loss at a future time, or is it that once you edit a RAW image, then it is no longer a RAW image?
Once you edit a Raw it can no longer be a Raw. End of.

My computer has a virus, it is getting repaired. (iTunes Library help)

So it will be gone for 5 days. However, they might delete the harddrive, which will delete all of my songs and iTunes itself.
I have not backed up my library at all. However, I recently synced my iPod Touch with all of my new music and apps.
My question is: How do I re-obtain all of my past purchases? If my computer's harddrive ends up getting deleted, I need a way to recover all of my purchases. What can I do?
Please help!

Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store

Had to delete iTunes for computer repair. Downloaded new version 10. Would not open -Message: "iTunes Library.itl cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes"

After getting message below iTunes will not open- just disappears off screen.
Had to delete iTunes for computer repair. Downloaded new version 10. Would not open -Message: "iTunes Library.itl cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes"

Unless you've recently attempted to downgrade iTunes this is probably a sign of a corrupt library file. See Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash.
tt2

Laptop has been repaired and for some reason itunes library has been wiped. Ipad still has all the music on, is there a way i can repopulate itunes?

My laptop has been repaired and for some reason my library on itunes has been wiped. Didn't pay attention and synced my iphone so have lost all the tunes off that now too. Ipad still has all the music on, is there an easy and free way to repopulate itunes from the music on the ipad?

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

Repairing "damaged" iTunes library?

Is there any way of repairing a damaged library file? Or is there a problem with the current version of iTunes that corrupts library files when it reads them? Here's my situation:
I opened iTunes (latest version 7.4.2) the other day and it said my library was corrupted/damaged, and it made a new library file. All the music files are intact. I tried to copy over a backup library file from a month ago (which worked without problems a month ago) but it said that it too was corrupted/damaged. This doesn't make sense to me, and seems to indicate another kind of problem rather than with the library file.
So my question is as follows. Is there a way to:
a. Do something to iTunes to make it recognize my Library as valid?
b. Repair a "damaged" library file somehow?
Thanks
-Kevin

RELAX -- i was able to restore my iTunes Library to work again without any changes or loss. -- see below for what i did, here's how it happened...
...when my ext HD was accidentally disconnected while running itunes, the app froze. I reconnected the HD and restarted itunes. A dialog box saying something like importing data came up and it stayed for a long period and i could see it was working the HD. i probabably should have let it run until it was done, but i pressed the stop option after 5 minutes because i thought it might be hung up. Seems all the HD jogging meant it was rebuilding the 160 Gb library -- who knew?
anyway, i guess the app was trying to do an automatic restoration process (we need to communicate better, iTunes...) The aborted process created a new library file that had only about a quarter of my music and no playlists, which obviously is not OK at all, so i came to this discussion for some clues...I saw a lot of discussion about reloading everything which seemed kinda wack, and was not an option so i pieced together some bits of best answers.
What worked for me was:
1.Quit iTunes.
2. Copy the largest, most recent library from the "Previous itunes library" folder to desktop. It will have a date appended to its name.
3. New default iTunes library and iTunes Library.xml files are created in the iTunes folder if you restarted iTunes when it couldn't read your preferred library. The itunes library file has an itunes logo on it and the iTunes Library.xml file is a text document. Trash these two new files. Don't bother with other Library files in sub-folders, because just the two top level Library files are read by the app.
4. Drag the library file from the desktop back into the iTunes Music folder. The file should be renamed just "iTunes Library" -- Don't worry about not adding a replacement iTunes Library.xml file - a new one will automatically regenerate if the iTunes Library can be read.
5. Start iTunes and ta-da...Hopefully that'll do it. Do something to celebrate, I was so stoked i signed up for this discussion to share what worked for me... Help a neighbor, or do something nice...

I tried repairing iTunes through the control panel but there is a new message that "the file 'itunes library.itl' could not be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes"

I tried repairing iTunes through the control panel but there is a new message that "the file 'itunes library.itl' could not be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes"

Unless you deliberately downgraded iTunes this may be a sign of a corrupt library. See Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash.
tt2

Repair damaged iTunes library?

Hello,
First of all, I know this question has been asked many times, but I'm quite frustrated by what poor answers there have been. None of them actually actually address how to repair a library, just replace it from back-ups, etc., which is not an option for me (you'll see why below).
This morning, to my horror, I got a notification that my library was damaged and that a new library would be created. "No problem," I said, "This has happened before. I will just use a copy from Previous Libraries."
I looked in there and the last copy of my library iTunes saved was from months ago; most of my ratings and playlists would be gone (all less than 6 months old).
So, let me put this clearly for anyone who replies: using a saved library from the Previous Libraries folder is not an option.*
I then found the method of using iTunes Library.xml to regenerate your old library with playlists and such. This looked promising except that when I launched iTunes and it made the new blank library, it also erased everything in the .xml file. Very, very stupid design on Apple's part. So now I have my damaged .itl file, my new, empty .itl file, as well as an overwritten, blank, .xml file.
Does anyone know any way to actually repair a damaged .itl file? Obviously if some part is corrupted, I expect to lose A playlist or SOME ratings or anything, but now I'm losing 50-ish playlists and 5000 track/album ratings and my heart is broken. I'm imagining it has some sort of hierarchical structure as the .xml file has, and hoping there exists a method of cleaving the unreadable records from an otherwise solid database.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Ian
*It would be normally, so on a side note, can anyone tell me why iTunes might not have been making back-ups regularly? Is there a way to force iTunes to make a back-up in Previous Libraries on a daily basis or something?

There isn't a way to repair a .itl file unless the damage is part of something greater happening to your computer where the directory is damaged and repairing that (e.g., Disk Utility) fixes files in general. The .itl can only be handled by the iTunes application. It is in proprietary binary format so it isn't something you can edit like a .xml.
iTunes does not do backups of any kind. The previous libraries are created when you update the iTunes application and it creates a new copy of the library to use with the newer iTunes version. If you want to automate backup you will need to include it as part of a larger scale backup of your computer (not a bad idea) or write something such as an Automator script to start iTunes where it copies the library files to a folder with a date time stamp and then starts the iTunes application.
What exact steps did you do in using the .xml? It should not have erased the .xml unless you put it in the iTunes folder of the new library you were creating.
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451 - use .xml version of library file to restore most of the information in your library. Has you drag the .xml to the Desktop then use the import command to create playlists.

My PC had a virus which damaged my itunes library. I have some songs that DO NOT play the full length. How do I repair the damaged songs??

My PC had a virus which damaged some songs on my itunes library. How do I repair those songs that are damaged (they don't play the full length of the song)??

if the contents are purchases from the iTunes store then you can transfer the purchases from the ipad and put them onto the computer
go to:
file>transfer purchases from ipad
but if the contents are not from the iTunes store(3rd party) than you may have to use extraction software to pull those files out of the ipad and put them onto the computer

HT1751 my computer just crashed, and i could not make a back up disc, can my collection be uploaded to my "repaired" computer from itunes library?

My computer crashed, and all data was lost, as i was unable to make back up discs prior to the repair. my entire itunes library was lost. has anyone had any success in retriving the library from itunes? i am assumming that a full back up should be within the itunes site.

It has always been very basic to maintain a backup of your media and other important files.
Use the backup of the computer to put everything back.
If you have failed to maintain a backup, most iTunes purchases can be redownloaded.
Download past purchases from iTunes
Installing iTunes has never caused content to magically appear.

ITunes library repair/moving to external network drive

Hello all, I wonder if you can help. I have searched high and low for a solution to my situation, but to no avail, and so you really are my last hope. I've been trying to get my iTunes library in order for quite a while and things have gone wrong, and it has really got me down as I'm worried I'm about to have to start again from scratch. It has taken me about 6 weeks (spread out over the course of a few months) to rip the 18,000 tracks in my library, then another month or so to get all the metadata right, weed out duplicates, etc. However, the music collection is so big I have had to place it on a network drive in batches (which has the benefit of being able to access it on any laptop at home - but whatever I do iTunes just doesn't like it.
I can't actually bring myself to recount everything I've done as it's a bit upsetting so I thought I might just summarise the situation that I'm now in to see if anyone could help. I would be very grateful.
I now have a network drive with an iTunes style folder structure within it's music folder, and within that artist/album/song.wav file path. For reasons I'll explain later I have many MP3s, a few AACs, and *lots* of WAV files - which sadly, don't hold track metadata, otherwise I could have just re-imported all the files into a new iTunes library. However correct metadata and having the files as WAVs are vital (again, I'll explain later), so it's not something I can change.
I have moved iTunes libraries before when I have moved PCs without any hitches, by moving the music folders and files and doing a search and replace in the library file to point to the new locations. I thought this would be the same situation. It's complicated by the fact that I had been hoping to put the music files and library on the network drive so that iTunes on my Mac and PC would be able to access it and write back metadata changes, play counts and so on.
I've not been able to work out how to do this as file paths to the network drive differ on both OS's - Windows paths are more like \\DISKSTATION\Music\ etc etc whereas Mac ones are more like file://localhost/Volumes/Music etc etc
I don't understand networking very well so quickly gave up on the idea of trying to get my library to work off two machines with two OSs (though is someone can explain how/if this is possible, I'd like to try it again).
Now I was left trying to get the library to work with iTunes on either just the Mac or just the PC, and I haven't managed it yet. When I have been experimenting with amending the file paths in the library and opening it iTunes again I get little WiFi style icons, like the ones you see in the radio section of iTunes - indicating an audio stream - next to every track, and if you click play, it tries to open the track - but doesn't - and keeps trying. It does this on both machines. I've tried windows style file paths on the PC, and Mac ones with OSX, I've tried referring to the drive's network IP address and so on - but can't get it to work. Most of the time it behaves as described above. Some times it deletes the whole library and starts again from scratch. At present the file seems to have reverted to the point after I had added all my tracks but before I'd amended the metadata.
(I have a backup of the library file with all the correct data in it, but pointing to files in the wrong places, so I am happy to experiment.)
I've read a lot of threads on similar external drive nightmares people have been having, and it is often mentioned elsewhere to consolidate the files to the iTunes folder once you have told iTunes of the new location, but this wouldn't have been practical - there was over 400gb of them to move over a (relatively) slow network. And I can't consolidate now with the music files on the network drive as iTunes has all the information in the library, it just seems to not be able to find the files.
So my question is what am I doing wrong and/or how can I fix the library to point to the files in the new location? It must be possible as I have a version of the XML file with all the artist/album/filename.wav structure intact - it's just getting the bit before it correct and getting iTunes to accept the library once I've amended it. Is there a way to get my library to recognise the files on the network drive properly - even just on one machine?
I would be happy to start reloading tracks into a new, clean library but there is no metadata WITHIN the wav files like there is in the MP3 and WAVs and so I'll be left with a lot of wavs that aren't titled properly (and I really can't face going back and adding the titles and artists for thousands of tracks again). Before moving the library I *did* rename the files with artist - track - genre - year etc. etc. information - so if there was a way for iTunes to rebuild the library with information from the filename, I'd be happy to try it. But even the great Doug's iTunes Scripts website can't even offer anything like that.
To explain the point about the files being all WAVs - the files are going to be used for broadcast and so need to be in the best quality in a format that can be opened - FLAC won't work. And similarly, the metadata is important as it will be used in a professional situation too.
Any help would be gratefully received as if this doesn't work I seriously think I will stop buying music as I don't want to add to the problem! I can't face months of ripping everything in again. I'm so fed up.

Yes it's quite possible, that's how I have mine set up, and Moving iTunes Music will tell you how to go about it.
Pitfalls? Can't really think of any.
Regards
TD

Repairing HDD without loosing itunes library

My HDD has been corrupted and I need reboot it and re-install all my software programs. If I save my itunes library on an external hard drive and I re-install itunes once the laptop drive is fixed, how will I ensure that the re-installed Itunes will recognise the library and my ipods?

Assuming your iTunes folders and files are intact, you need to save the iTunes folder from My Music with all its subfolders.
Copy My Music\iTunes onto an external drive.
When you have fixed your internal drive, install iTunes but don't add any music at this stage.
With iTunes closed, drag the iTunes folder out of My Music to your desktop.
Then copy the iTunes folder from the external drive into My music to replace the one you dragged out.
When you next open iTunes you should have your old library back.
If you really are using windows 2000, the last compatible version is iTunes 7.3 which you can download from here if needed:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/itunes732forwindows2000.html

How can I put my mp3 files into my iTunes library? Every time I download a song from a website and try to drag it to my library, it won't add on. How can I fix this?

Back then when I had the older update with iTunes i never had this problem with trying to put my mp3 files of music into my iTunes library. Now it doesn't want to be put into the library. Once I try to drag the music file to the iTunes library nothing happens, it just keeps showing a cancellation sign with my mouse. So how can I fix this?

Hi William.
The problem is probably that the index is corrupt and you need to completely re-create it rather than rebuilding individual mailboxes. I have no idea what the situation really is now after having tinkered with the contents of ~/Library/Mail/, though, so the following procedure may or may not work.
Verify/repair the startup disk (not just permissions), as described here:
The Repair functions of Disk Utility: what's it all about?
After having fixed all filesystem issues, if any, and making sure that there’s enough space available on the startup disk (a few GB, plus the space needed to make a backup copy of the Mail folder), try this:
1. Quit Mail if it’s running.
2. In the Finder, go to ~/Library/Mail/. Make a backup copy of this folder, just in case something goes wrong -- e.g. by dragging it to the Desktop while holding the Option (Alt) key down.
3. Locate Envelope Index and move it to the Trash. If you see an Envelope Index-journal file there, delete it as well.
4. Open Mail. It will tell you that your mail needs to be “imported”. Click Continue and Mail will proceed to re-create Envelope Index -- Mail says it’s “importing”, but it just re-creates the index if the mailboxes are already in Mail 2.x format.
Note: For those not familiarized with the ~/ notation, it refers to the user’s home folder, i.e. ~/Library is the Library folder within the user’s home folder.

"Backup" of iTunes library didn't load everything.

I’m new to iTunes, so please bear with me.
I’m now running iTunes 11.3 under Windows 7 Home Premium SP1.
My son-in-law bought a used PC from a friend some years ago and “inherited” an iTunes installation with hundreds of songs along with it. He occasionally synched his ipod with the PC, and I created what I thought were backups a few times by simply copying the primary folder to an external drive.
I recently decided to do some much-needed housecleaning, and among other things, I completely removed all parts of the current iTunes environment. I installed iTunes 11.3 and added the latest backup files from the external drive with the copy option. I was surprised to find that iTunes skipped a lot of files on the way in without any explanation. I need help in determining why this happened and what I can do about it, if anything.
I’m sure that you need more information in order to analyze this problem, but I don’t know what you need; therefore, I ask that you tell me what you need, and how and where to retrieve it, and then we can get down to business.
Thanks.

Technically your son-in-law should have wiped media that came with the computer and put on his own content, unless the original owner of the computer was giving up their ownership of the content at the same time and not keeping copies.
With that out of the way iTunes normally stores all media content inside the iTunes Media folder unless you change some options. By default the preference "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to the library" is enabled. If this is turned off and you drag in files stored somewhere else, like an external hard drive, memory stick, desktop, downloads folder etc, iTunes will refer to those files at their original locations.
This might explain why there were fewer files imported than expected. That said if you restored the library correctly there should have been no need to import anything.
Alternatively there could be a permissions issue. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows for details.
Or if the files were in .wav format they don't carry a tag, in which case you might find the missing content is all in the unknown artist, unknown album area of the library. Should this be the problem then if the files are in the correct artist & album folders in the backup, or you have access to older .itl files stored in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder, I have techniques for reconstructing the lost data.
To backup an iTunes library effectively see Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy.
tt2

My MacBook Pro won't let me mount my external Hard Drive. Just trying to restore my iTunes library.

My MacBook Pro, less than a year old, started acting weird. I backed everything up, took it in to Best Buy, who sent it out to Apple Repair and they put in a new motherboard.
It's running on Mac OS X Version 10.7.4
Now I am trying to put everything back on the computer from my external Maxtor 80GB Hard Drive. MacBook Pro won't recognize the external drive.
I tried Disk Utility. I can see the external drive, and did a repair disk and verify disk. Several times. Each time it says "This partition map seems to be ok."
However, I am not able to mount it, as that option is greyed out and i can't select it.
Also, under the Icon for the external hard drive, it has the Macintosh HD Icon (essentially my computer). I tried to restore this way, didn't work.
I need this to mount, as it has all of my itunes stuff on it; dozens of my sons movies, and my entire iTunes library.
PLEASE HEEEEELP!! HOW CAN I MOUNT THIS EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE? Thank you in advance

Try things in this USB/Firewire faq.
DALE

Repair iTunes library

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