Saving Playlist and Playcount

Hi, I googled the answer to this one, but got some conflicting help so I'd figure this was the best place for help.
Can anyone give me an idiot proof, step-by-step guide to saving playlists and playcounts. I have a Dell Inspiron 1521 on Windows Vista. My C drive is about to totally crash and is on its last leg. For the sake of my whole computer I am just going to format and start over. But I'm sort of attached to my playlists and would really like to keep my play counts as well. Please let me know what I can do.
Thanks!

They are stored in a file named iTunesLibrary.itl
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
It also stores the path to the music files. So when you rebuild your system, put the actual music files back in the same places they were before.
If you have been letting itunes manage everything and have been using the itunes defaults, all you need to do is back up the top-level itunes folder. It has the ITL file in it, and the music subfolders.
If you have files scattered around your hard drive, it's more difficult.
You need to consolidate your itunes library.
Don't forget to deauthorize your PC before you reinstall the OS.

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IPod Nano synced with itunes after checking a box now playlists and playcounts are gone

Hello, I have a macbook pro with OS X and and iPod Nano 7th Generation, and recently I entered iTunes with my iPod connected and I entered the iPod tab in the side bar. From that tab I entered 'Music' and checked. Erasing my playlists and playcounts?!

Hello, I have a macbook pro with OS X and and iPod Nano 7th Generation, and recently I entered iTunes with my iPod connected and I entered the iPod tab in the side bar. From that tab I entered 'Music' and checked. Erasing my playlists and playcounts?!

How do I retain playlists and playcounts in iTunes update 11.1.4.62?

I updated my iTunes to the new version 11.1.4.62 and it did not retain my playcounts and playlists I had created. I copied and renamed the iTunes Library folder before I did the download. I also have an XML document in my folder I copied as well. I also want to transfer all of the music I got from Amazon and other similar sites. None of these songs transfered after the new update.
Can I restore my computer to an earlier time or is there another way of transferring all of the songs with retained playcounts, playlists, etc.?
Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the tip Brenden. I did this before I attempted to download the new iTunes update. However, none of my play counts or playlists were saved. I also have a problem with none of my music I bought or downloaded from non-iTunes sources show up in iTunes after the new update.
I believe as a last resort, I am going to transfer my music from my iPod onto my computer. Is there a particular software that I can download or purchase that you recommend that will allow me to transfer the music in order for me to keep my playlists and play counts, etc.?
Thanks again for commenting to my original post.
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Playlists and play count disappeared

Hi all,
I have just completed a reinstall of my OS following an error on my HDD.
I have used a Time machine backup to import all into the new operating system, yet all playlists and playcounts have disappeared.
Some questions:
- Would syncing with my Ipad provide some relief (ie could the iPad overwrite the information on the Mac?)
- Would the AppleTV (not the brand new one....) be able to attach new info to the Library?
- Would a normal iPod do the trick?
Lastly, Airtunes sees the remote speakers of my two AppleTVs, but iTunes does not allow me to see them into the sidebar....
Thanks for your help on my (many) questions.
ciao
ale

See this Article for some background information: What are the iTunes Library files?. It is important to note that there is a new naming convention for the iTunes .ITL database file when moving from version 4.8 or below to 4.9 or higher. The file names are consistent from 4.9 to 5.0 and 6.0.
This Article is useful: No music shows up in iTunes after upgrading
As may be the concepts in this one: All of my music is missing after downgrading from iTunes 4.9

Transferring Files and Playcounts

I have created a new profile on my computer and plan on deleting my old one. However, all of my iTunes music is located in the iTunes program on that file. Is there any way for me to transfer over all of my playlists and playcounts easily? Or do I have to manually add every song and playcount into the new iTunes? thank you!

I don't use iTunes with Windows, so I am only guessing, but you probably only need to copy over the iTunes files from the old profile to the new one including the two files that contain the information about playlists, counts, etc. See here for what I mean...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93732
A quick check would be to simply open iTunes under the new account and check if everything is ok before killing the old account. Although you might want to leave the old profile on your computer for a while until you are sure everything is ok.
Patrick

Help moving all songs. playlists, and apps to a new computer ?

so i've finally gotten a new laptop to replace my old dell one and now i am faced with the problem of moving my library to my new computer. my old computer is still in use, however, and so is my old external harddrive. i have bought a new external harddrive to go with my new laptop.
is there a way that i could copy all my songs into my new harddrive, keep the playlists, playcounts etc. but organise the songs differently on the new harddrive ? because i want to reorganise all my music before putting it into itunes, however i still want the playlists and playcounts to be there. so i guess what i'm trying so ask is if theres a way to completely reorganize my music on the new harddrive, then import that into the itunes on my new computer, complete with playcounts and playlists ?
also, i own an ipod touch 3G, so how would i move all my apps to the new computer as well ?

Click here and follow the instructions.
(33125)

ITunes not saving music, playlists and apps on start up

Using iTunes 10.5.2 on Win 7 OS. Everytime I open itunes all my music, playlists and apps are gone. I can find and reload all my files and then all works well until I close iTunes and shut down computer. When I reopen iTunes after shut down, everything is missing again. iTunes will not keep my files in the software and I have to relaod everything again. A real pain....

Can people email me at [email protected]?

Playlists, Ratings, & Playcounts Not Transferring

A while ago I had to send in one of my computers to the shop due to some internal hardware problems that needed to be fixed. I had to back up all of my files and I moved all of my iTunes (using my iPod as a way to transfer the library) to another computer with no problem. All songs, playlists, ratings, playcounts, etc were moved to my other computer.
When I got my first computer back I tried to transfer everything back, only to find that this time my playlists, ratings, and playcount did not come along, though the songs, albums, artists and everything else did. What did I do differently this time and how can I get my playlists, ratings, and play counts moved back?
Thanks!

I've got a similar situation to what NC had. I had my main hardrive wiped clean, and the OS reinstalled. I have now installed ITunes 7.02.16. The version that all of my songs and my Ipod are on is 6.0.5.20, which is on another backup drive.
How do I import to the newer version, saving the songs, play counts, ratings etc.?
I have tried the import function in the ITunes File menu but can't get it to find the old files.
Does anyone know what type of file I'm looking for?
When I connect my Ipod to my computer, a message comes up that says that my Ipod is synced to another library. It asks if I want to erase my ipod and sync it up to the newer Itunes, which I don't want to do.
Any Ideas?
Ipod 5th gen. Video 60 gb Windows XP Pro

How to restore playlists and ratings after hard drive format

Several people have reported problems restoring paylists and ratings after reformating a hard drive. Here is what worked for me and what did not.
I had to reformat my hard drive. Before doing that I exported my playlists from itunes to another hard drive as an xml file. I also copied the folder with all my songs to another drive. (Also of course had it backed up on DVDs.)Then I copied the itunes library files (see url http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93732) to anoher drive.
After reformating my hard drive and installing the lastest verion of ITunes, I copied the actual songs back into a subfolder in my music folder. I then told iTunes to import the subfolder with the actual music. That resulted in a restored library that lacked playlists and ratings.
Don't do this
I purchased Anapod ($30.00) because its web page said (http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/):
"Anapod CopyGear is an easy-to-use, compact utility for copying music tracks, playlists, podcasts, photos, and videos from your iPod back to your PC."
Well, I did transfer 104 playlists back to my iTunes library through the Anapod backup function. However, the transfer also put more than 20 gigs of duplicate songs into the library. All of the songs listed in the playlists were duplicated in iTunes. I could find no way in Anapod to simply copy the ratings and the playlists. Anapod documentation was outdated. For example the online help pages said that playlists could not be backed up. This was confusing because I had just done that.
"In a future release we will be adding the ability to backup your iPod playlists. This will allow you to generate backup files of your iPod playlists on the computer. These files will not be usable on your computer though. They can only be used to restore playlists at a later time on your iPod (assuming it still carries all the audio files referred to in that playlist)." This text is from url http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/support/tome/tx2pc.php#5.1.2
I sent requests to Anapod for help today, but they have not been answered yet. Docs truly did not seem to help. Would have been good if there was a pdf file rather than just an online help html file that seemed outdated.
This worked for me:
I ended up having iTunes wipe out the entire library because of all the dups Anapod made. (Made sure that iTunes only wiped out library and did not delete actual songs from hard drive. Then I had iTunes import my subfolder with songs again. That brought me back to where I was before wasting money and much time on Anapod.
After I had my iTunes library up (without ratings and playlists and after finding Anapod did not meet my needs.
1. I imported the xml file to which I had exported playlists before reformating hard drive. That gave me the playlists back although an error message said some items not copied because the music tracks listed in playlists were not in my iTunes library. --Possibly I deleted songs after playlists were downloaded some time ago to iPod. Importing the xml file is probably not necessary because of what I did below.
2. Quit iTunes
3. Because my song ratings were still missing, I then moved the iTunes library files made by the new version of iTunes into a different folder.
4. Then I put my old version 4 library files into the place where the library files should be.
5. Then I crossed my fingers and restarted iTunes. It took awhile to start and said it was updating my library files. Now I have back most or all of my playlists and ratings.
If problems develop, I will probably wipe out iTunes library and use Anapod to move everything from my iPod into a folder and tell iTunes to import that folder. That approach might avoid the dups that Anapod makes when restoring playlists to iTunes.
So my message is keep your actual songs backed up somewhere (such as DVD's and anotehr hard drive) and keep a duplicate copy of your library files somewhere not on your hard drive. With these items you should be able to restore iTunes library to its former status.
Sorry for the length of this message. Hope it helps someone.

The simple version of above:
iTunes Files to Backup (anytime you make additions or changes to the Music or Library that you want to retain)
1) All music files in their current folder structure (usually located in and under the ‘iTunes Music’ folder)
2) The Library database file: ‘iTunes Library.itl’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
3) The Library XML file: ‘iTunes Music Library.xml’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
4) Any XML playlist files created for Playlist retention
5) The two iTunes.pref files (optional)
-- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes.pref
-- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer Inc\iTunes.pref
6) The XML file of Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes saved from the main Library and created by Otto’s SaveRatings script (also optional, but recommended):
“Download this: http://ottodestruct.com/itunes/SaveRatings.zip . It's a program, just run it like any other program. Run it on the machine where you're copying the info from BEFORE you move the files to the new machine. Click the "Save Ratings" button and it'll create a ratings.xml file. Now when you move the files, move the program and this file as well. Then after you make your new iTunes library, run it again and click the "Restore Ratings" button. Voila, all your information is back in the Library. Well, most of it anyway, it's not perfect. It'll tell you what songs it couldn't figure out though, and there's usually not very many.”

ITunes for Windows freezes when importing a library. I have a large but not huge library of mostly iTunes purchased music on two authorized computers and would like to sync the files, export the library as a playlist, and import it on the other computer.

I am running iTunes for Windows 10.2.2 on Windows 7 Home. I have my iTunes library on both this computer and another authorized machine running Windows 7 Professional. I have a large but not enormous library, as I'm one of those people who doesn't pirate, use torrents, borrow from a dozen friends, or whatever other shades of gray you might imagine. It's mostly iTunes purchases with my old CD collection imported. I have started using the following technique to sync my libraries between my two authorized computers, an ability which you can probably all agree should one day be added to iTunes -- that would be different from Home Sharing, because the music would be stored locally and thus available on the road. With the added benefit of the entire library being backed up on the other machine in real-time. Anyway, when I switch from my desktop to laptop and vice versa, I use the following technique:
Connect both machines to the home network. One machine is the "Active" machine, which has most recently been used for iTunes media, purchases, ratings, etc.
On the "Active" machine, File-->Library-->Export. Save the file as "Library.xml" on the shared drive of the other machine.
Right-click "Library.xml" where it's been saved, and open another file that has two lines in it: The root path of the iTunes library on one machine and the root path of the iTunes library on the other machine.
Do a find/replace all in Notepad to make the library XML file point to where the files will be saved on the "Inactive" machine.
Run Microsoft SyncToy to synchronize the files between both music libraries; the most recent files win. This avoids copying the entire multi-gigabyte library over the network.
Open iTunes on the "Inactive" machine.
Go to Music, Select All, Delete. Keep files.
Do the same for Movies, Music Videos.
Go down to Playlists, select the top one, hold down the delete button until they're all gone.
File-->Library-->Import Playlist. Choose the "Library.xml" file you saved.
First a status bar comes up that says, "Importing library." It has the continually-scrolling progress bar, not the one that starts on the left and steadily creeps right. Then after about 30 seconds, that clears out. Wait. Typically a few minutes. Eventually a status bar will pop up saying something like, "Evaluating gapless playback information," or something like that.
The "Inactive" computer is now the "Active" computer. I can now play my library, it has all my playlists and metadata from the other machine.
Delete all the duplicate playlists named "Music," "Genius," "Purchased," and "iTunes DJ."
Well, I just upgraded to iTunes 10.2.2 a few days ago and tried to do this again like I've done it dozens of times before. Now, iTunes just goes unresponsive after the library import. It got through the "Importing library" bar to the long wait and stopped. I can still multiprocess and use other programs, but iTunes is hovering back there not responding to clicks. Task Manager doesn't seem to think iTunes is using my CPU, and I don't see my hard drive rattling. Any thoughts on why iTunes might hang up when importing a large library?
... Also, please help lobby Apple to come up with a network sync tool built into iTunes for a user with multiple authorized computers. Something different than Home Sharing so I can pull my laptop off the network and still have the synced library with me. And all my metadata changes will sync. The technique I use seems a little kludgey, don't you think?

iTunes isn't an editor. You need an app that's intended for editing audio files, like Adobe Audition (http://www.adobe.com/products/audition.html) or Audacity (free in the App Store).

When I export a playlist and then open in excel, do whatever sorting I want, I then save the file and reimport into itunes but not all the songs are there. It appears to be from "comma's" in the song name. Any solutions?

I see songs such as "Monday, Monday" or "Paint It, Black" or even the artist name such as "Fireballs, with Jimmy Gilmer" which have comma's in them, being a problem when I try to do the following:
1. Export a playlist which contains songs which are all there and play fine, but some have comma's in the title such as listed above.
2. I then open that file in Excel and bring it in as a Tab-delimited file. Everything lays out fine, and all the songs are thing (including those with comma's).
3. I then sort the varoius fields I want (which I can't do in i-tunes because i-tunes won't sort it properly), and resave the file as a newly named file, which is also a .txt file.
4. I then import that playlist into my itunes. It is exactly the same songs that I just had exported but i-tunes says some of the songs can't be found.
I have traced this problem to comma's in the file name of the song such as listed above. There must be a solution to this either as the file is opened in excel or in how it's saved or some other solution short of having to rename song/artists without using comma's.
Thanks.

The additional problem is the file name of the song itself. Even if I were able to delete the commas or replace with a space for example, changing the file name would result in itunes not being able to find the file. I would have to go through each file (out of about 15,000+ songs) to find any that have titles such as described in this thread and change not only the song and artist in the fields, but changing the mp3 file itself.
I fear that I am really pretty much going to have to start with a list of songs that have no comma and then do a file compare to find those songs with commas and then just physically moving them into a new playlist I'm trying to create, but this is a royal pain as I want to be able to create a variety of playlists based on these chart dates/peak positions.
I'm trying to sort the songs in this manner: I use different fields in itunes so that I can put the "peak position" of each song based on Billboard charts, as well as the date the peak position was acheived. I use the "comment box" for that. I use the "grouping" field for my peak position.
So I end up with something like "10/14/1980" in the comment box as the peak position for a song which is in the grouping field, and so forth. If I try to sort the comments column in itunes for example, it won't sort properly. If I sort the Grouping field, it will bring up all the "1's", but that's followed by "10", 11, ...19, then "2", etc. This is why I want to export the playlist and sort it as I want, and then reimport the playlist into itunes.
What I'm ultimately trying to achieve is a year-by-year peak position playlist so that I end up with every #1 song (in this case) from, say, January 1st 1980 and then every #1 song in sequential order for the rest of the year falls in line. I have chart position dates from 1955 through 1999. I have entered in all the data from Billboard books I own so I can really create some amazing playlists, but these commas are problematic. Had I known this ahead of time I would have made "Monday, Monday" as "Monday Monday" and not included commas, but it's too late for that.
Any suggestions?

ITunes Playlist and Time Machine

I just spent a couple of hours making a playlist for an event. Then I made a couple more playlists for different parts of the event. All the while, Time Machine was dutifully making its backups. I was listening to some songs in the playlist and deleting ones that might not fit after all, when I accidentally deleted the entire playlist. No confirmation dialog from iTunes; it was just gone.
I hadn't lost hope yet, as I was certain that I could just use Time Machine to scroll back in time and retrieve the lost list. But that wasn't the case. The only version of "iTunes Music Library.xml" was the most recent version. For some reason, Time Machine doesn't keep an incremental backup of it.Most likely it's because it has to be kept exactly up-to-date or there would be orphaned/missing songs.
It figures. The one time I actually NEED time machine, it didn't seem to work. Unless I'm missing something.
Any ideas? At the very least, how does one re-enable the prompt on deleting playlists?

Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl contains the playlists but it also contains all the other information about what you see in iTunes such as items added, ratings, etc. If you last backup was not long ago and you have made almost no changes to your library since then, you could just replace that one file an more or less revert to what it was when the library file was last saved. If you have added a few songs you could just find them in your media folders and drag them to iTunes again to bring things up to date.
If the above is not acceptable then there may be other ways to do it such as saving the old library file in another location on your computer, opening it in iTunes and exporting the playlists, then re-importing them in the current library. This may also require some file editing and I haven't tried any of this to be able to advise you specifically at this point.

Lost all my playlists and some music - how to restore?

I'm running itunes on XP and when I booted iTunes today, all my playlists were missing and lots of music.
I don't know of any major crashes or problems with my maching, but the music is gone from iTunes. I went to "mycomputer" and actually found all the tunes, but iTunes cannot find them, and of course, I lost all the playlists. (I've got multiple playlists for each family member and 2 bands in which I play....)
Any ideas on how to restore the playlists and tunes? Why won't iTunes find the music that is actually in the iTunes music folder? I know i could probably drag all the tunes into iTunes again, and then make new playlists but it would take a lot of organizing......grrr
Also, I have almost everything saved on my iPod. Is there some way i can transfer it all back to iTunes from my iPod?
thank you,
[email protected]

Copying from iPod to Computer threads...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5044027&#5044027
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=893334&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=797432&#797432
Also these useful internet articles...
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-co mputer/
http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/02/how-to-get-music-off-your-ipod/
http://playlistmag.com/secrets/2006/12/twowaystreet20/index.php
http://playlistmag.com/help/2005/01/2waystreet/
Patrick

How do i overcome "itunes library cannot be saved" message and problems?

Hi fellow itunes users
This is the second time i've had this problem in the past few months. I was working on my itunes for hours getting playlists in order, ripping songs from CDs, etc and all was going well. I burned a whole load of CDs with the new playlists and songs so no major loss other than time if I wanted the CDs replicated.
I had the message come up, "itunes library cannot be saved" when i was closing the program down which worried me as I had no option but to accept this. I switch the machine on the following day and boot up itunes to find all the songs I saved and playlists made disappeared. Clearly they were not saved but and there is no way to get them back as i did not do a time machine back up at that moment but what bothers me is if it happens again.
Can anyone suggest a way to prevent this from happening again?
Your reply and assistance will be greatly appreciated!!
Many Thanks

You can verify your directory by running Disk Utility > first aid verify.
Have a look at how space is being used:
OmniDiskSweeper (free) - http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/download/
OS X Lion: About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4878 - “You may notice a difference in available space statistics between Disk Utility, Finder, and Get Info inspectors. This is expected and can be safely ignored. The Finder displays the available space on the disk without accounting for the local snapshots, because local snapshots will surrender their disk space if needed."
Hidden local backups with Mac OS X Lion filling up your MacBook hard disk! - http://blog.valerio.de/post/19238158977/hidden-local-backups-with-mac-os-x-lion- filling-up-your - Time Machine using local drive to store backups when external drive is not available.

I have a 60G classic with a non-functioning center select button. Can I set a specific playlist and change settings by hooking up to my PC and then maintain those settings and that playlist once I go remote?

I have a 60G classic with a non-functioning center select button. Can I set a specific playlist and change settings by hooking up to my PC and then maintain those settings and that playlist once I go remote?

I'm having a little trouble understanding the part about your password having to be reset. Why is that happening??
Let's start with Firefox's settings:
(1) You can configure the password manager feature on this tab:
orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Security
There is a checkbox to enable/disable the feature.
There also is a "Saved Passwords" button to review and remove any passwords you do not want Firefox to keep.
That tab also has a feature to set a Master Password so that no one can use your saved passwords without knowing the Master Password. You may need to exit Firefox in order for Firefox to ask for that again.
Related articles:
* [[Password manager - Remember, delete and change saved passwords in Firefox]]
* [[Use a Master Password to protect stored logins and passwords]]
(2) Site-specific permissions
If you want to use the password manager for other sites but NOT a particular site, you can configure that in the Permissions Manager.
In a new tab, type or paste '''about:permissions''' in the address bar and press Enter.
After the page loads, use the search box in the upper left corner to narrow down the list to the site you want to configure. Highlight the site on the left side, and on the right side, choose Block under Store Passwords.
(3) Form autocomplete suggestions
Separate from passwords, Firefox remembers entries you've made into forms (in most cases) and lists the matching ones below the form field in a drop-down.
To clear a suggestion, press the down arrow key to highlight it and press the Delete key.
To turn off this feature, see this article: [[Control whether Firefox automatically fills in forms with your information]].
To review and selectively edit or delete form history entries, you need an add-on. For example, you could try this one: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/form-history-control/

Saving Playlist and Playcount

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