Utility to clean iTunes music library?

Hello,
I recently lost a massive amount of music from my iTunes library. The songs are still listed in my 'Music - Library' but they are no longer on my hard drive. They were deleted from the hard drive by an unknown software application.
Is there an Apple - iTunes application that will produce a report of all the music files that do not have a corresponding source file? I can make a list mannualy by trying to play one song from each CD but this will take me a week.
Then when I am done - how do I clean up my library?

Thank you for the quick way to identify the problem tracks. After I make a list of all the artist's and tracks that are missing I will need to delete the invalid entries.
Do you know how I can select them for deletion?
Thank you!

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ITunes Music lIbrary Sharing problems; repeatedly asks to authorize computer after it has already been successfully authorized

Having a very frustrating issue. I want to share music from my iMac's iTunes Music Library to my MBP. Purchased music plays fines on my iMac but not on the MBP. I can see the iMac's shared iTunes library from iTunes on my MBP. I have successfully authorized both of my computers using the same iTunes account username and password. When I try to play any purchased iTunes music on the MBP, it asks me to authorize the MBP again. Then it verifies that it is already authorized. Trying to play the same song again asks me to authorize my computer again at iTunes, over and over, ad nauseum. I can log into my iTunes account from both computers (via iTunes) which verifies that the username and password are correct. Both computers have the same version of the MacOS and iTunes, 10.5.8 & 10.4.1, respectively. It does this from multiple user accounts on the MBP. I went to iTunes and deauthorized both computers and reauthorized them again, no change. I uninstalled iTunes & all iTunes preferences and downloaded a fresh iTunes 10.4.1 from Apple, no change. I searched the Apple Communities and tried the suggested fixes in the knowledgebase article, http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1389 with no change. I also ran Disk Utility and rebuilt disk permissions but there were no problems found.
Short of doing clean install of the OS or even a reformat and restore, does anyone have any other suggestions. Thanks in advance.

I had the same problem, the only way to fix it is to oddly enough de-authorize your computer and reauthorize it and you'll have the correct number of authorized computer again.
I do not know why iTunes does this maybe someone else can explain why?

Is there a way to transfer my iphone/ipod music to my itunes music library?

my 1st generation iphone was synced with my laptop. then my hard drive crashed. so now i have a new hard drive. in order to sync my iphone with this one, it says it will erase all my music. what can i do? i heard about the software senuti, but i cannot get it to work, and i am worried that if it unlocks my iphone, it may render it useless, or something worse. what can i do? can anybody help? apple tells me i cannot transfer the songs from my iphone/ipod into my itunes music library because some of them were not purchased from itunes. i understand business. it's about money and copyright rights, etc...yada, yada, yada. i just hate to lose my songs (625 of them). i have no backup for the songs. i learned a lesson. BACKUP your stuff!
<Edited by Moderator>

iTunes includes an option to transfer content that was purchased from the iTunes Store from an iPod or iPhone, but this is for content that was purchased from the iTunes Store ONLY.
With your iPhone connected and without syncing, at the iTunes menu bar go to File and select Transfer Purchases From - the name of your iPhone.
Any content not purchased from the iTunes Store will be lost, which is why maintaining a backup of your iTunes library along with all other important data stored on an external drive used for backup purposes only is so important. The iPhone is not designed nor intended to be a backup device.
If your iTunes content that was not purchased from the iTunes Store was imported into your iTunes library from music CDs, dust them off and start importing them back into your iTunes library.
Using a 3rd party utility or application that provides for this but is not supported by Apple is your only other option.

Can I add the iTunes Music Library (old) to iTunes Music Library?

Hi, I'm asking this question on behalf of a friend and I don't want to give her incorrect advice ... She has an Intel G5 iMac running 10.5.8 and iTunes 9.0 (she has downloaded but not installed the iTUnes 9.1 update).
Her problem is that she has deleted certain songs from her 'Jane Doe's iPod Playlist' so that she didn't have those songs on her iPod - I don't know the method she used to do this, nor does she. However, it has resulted in those songs now not showing up in the iTunes music library on her computer. There's just an exclamation mark and a dialog box asking if she would like to locate the songs.
She asked me to help her out and I discovered that all these songs (there are dozens- more than a hundred - of them) are still on her computer in a folder called 'iTunes Music old' - this is a sub-folder of the iTUnes Music folder where the path is Music - iTunes - iTunes Music.
My question is this -
Is it possible to select all the albums in this 'iTUnes Music old' folder and simply drag and drop it onto the iTunes Music folder (after making sure that the location I'm dragging and dropping to corresponds to the location for her library as specified on the advanced tab of preferences) so that the songs will be back in the default library?
It seems to me that it should work but I don't want to be responsible for the person who loses all her music for her if it doesn't.
I would really appreciate someone who knows their way around iTUnes telling me the best way to sort her music and whether or not she should install the 9.1 update before or after reorganising the library.
Cheers
Tricia

Her problem is that she has deleted certain songs from her 'Jane Doe's iPod Playlist' so that she didn't have those songs on her iPod - I don't know the method she used to do this, nor does she. However, it has resulted in those songs now not showing up in the iTunes music library on her computer. There's just an exclamation mark and a dialog box asking if she would like to locate the songs.
If you're seeing the , that's generally an indication that media files (the mp3 or m4a, etc., files) were moved using Finder. They were moved or removed and the iTunes library wasn't able to keep track of where they went. If this is an old machine that she's messed around with, it can be a bit of a crap shoot trying to figure out where the stuff should go (iTunes is quite unhelpful in telling you where the music for the broken links was expected to be ... you can take some guesses, but iTunes 9 and iTunes 8 use different folder structures, so getting the stuff in the right place can be a nuisance).
Is it possible to select all the albums in this 'iTUnes Music old' folder and simply drag and drop it onto the iTunes Music folder (after making sure that the location I'm dragging and dropping to corresponds to the location for her library as specified on the advanced tab of preferences) so that the songs will be back in the default library?
Surprisingly complicated question. If you were confident of where the music files should go, you could try moving them (safer, copy them) to your current iTunes media folder and if you drop them in the exact same spot they were before, your broken links problem will be solved. It's a long shot, though.
There are apps out there for rebuilding libraries, but if you don't have extensive playlists that would take forever to rebuild (or you don't have lots of ratings or things like that which you are trying to preserve), I'd personally be inclined to rebuild her library from scratch by:
Create a new library by pressing and holding down the option button while you start iTunes, keep holding the button down until it prompts you to create a new library.
Go into the "Advanced" section of the "Preferences" screen and tell iTunes to (a) keep your folder organized and (b) to copy music to the new media folder.
Use the "Add Folder to Library" command on the "File" menu to add the music to your iTunes Library. This will copy the music to the new folder you specified in the previous step. Repeat this for her old iTunes folders (sounds like she might have it in different areas). Nice thing is, you can select some common parent folder (e.g. your parent "music" folder) and you'll only have to do this once.
Once iTunes is done copying music to the new media folder and has rebuilt the new library, you can clean up the old music media files that it sounds like are scattered about on her machine.
Again, I personally lean towards just rebuilding the iTunes library, allowing iTunes to organize the files like it wants, and then rebuild your playlists. But, if you'd rather try to repair her old library in situ, then you'll want to check out some of the apps designed for repairing broken links in libraries. Let us know if you want to do that and we can point you to some apps that might be able to help.
It seems to me that it should work but I don't want to be responsible for the person who loses all her music for her if it doesn't.
It's kind of hard to lose the music unless you do something nuts like drag stuff to the trash without making sure you've got a copy/backup somewhere. In fact, go ahead and have her back up her machine before you start. And when you're all done, and you've confirmed that everything is great, do another backup.
I would really appreciate someone who knows their way around iTUnes telling me the best way to sort her music and whether or not she should install the 9.1 update before or after reorganising the library.
Unless her version of iTunes is archaic (v7 or earlier), I'd suggest fixing her library first, and then doing the upgrade. Let's not add variables to the situation. Also, I don't know what the iTunes upgrade process would do with the broken links in her existing library.
Frankly, there are enough bugs/problems with 9.1, you might want to wait until 9.1.1 comes out anyway. I personally regret doing the 9.1 upgrade. It works, but I'm working around various bugs. And some people are having very serious problems. If you absolutely need 9.1 (e.g., iPad), you can do it and you'll probably be fine. But unless you need 9.1 for some reason, I'd wait for 9.1.1 release.

How to add my backed up iTunes Music library...

Hi, I had to restore my MacBook Pro to factory settings, and I moved my iTunes Music library to an external hard drive by copying the music folder (180 GB), and now I want to copy that folder again to iTunes, that has no info, its all clean.
Whats the best way to do it? I dont want to loose anything, and I want to do it as easy as I can, is there a way to add all my music to the new library folder in one step?
thanks.

THe same thing happened to me when My laptop crashed last semester. I had to replace the hard drive and a whole mess of stuff... anyway...
All you need to do is put the CD in and copy the music to the iTunes folder. It was that easy for me. If you have any trouble, call the manufacturer of the new computer (it probably has a warranty, and might have some tricky settings that could be putting a wrench in the works). Usually, they will help you get your new computer up and running, and know the ins and outs of transferring data from one system to another.

Identifying tracks that are not in the iTunes Music Library

I've got about 12,000 songs in my iTunes Music Library. Suppose I want to remove some of them, say 2,000 of them, and keep the files. The files will then remain on my computer but not show up in iTunes.
Is there a utility that will display tracks that are in the iTunes Music folder but are not in the music library? I am sure I will not be able to keep track of which 2,000 tracks I took out of the library. Which means I could forget forever that I even have the music. I thought I saw a reference to a way to do this but I have not been able to figure it out.
Thanks.

I've got about 12,000 songs in my iTunes Music Library. Suppose I want to remove some of them, say 2,000 of them, and keep the files.
I would create a new folder and drag these songs from iTunes to this folder then delete them from iTunes and click Yes when it asks to delete from library and delete form hard drive.Delete

Odd: 1037GB iTunes Music Library when it's really only 280G or so...

I opened my iTunes library and while looking at it noticed that there were alot of duplicates in the library window. At the bottom for the Music list it says: " 252693 items, 730:15:50:30 total time, 1037.01GB"
I looked in the actual Library folder at the suspect music and there are not duplicates in those folders -= just in the Library.
I can get rid of the dups but this seemed odd and seems mainly a problem that might be more easily solved by rebuilding the library file or something = I'd rather not lose my various playlists and my ratings etc.
Any suggestions as to what is going on and how to clean things up without destroying the Library xml?

Thank you so much for your reply Katrina. Interesting stuff. Somehow in the mega searches I was doing for answers I didn't think to search using the Vaio angle. I will definitely go through those Vaio Files. This is my 4th Vaio and I NEVER seem to use any of the preloaded software, but to this point have not had problems until I installed iTunes 9.
Last night I read another post that reminded me that the music files that show up in the iTunes/music folder are just "pointers" or say "shortcuts" (I can't remember the actual term used) to where the ACTUAL music files are located. When I used the Add Folders from the file menu I've always assumed that these "shortcuts" have been placed in the iTunes/Music folder properly. But just in case, I clicked on the Copy Files to iTunes Media folder in Advanced tab to be safe and then I did the Drag/Drop from my windows MY MUSIC folder (rather than using the Add Folders to Library in iTunes). I started by dragging and dropping like 5 albums. Then I'd close, open, close, open etc. to see if they would stay in my iTunes music library.... and they DID! So I left it overnight and then this morning I dragged a bunch more albums into my iTunes music library. Did another close, open, close, open on iTunes and so far everything is staying in place. My next test is going to be to completely shut down my Vaio and start it back up and see if it's all still there.
Do you think any of this makes sense, or relates back to the Vaio software issues from the post you provided? I don't quite understand why it would work to drag/drop but not simply click Add Folders to Library???
Thanks Again,
Jeromy

ITunes Music Library File Corrupt

Hey,
Yesterday I was putting some podcasts on my ipod shuffle, when itunes froze. I force quit it, and when i booted it up again, it said that the iTunes Music Library File was locked or that I don't have permissions for it. I replaced it with my previous library, except now I have a library that's like four months old. Is there any way to import the songs/podcasts from my music folder into my music library? Or perhaps to repair the damaged Music Library File?
PS I don't have any .AACs.

Do you still have a copy of the problematic library file? (or of the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file that was in the (home)/Music/iTunes at the time? If so, use the File->Import function to import either of these files.
(First make a backup copy of your current "iTune Library" file just in case.)
If the import won't work because it says the file is locaked, go in the finder and select hte file, do control-I to bring up the get info box and make sure the file's preferences are set to read and write. If that doesn't help use the Disk Utility application in your Utilities folder to "repair permissions" on your hard drive.
Finally, if these methods don't work, then you can manually add the missing music (but this won't bring back any ratings, playcounts, etc associated with the tracks in your old library). Go File->Add to Library and select your music folder. It will go through the files and only add the ones not already in your library.
By the way, AAC files wouldn't affect this problem one way or the other.

Syncing itunes music library with my ipod nano

I set up my new ipod this weekend. All music in my library synced fine. However, I added new songs to one of my play lists, when I went to sync to get the new tunes on my ipod, I chose that playlist. It deleted all other music and only loaded that playlist.
Also, I went to clean out my itunes music library and when I hit delete, it said that the next time I synced my nano, it would remove all songs not in music library
Two questions...
1. Do I have to check all playlists every time I upload new songs
2. I don't want to keep all the songs I already have in my ipod on my computer. Do I have to keep all songs in my music library in order to avoid songs being deleted when I sync with my ipod or is there a way to only add new songs

Hi Ricehouse;
You have posted your questions on iTune and iPods in the forum for OS 9. I would suggest that you report either over in the iTune or iPod forums for Windows. There will be more people there that can help you.
Allan

How to compact iTunes music library files

I've been using iTunes for several years, and my iTunes Music Library has grown substantially. Still, with just over 22,000 tracks, it seems that the two library files (iTunes Music Library.XML and iTunes Library.ITL) are inordinately large. Those two files are taking 53MB on my hard drive. Which means that each individual track is taking almost 2.5KB of data! I'm not sure, but that seems like an awful lot of information, just to "catalog" the music tracks.
Is it possible that the library files need to be "cleaned" and/or compacted? Is there a method to use, to compact these two files? Or does 53MB sound like a reasonable size for these two files?
Dell Inspiron 9200 Windows XP

Hi Frank,
You can delete these files, and upon reopening of itunes, they will be recreated fresh and new. However, you will lose song ratings, playlists, playcounts and possibly other information you have diligently passed to iTunes over the years, and you will have to re-add your music...
It might be fun to save backup copies and then "refresh" the files to see how big they are...but I have around 2400 songs, and my files are close to 4MB. So 10x sounds about right.
v.g.
Dual 2.5 GHz G5, 1 GB SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.6)

ITunes musical library located on a WD 2TB, ext. drv. Computer destroyed by virus; ED survived. Bought new laptop, connected ED. Not able to see library. ED shows as 'G:' 95% full. How can I reconnect my old library to new laptop?

I had my iTunes musical library on an ext. drv. WD 2TB, ‘MY BOOK ESSENTIAL'. Three weeks ago, my computer was infected by a virus that fried it. It did not affect the external drive. I bought a new computer: a laptop, Dell XPS, Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium. I have been able to connect the WD external drive; however, I am not able to see the musical library in my iTunes or Explorer. ‘My Computer’ shows the external drive as ‘G:’ 95% full. It reads, 32.1 GB free of 1.36 TB. When I click on the drive to see its contents, it shows nothing. The library in iTunes also shows nothing. Can anyone help, please? How can I reconnect my old musical library to my new laptop and iTunes? Many thanks.

Hmm, viruses don't generally "fry" drives. They can make bootable operating systems not bootable, hide data, and corrupt executable files. Software can potentially wipe all the data from the drive but it shouldn't be able to physically damage the drive. Bah! What's done is done.
As to unhiding your files assuming they are just hidden....
Hit Start > Run, type in CMD and press enter. Type the following at the prompt and then press enter:
attrib -h -s -r g:\*.* /d /s
This tells windows to clear the hidden, read-only, and system flags from all files on the drive, assuming of course your profile has the power to "see" the files and change them.
If that doesn't work then you may need to take ownership of the drive first. The drive may have security settings that make it "belong" to an account on your old system. Right-click on the drive in Windows Explorer and click Properties. Click the Security tab, the Advanced button, the Owner tab, then the Edit tab. Make yourself the owner, then you can make any other changes to the security settings you want to back on the Permissions tab. (If you can't change the owner log out and log back in as Administrator). For iTunes your account (or everyone) and SYSTEM need full access to all files. Any changes you make should be applied to "This folder, subfolders and files", should be inheritable and you should also replace the permissions on all child objects.
tt2

Why doesn't my whole iTunes music library show up on Apple TV? Only songs I have purchased or downloaded show up

Why doesn't my whole iTunes music library show up on Apple TV? Home sharing is on on all devices.

nevermind, i had automatic graphics switching check off. i removed the check mark and then went into about my mac and voila there was the amd card. Figured i'd post what i found in case anyone else was looking for an answer.

I bought a new laptop and used Windows Easy Transfer cable and moved all files from one computer to another. I installed iTunes and found my iTunes music Library. However, when I plug in my iPod it says it is already synced with another iTunes Library.

I bought a new laptop and used Windows Easy Transfer cable and moved all files from one computer to another. I installed iTunes and found my iTunes music Library. However, when I plug in my iPod it says it is already synced with another iTunes Library.
I don't see anything in Help that shows when you already have transfered all the files over. Why would it want to erase and sync when I already have all the music folder copied over? I didn't have an issue when I had another technician copy from one laptop to another. Home sharing is also on but not being recognized.

I suspect you only migrated the media folder instead of the complete working library. Either review the transfer process and copy over the entire iTunes folder from your old profile's music folder or see Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

Itunes won't find 'itunes music library' on external hard drive by default

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One of my friends has told me that macs won't automatically connect to wireless devices like windows does but he thinks there is some software that enables it to do so. I presume this would sort the issue out or alternatively any other suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks for any help

Your external HD needs to be mounted before launching iTunes or iTunes will create a new blank library on your startup drive.
You can add your external HD to the list of startup items in  > System Preferences > Accounts to avoid this problem.

The iTunes music library.itl file cannot be found or created?

itunes 7 worked all day for me yesterday, but I have had this problem since last night where when I try to start it I get this message: "the iTunes music library.itl file cannot be found or created. the default location for this file is in the "itunes" folder in the "my music" folder. PLEASE HELP!

there should also be a "Previous iTunes Libraries" in the itunes folder besides itunes music.
if not, good luck making a new playlist

Utility to clean iTunes music library?

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