Viewing XML iTunes Library File...

hi all. my hd bit the dust awhile back and i lost all my music on iTunes. however, i do have the Library XML file.
is there a way to read that file (and subsequently the artists and tracks) in a more reader-friendly way? i tried importing the XML file into iTunes on another startup disk, but it won't show the track if it doesn't have an mp3 for it. any ideas?

Similar Messages

I have multiple libraries on an external drive. Somehow all the iTunes library files i.e. iTunes Library.itl, xml, itdb, Media folder, etc disappeared! Only the music files remain. Now when I start iTunes w/option it can't find any of the old libraries!

Help! I 'm using an old G4 powerbook, Mac OSX 10.5.8, iTunes ver 10. I have multiple iTunes libraries on an external drive. Everything was fine for a while, then all of the iTunes library files, i.e. iTunes Library.itl, xml, itdb, artwork folder, Media folder, etc mysteriously disappeared! Only the music files remain (thank god) So now when I start iTunes w/option key to choose a library, I can't choose any of them because iTunes won't recognize them. Because all the library stuff is missing. So can I re-create the library files? (I don't care if I lose my ratings)
Or should I create a new empty library on the external drive, then manually move all the music files to the Media folder in the new library?
I tried some stupid ideas like creating a new library just to start iTunes, then going into prefs and advanced, then under iTunes Media folder location, selecting the location of the old library on the external, to see if iTunes would then find all the music which is still there, but no workee.
I'm out of ideas, and I searched the archives.
Help! anyone?
Scott

I don't know if this is me adding files to iTunes when the external wasn't connected
it is.
is it OK to just keep deleting that library on the Air?
i wouldn't - at least not until i
mount the external
point iTunes media folder location back to the external via preferences > advanced
consolidate my library via file > library > organize library
The ntfs hasn't seem to be causing any problems, but I've always wanted to know.
in order for your Mac to write to NTFS drives, it needs some help by installing e.g. the NTFS 3G driver. apparently that or something similar is installed on your Mac already. preferably, it would be formatted for Mac but then windows machines would need to have e.g. MacDrive installed to recognize the drive.

ITunes library file ("iTunes Music Library.xml") being trashed and not read

My iTunes music library is being recognized as a .xml file and comes up looking like a Dreamweaver file. It no longer can be loaded in iTunes (grayed out) when loading the app. Can't find the Library.
So iTunes no longer recognizes it, nor does it see the backup on a different drive! I have no idea how it got recategorized. I also check in my Time Machine backup and all the similarly named files show up as the same way (with a Dreamweaver icon). This did occur after a restart of this machine. I see the same problem with a backup of the library on the same machine.
I have not yet opened a new library and tried to import all my music over again. Is that the only viable fix? I remember this problem (or a similar one, I think) happening a year or so back. I didn't know what it was at the time but it caused me a considerable amount of grief with subscribed music not getting reloaded, etc. Is this what I'm in for again???
How can I fix this? Here's what I did so far:
1. Rebuilt Permissions. Here's the log.
+Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”+
+Permissions differ on "usr/share/derby", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are lrwxr-xr-x .+
+Repaired "usr/share/derby".+
2. Checked time machine to see if the folders' icons are the same. They are.
3. Tried to open up iTunes library manually (option+open iTunes). Grayed out.
4. Older backed up libraries show the same icon. Only version 3 or version 4 labelled libraries do not. Version of iTunes is 9.0.2
Henry

Chris CA wrote:
iTunes does not use the .xml file. It is created only for other applications to use the iTunes library.
Try this...
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select *Choose library* and select the iTunes library file in \Music\iTunes\ folder.
That's what I've said, Chris. The files that open when selecting the Choose Library are:
Yes they all exist. Also the following files exist:
*iTunes 3 Music Library*
*iTunes 4 Music Library*
*iTunes Music Library (2)*
Is there a pref I can delete somewhere to get rid of these? Copying the files from TIme Machine doesn't fix this.

.xml file and iTunes library files are missing from the music folder

I recently made a second itunes library on my external hd, today when I open itunes and choose this library, the .xml file and itunes music file are invisible or translucent, therefore I can't open my library. But when I go to my music folder they are missing. Another odd thing is that all my music is still in the folder. Is there a way to re-open my library w/o re-importing all my music? Can I some how get a new itunes library file?
Mac OS X (10.4.10)

This is not an answer but I have the same problem. From time to time I clone my music drive to an external drive for back up. When I do, I burn a copy of the album artwork folder, iTunes Music folder, iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Music Libraru.xml, and iTunes Library file to CDRW. This is so I can copy them into the music folder in my user home drive of my laptop then hook up the external and have access my library. Trouble is the .xml file and iTunes library files don't always show up when I go to the iTunes folder in my Music folder. There either is a blank where they should be or the names appear with no icon and when I click to select, that dissappers too. I thought I had a solve by exiting iTunes and letting it save everything. It seems to bring the .xml file back but not the itunes Library file. Any thoughts?

Problems with itunes library file. xml

Every time I open itunes it starts importing- itunesmusiclibrary. XML. Then I get a message that file ituneslibrary.itl does not appear to be a valid itunes library file. itunes has attempted to recover your itunes library and renamed this file to ituneslibrary (damage)1itl. This process happens every time I open up itunes. How do I fix this?

Have iTunes rebuild your .xml file. You can do this by renaming your .xml file and have itunes create a new one when it opens. You will have to reimport all your songs, podcast, and movie/tv show files. Yet this will create a new uncorrupted file.

ITunes 7: "iTunes Library file cannot be saved"

Yes, it was probably stupid to download a product so soon after announcement, but that's water under the bridge. After installing iTunes 7 and running it, I watched it convert my iTunes Library. After completion, I get an error message window with the message, "The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. The required file cannot be found." I can dismiss it, but it comes back seconds later. I can check the "don't bug me about this anymore" box, of course, but that doesn't fix the underlying problem. I used 'chmod' to fix all files permissions in the library (in conjunction with 'find' to fix the directories), but that doesn't produce a change in iTunes' behavior. Any suggestions?
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9) 80GB HD, 768MB RAM, Sony DCR-TRV33

I've had the same problem, and found this on MacRumors Forums a suggestion for an older version of iTunes (the suggestion originally came from an Apple Forum). It worked for me, which relieved me given the other alternative was to rebuild the library. Anyway, here's what was suggested:
"He suggested deleting your video podcasts because it fixed the problem for him on Windows Vista, and two more people on the forum replied on Macs to say that it had fixed the problem for them as well. I tried it myself on my iMac and sat for 5 minutes with no more errors coming up, and it didn't error or try to reupdate when I closed and reopened iTunes, so that seems to be the fix for the time being. I deleted all my podcasts just for the sake of completeness but it seems to be video podcasts causing the issue.
Deleting your XML files and rebuilding your library DOES work too, but recreating your library wipes all your "Date Added" information, view settings, smart playlists, etc. which I certainly wasn't prepared to do."

ITunes Library File Cannot be Saved. The Disk Cannot be Read From . . .

I use a MacBook Pro with a healthy battery. My iTunes songs are on a USB drive. The Database and XML files are on my MacBook. Power went out in my house and the USB drive shut off. The MacBook stayed up and running. Power came back, powered on the USB drive, open iTunes, and bang: This sorry error: iTunes Library File Cannot be Saved. The Disk Cannot be Read From or Written to.
The disks are healthy, did an fsck and ran disk verify/repair. No problems. Restart iTunes, same error. Obviously a corrupted Databse file. This wouldn't be a big deal if only the XML info would be useful and actually restore critical info such as play count and dates which is essential for the Not-So-Smart Playlist dependencies to work.
This is the third time I've been burned with corrupted iTunes "Database" files. I use "Database" in quotes because a true Database wouldn't crap out like this. It would be recoverable. It would understand a simple SQL "Where" statement. It would have a maintenance script and some means for recoverable backup beyond the lame process of copying the XML file. Or it would at least read in the info the XML file.
I am becoming disillusioned with iTunes and I'm beginning to yearn for my old Linux box running GTKPod which never failed me....

OK, here's an update - After doing the restore as mentioned having everything seemingly work, I erroniously downloaded the iTunes 7.4 & 7.4.1 updates. Now, about 80% of library is non-responsive, ie: shows up in iTunes, but clicking to play does nothing at all. the other 20% of my library plays, but it's not the song it is supposed to be playing. For example, clicking on a song from say, ABBA prodes a wonderful Gorillaz track :-/ (The same Gorillaz track which will not play if I select it...)
I reiterate: WE NEED A MEANS TO BACKUP OUR LIBRARIES RELIABLY!!!!!!!!!!

ITunes doesn't create an "iTunes Library" file

I'm desperate - since a couple of days every time I restart my computer iTunes library is empty, I have to move all the content to the library again. And subscribe to all the 39 podcasts again!!!
Next day... everything starts from the beginning!
I've read the support pages for iTunes and found out that my iTunes doesn't save an "iTunes Library" file in the Music/iTunes folder. Instead, it creates hundreds of temporary files (iT 1.tmp, iT 2.tmp, iT 3.tmp, and so on).
It happened before upgrading to iTunes 10 - I upgraded thinking that it could help, but nothing changed.
Anyone had a similar problem? Please help me!

Yes, I moved the iTunes folder to the shared folder
Made an alias and moved it to my Users/myhome/music and removed the alias symbol.
If you moved the entire iTunes folder and created aliases, that would be the reason that iPhoto and iMovie can't find the proper file. You should only have moved the 'iTunes Music' folder
Many applications don't perform well when files are to be opened and stored using an alias.
I'm pretty sure iTunes creates an updated .xml file every time you make changes, but it's at the wrong location for iPhoto and iMovie to find it.
I tried what you did, by moving my (test) iTunes folder to the Shared folder, create an alias, renamed it to 'iTunes' and put it at ./Users/Username/Music.
Neither iPhoto and iMovie were able to find my (test) music files.
Those apps. will only look at ./Users/Username/Music/iTunes for the .xml file and obviously cannot find it using the alias.
I tried the same procedure using a symbolic link (a 'better' alias) and that worked out alright. You can create a symbolic link by using the Terminal (take a look at this brief tutorial), but it's more convenient to use SymbolicLinker. After installing it, you can then easily create a symlink of a file or folder by control-clicking on it and choosing 'Make Symbolic Link' from the contextual menu.
If you want to know more about symlinks in general, take a look at this Wiki or Google for "Symbolic Link Macintosh" (without the quotes) to find more articles.
While symlinks do work in this case (at least on my system), I will give you the link to the article which describes the 'Apple preferred way' to share your music (in case symlinks don't work on your system).
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer tells you two methods. You can use either of them.
M
17' iMac 800 MHz, 768 MB RAM, 200 GB HD, DL burner Mac OS X (10.4.8) iTunes 7.0.2

Is There A Way To Edit The Raw iTunes Library File?

I have thousands upon thousands of songs. I'm of a mind to (in effect) do a find/replace on every instance of a phrase in one particular field and don't want to have to go though every single one manually, since that would take forever.
Anyone have any ideas?

You cannot edit the library file itself, but you could perhaps edit the XLM file and then import that, basically following the procedure you use when the library file has been damaged:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
You'll need to be very careful about editing the XML, though, as it's really easy to completely mess up your library if you edit the wrong thing. Make absolutely sure you have backup copies of the original iTunes library file and XML file, so you can put them back just in case something does go wrong.
Hope this helps.

ITunes Library file content / format

I am using the iTunes library file to process song titles for a label program, and I have two questions about these files:
1) There are two library files on my disk, Library.xml, and iTunes Music Library.xml. When double-clicked, the latter opens with Firefox, and the former opens in TextEdit. Library.xml is the file I use, which I parse with Perl and generate input for a PostScript label program. The question here, what is the purpose of these two files; i.e., how are they used by iTunes?
2) I need to extract the Total Time and the Size parameters, which are given in (very large!) integer format. I have found that Size is nearly a constant multiple of Time, so apparently Time is redundant. Also, I can't make any sense of these numbers, except to use the resulting ratio for one and then to apply that ratio to all the others. When I do this, I get nearly accurate results, but they are always off by 3 to 5 seconds. As for the Size, I tried to make sense of the large integer in terms of sampling rate and size 44.1/16-bit), but without success. So, if anyone has the secret to these parameters, I would appreciate knowing it! Thanks much in advance for any help on this.
PS: I will post some specifics here if needed. For example, Total Time 182437 shows up in iTunes as 3:02 (182 seconds). The ratio here is 1,002.4010989011, which, when applied to another title with a Total Time of 222477 gives 221.9 seconds, or 3:42; this item shows up correctly in iTunes, but not all do when I use the same ratio.

Oops! I forgot that. My hunch was correct, though. Unix reports exactly the same sizes as the iTunes file. My error was not dividing by 1028. (I thought the finder was the culprit!) Thanks for all the help.
By the way, why are there two .xml files for the library? The Library.xml file is the one I am using, because the structure is pretty obvious in a text editor.
For your information, I belong to the Illini Folk Dance Society at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Illinois. We have some 200 titles on 78 rpm records, already digitized, and approximately 600 or so on 45 rpm, which I am now in the process of recording. After that, there are many LP recordings to do (our total collection consists of approximately 3000 titles), although they can keep for a while. After lots of experimenting, I decided that the quality of the 78s and 45s merited the 44.1/16-bit recording levels, and that is working out nicely, and it keeps the files to a reasonable size. I started out with Garage Band (all the 78s were done that way), but got fed up with that pretty quickly, especially the tight link to iTunes, so when Audacity came along, I started using it, and am very happy with it. We have one 250 gig hard drive, and I plan to add another. Also, I plan to put everything on CDs, which is why the present project. I wrote a PostScript program to print the titles on the labels in circular arcs, and am writing a Perl script to parse out the titles and sizes, grouping things in sets that will fit on one CD. If you are interested in the PostScript program, I will gladly send it to you. The Perl script is fairly trivial.
Well, I just passed my 75th birthday, so I better get cracking! Cheers.
Ed
[email protected]

ITunes Library File Not Valid! What the Heck?

I have 11,500 songs in my music library and am running iTunes 7.0.2. My iTunes Library file from time-to-time becomes corrupted, on probably at least a weekly basis. I have no idea what's causing this.
Here's the typical scenario ... iTunes works fine, I quit it, and the next time I open it it shows the dialogue box that says, "Importing 'iTunes Libray.xml'..." Then it organizes the files and a dialogue box indicates "iTunes Library" does not appear to be a valid iTunes Library file ... Renamed damaged file ..."
When it's finally all done, I get my music library back minus all my playlists as well as EQ and volume settings.
This happened today and my most recent backup (done earlier in the day) was also corrupted. This is why I've learned to keep a set of four recent backups just to insure I have a reliable and useable one not more than a couple of days old. But it seems a very unnecessary hassle and I'm always losing adjustments made to my database!
Anyway ... would anyone among our distinquished and experienced iTunes geeks out there have a clue as to why this is happening OR any suggestions as to what I might do to help alleviate the problem?
Is anyone aware of a program that will search for corrupted files within your music library? I suspect this might be part of the problem.
Thanking you in advance for your help!
PowerBook G4 17" | 80GB Video iPod Mac OS X (10.4.5)

It seems like the ITL file is not being properly written after iTunes closes. Then when you re-open iTunes, it cannot load the ITL file and creates a new one. Forcing you to recreate your Library manually, again and again.
Several things to check:
-Double check to see that the ITL file or the folder it resides in is not read-only.
-Using Windows Explorer, right-click on the file (or folder) name, go to Properties.
-If it is, then close iTunes, change it, and reopen iTunes.
See this thread to reset the iTunes preferences: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1216090#1216090
And see this post to use TweakUI to check the location and validity of your My Music 'Special Folder': http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=487067&messageID=1197027
Once the main cause of the inability to save the ITL file is corrected, you'll need to recreate your Library one last time to finally save it. No way to resurrect the original one, unless you had backup copies of the ITL file.

TS4213 Why can't iPhoto, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iTunes Library files and Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iPhoto Library files now that I upgraded to '11?

Why can't iPhoto, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iTunes Library files and Pages, Numbers, Keynote and iMovie access my iPhoto Library files now that I upgraded to '11?
Examples of what is going on:
1. In Pages, Numbers & Keynote, when I go to the media browser the Audio section reads "Open iTunes to populate this list" even after iTunes has been opened, .xml file has been replaced/repaired, etc AND Photo section reads "Open iPhoto to see photos from your iPhoto Library in this list" even after iPhoto Library has been replaced and new default library created.
2. In iMovie, similar thing ... when I go to add photos or music to a movie the iTunes files aren't present and the iPhoto photos are missing with similar messages as in #1.
3. In iPhoto, similar thing ... when I go to add music to a slideshow it says to "Open iTunes to populate this list".
It is shocking to me that Apple would let something as simple as a pathway link to associated library files get this messed up on an upgrade, but what's even more surprising is that with the number of people who seem to be having this particular issue (and I can tell from all the research that I've done for weeks online that there are a lot of them) that there doesn't seem to be a single clear answer to fixing it anywhere on these community support forums. Most of what I've seen is rehashed advice from outdated issues. What I need is a simple answer to how do we get these programs to look for the correct location of the photo and music files because I sure can't seem to find any logical place to do that through the programs' preferences files or the system preferences window?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
P.S. Here's the details on the software/hardware:
MacBook Pro
Mac OS X
Version 10.7.5
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
iTunes 11.0.4 (4)
iPhoto '11 9.4.3 (720.91)
iMovie '11 9.0.9 (1795)
Keynote '09 5.3 (1170)
Pages '09 4.3 (1048)
Numbers '09 2.3 (554)

I have the same problem on a new MacBook Pro. I have not been able to access the iTunes library from iPhoto since I got this computer. I looked in the Preferences file and deleted the com.apple.iApps.plist but there was no com.apple.iApps.lockfile so I just deleted the iAPPs.plist and rebooted the computer. Still no iTunes available in iPhoto.
All my music is in iTunes and plays. After reading the above I brought up Pages and I was able to access music and insert a track into a document.
Do you have any suggestions.

Error message - "The iTunes Library file is full could not be saved" - Help

Hi folks.
I looked for current / recent chatter on this iss before creating this topic. Didn't see anything that addressed this issued recently. If I missed it, sorry, if not, here you go!
I got an error message last night while using iTunes. It just popped up during use, not while using. The error message read "The iTunes Library File could not be saved." Now my hard drive is DEFINITELY not full. I have hundreds of gigs of unused space. This appears to be an issue strictly related to my library.xml file. Stupidly, I clicked the don't show me this again and closed the message. My concern now is that I'll rip new content that won't end up in my iTunes library even though it's on my hard drive, thus that content will not be findable by iTunes.
I don't want to just rebuild the library from scratch as I have fixed tons of errors in how iTunes classifies my music over the years and all that work would be lost.
Any ideas on how to get past this glitch?
I noticed this problem also cropped up circa the original iPhone launch. I had that phone and did not experience this prob, and I just upgraded to the 3G four days ago. It makes no sense to me that the phone is causing this, but perhaps the upgrade to the iTunes version 7.7 (necessary to use the iPhone with my Windows computer) is the cause of the prob.
I did erase a bunch of videos and unsubscribed to several video casts. That was one recommended solution way back when.
My concern though is that since I chose the don't show me this error message again option, I won't know whether the problem persists or not.
Oh the humanity...

I have seen this a few times, usually when other 3rd-party applications are using itunes. Such as, lastfm & the Tivo remote music player.
And, I've also seen it when I was copying a bunch of digital photos to the exHD in the background while playing music and the song changed. iTunes saves the playcount in the ITL file when the song ends.
You might check this Microsoft article about "Enable write caching on the disk". I haven't seen that iTunes error since I turned mine back on for the exHD. The Tivo "delayed write failed" errors are back, but that's a different problem...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;330174
Anyway, long story short, it gets saved OK later and I make frequent backups of that ITL file.

Multiple (old) iTunes Library files found on my external, what to do?

My external drive (which I once used as the location for my iTunes library to save space on my old iMac but with my new computer hard drive space is not an issue and I have my iTunes folder on my native, internal drive) has *my old* iTunes folder with:
+(a folder)+ Previous iTunes Libraries
iTunes 4 Music Library
iTunes 4 Music Library (Old)
iTunes Library
iTunes Library 2006-09-14
iTunes Library 2007-09-08
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
iTunes Library.xml
iTunes Music Library.xml
The folder "Previous iTunes Libraries" contains these files:
iTunes Library 2006-09-14
iTunes Library 2007-09-08
iTunes Library 2008-01-16
iTunes Library 2008-09-30
iTunes Library 2008-12-26
iTunes Library 2009-06-16
With me so far?! What's alarming to me is that I have so many files with the "iTunes Library" name...moreover, it seems as if my CURRENT and ACTIVE iTunes Library database on my hard drive in my music folder that was last updated "today" is only 5.8 MB in size, while the older iTunes Library databases on my external drive that are listed above are sized 5.2, 10.5, 11.8, 14.3, 15.7, and 15.8 MB!
This implies to me that I've lost some important files or data in transferring my iTunes back from my external to my new local, internal drive.
What should I do with these multiple (and currently unused) iTunes Libraries found on my peripheral drive? I try to open them and nothing seems to happen. I just don't want to lose any tracks as my library is large and varied.
Any thoughts?

"New versions of iTunes sometimes include enhancements to the iTunes library. When you open the new version of iTunes, iTunes upgrades your existing library to the new format and places a copy of the old library in the Previous Libraries folder. If everything goes fine during your upgrade to the latest version of iTunes, you can delete the older iTunes Library files." Read more: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
If you think you are missing some songs from your current library, this application will list the file paths of the files in your designated "iTunes Media" folder which are not in iTunes' library. Additionally, you can select a different parent folder and its contents will be compared to the iTunes library. Options to Add a selection of found files to iTunes or move them to the Trash. http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=musicfolderfilesnotadded2

Why are ITunes Library files stored on Buffalo Pro 1TB NAS being corrupted?

I'm having a flaky problem with the ITunes library files (Mac version) stored on a Buffalo NAS. Frequently, ITunes says the ITunes library file is damaged and creates a new one.
Moreover, there are temp files that ITunes apparntly creates that apparently become the new Library and XML files when ITunes shuts down. Apparently, this is done behind the scenes while ITunes is shutting down, but lately, these files are no longer being renamed or deleted. Often multiple temp files will accumulate.
Lastly, and most oddly, if I try to rename one of these temp files to ITunes Library based on best guess from size and date which is the ITunes Library file, it sometimes works, but it sometimes doesn't. When it doesn't, I will find a "phantom" ITunes Library file and ITunes Library.xml that cannot be selected, opened or deleted. They are greyed out in Finder. Since the file exists, a rename or copy will fail, saying a file already exists with that name, but I can't select it to delete it. Often when this happens, the actual file name seems to "flicker" between temp file and Itunes Library file. If I try to click on ITunes Library, it disappears, but a new temp file instantly appears. If I try to click on the temp file, that disappears and the ITunes Library file appears.
Rebooting the NAS fixes the phantom file problem. I delete all ITunes library and temp files, and reindex from ITunes, but it only starts all over again.
If I do the same process in Windows, ITunes will only find about 10% of my files and then stop. (I have about 16,500 tracks total.) Windows doesn't seem to have any probelms with "phantom" files.
Checks on the NAS disk array show no problems.
Any thoughts?

lmdoc50 wrote:
Had to reconstruct iTunes library.
Yes, but how?

Viewing XML iTunes Library File...

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for