Will reinstalling iTunes erase my library?

I have done a couple of system restores today and now when I try to open iTunes I am getting the message 'iTunes cannot run because some of its required files are missing. Please reinstall iTunes'. Will reinstalling itunes erase my library? I do not have any of the library backed up. Please help!

Here's a suggested backup strategy...
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HT203175 I had to reinstall Itunes and my library and ipods did not reinstall how do i get these back?

I had to reinstall Itunes and my library and ipods did not reinstall how do i get these back?

Hello DHolland1
You can do one of two things, first is to locate the songs on your computer by looking in the iTunes Folder. Once found then drag and drop them on top of iTunes to import them in. The second option is to revert back to a previous version of your iTunes library to get the data back before you installed. The articles below will assist with those steps.
Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
No content shows up in iTunes after updating
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967
Regards,
-Norm G.

Will uninstalling and reinstalling Itunes delete my library?

I have to uninstall itunes due to it not being able to read my ipod. I have found many ancient threads that mention that my 'music' will not be deleted reinstalling itunes. What I would really like to know is if my apps, movies, synced CD's, basically my entire itunes library is safe. Thanks in advance
Daniel

No, all the library will remain intact.
Use the Control Panel to uninstall iTunes and related software components in the following order and then restart your computer:
iTunes
QuickTime
Apple Software Update
Apple Mobile Device Support
Bonjour
Apple Application Support
Important: Uninstalling these components in a different order, or only uninstalling some of these components may have unintended affects.

How will reinstalling itunes on a shared computer affect other accounts?

I have an iphone in recovery mode and I'm trying to restore it, however, every time I begin to restore it, iTunes quits. I've been told to uninstall and then reinstall iTunes on the iBook. However, it's a shared computer, I need to know if the other iTunes libraries on the other accounts will be affected negatively. Will the other account's data be erased? Should they back up their information? Or will nothing happen to the other accounts?

Will the other account's data be erased?
No. Your account's data won't be erased either.
Should they back up their information?
Yes.
will nothing happen to the other accounts?
Yes.
(46088)

My computer died and I had to reinstall iTunes. My library now has no audiobooks and only half my music. They do not show up in my "Purchased" list either. Any ideas?

I purchased audiobooks through iTunes and Audible.com. I have had to reinstall iTunes in the past and all the audiobooks remained in place. This is the first time I have lost them ALL. Help!!

Mortimer, iTunes does not know when you restore a file. After you restore the file, you need to re-add the file to iTunes.
If you know exactly which files you restores, re-add them using File > Add File to LIbrary.
Otherwise, lre-add the folders. iTunes has certain safeguards to reduce duplicates when you do this, which are not perfect but are better than nothing. Start with a few small folders and see if you are happy with the results.

ITunes erased my library(!!?!), I put everything back and iTunes is now saying my iPhone 4 is not synced to my library any more. This also happened with my iPod Touch and now iTunes will not update, resync and put all my music back.

I have never used another computer to sync my phone or ipod too. I do not want to lose everything. I am quite frankly at the end of my rope and thoroughly regret the fact that I am stuck with an iphone 4 for 2 years.
Someone, anyone...help??!

Sounds like you've taken the wrong course of action after a missing library error. Ideally you would have just restored a backup at the first sign of trouble.
Each iTunes library contains a unique ID that is also recorded in any device that syncs with it. After your rebuild the two IDs won't match so iTunes will try to treat the devices as "new".
Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
Alternatively, for each device...
You should be able to transfer your purchases into a newly authorised library, backup the device, recover any non-store purchased media with the tips in this post from forum regular Zevoneer, (skip this if you've already got all the media) then restore the device from the backup you just made. That should preserve all your data and switch the assocation of the device to the new library. I've had positive feedback on this method from other users but I've never had to test it personally.
tt2
Message was edited by: turingtest2

Will using iTunes "Erase & Sync" erase disk files too, or just songs?

Basically had to reinstall windows, backed my songs up back onto my computer, and put them back in iTunes library. Was going to "Erase & Sync" since they have the same songs in them anyway, but I just want the songs replaced so that my iPod and new iTunes are synced again.
I have important files backed up onto my iPod disk space, and I dont want them to be erased as well.

Basically had to reinstall windows, backed my songs up back onto my computer, and put them back in iTunes library. Was going to "Erase & Sync" since they have the same songs in them anyway, but I just want the songs replaced so that my iPod and new iTunes are synced again.
I have important files backed up onto my iPod disk space, and I dont want them to be erased as well.

ITunes erased my library to force me to subscribe to Cloud, and Cloud wiped out my iPad twice. Anyone w/same prob?

iTunes took back my entire library to force me to subscribe to Cloud, but now it will not re-download all of my purchases, and the Cloud also seems to want to wipe my iPad (has done it twice). 2 hours on the phone with Apple no help. Anyone w/same prob?

I guess I should have been more clear. One morning (5 days ago now) we realized that our complete itunes library was gone--all media (music, shows, movies, podcasts) was gone and could not be located on our hard drive. When I went onto itunes under the "help" section there was a comment that you could upgrade your itunes to Cloud and then access all your purchases and either re-download them or play them from the itunes page. So, I upgraded itunes and went about accessing all my purchases(thousands of dollars worth of media--so you can imagine my stress). Meanwhile, my husband was at work with his ipad and realized that everything was gone--all his apps, music, even apps for work that were downloaded at his work. Completely gone. I told him that I had found everything on Cloud and that he could probably just re-download everything when he got home but we both agreed it was weird. When he got home he noted that only about 1/3rd of our purchases were available on the Cloud website--all of my son's shows were still not there and many albums that we had bought over the last year were still missing. My husband called Apple yesterday and spent two hours on the phone with them. He said it was all very mysterious as they would not admit or deny anything and he said that he spoke with several people that were very ambiguous about what had happened and were careful about what they said. They agreed to re-release to us all of the media that we could not access on Cloud, but that they could not provide us with media that had copyright expired. They basically said it was our fault for not backing everything up on a separate system. While we explained that we do have a back up hard drive, we don't back up every time we make a purchase--so we haven't done so for several months. Then, this morning my husband was on his ipad and a message popped up that froze the ipad and it said that he needed to sync into itunes. He did so and then when he went back to unplug to go to work he realized everything was gone again! All his apps, music, everything. He was so upset because he saw no reason why this keeps happening.....Any thoughts??

Itunes erased most library music and now won't recognize ipod

My itunes library just kind of erased all of my songs except a couple. Now when I try to connect my ipod up to it, it tells me that I have to erase everything on my ipod except those couple of songs to be connected to the library. Now I can't download new songs or anything to my ipod without itunes. Please, PLEASE help, i'm desperate!

If I try transfering my purchases from the ipod to the library, would it erase my ipod stuff?

Will reinstalling lion erase my crashed hard drive

Hi, I have a question someone can help me with. My Macbook Pro 2011 model 13 inch crashed. . Anyway I found out there is a recovery partion in Lion. If i reinstall LION operating system on my crashed MacBook Pro will I loose my information on my hard drive. I dont care about music and such just pictures. I have over 50k pictures saved on it. I was in the process of backing them up and that is where the crash happened. I was building up all my pictures in Iphoto albums trying to make it look nice and such and when I was backing up it Crashed. I just want to confirm if I reinstall Lion Operating system it will not erase my hard drive. Please help, any help will be greatly appreciated.
I dont want to loose my pictures and I know i will never say anything on a hard drive again
I know the information is still there. I did Target Disk mode started transfering but it said it would take 50 hours and my friends Mac started to get too hot.
Thank you again

Did they give you your system back, or a completely different one? If you were previously using Mountain Lion then you had a system with a Core 2 Duo processor or later model. If your current system does not have this processor then they swapped the entire systems out on you.
Go to the Apple menu and choose "About this Mac," and then post back here with the exact model name of the processor that is listed there.

Itunes erased my library, how do I get it back?

I had my Itunes open when my computer froze and force quit out of it using task manager. When I opened Itunes up again all the music had been erased. I tried restarting my computer to see if I could get the music back and had no luck. I'm wondering how I can solve this issue and recover all my music? Thanks

Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps youshouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

Will reinstalling SL erase all my apps and folders etc.

I am using Mountain Lion and yesterday Mail, Aperture, iPhoto, FCP X, Compressor and Motion all refused to open, sending up the usual message saying they could not work "because of a problem blah, blah, blah".
All the usual troubleshooting strategies failed and the only known cure was to reinstall the OS, which I dreaded as I mistakenly assumed it would erase the whole computer, apps, folders and all.
I was overjoyed to discover that the reinstallion did not dlete anything and the problem apps were back in business.
So my question is simply, if I had been using an earlier OS such as SL, would I have been able to reinstall the OS without deleting anything?

Thanks for the confirmation, Andy.
Basically reinstalling the OS appears to be pretty much the same as an upgrade with regard to the effect (or lack of) it has on the installed apps, fo;ders, files etc.
I'm sure that years ago reinstalling involved erasure of the hard drive?
I wonder when that stopped?

ITunes erases my library once in a while. I'm using 9,0,2,25

Hi!
As subject says. It has happened three times since the latest update. And never before. What happens??
Cheers

I'm having the same issue:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2229657

Had to get new hard drive and need to reinstall iTunes

My very new PC went beserk and I had to get a new hard drive. Everything off the old drive is irretrievable. I have my iTunes library backed up to an external drive (everything is also on my iPod). However, I don't want to have to "count" the new computer as one of the five machines on which I can copy my iTunes library, since it's not technically a "new" computer but just a replacement of my not-so-old one, which was barely 9 months old before it went kaput. Is there a way to reinstall iTunes and my library without getting dinged for yet another transfer of the library? Thanks.

Hi I can't figure out how to post a question of my own, so I'm asking it on this one because it is close to mine.
I just switched from a Sony Viao to a MBP, and tried to transfer my ITunes library from the Sony to my new MBP using a USB stick. I put all the music in my music library onto the stick, it said that it used 4.99 GB, and when I tried to put the music onto my MBP it only added 1.98 GB.
I thought that maybe the music it wasn't transferring was the music I purchased on my earlier laptop, but it transfered a few of my movies that I purchased off of ITunes. Please Help?

I tried to update itunes and now it won't open, how do I fix it? Will uninstalling and reinstalling erase my library?

I tried to update itunes and now it won't open, how do I fix it? Will uninstalling and reinstalling erase my library?

Go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs (Win XP) or Programs and Features (later)
Remove all of these items in the following order:
iTunes
Apple Software Update
Apple Mobile Device Support (if this won't uninstall move on to the next item)
Bonjour
Apple Application Support
Reboot, download iTunes, then reinstall, either using an account with administrative rights, or right-clicking the downloaded installer and selecting Run as Administrator.
The uninstall and reinstall process will preserve your iTunes library and settings, but ideally you would back up the library and your other important personal documents and data on a regular basis. See this user tip for a suggested technique.
Please note:
Some users may need to follow all the steps in whichever of the following support documents applies to their system. These include some additional manual file and folder deletions not mentioned above.
HT1925: Removing and Reinstalling iTunes for Windows XP
HT1923: Removing and reinstalling iTunes for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8
tt2

Will reinstalling iTunes erase my library?

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