As I mentioned a short while ago on the Mothership, I have a problem with my iTunes. I've lost my 'library' (god knows how - I didn't change anything) - and although I quickly discovered that I hadn't actually lost any music and could easily re-import it all into iTunes, I was more than a bit peeved when I found that I'd lost all my playlists, ratings and play history. I eventually managed to find an older version of my library from just a few weeks ago (which has all the play history etc.) and I've managed to load this but now iTunes can't find the music files. I can locate files individually but I don't really fancy doing that for all 10,000 tracks...
If there's no way of re-introducing the library to the music files (en bloc) it seems that I have two choices ahead of me:
1. Reload the music files from the folders, accept that I've lost the play history etc. and spend an evening (or two) reconstructing my playlists and de-selecting most of ToffeeGirl's favourite tracks so they don't accidentally appear in my head at an inappropriate moment.
2. Re-connect all 10,00 songs manually.
The first of these options seems the more palatable, but before I embark on this tedious process, if anyone's experienced this sort of problem with their iTunes and has a sugestion or two, I'd be grateful if you'd share it with the rest of the class. Ta.
And although blimpy keeps pointing out that this isn't a music blog, I don't feel right posting something without adding some music - so here's a demo version of Elvis Costello's Boy With A Problem for your delictation...
18 comments:
Do you have any other library files, Toffee? (My Music - iTunes). Check the dates (properties). Drag the one with a date closest to when it was last working into iTunes.
@ shoey - thanks for taking the time to help me with this. The problem is not so much with the library - I've accepted that the latest version has gone. I've found one dated 23 September which is good enough for me and I've been able to load it, playlists, history and all.
The problem now is that although iTunes is happily showing all the songs in the Music tab, it can't find any of them. When I try to play anything I get a message saying that iTunes is unable to locate the file suggesting that I might want to attempt to locate it - which of course I can do - but the problem is that I have nearly 10,000 songs and there's no way I want to locate each one individually.
So, unless I can find some way of re-connecting them all en bloc I am, as it were, boogered.
Bummer...I can't help, only sympathise - my computer got zapped in a thunderstorm a while ago and all sorts of things went missing including my iTunes library; the thing that REALLY bugged me is I lost all the tracks I'd downloaded from iTunes (luckily not that many) and when I complained to them they basically just said tough luck, you should've saved them somewhere else.
Where are your iTunes music files stored: My Music -iTunes - iTunes Music?
@ tfd - thanks for the sympathy - I do, of course, realise that worse things happen at sea - and indeed, on land, where people are currently cold and homeless and my particular difficulty isn't really worthy of being described as a 'problem'. It's all about perspective...
@ shoey - they're on an external drive and, yes, I have set the location correctly in the preferences > advanced tab. I even tried adding a new folder and these tracks play fine from the new location.
Have you got the latest version of itunes installed?
If there's an update out there (i think 8.0.1 popped up last week at some point) - perhaps installing it may help get everything back on track.
If the files have been moved, move them back where they were so the library file can find them.
Or, back to library files, iTunes creates a new one each time you use it & keeps backups in the library folder. One of these backups us may link to your files. Drag into iTunes to see.
Otherwise it's File/Library/Consolidate Library time.
If the files have been moved, move them back where they were so the library file can find them.
Or, back to library files, iTunes creates a new one each time you use it & keeps backups in the library folder. One of these backups us may link to your files. Drag into iTunes to see.
Otherwise it's File/Library/Consolidate Library time.
If the files have been moved, move them back where they were so the library file can find them.
Or, back to library files, iTunes creates a new one each time you use it & keeps backups in the library folder. One of these backups us may link to your files. Drag into iTunes to see.
Otherwise it's File/Library/Consolidate Library time.
If the files have been moved, move them back where they were so the library file can find them.
Or, back to library files, iTunes creates a new one each time you use it & keeps backups in the library folder. One of these backups us may link to your files. Drag into iTunes to see.
Otherwise it's File/Library/Consolidate Library time.
Sorry, looks like I need Blogger support!
Toffee: I can't help but if I were in your position I'd go to Macworld.com and ask some of the experts there. There may also be an archive of similar problems and solutions. Good luck.
Cripes - that's a proper cold sweat nightmare time for a true music enthusiast.
Sympathies, but unfortunately no help from technodullard/iTunes-newbie DsD.
Just wanted to say something, TB.
Sorry mate.
@ you guys
Thanks for the suggestions/expressions of sympathy. I posted something on the iTunes discussion forum yesterday and I've had one or two helpful suggestions but nothing that solves it - yet.
@ shoey - I haven't moved the files, it's just that somehow the only library I can find with recent play history can't find the music...
@ shoey - I haven't moved the files, it's just that somehow the only library I can find with recent play history can't find the music...
@ shoey - I haven't moved the files, it's just that somehow the only library I can find with recent play history can't find the music...
@ shoey - I haven't moved the files, it's just that somehow the only library I can find with recent play history can't find the music...
Tee hee...
My sympathies - I had the same problem last year, and in the end the only solution was 'consolidate', which not only lost playlists and play data, but also the date imported - which I hadn't appreciated how much I used till I'd lost it all.
If you find a better answer, do let us know.
@ ghe - thanks for this. I really don't want to go down the path of consolidation. I'm still holding out for a hero...
Toffee, if you're still reading, I've had the same kind of problem, which fixed itself on its own. You shouldn't have a 2 locations of files for your library to access, as that will confuse things. Blimpy's update idea seems worth a try. If not , maybe try moving the whole collection, or maybe just changing the name of the folder, and have your library access these. This may not be that much help.
@ ejd - thanks for this - I'm willing to try anything. I'll let you know how I get on.
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