Any way to "rebuild" the itunes music library.xml file??

Hey... Somehow the above file (and maybe the Itunes Music Library file as well) got corrupted. I get a message that the .xml file isn't a proper file or something to that effect, when iTunes starts and then it proceeds to try to "update" the Itunes Music Library file and saves the old one with a different name.

Only problem is that when it does this, I lose 3/4 of my music and all of the formatting (like "Purchased" and other manual playlists).

Has this happened to you? Any suggestions. I know I could just re-add all the files (all the songs./movies/etc are still on my external drive) but I'll lose the files' data and, as mentioned, the playlists/Purchased/Movie/etc info...

Any and all assistance is appreciated

netdog said:

Clear the library (but don't erase the files) and then just drop all the files onto the library and they will re-import. You won't lose the data. Not sure about the playlists.

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Thanks but that's what I was talking about at the end of my post. I know I can re-import everything, I was just wondering if anyone knows of a way to, basically, "rebuild" the original "bad" Library file (I saved it just in case) so I don't lose all the files' data, playlists, categories, etc...

Thanks anyway.

Mindflux said:

I think if you option-click your iTunes icon (or cmd-option click maybe) it should come up and ask you if you want to rebuild the library...

this is starting with iTunes closed out completely.

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Thanks for the suggestion but no joy.....

edit:

to be more precise, tried all key-combos and clicking on itunes icon and all it did was launch itunes.

cptpower said:

are you able to open the xml file using textedit?

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Yes. I was looking at this the last few days and there seems to be data corruption of some strings. NOt sure what it is supposed to be though and it looks to be extensive without some automated way of either picking out the "bad" data (and thus losing only the data for those files) or rebuilding the file completely. That sounds like wishful thinking though at this point.

cohibadad said:

just pull a valid version off Time Machine. Or have you tried this? http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313

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Don't have a recent backup (1 month or so... which is what I'm going to have to use and then just re-add the stuff added in the interim - was trying to find an easy fix). And that apple doc would help if the xml file wasn't corrupt. Which brings me back to the original question

Oh well, guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and lose some data and manually re-add it.

It's just strange what itunes chooses to pull in when I tried to add my old music library back in en masse. It selectively skips stuff.