An iTunes Problem...

[iPadPublisher]

Hey guys... first post in this section of the forums. Hoping someone might have an idea of how to help me on this.

The other night, I plugged my iPad2 into my MacPro to sync as I often do... when iTunes popped up a peculiar error message that said (something like) "Your iTunes Library file is not valid. It has been renamed iTunesLibrary.old and we've created a new library for you..." then taking me into a blank, completely empty iTunes library. I checked the Drobo where my library lives, and all the media files are still in place. I also maintain a backup on another physical drive in my system... so I have all of my media.

After tons of forum reading, I can't find anything on how to "fix" the supposedly corrupt library file. So I resigned myself to having to copy all of my media back in. I did a giant batch copy from the old library into the new library's "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder and let it run overnight. When I fired up iTunes the next day it started "ingesting" all the content. At the end of the day, though, I wound up with 19,646 songs (or "items") which is shy of the 20,100 or so I know I have. And while that's "pretty good" where recoveries go, I can't help but wonder where the other 450'ish items have gone. Someone mentioned that online radio links wouldn't be there anymore, that might account for 15-20 of what I'm missing, but the rest is a mystery.

I have no idea how to tell what is missing... any ideas?? Is there a different way I should handle this?

Thanks in advance for any ideas and help!

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Could you/can you still, use TimeMachine to go back to a time when it was all working?

What happens if you copy the backup of the iTunes library to its normal location, overwriting the corrupt one (or the newly created one in this case I suppose)?

 

[iPadPublisher]

Could you/can you still, use TimeMachine to go back to a time when it was all working?

What happens if you copy the backup of the iTunes library to its normal location, overwriting the corrupt one (or the newly created one in this case I suppose)?

I don't have a time machine backup of the library, just a raw copy of it. It wasn't the library as a whole that was corrupted, just the single ItunesLibrary.itl file that houses all the information about it. No matter what I tried, it considers that file corrupt.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

I don't have a time machine backup of the library, just a raw copy of it. It wasn't the library as a whole that was corrupted, just the single ItunesLibrary.itl file that houses all the information about it. No matter what I tried, it considers that file corrupt.

Is the backup considered corrupt if you copy it back? Do you know how old it is? I presume it would be out of step with the original. Unless the backup was taken after the file was corrupted but before you noticed it was corrupt?

 

[iPadPublisher]

Is the backup considered corrupt if you copy it back?

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I only have backups of the media files themselves, none of the library files. Once I get this particular problem worked out, I'll start keeping backups of the library files too. (Lesson learned!)

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I had that problem on a Windows PC, and I used something along the lines of the "File Vault" that's in Lion, to restore my iTunesLibrary to a version from the previous day.

Unfortunately, unless you have an older - but not very old - backup of that file, I don't think there's anything you can do to recover your library.

As far as restoring everything, just have iTunes import a folder, and point it to your music folder. It'll import everything (ignoring duplicates) and you should find everything back in there.

 

[iPadPublisher]

As far as restoring everything, just have iTunes import a folder, and point it to your music folder. It'll import everything (ignoring duplicates) and you should find everything back in there.

Interesting idea... not sure why I didn't think of that... seems obvious. Then it would remain an "iTunes" operation the entire time.

Just tried it, oddly enough, came out with 19,639 items, so 7 less than my copy and past operation... ha ha.

Here's the next logical question, then, my previous library was reporting about 20,100 items --- factoring the 25 or so that were online radio links --- what else could represent an "item" that might have inflated the number past where it currently sits at 19,639? You mentioned duplicates... wonder if I had some and they didn't copy in?

 

[iPadPublisher]

Nightmare

This has really turned into a nightmare now. While I can't tell what songs (if any) are missing... I discovered a whole NEW problem. Hundreds (if not a thousand) songs are in the libary simply as 01 Songname, etc. --- simply listing their track number and song name, but no album or artist info. These are essentially all of the albums I've had to type in by hand because of Gracenote either not having them (or having bad info). Any ideas on a fix? I'm lost.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Hundreds (if not a thousand) songs are in the libary simply as 01 Songname, etc. --- simply listing their track number and song name, but no album or artist info. These are essentially all of the albums I've had to type in by hand because of Gracenote either not having them (or having bad info). Any ideas on a fix? I'm lost.

I dont know for sure but presumably thats because that info is stored in the library? If that's correct,you'll just have to redo it all, because obviously its lost.

And then implement proper backup. Or, better, implement proper backup first. Spend $50-$100 on a 1Tb disk, tell Time Machine yes, and you should be good next time, or in case of a problem part way through re-entering that data - who knows why that library got corrupted, but obviously the potential is there for it to happen again.