Half of my iTunes library dissappeared! Please help me find it or figure out why!

[yoda13]

OK, this is really jacked up. I went to launch iTunes to play some music and all the songs in my library that start with words that begin with the letter K and afterwards are gone!?! The song still exists in the library but if I try to play it, it tells me that it can't find it and then I have to go look for it. I can't find it in the music folder or iTunes library anywhere. Fortunately I have 80 plus percent backed up, so I am not totally jacked up here, but I am hoping that someone can help me figure out what has happened to my songs. I have done nothing to this computer but shut it down and restart it a few times in the last several days. What the heck could have happend?

 

[mad jew]

I have no idea where your files went or why they disappeared. I've heard of iTunes forgetting where a file is located and being unable to play said file until you remind it where to look, but never of iTunes actually deleting files without warning.

How much free hard drive space do you have? Is it possible someone else has come onto the computer and deleted these files, either through iTunes or through Finder/Explorer?

 

[yoda13]

Well, I have 45 gigs of space left on the drive they are on. I asked my fiance since I made the original post whether or not she had messed with it or not. Turns out she has. She copied the entire library over to her iBook by launching my Powerbook into target disk mode and copying the iTunes folder from my music folder into hers. I had her check hers and it is the same as mine. Is it possible that something was lost copying it over? I have done this hundreds of times between my Powerbook and my PowerMac and never had this trouble before. Was I just lucky, and I shouldn't have been doing that, or is this just something freaky?

I was able to recover some more of the music I didn't have backed up from one of my iPods, so that is always nice, but I am still gonna lose several purchased tracks that I hadn't backed up yet this month. I am glad I back up pretty well most of the time, but I would still like to recover what I have lost if its possible.

 

[mad jew]

Was I just lucky, and I shouldn't have been doing that, or is this just something freaky?

That should be fine. I think this was something freaky but I can't really elaborate since there are so many unknown variables. Sorry I can't be very helpful.

I was able to recover some more of the music I didn't have backed up from one of my iPods, so that is always nice, but I am still gonna lose several purchased tracks that I hadn't backed up yet this month.

Maybe contact Apple about re-downloading them. I'm not sure what Apple's stance is on this, but since you only ever actually buy the right to play the track on a variety of different mediums, you might be able to get them back. It's worth a try.

 

[blaster_boy]

Do the songs play at all ? If it's not purchased, you could try to play it with another music player to verify this. If this works, maybe it is only your iTunes catalog that has been damaged.

What I did on a pbook 12inch of mine was to copy only parts of the music under the iTunes directory to the pbook (hard disk gets filled up pretty quickly otherwise). I also deleted the itunes catalog xml file that contains the listing of all the files so that when you start up iTunes it comes up empty.

I then did a re-import of my music by selecting the music from the itunes directory. Since it was already in the correct place, it didn't move the music upon importing.

Maybe you should try that - rename your iTunes catalog xml file, restart iTunes to verify it is empty and then do a re-import of your music.

 

[yoda13]

I think I will give that a shot when I get home, it cannot hurt.

Mad Jew, you are always quite helpful, thank you for trying. I will contact Apple as a last resort, but I think that they will say what I already feel, and that it is my loss for not having it all backed up.

I had like 400+ tracks I had purchased and it looks like I have only lost a couple of seasons of tv shows and about 10 songs, so I guess it could be worse....