Recovering my iTunes playlists, play counts, ratings and other settings

[Jasonscott71]

A few weeks ago, I had to clear as much space on my hard drive as I could. So I moved my user/music/itunes folder to an external. I just brought the folder back on to my main hard drive and have, under preferences/advanced/location, assigned it a new location. I have tried 2 locations:

user/music/itunes
&
user/music/itunes/itunes music.

In both cases, after I do that, I get a prompt asking me if I want itunes to reorganize and rename in keeping with my "keep itunes organized" selection in preferences. I said yes both times.

Yet, although all my songs are in the current library, I still can't seem to get my playlists, play counts, ratings and other settings back. Is one of those .tmp files the key to restoring it how I had it 2 weeks ago? I have also looked in my older libraries folder and have a library as of Sep 09, but this is not as recent as I want.

Help. Any suggestions to bringing me back to where I was 2 weeks ago?

 

[trainguy77]

I think your choosing where the music data is stored. Try booting up itunes while holding the option key and select the itunes folder as this contains the database info as well.

 

[Jasonscott71]

Okay, thanks for replying. I did just what you suggested (choose the "itunes" folder) and when it opened, still the same. Just a library with all my songs. Still not the old settings and playlists, etc.

I have to think one of those files in the itunes folder is the key. Any other suggestions?

 

[Jasonscott71]

Bump for please anybody help? I've literally put 6 years of my life into compiling my playlists, ratings, and play counts, etc., and am in a panic over having lost them. There's got to be a solution. Please, can anyone donate their time for this?

 

[Cinematographer]

What happens if you quit iTunes and then restart it by clicking on the iTunes Library file in your Music/iTunes folder?

 

[Consultant]

What did you copy to the external? Let me guess iTunes Music?

But sounds like you deleted the iTunes folder which contains the playlists etc.

Get the playlists from your backup.


Note the difference between the folders
Music/iTunes/iTunes Music

 

[trainguy77]

What did you copy to the external? Let me guess iTunes Music?

But sounds like you deleted the iTunes folder which contains the playlists etc.

Get the playlists from your backup.


Note the difference between the folders
Music/iTunes/iTunes Music

Yeah thats what I am thinking.

iTunes Music Library.xml holds the ratings etc I think.