iTunes Problem - Help!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 08:36amI won’t be around for most of the day, so here’s something to chew on. The other day my iTunes software did one of those automatic updates…I usually don’t update right when the new software comes out, but I was distracted and clicked OK to update. Whatever. This morning I opened iTunes (I wanted to do a few things before syncing my iPod), and an alert came up and asked me where my iTunes library was. WHAT? Not once since I started using iTunes have I ever seen that question.
I keep my music on an external drive, not the C: drive where it usually lives. So I searched around and found an .itl file and selected it. iTunes opened up a library that is several years old and obviously INCORRECT. Now I don’t know what to do. I’m certainly not going to sync my iPod. And my mp3s are all safe and sound where they usually are, but I can’t get iTunes to find them or any of my playlists.
Does anyone have any advice? Because I am pissed as hell. By the way, this is on my PC.
Kenny on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 9:32 am
If you do a System Restore back to before you loaded iTunes, it should go back to your old version and all your music should be there. That’s the quick and easy solution. If you want the solution that allows you to find your music on the updated iTunes, you’ll need somebody smarter than I.
freakgirl on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 10:07 am
System restore?
Jen on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 10:21 am
This might not be what you want to do, but I believe that if itunes finds stuff on your ipod that isn’t in itunes, it asks you if you want to transfer it.
Charlie on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 10:32 am
Yes, system restore is your friend. Go Start > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore and select a date prior to when you f’ed it up. It’s kind of like getting a “do over” for your PC.
GeekBoy on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 10:34 am
System Restore is a Windows function. Windows constantly keeps track of any changes you make to your configuration, registry changes, etc., and you can roll things back if you need to — if, say, you install a new program that fouls up your computer. Or as in this case, if a program updates, and it fouls up your computer.
It’s not a perfect solution, because it rolls back the settings on everything, not just the thing causing you problems. But since it’s only been a few days, and I don’t think you’ve installed anything else in that time, it might do the trick in this case.
Anyway, I can take care of it for you when I get home if you want.
Grey Rainbow on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 10:54 am
no advice, just sympathy….i just had a nightmare with my retrospect not “seeing” my tape drive or backing anything up….fixed it, though. phew!
i thought you had a macbook?
GeekBoy on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 11:14 am
She has a MacBook laptop, but still has a PC desktop.
Maggie on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Jen, I don’t think it works that way. From what I here about how iPods/iTunes work is that you can only transfer music one-way…this way you can’t get a bunch of music from a friend’s iPod and transfer it to your library when you don’t own the music.
Of course, I don’t have an iPod so I really don’t know, I could totally be wrong.
freakgirl on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 12:15 pm
This is why I’m terrified to plug in my iPod…that the PC settings will override and erase it.
GeekBoy on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Yeah, I wouldn’t try to sync the iPod as it is now. Too risky.
I’m sure the files are all there and iTunes is just confused. A system restore should fix it.
ivon on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Hmm, I did the same ‘upgrade’ but haven’t started iTunes since. And now ‘m afraid to.
Patrick on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 12:33 pm
There’s third-party software that copies stuff from iPod back to the PC. (It’s freeware for the Mac, dunno about PC.) But then, it’s not a problem that your music is missing, just that iTunes doesn’t see it.
It probably depends whether you have iTunes set up to organize your music for you; that is, whether it copies it into a different artist/album directory when you import it. (I have it set to do that, myself.) Either way, there should be a field in preferences that specifies the location of your library. Perhaps try changing that back to your external drive? Or there could be another .itl file somewhere (probably in that folder), unless the update deleted it somehow.
If all else fails, you could just make sure the library location setting is correct and do the whole “add to library” thing again. Your playlists would be gone, though. Or… you could do system restore, export all your playlists, then undo the system restore, re-make your library and try to reimport the playlists.
Patrick on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Oh, or do the system restore, and then go to File -> Export Library (just found that; that’s where it is in the Mac version), where you can save everything — track info, playlists, etc — as an XML file. (Hopefully that’s not a feature added in the last update; I don’t think it is.) Not sure if it’ll let you get that back into iTunes after you undo the system restore, though.
Or when you system restore, you could back up the correct .itl file, and open that back up when you undo the system restore. Effectively, just restoring that one file. (Macs have that in Time Machine :-) )
Chuck on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 1:08 pm
FACETIME!
jon on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Buy a Zune.
Janet on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Same thing happened to me - I got a “can’t find files” message after an autodownload. I went to itunes online, downloaded the exe again and installed. I got a choice to replace corrupt files, or something similar.
The songs will still be there, they are kept in a folder on your computer, not in the program itself.
GeekBoy on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Janet, did it work okay after you did that?
Soosan on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 5:21 pm
“System Restore is a Windows function. Windows constantly keeps track of any changes you make to your configuration, registry changes, etc., and you can roll things back if you need to — if, say, you install a new program that fouls up your computer. Or as in this case, if a program updates, and it fouls up your computer.”
GB, where were you a week ago when this happened to my new laptop? I had a windows update “download” and I couldn’t reboot my computer after that. Luckily, I’m quite skilled at random button pushing, and managed a system restore.
Good luck with the ipod!
freakgirl on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Chuck, you rule.
Marjon on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 12:53 am
You can transfer the songs from the ipod to a pc rather easily, but you have to mark your ipod as an external hard drive, I think the option is somewhere in iTunes. After that you can export the music file from your ipod to your computer. The music file is hidden, so you need to be able to see hidden files.
I did it a couple of times. It has a downside, the files somehow seem to become damaged or something, so a couple of songs end rather abruptly now.
freakgirl on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 8:13 am
FYI - System restore didn’t work, nor did re-installing iTunes.
I ended up digging through my system and finding the last *.itl backup. It was almost two months old so I lost a couple smart playlists and had to re-add all the music I’ve added since January. Basically, that new update deleted my itl file and I have no idea why. I think I might start backing it up manually.
Janet on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Geekboy - it worked for me, but I don’t have a separate spot for my lists, which seems to be different.
I will say my computer just downloaded a new itunes software last night and now I am afeared, I think I will back-up as well.