Why do my play counts reset to zero randomly?

Other music software for Windows includes MediaMonkey, WinAmp, SongBird, and Amarok. I can't speak to whether or not there are Mac versions (I have a PC), nor to whether any of these are any good, especially when it comes to syncing ipods. I've tried the first two of them out briefly as music software and found they were alright in some ways, but missing key itunes features like smart playlists that made them difficult for me to personally envision as itunes replacements (Your mileage may vary). Also, one imported all my playcounts and another only imported *some* of them. One imported my ratings, one didn't have ratings. One did let me make cover art take up as much of the screen as I wanted (Which was pretty cool).

I haven't tried syncing any of them to my ipod yet, because I'm afraid of screwing something up. That'd probably be my last step after bascially making a final decision to go with that software.

Obviously, I take no responsibility for any of this software and anything it might screw up. Use at your own risk, etc.. I'm just mentioning it because I was asked what I've heard of that's out there. Whether it's any good or not is an open question.

I'm testing some of it out occasionally to get used to it in case I have to make a switch. What I really *want* to do, though, is stick with itunes. I just think them to stop changing genres, album names, track numbers, etc. in order to do that. I'm not sure if turning off everything that connects with Apple's servers is a long-term answer (For one thing, they may not allow it in subsequent versions and, for another, I lose key features like genius and CD import track name recognition and so on and so forth)- it's just what I am doing for now.

I'm having the same problem, some of my songs are resetting their play counts randomly. What I've figured out is it's only affecting songs I've bought through iTunes and it's seems to be because iTunes is making some sort of changes to the songs, resetting the play counts in the process.

For example, I went to my Recently Played playlist and noticed songs in there with no play counts. One of them was "N*ggas in Paris" by Kanye West and Jay-Z. When I bought the song, it listed the artist as "JAY Z and Kanye West." When I clicked the song to play it from that playlist to start its play counts back up, it changed the artist name to "Jay-Z & Kanye West." It did it on its own right then and there.

I figure whatever function iTunes is using to make those kinds of changes to my music info, it is resetting the play counts when it does it. I have the option "Share details about you library with Apple" checked in Preferences in iTunes, but before I did that the problem was still going on. Hopefully it will only reset items once and that's it.

Has anyone noticed this issue starting again since the fix?

It just happened to me again tonight. Only happened on one album, and I was able to restore that album's play counts because I've continued to copy and paste my library into an Excel spreadsheet just incase it cropped up again.

Was just wondered if it has begun to happen to others again since they "fixed" their iTunes library.

Lets keep raising this to Apple on the iTunes feedback form. Hopefully they will notice it.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

I have replicated the issue.

I had 0 songs where the play count had been reset. But today I purchased a song on iTunes on my iPhone. When I turned on iTunes 11 this song automatically downloaded. Then two songs previously purchased in iTunes (the first song on 12/01/2010 the second song purchased on 19/11/2012) had the play count automatically reset by iTunes. The older song had 67 plays the second song under 5.

This happens so regularly that I have actually created an playlist that identifies songs when the playlist is reset so that I can restore the play count to what is was...

Just want to quickly raise my hand here and add another user to this issue. Reset play count and multiple versions of songs have been a constant headache for me since upgrading to iTunes 11. This is really frustrating since many of my playlist are based on whether or not I have listened to a song, and how many times, and there's no way to get the old play count back. It's things like this that make me glad I don't shop on the ITMS anymore... Past purchases coming back to haunt me.

What's more, my iPhone seems dead set on restarting my playlist and re-playing the same songs I've just listened to if it hasn't been playing for a little while, or if music playback has been interrupted by another app. I know that's a separate issue, but it cropped up around the same time as the iTunes 11 update.

Those of you still having issues, have you tried the fix outlined by jet9football, talios and myself on page 6 of this thread? jet9football gives the clearest steps on fixing this.

Since upgrading to the latest iTunes and replacing the last iTunes 10 database file, I haven't had the issue a single time.

To add to the list that no one cares about (except those on it)...

Play counts reset to zero, album titles changed, some of the song info for certain iTunes Store purchases changed (ie. track numbers, sort album, etc.) a bunch of songs previously deleted by me show up with that iCloud thingie, and songs that were in my library that went missing and had to be downloaded again. Oh yeah, and then there were the songs that wouldn't play anymore! Those had to be deleted and re-downloaded (is that why we got the "Purchased" link under Quick Links in the store?). I'm still discovering songs that don't play. The only songs tampered with were iTunes Store purchases. I had never normally allowed my info to be shared with Apple, and I keep the iTunes Store disabled whenever I'm not actively browsing. The problem has not recurred since I disabled all of those settings (or if more songs have disappeared, I haven't noticed it, since I also disabled that iCloud crap). I complained via the iTunes Feedback form.

I don't get super-technical in how my library is organized, smart playlists, etc. But I have made some custom adjustments to how things are organized and did utilize play counts in my own way so these bugs from Apple were a serious annoyance. Plus, you know, it'd be great to not have songs go missing. I just want Apple to leave my library alone.

What I have noticed with this problem is a) it only happens with itunes purchases and b) it appears to only happen to me once I have bought something new from the store. Over the past 3 weeks I have switched to buying from another mp3 store and haven't had any problems with playcounts etc. Anyone else notice this or is it just me?

Yep, itunes purchases only reset, and when something new is purchased, although I also questioned if it wasn't happening at sync's. I looked through the steps on page 6, but am unwilling to go through that much stuff and still have to redo a couple of months worth of song additions and plays. Here's my solution, and I hope Apple monitors discussion threads on occasion: I am not going to buy from iTunes anymore. Once the gift cards I received for Christmas whittle down, my account will sit at zero. I'm no longer researching problems or going to the discussion groups for problems anymore. Fix your problems yourself. I'm getting my music elsewhere. They can let me know when they're worth going back to.

Not sure where my post from yesterday went, but I did get an email from the Apple Support community with instructions on how to restore the library to the pre-upgrade values, including playcount. For me, that was on 12/7/12, and here we are at 2/10/13. I've listened to, and purchased, music since then, so I am reluctant to do the restore. Since I only have a few songs with zero play count, so the damage of doing a restore is greater than the damage Apple has done so far, I am looking for a way to edit my existing playcount. I found an old xml file and looked up a few songs that now have zero play count, so if I could edit my existing library files, that would be the best answer for me. Is that possible? I'm on Win7, iTunes 11.1, and I have located the itl and xml files, but the itl is cryptic. Anyone have any suggestions?

Hi nycedigz,

I found myself in the same boat as you—stuck between the rock of upset play counts, and the hard place of reverting to an older library. I decided my month and a half of recent plays was more important than a couple hundred messed up purchased songs.

Fortunately there is a solution, albeit a tedious one: the Add or Subtract PLay Count v2.0 script, available for free here: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=addorsubtractplaycount

My process was to open my most recent "normal" library (for me, from 12/2/12), create a playlist of all purchased files (including a play count column), and export that playlist as a CSV. Then I go back to my "real/up-to-date" library, and switch back and forth between iTunes and Excel and use the script to adjust the play counts accordingly whenever I come across a song or album that I don't think shows the play count it should.

If you find the script as helpful to you as it was to me, you may want to consider making a small donation to the author. I know it saved me lots of time and trouble!

Cheers

Yep, I have the same problem with my play counts resetting themselves 😟, at first I thought it was just a glitch on a Kings of Leon album, but the same problem is cropping up with some Death Cab songs, Fun. and some other stuff! This is with all the purchased stuff, and I'd appreciate it if Apple could sort this out! iTunes 11 is proving to be much more trouble than it's worth... 😠

I am having the same problem. I'm positive it's only with iTunes store purchases. The first time I saw it, it was an album which I had renamed the entire album and some songs to be consistent with the rest of my library. I later noticed it had wiped my play counts. So I stopped changing file information for store purchases, yet it happened again last week with a new CD I bought and was listening to A LOT. As others, I use play history in smart lists a lot, so this really annoyed me. Tonight I see that the first album from a few months ago is all reset again. I just used the feedback form, but I think for me personally the only "fix" is to stop buying from the iTunes store.

Edit: I just made a "Jacked Playcounts" list, including songs with a "last played" date in the last 5 years, purchsed = True, Rating > 3 stars and plays = 0. It came back with 80 songs. Many of which I know were among my most played songs. I can't tell you how irritated I am at this moment. To be honest, this play history was one of the key things keeping me with iDevices and not switching to Android. Not saying I'm going to switch right away, but if this keeps happening, one of the strengths of the iTunes ecosystem will be gone.

So I *think* I found and *stopped* the problem. I still have to go through a painful process to fix all my songs back to my oldest backup (just December when I got my new Mac Mini.) For me, the problem was fixed by unchecking the "Show cloud purchases" under the Store tab in preferences. My quick test was to take my backup library to my MBP. As soon as I opened it and it synced with the cloud, I watched a song with 128 plays go to 0 and disappear. I grabbed my backup again, turned off wifi, launched the library and the playcount stayed. I unchecked tha box, closed iTunes, turned WiFi back on and launched again. My playcounts stayed.

Now I just have to use my "Jacked" playlist to know the heavy hitters I need to dig up a number for and fix...