kituneswin: iTunes Library Does Not Appear To Be Valid

This problem is caused by a corrupted iTunes library file. This can happen through a virus, and possibly the computer (or iTunes) being shut down unexpectedly while writing to the library database files.

c The fix

Note: You will probably lose all of your library settings, i.e. playlists, playcounts, last played, ratings.

*Shut iTunes
*Go to the iTunes Music folder (by default My Documents\My Music\iTunes)
*Select the two files that are there (iTunes library.xml, iTunes 4 music library.itl)
*Drag them to the desktop
*Open iTunes

You should have an empty library, which leaves you two choices: If you want all of your old settings/ratings/playlists, etc., you can try the next step, or, if you don't care, just rebuild your library by adding all music.

The following step is an attempt to rebuild your library, without a guarantee:
*In iTunes, go to File>Import
*Browse to the desktop
*Double-click on iTunes Music Library.xml (you may have to change the file type from .txt to .xml in the dialog box)
*iTunes should attempt to rebuild your library

c Prevention

*You should always have Anti Virus software running.
*Try not to shut down the computer with iTunes running.
*And of course, the main keyword, Backup.

I wrote a little batch file that will backup your files to a new folder. If you use it, and encounter a corrupt file, all you need to do is replace the original files with the ones in the backup folder to get a rollback to the last backup.


del backup /y
mkdir backup
copy iTunes~1.xml backup\
copy itunes~1.itl backup\


Copy that text into a new text document, and change the file format from .txt to .bat. Put the file into the iTunes music folder, and run it periodically. I run it weekly.

Note: The next time you plug in your iPod, you're probably going to get a dialog box about your iPod being linked to another library. If you press Yes, your iPod will be wiped, and replaced with your current, possibly unrated, etc, library.