Reload iTunes without loosing the library? How?

Question

Reload iTunes without loosing the library? How?

It seems that because of my stupidity, I must now uninstall, then reinstall my iTunes. How would I do this without losing my library? Should I just go into c:/program files/documents and setting/myusername/my documents/my music, cut out the "iTunes" file and just replace it after the reinstall?

Dell, Windows XP

Posted on Aug 10, 2008 8:01 AM

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Answer 1

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polydorus

Level 6

11,967 points

Aug 10, 2008 8:12 AM in response to Twilight Thorn

Uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes should not affect your library, but it is always advisable to backup your valuable music.

Although you should not have to do this I usually make a copy of:
iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml from the iTunes folder before upgrading. I usually put the copies in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder, but anywhere is OK.

These are the library databases and they seem to be the things that go wrong most often.

PS don't meddle with your folders, the folders in My Documents should not be affected except for the advice above.

Message was edited by: polydorus

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Answer 2

Aug 10, 2008 8:16 AM in response to polydorus

I've had this happen twice:
I wake up one day and open my iTunes and fine all my music missing. The first time, I practically crapped my pants and jumped onto these forums. The second time (about a month ago), I knew what had happened and found that the most recent library had been made in January (about 200 songs lost because of this).

So, I just need to back up those two files? I'll just copy them to my desktop just to make sure. Thanks.

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Answer 3

polydorus

Level 6

11,967 points

Aug 10, 2008 8:22 AM in response to Twilight Thorn

Yes backing up the two library files saves your databases adn if you get a library corruption problem, your can just replace the damaged libraries with the backup copies.

If you do regular system or My document backups, you can recover the files from them as well. But not everyone does that.

The other day I had a serious Trojan problem and boy was I glad of a full system backup before the problem started.

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