Yeah, that's an odd file. I have been having issues with Itunes randomly deleting music/albums out of my library. To my suprise an apple tech rep emailed/called me. He asked what files were in my itunes music folder. I told him everything including the 'sentinel' file. He said that it's not supposed to be there. I am not using any 'plugins' (what he called them - I didnt know you could use plugins in itunes) or helper apps for itunes. I deleted the file but haven't checked to see if it re-created itself. Could this be that virus that was going around deleting random music?
Oh no!!! Yesterday during my monthly backup routine I found the sentinel file as well. Does anyone of you know what this file is for up to now?
If I am right, the file appeared first after my last update of iTunes.
Please help me!
I checked my ~/Music/iTunes/ directory and have the following...
Folders:
"Album Artwork", "iPod Games", "iTunes Music", "Mobile Applications", "Previous iTunes Libraries"
Files:
"iTunes Library.itl", "iTunes Library Extras.itdb", "iTunes Library Genius.itdb", "iTunes Music Library.xml"
No Sentinel folder.
If I go to ~/Library/iTunes/iTunes Plug-ins/ it is empty
If I go to Macintosh HD/Library/iTunes/iTunes Plug-ins/ I have "Quartz Composer Visualizer.bundle"
This location for XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes Plug-ins
This location for Vista:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes Plug-ins
The only application I have installed that works with iTunes is something called "You Control Tunes." It resides in my Applications folder, and it's just a set of playback controls that sit in the menu bar so that I don't have to go to the iTunes window if I need to switch tracks, pause, etc.
The only widget I have installed that works with iTunes is "Sing that iTune" which downloads lyrics.
Prior to checking on this, I was running iTunes 8.0.0, so I updated to 8.0.1 via Software Update, and same thing in all locations. So, what do you guys have in those locations? Do you have anything in Applications or Dashboard that interact with iTunes? Perhaps the systems of the users seeing this item all have something in common. (I suggest checking that folder even if you've never intentionally installed something to work with iTunes).
It's a Windows file about 1KB, not a folder. It has a little string of "nonsense" characters in it, if you open it using Notepad.
It resides wherever you have your ITL file. You can delete it while itunes is running but it gets recreated when you close itunes. It also gets recreated when you open itunes and it doesn't exist.
I didn't see one on my Mac, but I'm not real Mac-savvy, so maybe it's a hidden file on that machine.
I think it is a problem of win-PCs. In the next two days I should get my new MacBook and hopefully the sentinel-file will not be switched as well to my new system as I tranfer my whole music-folder from my PC to the Mac. Having done the switch, I will setup my win-PC completely new to find out whether it is a problem of my iTunes vesion or something else.
I don't have installed any additional plugins or sub-programs into iTunes... the only thing that changed is the version of iTunes.
I hope we will fix this problem soon...
I don't really think the file is a problem; I do have a few a few addins like, iConcertCal, for one. Why doesn't someone call Apple Tech and ask them? In fact....I will!
Good call, Katrina, on the Mac it is a hidden file... about 4 KB over here. If I try to open it, TextEdit opens an empty document. I sort of keep forgetting that I have a utility to turn on hidden files on the Mac, so, I guess that part of the search didn't occur to me.
If anyone gets a definitive answer, from Apple or elsewhere, I as well would be curious to hear it.
Yes very good call, Katrina. It is also a hidden file on my win-PC.
The PC of my girlfriend with XP on it also has this file on it... I didn't recognize it before, because the settings on my girlfriends PC doesn't show hidden files.
So now I am sure not to have any virus or trojan on my system... I think almost every system with iTunes 8 should have this sentinel file on it... it is just hidden.
DRDRJAY,
Did you ever contact Apple support re: Sentinel file? I upgraded to i-Tunes 8.0 recently and my spyware is picking this file up everytime I re-boot. Is it something Apple added and is basically harmless or do I have a problem?
Thanks
Gary (17201)
I spoke with Apple iTunes Tech by phone and the man said the Sentinel file was put there by Apple and has something to do with the new Genius ...which I haven't used yet. What -- he didn't know. So, No Worries!
