Q: Songs Disappearing from iTunes

I don't get it, why do tracks disappear? I have my iTunes backed up on Time Machine and I've found some of the albums in the backups, but I cannot know what disappeared and at which point in time... and it cannot be that it deletes tracks less used, as some of the disappeared albums had been played a lot.

Did anyone figure out how to prevent further loss of music in the Library?

And would it be possible to retrieve lost tracks if they exist in backups?

I just had a bunch more tracks disapear. This is my second complaint, and since then I haven't seen a single post from Apple revealing any kind of resolution. 

So here's my announcent for anyone that will post in this thread:

-Apple knows that they cannot do anything about the deleted tracks caused by the bug in iTunes, so they will ignore helping anyone in this thread. 

-Backups may not matter in this case depending on when they happened.  The problem with this bug is there is no way of knowing about new missing tracks amongst the maybe thousands of tracks in your library.  So if you perform a backup when you have new unknown deleted tracks, it will simply copy over exactly what you have on your primary drive.

-No one has found a way to resolve this. There is no solution. 

-Apple has lost control of the quality of their software lately.  This is why people have stopped using Maps and Final Cut.  Like Maps and Final Cut X, iTunes is now crap.  Do you really want a program that will randomly delete songs that you paid money for? No. It's time to use something else.

IMHO this is too big of a deal to just let it go - Apple business relies on trust in their Apps and online purchases through iTunes Store. Impeccable performance of software is prerequisite for the satisfaction with their Macs & gadgets.

If they drop this ball, there is no reason to keep buying overpriced and today-new-but-soon-to-be-outdated hardware. And then the spiral goes downwards.

I'd hate to see it happen, but until this iTunes flaw is fixed, I am willing to explore alternatives to music management - any suggestions?

exactspace wrote:

 

I just had a bunch more tracks disapear. This is my second complaint, and since then I haven't seen a single post from Apple revealing any kind of resolution.

and you won't see a post here from Apple since this is a user-to-user forum.

-Apple knows that they cannot do anything about the deleted tracks caused by the bug in iTunes, so they will ignore helping anyone in this thread.

See response above.

Hi again

this is beyond belief, I lost an unknown amount of tracks the other day. The problem here is they were things that I no longer own plus they weren't bought from itunes, rather taken from CDs. I actually lost 8 Genesis CD singles I had, now therye gon, and there is no sign on any back up drive of them.

The problem is with a huge-ish library how do you know what's gone and when? And surely someone from Apple reads this, and surely there has to be some response.

With approx 10,000 albums in my library, I really do fear for my music collection

G

Ok so check this out... I synced my ipod classic to my itunes and over 100 songs that have plays listed over 0 were marked as missing. I thought ok maybe something happened so I start rooting around in files and find all of the missing songs ON MY IPOD not encrypted aka instead of like "EBNE.m4a" its listed as the full song name... So I searched for the song on my itunes and you guessed it "missing" well now I know where they are going... but how do I get them back? thats where I am stuck anyone got any suggestions? O figured I should add... running windows 7 not a mac and itunes 10. In order to see the file where the songs would be on the ipod for me anyways "'ipodname'\iPod_Control\Music\F00" now iPod_Control is a hidden file not sure what the story is on mac but you can just google how to show hidden folders. All of my songs are in those F00-F49 folders under Music mixed in between the encoded songs like the EBNE.m4a above. Well... I found my songs the question now is how did they get there? How do I get them back? and How do I keep it from happening again?

I have had the same itunes account for around 6 years now and just this December bought a macbook pro at the apple store. I opened up my same itunes account on this computer after not using it for about a year, and it worked fine. I was listening to my itunes a couple of days ago and today I noticed that all of my songs, except for one random song that I purchased from itunes around the same time all of the other songs were purchased, are missing. They are not on my computer or on any files. I have done every solution that I could find on this topic but I still cannot find my music.

I said something apple did not like and tey removed my posting, so they are watching this thread but have not done anything to fix the problem. This has been going on for a very long time. With many many people complaining about this same issue. So I ask the same question I asked before - is this by design? Usually Apple has been good coming up and out with fixes quickly, but this is rediciolous at best dragging on for this long.

Quit buying iTunes and put the word out it *****, maybe that helps. Or they will remove this one again as well.

No clue where they go but they completely disappear from the computer - smae problem for everyone. I found some still existing on my iPod or iPad that were no longe ron my computer but once you sync they are gone for good.

Did anyone look at the original post it is from 2009 so it has been a long time that Apple denied the existance of this problem. Say something they dont like they remove your post.

Long story short: Here is my "solution": Don't allow iTunes to automatically synchronize, i.e., set "Manually manage music and videos" in the iPod summary page. (Some people have reported songs being deleted just by closing and re-opening iTunes, but for me, it only happened during a sync.)

So much for being impressed with my first Apple product. Love the iPod Classic, but iTunes is scary.

For me also it only happens during the sync process, and only (as far as I can tell) if I have the "reduce to 128 bit" setting turned on. If I leave that off, my songs take substantially more space on my iPod, but they don't get deleted. Also they only happen to get deleted the first sync; once I restore the songs (by re-ripping them from compact discs) they stay and do not get removed on subsequent sync operations.

HI All,

I've also lost music, just entire albums, stuff imported from CD, or firewire external disk are just missing from the HD, no clues.  I have been following this thread for some time now.  I see a wide ranging set of users and usage of iTunes and syncing apple devices.

Just to muddy the waters again...

I will document my use of iTunes:

OSX 10.5.8 through 10.8.x  Migrated from PPC hardware to Intel.

Migrated my user account to a new system using Migration assistant

Imported music from cd

Imported music from firewire external HD

Downloaded some 'taper friendly files"

I have sharing on my local network enabled

I never sync any device to my main iTunes - Media server.  Where the files were missing. 

I never purchase music from iTunes Music store.

The missing files were a random mix of migrated files, and newly ripped files or imported form firewire disk.

In the end, I see this has been an issue for many versions of iTunes. I first noticed the issue when software update ran at a restart.  I was upgraded to version 10.6.

Maybe this is a case of same symptoms, different causes, as none of are Apple iTunes engineers, we won't be suer.

Thanks!

Hi

I've decided I'll post as I spot things happening regarding this.

Just this morning now I've gone to my library and found that I needed to redownload from the cloud, 2 full albums where the files had gone missing (no trace on Mac or back up). I've found 5 albums of MP3 files that were in the library now completely gone. Tried spotlight etc etc, the files don't exist now.

I've also noticed that periodically after closing down itunes, the next time I open itunes, it spends upwards of 15 minutes checking the library, you know the little message you get before the full itunes window opens. When it does eventually open, the least I spot is that the library is somewhat disorganised. For example, I have a remastered experience version of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here; after one of the above library checks, I find that album is split into two items in the library, both with the same title and artwork, but with 2 audio files in one and all the others in the second item.

I've further noticed that sometimes on opening up itunes, the icloud icon is missing. Then when I go to itunes preferences, under store; the option to show itunes in the cloud purchases has been unchecked. I have not done this myself!

So that's todays problems. 5 albums roughly 75 euros worth, gone! No longer have the discs, and of course not purchased from itunes. Removed from my Mac, how and when unknown!

HEEELLLLLLPPPPPPPP

Dear All,

The technical term for this phenomenum is File Erosion. 

The cause is the itunes engine which breaks up the files as it tramples them and then they simply slip off the disk as it spins around (a bit like water in the spin cycle on your washing machine).  There is no known solution other than for apple to change the itunes engine to one that does not break up the files.

Hmm ... so much for being flippant - I am glad to see this issue being raised; not just here but on a dozen other fora across the web (including those that Apple does not moderate so people can really say what they feel).

I have lost dozens (too many to count) songs from itunes including almost all of my audiobooks.  They just slowly erode away - day by day tracks drop off the list and I get the ! mark meaning itunes has lost the song / track.  The only thing that I do with my itunes folder outside of itunes is back it up on a daily basis!!!!

Yes I could make a second version of all the files that itunes doesn't know about and have those on the hard drive ready to rebuild my itunes folder on a daily basis but is that really the solution in the current day.  Is it so difficult for this program to simply work properly? 

So APPLE here is a hint - quit deleting my files randomly - I will not buy more stuff if you can't demonstrate that your software is able to manage what I currently have.  This is what I tell my kids - look after what you have and then you might get more stuff

Thankfully I can always go back to using windows media player - at least it never randomly discarded my files.