iTunes Does Not Recognize My Library

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Level 1

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iTunes Does Not Recognize My Library

I have always had my iTunes library in an external drive. Today I started iTunes before powering on the drive and iTunes (rightly so) could not find my library. I exited iTunes, powered on the drive and restarted iTunes. Even though iTunes seems to be looking in the right place and all the albums and songs are physically there, Itunes displays a blank library.
Thank you all in advance.

Windows 2000, iTunes 7.3.2.6

Posted on Apr 21, 2009 8:22 AM

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Answer 1

Chris CA

Level 10

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Apr 21, 2009 8:51 AM in response to Al from SoFl

I have always had my iTunes library in an external drive

What do you mean by "library"? The *iTunes music folder*?

If your *iTunes folder* music folder is on the external, hold Shift when starting iTunes, select *Choose existing library* and select the _iTunes library.itl_ file in the iTunes folder on the external,.

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Answer 2

Al from SoFl Author

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Apr 21, 2009 9:18 AM in response to Chris CA

Chris, first thank you very much for helping. When I tried your suggestion, I could not find a library in the iTunes folder which used to contain the library but all the music is there. I have searched for other .itl files in my computer and have found various libraries but quite old, like 2005 (I have added a lot of music since then). What would be better, used an old library or try to create a new one? My library contains about 4200 songs.
Again, thanks.

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Answer 3

Al from SoFl Author

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Apr 21, 2009 9:22 AM in response to Al from SoFl

I should add that when I tried to shut down iTunes the first time when my external drive was turned off, iTunes gave me an I/O error. I assumed it was that the library was off-line. I didn't turned the external drive until iTunes had shut down, but before re-starting. I don't see how that could have destroyed the .itl file.
Thanks.

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Answer 4

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Apr 21, 2009 10:20 AM in response to Al from SoFl

I could not find a library in the iTunes folder which used to contain the library but all the music is there

Is this folder on the external, called an iTunes or an _*iTunes music*_.

I have searched for other .itl files in my computer and have found various libraries but quite old, like 2005

Where exactly are these files located? What drive\folder\path?

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Answer 5

Al from SoFl Author

Level 1

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Apr 21, 2009 10:42 AM in response to Chris CA

It's called iTunes. What I did was start iTunes while holding the shift key (as you suggested) and selected the option to create a new library (forgot the name of the option). I seemed to have lost my playlist, which is no problem, I can rebuild, and all the album artwork which iTunes is in the process of re-processing.
Thank you very much for your help.

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