iTunes Library Damaged, lost playlists
Hi, we were running iTunes on my wife's computer. The iTunes Library was damaged. When iTunes came up again, the playlists were lost. I was able to recover the playlists, and wanted to share how.
I looked at the Apple help page
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
which gave me some ideas. I also looked at this thread for Mac users, especially this post:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/ipod-hardware-accessories/60549-damaged-itunes- library.html#post650277
We were running older copy of iTunes. Sorry, I didn't note which version.
I used the "Help / Check for Updates" feature in iTunes to upgrade to the current version (9.0.1.8). (Warning - reboot required - but this is Windows XP... 😉
I brought up the new iTunes version to make sure it would come up OK. It did, but the playlists were still missing.
I shut down iTunes, then went to the folder "My Music / iTunes". I created a copy of the "iTunes Library (Damaged).itl" file, just for future reference. I then created a Temporary folder and moved all of the "iTunes Library" files into the Temp directory, with the exception of the damaged .ITL file. So I moved the other ITL files, ITDB files, and XML files into the temp directory.
I then renamed the "iTunes Library (Damaged).itl" file to the normal name of "iTunes Library.itl" .
I then crossed my fingers and restarted iTunes. It worked. It said something about recovering the library and showed a progress bar. When it completed, all the music and playlists appeared to be restored and OK.
Inquiring minds may ask why I didn't just use a recent copy of the iTunes Library from the folder "Previous iTunes Libraries". I have no idea why, but iTunes was not creating regular backups of the library in that folder. The most recent versions were from 2008 - which wouldn't have been much help.
I hope this helps some other folks recover their "Damaged Libraries" and playlists. Good luck!
I looked at the Apple help page
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
which gave me some ideas. I also looked at this thread for Mac users, especially this post:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/ipod-hardware-accessories/60549-damaged-itunes- library.html#post650277
We were running older copy of iTunes. Sorry, I didn't note which version.
I used the "Help / Check for Updates" feature in iTunes to upgrade to the current version (9.0.1.8). (Warning - reboot required - but this is Windows XP... 😉
I brought up the new iTunes version to make sure it would come up OK. It did, but the playlists were still missing.
I shut down iTunes, then went to the folder "My Music / iTunes". I created a copy of the "iTunes Library (Damaged).itl" file, just for future reference. I then created a Temporary folder and moved all of the "iTunes Library" files into the Temp directory, with the exception of the damaged .ITL file. So I moved the other ITL files, ITDB files, and XML files into the temp directory.
I then renamed the "iTunes Library (Damaged).itl" file to the normal name of "iTunes Library.itl" .
I then crossed my fingers and restarted iTunes. It worked. It said something about recovering the library and showed a progress bar. When it completed, all the music and playlists appeared to be restored and OK.
Inquiring minds may ask why I didn't just use a recent copy of the iTunes Library from the folder "Previous iTunes Libraries". I have no idea why, but iTunes was not creating regular backups of the library in that folder. The most recent versions were from 2008 - which wouldn't have been much help.
I hope this helps some other folks recover their "Damaged Libraries" and playlists. Good luck!
Windows XP