Level 1

22 points

All my music disappeared. No more library file. What the f happened??! Help please!

Hi. I'm a working musician so this issue is really important to me. I've combed through google search results and so far have been totally unable to find an answer or a modicum of one.

What happened: I opened my Music app and it was empty clean. I had over 350Gb or music on it and it's all gone, safe for the last album I imported (two days ago), and that U2 album Apple keeps shoving in our faces.

What I'm running: Catalina 10.15.2 on a 13in pro from mid-2012.

Notes: I haven't rebooted my macbook in at least a full week, but sometimes when I wake up, I can see that it must have rebooted by itself because the session is new. I've checked again and auto-update is definitely turned off, so it cannot be because of that.

Also, I am aware that Catalina screwed everybody when it killed iTunes off, but I've already been through my own purgatory to get a working library up and running on Music. Actually, since the upgrade, I've never had a single trouble with Music. It does what it's supposed to do. Well, it does screw up the Artwork thing but I can live with that. What I can't live with, is having lost all my work from these past two months –– I use the playlists organisation heavily for my original music.

Lastly, there's only a single "Music Library.musiclibrary" file in my "/Music" folder, last modified when I last closed my Music app (so five minutes ago), that one is useless. I've looked everywhere on the computer for any other file that would have been misplaced while I was sleeping but couldn't find any.

Inside "/Music/media/Music", I can still see all my files. Please, don't advise me to "simply" put them back into "/Music/media/Automatically Add to Music" as that will not help with my playlists, play counts, and other very important informations I absolutely need for my professional activities.

Thank you in advance for any answer.

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 14, 2020 12:48 PM

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24 replies

monkhh Author

Level 1

22 points

Apr 22, 2020 12:48 PM in response to monkhh

UP!!

April 22nd and it is STILL happening. This time, none of my manually backed up "Music Library.musiclibrary" files are doing the trick. Has ANYONE found a solution for this really annoying problem? I've just lost 400GB of organized music... Please, help.

Hudsey

Level 1

4 points

Apr 29, 2020 3:22 AM in response to monkhh

Hi, I know this has been happening for a while now.

i am running iTunes on a pc, after the last iTunes update all my playlists/folders vanished apart from a few.

it apparently couldn’t find the .itl file, so I searched for it. The only one there was dated from the upgrade or 5 years ago, nothing from before the update.

.itdb files also dated from upgrade date 03/2020 and 2012.

I’ve just read through this whole post and see no resolution for you, so guessing I won’t have any either.

i am a working musician, and had over 70 playlists of different genres, tempos, periods etc...

it took years to compile and now has all gone...

probably going to have to start from scratch again. Doubt I’ll be using iTunes or music in the future though, as this has been a nightmare...

monkhh Author

Level 1

22 points

Jan 14, 2020 2:22 PM in response to monkhh

Also tried after further reading : rebooting in secure mode and fiddling with Music's inner settings; all to no avail.

monkhh Author

Level 1

22 points

Jan 14, 2020 6:19 PM in response to turingtest2

I almost wrote "already tried tt2's usual answer" in the op. Any other ideas? I need these playlists as they were.

monkhh Author

Level 1

22 points

Feb 20, 2020 3:52 AM in response to turingtest2

Have you found something tt2? It is STILL happening..

turingtest2

Level 10

278,055 points

Jan 16, 2020 3:44 AM in response to monkhh

With iTunes the core file was iTunes Library.itl, with iTunes Library Extras.itdb and iTunes Library Genius.itdb as supporting files that could be rebuilt from data in the .itl if they were missing. If iTunes ever started with the .itl missing, but meant to be in the standard location of User's Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl, iTunes would create a new empty library as if it had just been installed for the first time. Music appears to behave in a similar fashion.

Each time you do something with the library that requires updating one of the database files a new copy is written out as Temp File.tmp, the original file deleted, and the new copy renamed to replace it. If something goes wrong with this process you can end up with no active library file, but a hidden .tmp file in the folder that has been left behind. Whether or not that file is a valid version of the library database may depend on exactly when in the process of being created things went wrong, and which database file was being updated at the time. If there is an existing .tmp file when the app wants to create a new one, then a suffix is added, e.g. Temp File 1.tmp is used next. If any .tmp files exist permanently in the folder then something went wrong.

This would appear to the mapping between old and new:

iTunes Library.itl <=> Library.musicdb - the core component of the library that holds tracks & playlists
iTunes Library Extras.itdb <=> Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb <=> Genius.itdb
sentinel <=> sentinel
iTunes Media/.iTunes Preferences.plist <=> Preferences.plist (and Library Preferences.musicdb?)

There is also a new file called Application.musicdb which doesn't have a parallel, and I've no idea what data it contains.

In your situation I would assume the oldest of the .tmp files is the one most likely to be your lost library complete with playlists, though it is still pot luck as to which database file it was a temporary version of. To try it out you would, with Music closed, rename Library.musicdb as say Not Library.musicdb, create a copy of the .tmp file and rename as Library.musicdb, then launch Music and see what you have. Repeat until you get lucky or have to admit defeat.

If you've tried them all and didn't get your playlists back then you have exhausted this line of attack. You should still backup the whole of Music Library.musiclibrary going forward as you try to rebuild the library so that should it happen again you have a backup you can restore to.

Once you've settled on the version of Library.musicdb you're going to leave in place you should delete all of the .tmp files and other renamed copies within the .musiclibrary package (copy them elsewhere first, or make a copy of the whole package) so that Temp File.tmp is available for Music to use in future. Again make these edits/copies while Music is closed.

tt2

monkhh Author

Level 1

22 points

Jan 19, 2020 5:44 AM in response to turingtest2

If any .tmp files exist permanently in the folder then something went wrong. > Then that should normally be it, wouldn't it? In my case, I have .tmp files up to 5. I suppose these should be what's causing all the mayhem but simply deleting them so as to only leave one single .tmp file (or even no .tmp file at all) doesn't cut it either. That's one of the first thing I tried as soon as I read your explanation about the .musiclibrary package.

I've just tried trashing my Library.musicdb file, and emptying my trash, and the library appeared to be unchanged. > mine totally disappeared when I did that three days ago. I thought it was a good sign. But still, none of it makes sense. Three days have passed, I still have no way to restore my playlists and my work has been thrown in total disarray by it. That being said, upon trying to make do with what appears to be Apple's biggest blunder in my opinion, I've kept on working.

Today, while working with Music again, I've realized that yet another huge change had happened in its functionalities. Now, whenever I add new music into the app (may it be by putting it in the "add to music" folder or by importing it), it goes into a new folder located in... "Music/Media/Music/Music" which is ridiculous.

Somehow no modifications I make on any songs inside the app registers either, the files remain in that new location the way they got there (i.e.: changing artist name of song A won't translate in the creation of a new folder with that artist name). It's basically as if my library up to three days ago had been archived and a new one added on top of it, except that none of them are useful. I also have two hidden Media Preferences.plist files now, one inside "Music/Media", the other inside "Music/Media/Music". Honestly I thought Apple was all about making things "easy".. God.

Out of time for now, but I will look again later. > any better insights now?

monkhh Author

Level 1

22 points

Mar 10, 2020 7:15 AM in response to arussellbolio

KIND OF.

I've been on the phone with Apple too, last workaround I found came from them. They basically told me to try restoring my Music library in Safe boot –– which wasn't working either until they gave me the advice (apple vodoo). Since then, things have been working fine but I don't know how long it'll last. It's only been twenty days.

So basically : keep multiple copies of your Musiclibary file ("multiple" because I've had that joke where 5 out of 6 copies wouldn't restore my preferences) some place safe. When manually restoring Musiclibrary doesn't work anymore, try in Safe Boot mode.

turingtest2

Level 10

278,055 points

Apr 29, 2020 3:45 AM in response to Hudsey

See Empty/corrupt iTunes/Music library after upgrade/crash - Apple Community. Have you checked for hidden .tmp files in the iTunes folder?

tt2

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All my music disappeared. No more library file. What the f happened??! Help please!