How to restore iTunes from previous itl file(s)

First take a look at Make a split library portable for some background on the standard layout of the library. If/when you have a split library it is really easy to break the links between the library and the media files. The post below is about repairing those broken links. You cannot merge .itl files, but you can export an XML file of working tracks from one library, and then import that into another. After importing an XML file you can use the advice in Duplicate songs in iTunes - Apple Community to clean up duplicates and consolidate any new content into your primary media folder.

The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes or Music expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, the drive it lives on has had a name change, or you've moved a non-portable library to a different path (see Make a split library portable for details). It is also possible that iTunes or Music have changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place, or that you've been too aggressive when deleting duplicates at some point.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Cmd-I to get Song Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location the library thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drives. Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive label has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case. If everything is where it is supposed to be try Repair security permissions for iTunes for Mac - Apple Community.

In some cases the library may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info, or when playing a track, but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" I think it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout they were in previously, with one systematic change to the path.

If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

1. The location of the media folder under iTunes|Music > Preferences > Advanced
2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Song Info > File > Location that begins file://
3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

See also FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music - Apple Community.

tt2

See Make a split library portable. Your structure looks subtly wrong. iTunes Music looks like a bit like regular iTunes folder, in that it contains iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, iTunes Library.xml and an Album Artwork folder. However other components in there should really be down inside iTunes Media. The iPod Games, Ringtones, and Mobile Applications folders are probably redundant assuming you're running iTunes 12.7 or later, although you might want to keep the backups somewhere just in case.

When the library is in the standard layout you can move the whole folder to a new path and it should just work. If the relationship between the library folder (with the .itl file) and the media folder (will all media content) is wrong then not so much. Sometimes it can be fixed by declaring the new media folder, sometimes not. If you're wanting to use NAS storage you should probably set the media folder to <NAS>/iTunes/iTunes Media and then consolidate to this new path (File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files) rather than manually moving content. You have to manually delete the original files once consolidation has completed.

tt2

iTunes Music is the old name for the iTunes media folder, now normally called iTunes Media. In an old-school (iTunes 8 and earlier) library artist folders typically go directly into the media folder named in preferences. With new libraries it is more usual for them to go into <Media Folder>/Music. If some of your libraries were started pre-2009 then they could easily have inherited a mix of names and settings. Going forward I would recommend you structure the library with the media folder set to <Some path>/iTunes/iTunes Media. That way it is always possible to put the iTunes library files into <Some path>/iTunes and access them there in order to prepare the library to be moved to a new drive.

The FixLinks script, with a minor tweak, can be used to repair broken links in iTunes as long as tracks are at a reasonably iTunes like path such as this: <Target Folder>/<[Album]Artist>/<Album>/[D-][## ]<Name>[ 1].<Ext>

Change these lines:

-- tell application "iTunes" -- Mojave or earlier

tell application "Music" -- Catalina or later

to these:

tell application "iTunes" -- Mojave or earlier

-- tell application "Music" -- Catalina or later

Consolidating creates copies when the source files are outside of the media folder. If you push everything inside your media folder before trying to fix anything then anything you add/repair can be moved to its default location within the media folder without generating a new copy.

tt2

First you should select a small number of tracks that you want to try to fix until you know the process is going to work for you. When the script reports that it has been unsuccessful that information can be useful in working out why it failed, for example you might not have started the search from the correct media folder. Clicking No when you see this prompt stops the reporting so it just fixes the files it can and no longer reports on those it cannot, i.e. a lot less clicking.

As noted previously if you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

1. The location of the media folder under iTunes|Music > Preferences > Advanced
2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Song Info > File > Location that begins file://
3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

With these details I can check that you're picking the correct folder for FixLinks to begin its search, and make sure that your media is structured in a way that makes it likely to be successful.

tt2

Try downloading this version of the FixLinks script as .zip file. You'll need to unpack it from the zip. It should then work exactly as it does on my machine. You might need to right-click on the link and use download, save as, or something similar.

tt2

You left out the file extensions for 2 & 3. The only obvious discrepancy I can see is the missing space in iTunesMedia under 3. Is that a typo, or do you really have it that way? If you do, editing that space in ought to repair a lot of the missing tracks automatically. When using my script you should point it at either ../iTunes( )Media or ../iTunes( )Media/Music. It should be able to locate tracks when they are set out in the standard <Album Artist>/<Album>/[D-]## <Name>.<Ext>, with or without a trailing " 1" or " 2" before the extension. It reads the properties from the library to build the projected path and some alternatives. If it sees the file on one of them it will relink it.

tt2

From the look of things you seem to have leading disc numbers where they're not necessarily implied. Locate this section of the script:

-- add leading disc number if implied

if disc number of aTrack > 1 or disc count of aTrack > 1 then set theFile to (disc number of aTrack as text) & "-" & theFile

And replace with:

-- add leading disc number

set theFile to (disc number of aTrack as text) & "-" & theFile

And see if it performs any better for you.

Or if the disc numbers are actually missing in the library, but set in the file path, you could try this:

-- add leading disc number of 1

set theFile to "1-" & theFile

This would be a temporary patch to fix affect tracks that match that pattern.

tt2

When you select a new media folder and then consolidate the content that is outside the newly designated media folder will be copied into it, and then the reference in the library is updated to point at the new copy. The old file stays in place until you manually delete it. If you import content from outside the media folder when iTunes is set to make copies inside it then you can get duplicates. See Duplicate songs in iTunes - Apple Community for background on duplicates.

tt2

Hmm, I copied the script from the user tip page into a new document here and it is working for me.

Edit the script and remove any tabs, or whitespace at the beginning or ends of both of these lines:

-- evaluate artist folder

set theArtist to album artist of aTrack

Make sure there is a carriage return after folder and aTrack then click the hammer tool which will check syntax and reformat the text applying styles, colours, and nesting structures.

tt2

As before edit the script and remove any tabs, or whitespace at the beginning or ends of both of those lines, and make sure to put a return at the end of each of them. Try the hammer tool and see if it can tidy up the formatting.

tt2