Missing playlists after uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes 12

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khughes1963 Author

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8 points

Missing playlists after uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes 12

I uninstalled and reinstalled ITunes 12 after encountering periodic crashing of ITunes after the latest Windows 11 update. ITunes is downloaded from Microsoft store. After reinstalling it, my old library is missing, and I can’t find it in either the external drive or the C drive where Apple automatically points to. Due to the library size, I have to store it on an external drive. I know how to restore the library, and it does take a long time to do. I don’t want to have to restore the library without having the original playlists. There is no folder for previous ITunes libraries on my machine, and I would rather not have to redo all the work. I have transferred the library from my old machine and it took a long time to do it. I am in the middle of going through all my CDs and restoring missing tracks from previous drive crashes. I am currently running a program to find deleted files on the external drive where I store the music.

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Oct 26, 2022 3:21 PM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

274,988 points

Oct 28, 2022 10:48 AM in response to khughes1963

No problem. Playlists exist in the .itl files. Hopefully you can retrieve one as you go through things. Largest, newest of any that are available will normally be the one that you want. Assuming you get a match I have tools to reconnect the library to the media that you've recovered should that not work straightway. I've also got tools to reclaim playlists from any iPod or iOS device you might have.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

274,988 points

Oct 27, 2022 8:36 PM in response to khughes1963

See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash - Apple Community for general advice. Uninstalling and reinstalling shouldn't have affected your library. Did you backup the .itl file anywhere? Have you checked alternate locations where it might be, the default is C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes, but you might have had yours on the external drive, needing shift-start-iTunes to reconnect to it.

tt2

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

274,988 points

Nov 16, 2022 9:08 AM in response to khughes1963

See Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community for my detailed advice on moving/copying the library from one computer to another. As a rule all you need to do is copy the entire iTunes folder from the user's music folder on the old machine into the user's music folder on the new one. It gets slightly more complicated if you've already moved some of the content by hand and now need to revisit the process, but the information is there in the tip.

tt2

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Answer 4

khughes1963 Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 28, 2022 5:01 AM in response to turingtest2

I am not sure if I backed it up. I have been running EaseUs Data Recovery on the drive where I stored the music on my Windows 11 computer. When I migrated the existing library to my current computer, I did it correctly, but then I had to get a new external hard drive to store the music. I am using the EaseUs Data Recovery program on my external music drive to locate any missing or lost iTunes libraries. It’s taken several days and the EaseUs program is still searching the hard drive. I was unable to locate any missing libraries before I started to run the EaseUs program. I did check the general advice link before sending this question to the group. The problem I’ve had is complicated because I am working to restore tracks that were missing from CDs I had loaded previously. They were lost due to a previously failing hard drive, and it’s a long project given the size of my music collection.

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Answer 5

khughes1963 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 16, 2022 5:46 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for your answer. I have been missing some tracks in the process of migrating to a new computer and hard drive. I found some tracks were missing and were able to restore them, but I still have to restore playlists and go through cds to find missing music. I would like it if you could send iTunes tools that would work on a Windows 11 desktop.

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Answer 6

khughes1963 Author

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8 points

Oct 28, 2022 5:03 AM in response to khughes1963

I realize this is a long answer, but the issue I have is more complex than the missing library.

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Missing playlists after uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes 12

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