iTunes 12.9 no longer adding songs imported from CD to the library or playlists

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iTunes 12.9 no longer adding songs imported from CD to the library or playlists

iTunes behavior has changed. I have a library with 100s of songs most imported from CDs. Sometime recently iTunes has stopped showing any songs imported from CD while continuing to show songs bought from the iTunes Store. Songs imported from CD will show up in the library and can be added to playlists during the import session but as soon as I close and reopen iTunes all record of the imported songs disappears in both the "recently added section and the main library list. The files remain on the drive in the iTunes music folder so it appears to be an issue with iTunes own database. Keep iTunes folder organized and copy media to iTunes folder are both checked in the prefs and haven't been changed in years.

Does anyone have ideas on how to fix this? Is there a way to force a rebuild of the iTunes database perhaps?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Dec 22, 2022 1:25 PM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

274,168 points

Dec 24, 2022 4:12 AM in response to E Riley Casey

Looking at the screenshot the first thing that jumps out at me is that iTunes Library.itl is dated Oct 21, 2019 rather than yesterday or today. This feels wrong. Also confusing is that in the previous iTunes Libraries folder I see a library ostensibly archived on the 21st, but date modified back in 2019? Is your system date and time set correctly? Please fix it before trying the steps below.

With iTunes closed create a new folder called Temp inside your iTunes folder. Move all of the .tmp files inside it. I think you should also move the two .xml files, the .zip file, and the iTunes Library Genius.itdb files in there as well. Mobile Applications can go in there too, they haven't been relevant since iTunes 12.7. Finally move the current iTunes Libary.itl file into this Temp folder, then copy iTunes Library 2022-12-21.itl from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder up to the main iTunes folder and rename it as iTunes Library.itl, and open iTunes.

This should put your library back to the state it was in prior to what I assume was a recent update to iTunes in Mojave. When you open iTunes you should get a new entry in the Previous iTunes Library folder, and see your library as it was a few days ago. Hopefully this time when you make changes the library will update correctly and save them. If all goes well you can discard the Temp folder.

tt2

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Answer 2

Dec 23, 2022 7:19 PM in response to turingtest2

Good to know thanks. I have the freebie version of Malwarebytes which AFAIK only scans for problem software but can't prevent writes to the drive or interfere with the file system. I have iCloud Drive and have had it for years before this problem arose but never tried to move the iTunes folder to the cloud ( it would eat all my storage without any benefit). Any other ideas on what might cause this? There are three versions of the library in the " Previous iTunes Folder" with the first dating back to 2019. Would deleting any of these files correct the problem?

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Answer 3

Dec 22, 2022 1:52 PM in response to E Riley Casey

In looking at the iTunes media folder I realize that iTunes is writing a lot of temp files as well, 12 in the last two days so problems with the database seem more likely perhaps. The iTunes media folder is about 58 GB.

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Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

274,168 points

Dec 23, 2022 9:26 AM in response to E Riley Casey

Do you have any third party anti-virus software? Or have you tried to store the library in a cloud sharing location? The .tmp files are often a sign of interference. When iTunes updates the library it writes out a new .tmp file, deletes the original file, and renames the .tmp file to replace it. If some other file process locks out the file preventing the deletion and/or rename your library doesn't get updated and can be completely corrupted in some cases.

tt2

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Answer 5

Dec 24, 2022 4:30 PM in response to turingtest2

That appears to have done the trick, thanks

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Answer 6

turingtest2

Level 10

274,168 points

Dec 25, 2022 1:37 AM in response to E Riley Casey

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

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iTunes 12.9 no longer adding songs imported from CD to the library or playlists

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