Identifying currently active Itunes Library items on Windows

Due to backing up from Windows backup, there are now 2 library .itl files (and sentinel files) in my iTunes folder as seen in the attached image. Logically, based of the date of modification, the ones with dates in their names would be the currently used library files. However, I am not too sure and I would like to not risk my .itl files.


Since I'm cleaning up unused files for my iTunes folder in order to cleanly back it up in an external drive, I would like to ask for advice for which items I can safely delete (.itl and sentinel files). Furthermore, is it safe to rename the .itl file in case the ones with dates are the correct ones (I would like to delete the dates in their names)?


Thanks in advance!

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Sep 22, 2023 6:40 AM

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Question marked as Helpful

Oct 14, 2023 7:18 AM in response to AnhDoan085

See Make a split library portable - Apple Community for some background on the expected content of the iTunes folder. A quick inspection of your screenshot suggests that you should delete/rename the files that don't have a bracketed date (e.g. move to Previous iTunes Libraries folder) then remove the dates from the other files, and finally shift-start-iTunes to open the now correctly named iTunes Library.itl database.


Note the only file that really matters is the .itl, iTunes will reconstruct the Extras, Genius, and sentinel files if they are missing.


tt2

Identifying currently active Itunes Library items on Windows

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