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Why has iTunes Match deleted my playlists?

Shortly after enabling iTunes Match, all of my playlists disappeared.

Ten years of playlists that are intimately connected to significant events and memories for me.

Not just my smart playlists, or the playlists in folders- all of them.


Playlist menu is completely empty in iTunes on my Mac, and enabling iTunes match completely wiped all of the music off of my iPhone.

Very frustrated with this- any one else have the same issue? Any ideas of how I can retrieve my playlists?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Nov 15, 2011 1:38 PM

Reply
50 replies

Nov 16, 2011 8:01 AM in response to hughes.mike

This happened to me too. More information:


  • I installed Match on a Macbook that I DON'T use to sync my phone. Experimented a little, matched some songs.
  • Activated Match on my iPhone.
  • Updated iTunes on an iMac that I DO sync with my phone.
  • Did NOT activate Match on that Mac.
  • Many playlists are gone from the iMac. Inexplicably, many are still there.
  • Updated the iMac to 10.5.1.


Still missing the playlists.


Can't figure out what happened here.

Nov 16, 2011 8:01 PM in response to bjw

Had a similar issue that went like this:


1. Single Mac Pro computer with two user accounts

2. User 1 did software update to update iTunes to 10.5.1

3. User 1 subscribed to iTunes Match, lets iTunes scan his library, etc.

4. User 2 logs in to Mac Pro

5. User 2 finds her iTunes library completely wiped out and iTunes asking if she wanted to scan for music, import music, etc. as if she was starting with a new install of iTunes.


Luckily I was able to use Time Machine to go back pre-'upgrade' and restore User 2's iTunes library file. That seems to have brought back her playlists, etc.


Not sure what this is or why, but you are not the only one.

Nov 17, 2011 1:38 PM in response to hughes.mike

I ran into a similar problem. Playlists weren't deleted but they were emptied. Essentially the same effect. Years of playlists gone!


This method, with a bit of effort, recovered all my playlists and their content.


Restore Old iTunes Library

  1. Close iTunes
  2. Navigate to %User%/Music/iTunes/
  3. Rename iTunes Library.itl to iTunes LibraryOLD.itl
  4. Navigate to %User%/Music/iTunes/Previous iTunes Libraries/
  5. Copy newest iTunes Library file (e.g. iTunes Library 2011-11-01.itl)
  6. Paste copied file into %User%/Music/iTunes/ (where you renamed file in step 3)
  7. Rename file you just copied (e.g. iTunes Library 2011-11-01.itl) to iTunes Library.itl
  8. Restart iTunes


Export Playlists

  1. Select Playlist
  2. Click File > Library > Export Playlist
  3. Save file (I created a folder called Playlist Backup here: %User%/Music/iTunes/ )
  4. Repeat for every Playlist you want.


** If the Previous iTunes Library you selected is recent enough and contains everything you want, you do not have to do the following. However, if you have added any new media to iTunes, you will want to continue on because the Library does not know they exist.


Restore Newest iTunes Library


  1. Close iTunes
  2. Navigate to %User%/Music/iTunes/
  3. Delete iTunes Library.itl (this was a copy of a file that still exists so it's okay to just delete it)
  4. Rename iTunes LibraryOLD.itl to iTunes Library.itl
  5. Restart iTunes


Import Playlists & Backup iTunes Library


  1. Click File > Library > Import Playlist
  2. Select Playlist to import
  3. Repeat for each playlist.
  4. Click File > Library > Export Library
  5. Save somewhere so if this happens again you can simply restore this one file.


Done! I really hope this helps solve your problem!!



Cheers,

Ryan

Nov 18, 2011 12:10 PM in response to regriff

Ryan,

I had bragged that I was going to bring my Iphone with all its great playlists to a small party- when I opened Itunes, all the playlists were gone, and I was uselessly scrolling through "purchased," wondering why a simple update for Iphone had caused so much damage. So much for being the life of the party!

Everytime I update, I fear something like this could happen....I'm somewhat glad to hear that others have struggled too and it wasn't my fault.

I am not as savvy as others on this forum, and if you had time, is there a chance that you could you expand on the instructions as if you were helping the the totally clueless? These are probably so simple, but unfortunately, I am the totally clueless.

Thank you for any help! Ann

Nov 21, 2011 7:39 PM in response to hughes.mike

Adding my grief to this post. I lost lots of my playlists, mostly smart playlists that referenced other ones. However, I also lost some that were in folders with those playlist. For me, it happened a couple days after turning on iTunes Match. My wife plugged in her iPhone to sync and that's when the playlists disappeared (or got cleared...semantics).


I've restored them by following the guidelines in the answer to this post. However, my question is this:


How do we know this won't happen again?


Am I going to have to restore my playlists every week? Every time my wife syncs her phone? Every time I sync my iPad?

Nov 21, 2011 9:37 PM in response to hughes.mike

My experience has been you can avoid this by:

  • Before turning on iTunes Match on your iOS device, go to sync and uncheck all playlists.
  • Sync so that there is no music left on your iOS device
  • Uncheck Sync Music in iTunes
  • Sync again
  • Now turn on iTunes Match in your iOS device


I use downconvert to 128 kbps AAC option for syncing so maybe this was a culprit of some kind, I don't know.

Nov 22, 2011 5:42 AM in response to Moz Mac

Moz Mac wrote:


Adding my grief to this post. I lost lots of my playlists, mostly smart playlists that referenced other ones. However, I also lost some that were in folders with those playlist. For me, it happened a couple days after turning on iTunes Match. My wife plugged in her iPhone to sync and that's when the playlists disappeared (or got cleared...semantics).


I've restored them by following the guidelines in the answer to this post. However, my question is this:


How do we know this won't happen again?


Am I going to have to restore my playlists every week? Every time my wife syncs her phone? Every time I sync my iPad?


Moz - I feared the same thing. Thankfully thus far it has not happened. While the bug is clearly repeatable, it appears to not happen again after whatever syncing occurs between the iCloud, Match, your iOS devices, and iTunes.

Nov 22, 2011 5:43 AM in response to idrinkdeodorant

idrinkdeodorant wrote:


My experience has been you can avoid this by:

  • Before turning on iTunes Match on your iOS device, go to sync and uncheck all playlists.
  • Sync so that there is no music left on your iOS device
  • Uncheck Sync Music in iTunes
  • Sync again
  • Now turn on iTunes Match in your iOS device


I use downconvert to 128 kbps AAC option for syncing so maybe this was a culprit of some kind, I don't know.


This may work, I have not tested this method. However, I can add that I never turned Match on. It just wacked my playlists after attempting to sync my iPhone post Match going live.

Why has iTunes Match deleted my playlists?

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