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problems with restoring my iTunes library after performing an HP backup and system recovery

Hello,

Last Sunday night/Monday morning, I had to perform a system recovery (from the discs supplied by HP) on my HP Compaq Presario SR5310F 32-bit desktop computer running Windows Vista Home Premium, (on the recommendation of samone at HP) and just backing up my 90+ GB iTunes library took 12 hours (the actual system recovery took only about 2-1/2 hours, the following morning). After the recovery process was complete, I 'restored' the backed-up files by either double-clicking or just opening the first backup file (the one whose file name ends in '.1') and following the prompts, which placed the files into something called the 'System Restore Files' folder. I thought I could just restore my iTunes library by dragging and dropping the music, video and iTunes folder files from this System Restore Files folder back into their original places on my computer, but while the song titles did show up in my iTunes library, whenever I tried to actually play one, an exclamation point would appear beside the song's title and I'd get the error message 'iTunes cannot find the file'; when I clicked on 'Find missing file'--or whatever it's called--the C < Users < [username] < Music folder would open, and it would be completely blank, with only the words 'This folder is empty' appearing in it. (And BTW, before you try to recommend the 'Finding missing content in iTunes' or 'How to find missing music in iTunes' articles to me, I should point out that I did try all of the steps in those articles, but my iTunes library was still completely empty at that point, despite trying those steps; that was why I finally tried 'dragging and dropping all of those files back into the Desktop, Downloads, Documents--yes, some really large download files, not from iTunes, showed up in the Documents folder--and also a couple of downloaded music files--again, not from iTunes--showd up 'loose' [by 'loose', I mean not in one of the folders (e.g., Documents, Downloads etc.) in my [username] subfolder] in my [username] subfolder, after which, I was able to get most of my song and video titles listed in iTunes again, but they just won't PLAY! Also, it appears I'm missing about 5 GB from my iTunes library now, as it's saying that I only have about 85.15 GB worth of files in it, where before I had 90+ GB worth of files in it.)

BTW, I can play the files I moved to Desktop, Downloads, etc. if I right-click on the individual files in these locations and then click on 'Play' or 'Open With', but they just won't play in iTunes.

And one more thing: I stupidly deleted my 2 iTunes podcast file titles after I discovered that these, too, would not play; is there any way I can recover these--and my iTunes library--without performing yet ANOTHER system recovery and starting over 'from scratch'? (But if that's what I'll have to do, I'll do it--or else I'll just give up and start all over again with the new computer I plan to buy over the Labor Day weekend [it'll be a 64-bit Windows 7 computer, I know that much at least], as most of my music was ripped from CDs or else downloaded from places like Bandcamp or Amazon MP3, and these downloads were saved to a series of USB flash drives; I was informed that if worst came to worst, I could redownload my iTunes purchases, but my 2 podcasts will be lost forever, as iTunes doesn't 'keep' those--or words to that effect...)

P.S. The computer I'm using has only a 250 GB hard drive, of which 223 GB were available, I couldn't perform the 'Consolidate' function so I could properly back up my iTunes library, as, what with the accumulated Windows downloads (I got this computer in February 2008) and other programs, I had only a few (< 10) GB free--not enough to consolidate the iTunes library, and second, the computer malfunctioned just prior to my performing the system recovery, so that I could no longer log on in 'normal' mode, only in the various safe modes. A lady at Microsoft told me I could back up my iTunes library by logging on in safe mode with networking (since I could do that, albeit with the error message 'Your account has been loaded with a temporary profile') and pasting my iTunes library to my external hard drive, but when I tried this, I got a message listing my iTunes library as '(empty)' when I clicked on iTunes in 'All Programs', and needless to say, my iTunes library wouldn't even open in any of the safe modes (I don't know whether it was 'just' my computer, or whether the lady didn't know what she was talking about--she does work for Microsoft, after all).

Compaq Presario SR5310 desktop PC-OTHER, Windows Vista

Posted on Jun 13, 2012 11:27 AM

Best reply

turingtest2

Level 10

272,943 points

Posted on Jun 13, 2012 1:46 PM

Not sure at this point if this is a permissions issue or the library being confused as to where things are.

The "missing file" thing happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. The way that you've backed up and restored things might have caused iTunes to expect the files to be in the wrong location or layout.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive. Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library hasn't been restored to the correct place then it might be possbile to move it now you know

Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .

tt2

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56 replies

turingtest2

Level 10

272,943 points

Jun 15, 2012 4:40 PM in response to The Petite Demoness

The Petite Demoness wrote:

...

Now, I have to see about backing up my iTunes library (*sigh*)--should I follow your instructions on how to use SyncToy now? And will this work with the Windows 7 computer I'm planning to get in September?

Yes and yes...

BTW Windows file associations don't really affecy iTunes. iTunes only plays files that are connected to the library. Once you are using iTunes to select and play them it doesn't matter what Windows thinks they should be played with.

tt2

Jun 15, 2012 4:38 PM in response to turingtest2

Okay, I just followed the steps in your article on 'letting iTunes and Windows Media player live happily together', and am now about to follow your instructions on how to use SyncToy to back up my iTunes library, but first, I have one brief question: Should I leave the files I backed up using HP's backup method on my external hard drive? (There's plenty of room on it, as it has a 500 GB capacity, but the files I backed up take up just over 160 GB.) The reason I'm asking this is because my next computer will be anything but an HP (or a Dell, for that matter), if I can possibly help it...

TPD

turingtest2

Level 10

272,943 points

Jun 15, 2012 4:56 PM in response to The Petite Demoness

Hmm, I don't know. The way I backup the stuff that matters is with SyncToy, mainly because it is there and free. It does require that I remember to use it from time to time, but it suits my needs. I also like the fact that the backup is a true file by file map of the source folder rather than some proprietry data format that I can only get the data back from by using extra software.

There's no harm in keeping more than one set of backup files...

tt2

Jun 15, 2012 5:49 PM in response to turingtest2

Okay, thanks. And I shall download and install SyncToy now; I couldn't before because my antivirus software (McAfee Antivirus Plus 2012) was updating/running a scan before this, but now it's done. I shall let you know what happens when I've finished backing up my iTunes library, probably sometime on Saturday.

TPD

Jun 15, 2012 10:11 PM in response to turingtest2

Okay, I installed SyncToy and set it to 'Contribute' and then set up the first set of folder pairs just as you indicated, and then ran it; I ended up with 6 'errors, 5 of which had the source path 'C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes...' and the target path 'G:\iTunes\iTunes Media'; these 5 were audio files which I don't recognize at all, and I'm guessing that I must have deleted them originally, so I could delete them here? They all had the same modification date and time.

The 6th file however, appears to be an iTunes Album Artwork file; at any rate, the file name begins with 'F1F57EA88ABEC3F-F4B...' and has the source path 'C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\Album Artwork\Cache' and the target path is 'G:\iTunes\iTunes\Album A...' (and no, that second 'iTunes' is not a typo--it really is there).

I then went to C\System Recovery Files\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes to see whether I'd accidentally left any of those files there, but that folder was completely empty; I then went to C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\Album Artwork and looked in the 2 subfolders there, 'Cache' and 'Download', the 'Cache' folder contained a file whose name began with '744DDBAFFCDBC7DC...', while the 'Download' folder was/is empty.

BTW, there is an 'iTunes Media' folder within the 'iTunes' folder in C:...\Music, but when I open this iTunes folder, there's another 'iTunes' folder within this 'main' iTunes folder, and that, too, has an 'iTunes Media' folder with it. Should I try to set up another SyncToy folder pair using either of these 'iTunes Media' folders, or both, or neither?

Thanks,

TPD

Jun 15, 2012 10:23 PM in response to turingtest2

And now I just checked--the iTunes Media folder within the main iTunes folder is OUTSIDE of the iTunes folder within the 'main' iTunes folder--does this mean that I shall have to create a new SyncToy folder pair using this particular iTunes Media folder? Also, the file beginning with 'F1F57EA88ABEC3F-...' IS in the 'Album Artwork' folder in the C:\Users\User\<User>\Music\iTunes\Album Artwork\Cache folder--it's the very last file in the folder, so why couldn't SyncToy find it, and what do I do about this?

TPD

Jun 16, 2012 12:21 AM in response to turingtest2

I think I've solved t problem of the Album Artwork file that SyncToy couldn't find--it was in the iTunes folder WITHIN the 'main' iTunes folder, so I cut and pasted both the Cache and Download folders from that location to the 'main iTunes folder in Music--but what do I do with the rest of the folders and files that are in this iTunes folder-within-the-iTunes folder? FYI, here are the contents of each:

'Main' iTunes folder (C:\\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes):

Album Artwork folder

iTunes folder

iTunes Library file (has an icon next to it that consists of a blue circle surrounded on each side by what appears to be '< >' symbols, underneath which are 3 horizontal lines that appear to be red--or so I think)

iTunes Media folder

iTunes Library file (has an icon next to it in the form of two blue musical notes against a white background--all of the 'file' icons have white backgrounds, BTW)

iTunes Library Extras file (has the same icon as the iTunes Library file)

iTunes Library Genius file (has the same icon as the iTunes Library and iTunes Library Extras files)

'Secondary' iTunes folder (C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\iTunes):

Album Artwork folder (empty now)

iTunes Library

iTunes Media

Previous iTunes Libraries

iTunes Library Extras

iTunes Library Genius

I see now that the 'Previous iTunes Libraries' file is still in this secondary iTunes folder; I am going to try cutting and pasting it into the main iTunes folder, to see whether my downloaded-by-iTunes artwork shows up...I just did that, and no, the downloaded-by-iTunes artwork still didn't show up.

Now, what do I do about the remaining folders and files that are still in this secondary iTunes folder? Is it now safe to delete this folder? Also, should I run SyncToy again, or should I delete the files it backed up the first time first? I now have only about 180 GB left on what was a 500 GB external hard drive (always remembering that only about 465 GB were available to me to start with, and that the HP backup took up just over 160 GB).

I have to admit that once again, I really don't know WHAT the heck I'm doing!

TPD

turingtest2

Level 10

272,943 points

Jun 16, 2012 2:34 AM in response to The Petite Demoness

Hmm, I thought the steps I gave you would have eliminated this extra iTunes folder. The standard layout for the iTunes folders is an iTunes folder at <User's Music>\iTunes. Inside that folde should be 5 library files, and the folders Album Artwork, iTunes Media & Previous iTunes Libraries. The last is optional and appears after you upgrade iTunes. If the upgrade is successful and you've backed up your library properly these backups can be discarded.

If there is a second iTunes folder inside the main one then it is most likely to be redundant. As before with iTunes (Temp) the only items of interest would be those inside any iTunes Music or iTunes Media folders.

I gave specific steps for what had to moved from where to where and when settings in iTunes need to be changed because, in general, iTunes doesn't cope well if you move things around by yourself. That's why you got in a mess in the first place. If you had successfully archived your original installation and then restored it exactly as it was before there would not have been a problem.

If the Cache and Download folders that you moved are inside <User's Music>\iTunes then throw them away. If your merged them with the existing folders in Album Artwork then forget about it. You can move the Previous iTunes Libraries folder up to <User's Music>\iTunes<User's Music>\iTunes but the chances of needing to and/or being able to use these for recovering from a corrupt library are quite slim. I'd suggest you discard all but the most recent backup in that folder. The remaining library files and the spare iTunes folder at <User's Music>\iTunes\iTunes can be deleted.

Going back to the errors from SyncToy, these could have been because the files were corrupt or there were permissions issues. Another time copy the precise error message and I can help you make sense of it.

The idea of SyncToy is that it compares the source & target folders and works out what is different between them. It then copies only the files that are new or have changed and, optionally, mirrors any deletions too. The backup set takes up the same amount of room as the source, although if you don't mirror the deletions it may end up larger over time. Once the backup is established if you open iTunes, play a few tracks, then close iTunes and backup again you'll generally find the only files that get copied over are iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Music Library.xml and sentinel since nothing else has changed.

tt2

Jun 16, 2012 4:17 AM in response to turingtest2

Okay, I deleted all of the files and folders in the secondary iTunes folder except for the iTunes Media folder--is it safe to delete that, too, as there's already an iTunes Media folder in the main iTunes folder? (Sorry if I don't seem to be 'getting it'--I know you're doing your best to help me; it's not *your* fault that I'm so STUPID!)

After I learn what to do with this iTunes Media folder that's located in iTunes\iTunes, I shall run SyncToy again and let you know what error messages pop up, if any. (BTW, I have not deleted this last set of files and folders from the Recycle Bin in case I need to restore them to their original places, but seeing that they came from that secondary iTunes folder, that doesn't seem likely.)

Also, I'm afraid I DID merge the Cache and Download folders that I moved with the existing folders in Album Artwork in the main iTunes folder (sorry).

Very apologetically yours,

TPD

turingtest2

Level 10

272,943 points

Jun 16, 2012 10:34 AM in response to The Petite Demoness

Is there any media in the subfolders of

<User's Music>\iTunes\iTunes\iTunes Media ?

If so (but is just a little bit and we haven't completely messed up somewhere) then moving

<User's Music>\iTunes\iTunes\iTunes Media into

<User's Music>\iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes

will allow this media to be absorbed into the main library, after which you can delete

<User's Music>\iTunes\iTunes

tt2

Jun 16, 2012 11:53 AM in response to turingtest2

The Automatically Add to Library Folder is in this location: C:\Users\<User>\iTunes\iTunes Media\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to Library; there are only a few files in it, but I see that the main iTunes folder has no Automatically Add to Library folder, just a lot of music files. Should I cut and paste this iTunes Media\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to Library folder into the main iTunes\iTunes Media folder, or should I just leave it alone?

TPD

Jun 16, 2012 11:56 AM in response to turingtest2

Correction: The Automatically Add to Library folder is actually in C:\Users\<User>\iTunes\iTunes\iTunes Media\iTunes Media folder, and it is all that is in this secondary iTunes Media folder. (My question is still the same, though.)

TPD

turingtest2

Level 10

272,943 points

Jun 16, 2012 12:01 PM in response to The Petite Demoness

Alrigtht - I'm getting completely confused now.

First we had a repeated iTunes folder, now there is a repeated iTunes Media?

If I understand things correctly tracks from your library are playing at the moment. Can you post a sample location? Can you also post the path given by the script iTunesXMLPath and the location given under Edit > Preferences > Advanced for the iTunes Media folder?

tt2

Jun 16, 2012 12:34 PM in response to turingtest2

A sample file path location for an item that's in the secondary iTunes Media folder's Automatically Add to Library folder (remember, there's no Automatically Add to Library folder in the main iTunes folder, just this secondary one):

C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\<Artist>\<Album Title>\<Track Number and Song Title> (and no, that second 'Music' folder is not a typo); it's the same file path for items that are not in this secondary iTunes Media folder Automatically Add to Library folder, but are instead in the 'main' iTunes folder's iTunes Media folder.

The path given by the script iTunesXMLPath is as follows: C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml, and the location given by Edit > Preferences > Advanced is as follows: C:\\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media.

Note: there is just one 'Music' folder listed in the file path given by the script iTunesXMLPath and in the location given by Edit > Preferences > Advanced, so I don't know whether that second 'Music' folder listed in the sample file path (and indeed for all items in my iTunes library) is *supposed* to be there or not.

TPD

turingtest2

Level 10

272,943 points

Jun 16, 2012 1:26 PM in response to The Petite Demoness

The normal location for an iTunes library is <User's Music>. The location of this folder depends on the version of Windows and in your case is

C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes which the output of the script confirms is correct.

The folder should contain the following subfolders (and no others):

Album Artwork

iTunes Media

Previous iTunes Libraries (Optional)

The normal locataion for the iTunes Media folder is

C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media again the sample paths and preference show this as correct.

C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media should contain some or all of the following:

Audiobooks

Automatically Add to iTunes (iTunes should recreate this on startup if missing)

Books

Downloads

iPod Games

iTunes U

Mobile Applications

Movies

Music < - All your music should be in here

Podcasts

Tones (formerly Ringtones)

TV Shows

Voice Memos

Appart from a hidden file called .iTunes Preferences.plist the iTunes Media folder should contain only those folders and no others (though some may have different names in other regions).

I guess if you move the Automatically Add to iTunes folder that you have found to C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media where it is supposed to live, close iTunes, then restart it, iTunes should pick up anything inside it and deal with it...

tt2

Message was edited by: turingtest2

problems with restoring my iTunes library after performing an HP backup and system recovery