I accidentally deleted my entire music folder in Windows. The iTunes library still shows the songs although I can't play them. Can I use iTunes Match to match and restore most of the missing songs if they don't actually exist on my hard drive anymore?
iPhone 4S, iOS 5.1.1
Did you ever get an answer to this? I've done the same thing, but on Mac.
I've found a way to re-download the files but I'd have to do them one-by-one and it would take forever.....
Yes, actually it restored some of my files after I signed up for iTunes Match (which turns out to be an awesome deal for $30/year). It didn't bring all of them back, but it at least some of them were there the next day after I got Match and let it rebuild my collection. It just looked at the iTunes Library and restored based on that even though my original files were gone.
From now on I have all my music backed up onto the cloud which means I don't have to back them up myself locally.
Oh cool. I've had Match for a year or two, really like it for ~£25 a year...
Unsure as to how to go about making it 'rebuild' my collection though.... Can you remember how you did it? Like I say, I've found a way to download individual tracks but I'd rather click one button and let it go off downloading for a day or two....or seven!! 🙂
I feel like maybe if I click 'Update iTunes Match' it might go the wrong way, i.e. delete all the songs from iTunes Match that are no longer present on my system.....but maybe that's the right way to do it??
If you trust my memory, then I think I highlighted all the songs and right-clicked and downloaded them all. iTunes Match needs to be turned on first. If you are not sure, contact Apple support or go to an Apple store and ask first. Match is worth having anyway! Good luck!
Deleted all music off PC - can I use iTunes Match to rescue them?
