Why is music ripped from CD's missing from my library?

I see this is from Nov - 2012, and here I am trying to figure it out as well. iTunes does clobber music files from the hard drive and references to them in the library database without telling you.

Some examples:

DonMcLean's "Greatest Hits - Then and Now". I ripped the whole CD, but now only 'American Pie' is missing. This CD is not for sale in the iTunes store.

Putumayo's "Putumayo Presents: American Blues" ... I bought the CD, ripped it, and now it is gone. American Blues is not sold in the Tunes store but a few others of his 'Putumayo Presents' are.

Dellé's tune 'Pound Power' I think I bought from iTunes Europe, or from some 3rd party source while in Germany. This song is not listed for sale by the artist in the US iTunes store (at least) but there are others from him here.

I did ask them about this one, and this is the reply I got:

Subj: Music I have added to my library disappears, I believe, because it is not offered in your store (e.g. Title 'Pound Power'; fm EU purchase)

Thanks for contacting us. I understand that you're missing ripped songs from your iTunes library. I can relate to your concerns as well, and I know I would want this taken care of right away. Not to worry, this is definitely something I can help you with.

I would like to mention that we don’t have access to the music you’ve ripped from other sources. The iTunes Player can detect music from other sources that’s on your computer, so the songs can be made available in your iTunes library. However, the iTunes program can’t delete content from you hard drive.

That said, the missing songs may still be on your hard disk. To look for them, follow the steps in this article:

https://support.apple.com/HT203167

Please let me know if you require any further assistance. If you do, I would be glad to help. Thank you very much for being part of the Apple family. I hope you have a great day.

I do belive Apple is cuckolding it's consumers and I would appreciate a straight answer from them about how I can keep them away from my lawfully purchased music despite what they think, and their lack of integrity in regards to controlling from whom we purchase music.

Get over yourselves .. .. ..

PS - I use only Apple products (Mac, Airbook, iPad, iPhone)

What happens when iTunes dumps the database during an update is that you are presented with a completely empty library, however if you are signed into your iTunes account then iTunes will fetch a record of your purchase history with the store and provide cloud download links to all of it. The upshot is that it appears that your non-iTunes-purchased media has been deleted while suff from the store hasn't. In fact everything is removed from the library, so all ratings, play counts, playlists, date added information etc. is wiped. All of the media remains on the hard drive. If you start downloading from the cloud links you create duplicate files copies because iTunes isn't smart enough to detect the existing files and relink to them instead. If you import the media into the new library you lose the ratings, play counts and other metadata not stored in the tags.

Rolling back to a pre-upgrade version of the database is described here: Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash.

tt2

This is ridiculous that apple not only does this to force corner you and force you to buy through them, but they also do not offer any real help here. They just sending you on rabbit trails and don't answer your question.

I have legitimately purchased CDs, and no matter my settings, they always get deleted on my devices, a couple times a year this drives me crazy. I really am starting to hate Apple over this.

If any support person can actually give good info, please do. uurrrrrgggggghhh

I have a similar issue, much less extreme, and have a hint of the cause. I copied about 10 of my favorite CDs to iTunes long ago when it was new (when was that?), probably to have them available on my iPod (pre-iPhone). They no longer appear in iTunes on my laptop or iPhone. I changed my appleID a few years ago. Is that it? When I started up a new iPhone today and restored content from my iCloud back-up, it prompted me for an old appleID I forgot about, and said I need to enter that password to access my content. My more recent content came over. Of course I don't remember the PW from that old appleID, and when I logged on to the apple ID management site, searched for the old ID, it said it didn't exist. Is it possible one cause of disappearing music is multiple apple ID's? I think there are other issues related to apple's implementation of DRM as well, but I have not investigated them.

so every time we do an iTunes update we clobber any music in our iTunes library that we did not buy from apple? that is a nice feature! great for an apple player, not for a music player.

sunjon wrote:

so every time we do an iTunes update we clobber any music in our iTunes library that we did not buy from apple?

No.

tt2 wrote, "What happens when iTunes dumps the database during an update".

This is not something that iTunes is supposed to do. But sometimes it does.

It is an issue that sometimes happens. And it is very, very simple to correct. Follow the link he posted.

thanks tt2. I have not done any significant trouble-shooting to determine cause of my missing music. I checked this forum when I noticed some of my favorite music is missing from new iPhone and laptop. On closer inspection, some of the music I copied from my CD library years ago IS still in iTunes, but some is not. Not sure what the difference is, other than perhaps a change of my appleID a few years ago. These days i tend to rely more on streaming via Sonos, so use iTunes less.

sunjon wrote:

... I copied about 10 of my favorite CDs to iTunes long ago ...

Content ripped from CD into iTunes isn't associated with your Apple ID unless you have an active subscription to iTunes Match, in which case they behave a bit like purchased media as long as your subscription remains active. It is your responsibility to migrate your library and media, like other personal data, from one computer to another as and when you decide to upgrade, and to keep backups to guard against loss should a machine die on you unexpectedly. Since music isn't directly included in an iCloud backup I'm inclined to think you might have had purchased apps from more than one Apple ID.

The following user tips might prove useful:

• Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy
• Move your iTunes library to a new computer
• Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device

In general Apple IDs ought not to expire, although Apple did close down those accounts based on AOL screen names rather than email addresses, after several years of providing a migration strategy to move the purchase history to a new email-based Apple ID. Could that be a factor here?

tt2

thanks TT. I did subscribe to iTunes match, and probably still do if it is

one of those automatic renewal things some of us forget about. Not sure it

is useful anymore if i have it, but it sounds like that could be an issue

for music ripped from CDs. I do weekly backups of macbook now, less often

back when i ripped the CDs, and haven't had any disk crashes. I'd say it

would be easier to rip the missing music from my CDs again if I want to get

them back in iTunes, but my macbook doesn't even have a CD/DVD drive, so

I'll have to fire up an old laptop (and do 500 software updates!). With

all of the current streaming and playback technology available now, I

primarily use iTunes as a convenient and highly portable library of some of

my all time favorite music, so it would be nice to get those CDs back in

the mix. Nice to be able to listen to music on iPhone while it is

disconnected (like on a plane).

js

John ****

<Personal Information Edited by Host>

Check your subscriptions. See View, change, or cancel your subscriptions - Apple Support.

I reckon your 15 minute edit window closed so I have asked a host to remove the personal information you posted. No need to share more than is necessary on a site that can be mined for data by the unscrupulous.

tt2

Thanks TT. Not sure how the signature block got on that post. That is a gmail signature block, and i wasn't using gmail. I have never seen that before. Nor can I edit it, as you said.

signature block mystery solved ( i think). I was emailing last night when your update arrived in my inbox and, clearly without thinking, I replied to the email. That reply appears to have gone straight into the forum, hence my default gmail signature block. I didn't know you could do that. I can see the post verbatim in my sent mail. I tried to send another update via email this AM, but that one does not seem to have hit the forum. Hmmm. So I am ignorant, not only about iTunes, but also about how email works with forums. TT, thanks for asking host to edit my message. I received an email from them saying they did, but it doesn't appear they removed the signature.

thank you,

js

TT and host - thanks for the edits - much appreciated!

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

Thanks again TT and Chris. Not sure if this post will help any others, it turns out my issues are much smaller than those in some of the earlier posts on this forum. Looking through my library for the first time in a long while, I can see that I ripped many of my favorite CDs to iTunes years ago, and I seem to have all that I've looked for on my mac and my iPhone. I recently purchased a new iPhone and converted my data by restoring from an iCloud back-up. Some of the music from CDs did not initially appear on the phone. There seem to be two reasons for the missing music. The first is that it has taken a while to get all of the music, photos, etc. down from iCloud. Eventually, everything seems to show up. The music appears with a cloud symbol, and it seems I need to select each item to download it. The second may be a peculiarity with iTunes Artists sort on iPhone, or with a specific album. One artist doesn't show up on the artists, albums, or songs lists, so I assumed the music was not there. When I did a search on the artist's name (Aretha Franklin), however, her music all appeared. In another case I wasn't thinking about the fact that recordings of Mozart's music won't show up under the artist Mozart, in the artist list they appear under the name of the musicians who recorded the music. In both cases, the music was there, but I didn't see it in my artist list, which is where I usually search for music. The Aretha issue is puzzling. I have an active iTunes match subscription, which I had forgotten, and now I remember that having access to music I copied from my CDs on all my devices was the reason I subscribed. It seems to be working!