Itunes library GONE.

All of the songs are checked. Even when why manually make it sync they do not appear on my iPod.

Any other suggestions?

The mechanism I think is involved with the vanishing library can potentially be triggered by any background process that monitors the file system, anti-virus, anti-malware, continuous backup etc. Sony VIAO's have software that has caused the same kind of problem in the past, it has also been known to occur quite often during iTunes upgrades, and at random too. Of late there does appear to be a correlation with AVG, and for many people removing AVG has stopped the library repeatedly disappearing.However the random low level incidence of the problem won't have gone away.

May I ask why you believe there is a correlation between AVG and the disappearing libraries?

I ask because I've run AVG for years, and while it will go rogue once in a blue moon and suddenly classify things I've installed and use regularly as threats (for example, a few months ago it suddenly decided WoW was a Trojan and removed ALL of my game files) in every instance I've gotten a warning/alert and the action was recorded in the log.

Each time my iTunes library has disappeared AVG has been silent, and nothing is added to the log. Even when it blocks something fairly benign like a tracking cookie, I get an alert. If it's blocking scripts or removing files, shouldn't there be a record of the action? 😕

Because empty library syndrome has normally happened during iTunes upgrades or as a result of interference by Sony VIAO's software. Having noticed a different pattern of repeated library deletions out of the norm, I started asking people which AV they were using. AVG quickly showed up as the common factor. Problems started after a recent update to AVG, didn't respond to folder exclusions, cleared if the user switched AV packages, returned for at least one noble user who reinstalled it in the name of research, and remained even after the first patch announced by AVG to address the issue. They released another patch yesterday and I've had at least one piece of feedback suggesting the new patch has done the trick.

The reason that AVG's logs don't contain anything is because it isn't actually removing anything. I believe the problem is an unintended consequence of the way Resident Shield works, examining file operations before they complete. As far as I can tell the iTunes library update process is as follows:

1. Write out new temporary copy of database file.
2. Delete original database file
3. Rename temporary file to replace original

For whatever reason it seems that AVG has been blocking step 3 for some people, some of the time. Result, vanished library with a .tmp file left behind. As far as I know AVG might be adhering to all of Microsoft's software guidelines and iTunes might be at fault for not handshaking properly with the operating system, but I also know which software has been updated to fix things.

tt2

Thank you for the explanations and links! 🙂 It explains a lot, and answers the next question I was going to ask: why are my temp files stacking up (15 and counting!)?

My fingers are crossed that the new AVG update plays nice with iTunes going forward. 😉

Yes, the .tmp files are evidence of what is going wrong. In the normal course of events the .tmp file will flick in and out of existence as iTunes updates one of the database files, but they shouldn't be left behind. Once you've recovered a working library you can discard any .tmp files that remain.

tt2

Update I uninstalled AVG free and AVG toolbar. Installed Microsoft Essentials 2 days ago and my itunes is working. Library has not been tossed into recycle and there are no .tmp. files in my itunes folder. I am glad I had backed up the itunes *.itl folder which made a bad experience less worrisome. Thank you turingtest2.

p.s. did i read somewhere over the weekend that AVG had created a fix for this headache?

They've released two updates so far which are supposed to have fix things. Feedback suggests neither has been completely successful. 😕

tt2

I have been having the same problems. First time round I had to re-add 11000 songs from my hard drive back into I Tunes. It hapened again and everything was nearly launched out of the window.

That was until I found you good people.

Thanks for all your advice and help - I did as has been suggested with AVG and reset my library from the I Tunes folder.

That was a week ago and touchwood all well so far.

God bless

Have there been any new resolutions to this? I don't sync my iphone, ipad, ipod, etc very often. I did it now and all of my playlists are gone out of itunes along with all of my purchased movies. I do not run AVG, I use Vipre. I tried all of the restore from library options with no success. I was able to copy my music playlists from my iphone and import them to itunes so it looks like I saved them but I don't know how to restore the movies. All the movies I activated through itunes are gone.

The .xml file in my itunes media folder says "iTunes Music Library" is there a separate one for movies?

have you tried

BTW, deleting any temp files after you restore your library, seems to be helping..as they have NOT reappeared since.

that has worked for me

The xml file is called iTunes Music Library.xml if the library is in the default location of <User's Music>\iTunes, anywhere else it is called <Library Name>.xml where <Library Name> is typically iTunes Library.

The xml file is provided for third party software to access, even when iTunes isn't running. iTunes itself uses the <Library Name>.itl file. This is the file that you need to restore in the event of something going wrong, assuming the media is still in place.

As given earlie,r a sensible backup strategy should make sure you have backups for both the library and the media so you can replace anything that goes AWOL when needed.

tt2