iTunes loses my library and playlists for no apparent reason!

Same problem here.

Mine did exactly the same thing this morning. The only music in my library are the songs i have purchased from itunes directly, but even they need to be redownloaded from the cloud. The music is all still in the itunes folder, but just not showing in itunes itself.

I had the same problem this morning, I managed to solve it by locating "iTunes Library.itl" right clicking on it, properties, then restoring it to a previous version before this problem occured.

If that alone doesn't fix it try restoring "iTunes Music Library.xml" to a previous version as well.

The same thing happened to me on March 19. Maybe it was something about that day. I found the music in a subdirectory and restored it to itunes but I lost my ratings, number of plays and playlists.

I am having the same issue. I was able to find some of the songs that I uploaded from Christmas, but previous ones are still gone. Also, put them in itunes earlier this week and they are gone again. Along with the playlists that I redid. All the music is on my ipad, but I can not get it back on the PC.

The exact same problem has happened to me.

I tried the method of renaming a previous iTunes Library to but that showed no affect. I also cannot restore iTunes Library.itl or .xml as no previous versions exist for me. Any other suggestions or have I basically run out of options?

Thanks!

Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash

Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.

In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.

Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to a recent state.

See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.

When you get it all working make a backup!

Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.

I've noticed more of these missing library posts of late and a common factor to most since I started asking is AVG Anti-Virus. It seems in some cases it might be at least part of the reason why the library file disappears. Try excluding the iTunes folder from any AV scanning process.

tt2

I agree that AVG may be a possibility, but I know it's updated several times for me with no problems. Right before my library disappeared I installed the latest updates for Windows 7. I think the first time it happened a couple months ago it was also after some Windows 7 updates but I can't remember for sure.

This issue has been running for a few weeks now. I believe a change in AVGs scanning engine is responsible which makes it clash with the way iTunes operates. Despite a patch from AVG and users attempting to put folder exclusions in place the problem, at least for those affected who have been kind enough to supply feedback, remains. Switching to another AV package stops the library vanishing. I used AVG at home for many years but recently switched toMicrosoft Security Essentials.

tt2