HELP! My Library keeps resetting itself

Decided to give up on AVG. I needed to import ITUNES too many times. Can I thank all of you who gave such great advice and support to what was an extrmely frustrating state of affairs.

Just to followup - switched to Avast and stayed with the latest iTunes and everyhting has been fine so far.

Here's how I accidentally fixed it. You may not need to follow every step.

1. I deleted everything from my iTune folder except for iTunes Library database file and iTunes Media folder.
2. I opened iTunes and waited for it to rebuild everything I had deleted.
3. I copied the iTunes folder to my 2nd internal HDD.
4. I opened iTunes while holding shift and chose the iTunes folder I had copied to my 2nd internal HDD.
5. iTunes ****** up again so I deleted everything from the iTune folder except for iTunes Library database file and iTunes Media folder.
6. I opened iTunes and waited for it to rebuild everything I had deleted.
7. This time I noticed something interesting! iTunes created the library XML with the name iTunes Library instead of iTunes Music Library.

iTunes has worked perfectly ever since. I noticed too that when I tried to rename my original iTunes folder (the one I made a copy of) Windows would not let me do it! It seems to be corrupted.

I would suggest checking to see if your iTunes Library XML is named iTunes Music Library. If it is, try renaming it to iTunes Library. If that doesn't work try in combination with copying the iTunes folder to a new location, and using shift when opening iTunes to point it to the new location. You could also try rebuilding it as above.

I'm using iTunes 10.7.

The naming of the .xml file depends on the location of the library. If it is in the standard location of <User's Music>\iTunes it will be called iTunes Music Library.xml, anywhere else and it will be called iTunes Library.xml. If the library file is called anything other than iTunes Library then the .xml will follow that. The .itl is the one that matters, the .xml is for third party support.

tt2

Well lets through another caveat into the mix. I have Windows 7 x64, iTunes 11.0.3.42, and McAfee (Not AVG) and it is happening to me. I deleted the itl and xml to rebuild again and still happens. Also this happens http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1586191 I keep getting prompted for my password in the iTunes Store. I have to shutdown iTunes and restart to download something. Funny thing is I am shown as logged in.

I do not think that thread s got to do with your problem. Second part of your post does sound like firewall from your AV. Why don't you try to uninstall your ScrewcAffy and see if second part is solved. You can use MSE free and from Microsoft. May be tt heard something about that, but I hear no rumors on McAfee causing library loss.

Actually it does seem to. First of all the resetting itself happens a lot since the 11.0.3. The reset causes the license agreement to show again and changes the settings for some of the view settings I had. The password issue seems to be a byproduct of this and eventually causes a crash/reset. But I will continue to look at this. MSE and AVG are not good options unless you only want free stuff. I do not mind paying for something that works.

The occasional random loss of the iTunes database file as it is being updated is nothing new. As I've detailed elsewhere, possibly in this thread, iTunes updates the database frequently even during normal playback. The update process (as far as I can tell) involves making a new temporary copy of the database, deleting the original, then renaming the new copy so that it occupies the path of the original. This also happens with the .xml & .itdb files. AVG in particular started interfering with this process a few weeks ago following an update to its scanning engine. It doesn't actually delete any files or flag them as a virus, but it stops the renaming step. iTunes doesn't check to make sure that its action has taken place, and next time you start iTunes it cannot find the database so creates a new empty one, pre-populated with cloud links to your past purchases. Of note is the fact that excluding the AVG engine from real-time scanning of the iTunes folder did not stop it causing problems for some users. Any AV or anti-malware package that intercepts file operations has the potential to interfere with the way iTunes operates. Again, as I've said before, it may be that iTunes could & should be more robust in this respect, but if your library is repeatedly being dumped you ought to try to identify and eliminate the cause. Exclude the iTunes folder from the real time scanner to see if that helps. If not, disable the scanner and see if you can now open and close iTunes without the library vanishing. And backup!

tt2

Ok, I still do not think it is my AV software. The issue for me has developed in a reset every time I start. Anytime I have that issue with an application I "Run As Administrator" once. I have made my changes and restarted without issue. I will keep watching this. Maybe the permissions is what is causing my problem. I will keep wotking with this.

Last suggestion - leave that thread and create your own. About 5 people a day find that thread useful, and at that point last few posts are about your problem. Nobody has time to read the whole, so instead of being helpful (goal of the communities) it becomes obsolete.

I too have this issue. I have a central server in my house, and that is the specialized location for my library. If that machine goes to sleep, or turns off for some reason, boop! the default library applies. Since downloads are automatic, they then go to the default finstead of my server library. So things get messy.

When this happens, my 2.89 TB library takes an hour to reset. A simple fix would be for Apple to include an option to lock the library's position. If it is missing, no iTunes! Hoo Ray!

paulboh50 wrote:

When this happens, my 2.89 TB library takes an hour to reset. A simple fix would be for Apple to include an option to lock the library's position. If it is missing, no iTunes! Hoo Ray!

Backup the library files on your computer when it is working properly. If you realize you've started iTunes while the server is offline, close iTunes, restore the backed up .itl file, and you're back in business.

tt2

This problem of music genres resetting happens on my system (this time) only after I purchase something from iTunes, which is a great disincentive to spend money with Apple. Each time I have redefined music in my collection (as is suitable for me to classify) it remains in that order until I buy a video or another music file from iTunes, whereupon all the tracks become reassigned as per the original genres set by either the producers or iTunes when I bought the music. This is very time consuming, pointless and certainly puts me off spending any more at iTunes or at an Apple store.

As I have already had immense problems moving thousands of files from my C drive onto an external drive recently, there is no way I intend to mess around with re-downloading iTunes and re-importing so many files. I think this is the third time something like this has happened in the last few years and it ought to be a fairly fundamental concern for Apple to resolve, given the amount of money their customers spend with them. Regular custom in most businesses usually equates with attentive service but at Apple it doesn't necessarily mean after sales service, I have found.

Go to Edit > Preferences > Store and turn off Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases. You may find iTunes stops revealing the store versions of the metadata.

tt2

Thank you for your suggestion. I tried this and after no improvement, I reverted to the settings I had - asking for purchases to be shown again - and then tried again. It makes no improvement.

I have not always had this problem of genres being reset though and it would seem odd that hiding purchases that I have yet to re-download after moving iTunes onto and external drive would have any effect on genres being reset after downloading old/previously downloaded material and/or new purchases, as although this is not the first time I have experienced genres being reset, the problem has not presented after I moved iTunes to the external drive until over the last couple of weeks. So there were first a few weeks of this not being a concern after shifting iTUnes to the external drive. I think this has happened after an update to iTunes. Hopefully they will sort out this bug and issue a new update very soon.