HELP! My Library keeps resetting itself

I've been having the same problems in the last week or two, and it's really beginning to frustrate me, as it's now removing my library every day, regardless of when I open iTunes.

I also had AVG, and created an exception for iTunes like another user suggested, and that hasn't made a difference either. I also did a complete re-install of iTunes and it's accompanying software, and just opened iTunes and it's all disappeared again.

I really hope Apple does something to correct this soon, as I'm already considering using another program to manage my media.

Any other solutions people find would be much appreciated.

The *.tmp files will only be a few megs, not especially large

I've been having the same problems - removing the library 4 or 5 times in the last couple of hours. No changes to the computer except for updating AVG & I'm running iTunes 10 on Windows 7.

AVG advised me to exclude iTunes (exe file), but this hasn't worked. However, watching what happens to the iTunes folder when opening and closing iTunes shows that it kept creating one of the .tmp files and then not deleting it. Whenever it was creating one of those, it then seemed to lose the library upon the next opening of iTunes.

I have now deleted all of the .tmp files, the sentinel file and the library related files and then restored only the library ones from a backup. So far, it doesn't now seem to create the .tmp file upon opening and the library seems to be all ok. But we'll see as it's not been too long...

By small I mean around 412 kb, whereas I expcted them to be maybe 15-18 Mb?? The 'damaged' file which was the one I re-named is just over 18 mb. The rest are all less than 1 Mb.

Now I've re-added all my folders I have an itunes Music Library just over 18 mb and an itunes library of almost 6 mb.

But then lots of the small .tmp folders.

Note that I usually update iTunes software as soon after issue as I can, and AVG runs every night, so I had installed the latest iTunes some time back and AVG has been updating each day and this only hit me yesterday

I can't predict how your experience will go, but so far (knock on wood) my iPod has not been changed by iTunes while connected.

Back to the main topic:

I left iTunes open but minimized while reading the last few posts and checking (and deleting) my Recycle Bin. iTunes had reset when I called it up to transfer some podcasts.

The Recycle Bin now has one iTunes Library Extras folder and one iTunes Library Genius folder. Before deletion, the Recycle Bin had multiples of these folders.

Possibly related:

While I'm at it, in case there's a connection, I have trouble managing my podcast list because iTunes will randomly set the view to the general iPod device page.

I have chosen the "old" look for iTunes, with a sidebar to the left. With the iPod connected and the list of podcasts on the iPod highlighted in the sidebar, the list of podcasts often disappears and leaves me looking at the device page. Podcasts remains highlighted. I have to click out of podcasts and back in to show the llist again.

Cold comfort to know I'm not alone with this problem.

Ok, so it kept renaming the iTunes Library.itl file as iT.tmp upon opening/exiting iTunes which caused the library to disappear next time. Very frustrating. With iTunes open, I renamed the .tmp file to iTunes Library.itl and it fixed it...until the next time.

However, I have just disabled AVG and have successfully opened and exited iTunes with no problems around 20 times. I couldn't get past two times before this. So I guess there is a problem with the new AVG version...even though I'd excluded iTunes within AVG. Odd.

Now looking for another free antivirus programme..

By the way, I have two user account's on my computer, mine and my wife's. Her account has her own seperate iTunes library database and media folder. The same thing was happening on her account.

Well after having uninstalled AVG last night, I too have opened and exited iTunes many times, turned the computer on and off many times, switched between users many times and 🙂 NO DELETED 🙂 libraries on either account. I'll keep you posted if this changes.

Hi, I am in the same situation as you are now. I am very keen to see the actual solution. My library has been resetted THREE times and it's getting frustrating because I upload songs base on the "Added Date". So because I wipe them all out, I can't find which ones were my latest added ones...very frustrating. Hope someone rates the solution soon.

EDIT: I also use AVG, if this is a common issue nudge me.

A quick look at my library suggests about about 1k per track for the .itl file. Looking now it seems the default name for the temporary file is Temp File.tmp. If that name is already being used due to an earlier crash iTunes will create Temp File 1.tmp and, presumably similarly named objects. In the past I'm pretty sure it used to create iTunes Temp.tmp and iT.tmp befpre moving on to numbered files.

I've just tried to capture the action with my library and it seem that iTunes plays the same temp & rename trick with the .xml file. Depending on when the problem strikes the .tmp file may be either the .itl or the .xml file.and it could still be in the process of being updated. Restoring the library from the .tmp will only be successful if it is a complete copy of the .itl file.

If you end up rebuilding the library from scratch it may have a different identity from the old one (so iTunes will want to erase & reload the device) which is why restoring an old version and bringing that up to date with the contents of the media folder may be a better move. File > Add Folder to Library > <Media Folder> will generally do.

tt2

Bad news, my library disappeared again. I'm going to uninstall AVG and restore my library. I'll let you know what happens.

I suggest Microsoft Security Essentials as an alternative...

tt2

TT2...that's the plan, we'll see if it works. I noticed Hector uninstalled AVG and is having good luck...so far...lol

I have uninstalled AVG as well. Got my full library back together. I'll let you know if it disappears again.

I wish one of you guys, the once who decided to stick with AVG reported that to AVG as false positive.

There is a tool that allows reports inside of the program. I suspect that thread is going to grow until they know.

Few years back I reported something took them 2 days and they fixed that. (program was stopping start up of online game)

I don't think AVG is actually deleting anything, just tripping up a file rename operation. Frankly iTunes ought to do a better job of detecting such issues and gracefully recovering. While the current spate of problems might be new there is a backgruond of failed library updates during upgrade operations which could be automatically detected and resumed.

tt2