All the content from my iTunes library has disappeared

It looks like some folks have had success, but...

come on Apple - Steve Jobs leaves the planet and suddenly when I upgrade iTunes it doesn't recognize my library?

Seriously?

Send us a patch to make iTunes recognize my music library. This is ridiculous.

Or else, we'll have to use Media Player...?

Lucky for me, my library has not vanished overnight... It's still somewhere in my computer. I tried TuringTest2's solution, but it did not work for me (thanks anyway!). My solution: I'm getting a MacBookPro and instead of transferring all the files from my MBA, I am going to start from scratch. That way, I have a shot at getting my MP3 where they should be!

Hi,

I got the same problem today, my iTunes library just randomly disappeared, and I can't get it back. I have tried both the first method you suggested (copying my most recent library from the Previous Libraries folder into the iTunes folder), and the second (copying one of those .tmp files and changing the name to iTunes Library.itl). But none of them has worked.

I am really bad with this computer stuff, so I don't know how to get it back.

It is also not the first time that this happens to me, it happens every other year or so, and I don't know how to prevent it from happening. It is really annoying cause I lose some of my music and am never able to get it back.

Also, I have thought of backing my Library up, but have no idea of how to do it.

Can you please help me?

Don't include the.itl extension in the renamed file if it isn't already shown.

You can open a specific library file by holding down shift as you launch iTunes and using the Choose library option, although you really want the active library to be ..\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl which is why I give the copy and renaming route.

I gave a link to this backup tip in the first post.

tt2

I have this too. All I've got from remotely recently before I lost it all was a few .tmp files I don't seem to be able to do anything with.

I have this same problem but I do not have previous itunes libraries in my folders. Can you help?

See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash for an updated version of the earlier advice. Perhaps there is a suitable .tmp file that contains the lost library.

tt2

I haven't got a .tmp file either.

If there are no other avenues to explore then you can use File > Add Folder to Library and choose the iTunes Media folder to add in all your media. See the link to backup advice in the tip for the future.

tt2

This Worked For Me ^_^ Thank You!

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

I just restored an iPod touch 4th gen. and now I've lost my movie purchases as well as my TvShows. I don't know what happened. I checked on iTunes to see if I need to just reload it, but instead it's just showing me the price.
I would really like to get my purchases back, or if anything the money spent on it back.

Nevermind. I checked my downloads and my purchases are returning. Thank You anyways.

I'm having a similar problem and you seem like a good person to ask!

I logged into my iTunes this evening and everything was gone. I keep my music on an external hard drive so I still have all of the files, I could just reopen the files in iTunes but then I lose all of my playlists, play counts etc. I keep my iTunes organised in a very specific way (eg. I have manually gone through each song/artist and reassigned the genre) and I have a lot of playlists that would be very difficult to replicate.

I hadn't updated iTunes (I have since in a desperate attempt to fix things - I hope this wasn't a mistake) or made any other changes, I have tried loading a previous version of iTunes but only 2,500 songs came up out of 12,000 (the date on that version was from a month ago there should be only slightly fewer songs not 10,000 fewer), tried restarting my computer, tried asking friends and googling things for about 2 hours and I'm so frustrated!

My music is SO important to me, my collection has taken me years to come up with and I have put so much time, effort and money into it I will be devastated if this can't be fixed. My family joking calls it 'my life's work' haha.

Please, please help me and thank you in advance.

lleesseell wrote:

I have tried loading a previous version of iTunes but only 2,500 songs came up out of 12,000 (the date on that version was from a month ago there should be only slightly fewer songs not 10,000 fewer),

I take it you mean a previous version of the iTunes database? Downgrading iTunes has its own problems. Are you certain you know which is the active library folder? Is it only the media that is on your external drive or should the library files be there too?

The more frequently you update iTunes the more snapshots you have of the .itl file and less the damage will be if you have to revert to one. Did you check for hidden .tmp files? What is the date of the file you tried to restore? Did you copy and paste the database file from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder as advised in Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash? If so you can try again. If iTunes can manage to fail to update the library properly once, there is no reason it can't do it again. Shut down and restart your computer first.

See also Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy.

tt2