what happened to my playlists? I just loaded version 11.0.4.4 and all my playlists and songs uploaded from CDs to iTunes disapeared!!!!

@turingtest2

Your suggestion of restoring the pre-update version of the .itl worked for restoring my podcast structure in 11.1. This time I didn't allow syncing when podcasts opened and asked. Now I'm curious to know what was different between the two files before and after the update.

However, I still have an iTunes horrible lag and freeze issue in List View that also appeared with the update. I'm still thinking that is part of the sync function, because if I disable my network iTunes springs to life.

EDIT:

Just now while writing this post I just got a thought and decided to uncheck the View Option (cmd J) "Show Artwork" option for Podcasts in List view. VOILA, iTunes completely sprang to life!

After iTunes 11.1 re-added List view, I ran around iTunes and checked the "show artwork" option for all views I could in iTunes. I have a very large library with thousands of custom album art, so I like to see my album art in List view. However, the problem for me was in the Podcasts List view with showing artwork. Turning only that one off, fixed my lag and freeze issue. All other areas of iTunes that have this option doesn't affect iTunes speed at all (i.e. Movies, TV Shows, Music (Song View), ONLY Podcasts List view with Show Artwork option set froze up iTunes.

Now I'm going to try and turning sync back on to see if I lag again or not. I'm crossing my fingers and hope it was only an album art malfunction in Podcasts that was fouling it all up. I'll report what happens after I turn sync back on.

Turning Sync back on for Podcasts didn't cause lag, so I'm assuming it was the artwork issue I talked about in my previous posts.

However, now some of my podcasts now have a subscribe button which seems to be the culprit of my missing podcasts. Subscribing changes my downloaded podcasts to cloud podcasts and then they stream and not play off my hard drive, but unsubscribing changes it back to playing off my hard drive picking up where I left off.

For now, syncing podcast subscriptions across devices seems to ignore your downloaded podcasts in iTunes and streams them instead and ignores ones that can't be subscribed to (i.e. older, discontinued podcasts). I'm not sure I like how that works out, so I'm not going to sync using iCloud until it's changed to not ignore downloaded podcasts.

I've tried everything mentioned here and iTunes just keeps showing me a bunc of clouds near songs that represent about 2% of my library. And, of course, no playlists. I suspect iOS7 because its been such a disaster in so many other ways. I have tons of prior libraries on my computer. How can iTunes just ignore the information that is contained within them?

If the media is still present then following the steps to restore an older copy of the library database will work. My guess is that you're not quite following the procedure.

tt2

I tried this and it worked (at least temporarily). Having recovered my podcast lists and then reloading the podcasts I wa shappy for a few days and then bam - itunes made all the podcasts disappear again.

How do we stop this problem happening ongoing??

Go to Edit > Preferences Store and uncheck Sync podcast subscriptions, settings and stations before attempting to restore or redownload old episodes again.

Also check the default and individual subscription settings to make sure these haven't changed from Episodes to Keep: All.

tt2

I'd just like to add that I had a similar experience to the ones described above and found it very disruptive. I keep only a subset of my podcasts on my phone. Many of my podcasts are for my kids who play them out of my iTunes library at home and they like to frequently go back to old episodes. All the old episodes disappeard when I innocently turned on pod cast "sync'ing" during the upgrade to iOS 7. Having an iOS setting cause such a drastic change on my *Mac's* iTunes setup was confusing and effectively a "loss of data" from my point of view.

Hi Mark and Others following this problem,

I have just updated my ITunes to V 11.1.1.11 and had the same problem with vanishing content. Do you have 'View Sidebar' turned on it is an option in the 'View Menu'. I suspect that in a past update of ITunes the area of the database where playlists are stored is being treated like the 'Recently Added' area at the bottom of the 'Sidebar'.

In the original post there is a screenshot with a 'Previous Itunes Libraries' well my profile didn't have this folder before updating to the above version and my question is if a new library copy is created in each ITunes session where you add to your library iether with a purchase or ripping another cd into your library. I create a playlist for each CD I rip as relying on the the album track list doesn't work and you get extra non-albums where there is a second artist singing for instance. Anyway I think playlists are flushed when 'Recently Added' items are flushed which may be a couple of days to a week after the item was added.

The music files are still there you just have to piece them together in a playlist again pain.

Cumon Apple sort this problem out...

I uploaded the latest iTunes update too (should have known better) and my entire music library is missing. HELP!

Your directions on reinstalling are confusing and I can't fine a "Previous Itunes Library." Why did version 11.0.4.4 update do this to my computer?

Apple - this is frustrating!!

Apple isn't listening. It's just fellow users like me.

Unless you're still running Windows XP the iTunes libray folder is normally located at C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes, the Previous iTunes Libraries folder will be inside it.

Perhaps Apple's support doc TS1967 - No content shows up in iTunes after updating might be clearer than my explanation.

tt2

Worked for me, for the most part. After following the steps you outlined, much more of my library is now loaded, though there are still some content in the iTunes > iTunes Media > Music folder on my hard drive that is not loaded into the library when I open iTunes. (I think I can probably add these individually.) Thanks.

Might be off topic, but a fair number of albums showing up in my library on iTunes have a little cloud symbol on the upper right corner of the album cover icon. What does this symbol mean?

Most (all?) of these albums are albums that I've bought in the iTunes store. I've never bothered to mess around with Apple's cloud technology - in other words, never "told" the iTunes store to hold anything in the cloud for me...

The cloud symbol is a feature of iTunes 11 and "iTunes in the Cloud". Anything that you've purchased which doesn't appear to be in your library can be displayed with a cloud symbol allowing you to stream or download it. Occasionally iTunes can show both a local copy and a cloudy one. If so sign out of the iTunes store, and then back in again, and it should work things out.

tt2

I'm a bit confused. Consider album, "The Gigolo" by Lee Morgan. I purchased it from the iTunes store.

This album appears in the iTunes library, with the cloud symbol in its upper right corner. I know that I can right click and download it.

However, the folder/files that make up that album are in my iTunes Music folder on my hard drive. I can use Windows Explorer to browse to them.

When I synch my iPod, they do not get transferred to the iPod.

I believe that if I either a) download the album from the cloud, or b) use iTunes' Add File to Library command on the files making up the album, it will then get transferred to my iPod the next time I synch.

Is one of these (downloading from the cloud or adding files via Add File to Library) the preferred technique?

Isn't there something I can do to act on _all_ the files showing the cloud symbol? I would like all of them to be transferred to my iPod when I synch.

For one reason or another iTunes has "forgotten" what files are connected to your library. As given in my initial post to this thread the easiest thing to do when you encounter this problem is to restore the most recent "complete" version of your database, either from a backup or from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder. This database should have entries for all the content in your media folder.

If the iTunes library doesn't contain an entry for one of your past purchases, and you have the option under Edit > Preferences > Advanced to Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases enabled then you see the cloud links. iTunes won't automatically work out that you have the media files already.

Restoring a previous library will recover ratings, playcounts, playlist membership, date added values etc. or you can choose to use File > Add folder to library to add the specific album, or indeed the entire iTunes Media folder. Or use iTunes Folder Watch so that you can review the changes that will be made. You may find that after import you see duplicate cloud & non-cloud entries in which case try signing out of the store and then signing in again.

tt2

I also lost all my music. However, when I click on "Previous I-Tunes Library" on my computer and it opens I-Tunes there is only one song there with 2 copies of it. I am confused! Does this mean I am going to have to recover all my music from my I-pod. I am just sick that all my music and purchased music from I-Tunes store is missing. If I have to recover from I-pod will I only be able to recover music I bought from the I-tunes store. That makes no sense to me that I would not be able to recover all my music. I would very much appreciate any help/sugestions that you can give me......Thank you

P.S. I am using Windows 8