Itunes has mixed up all of my music. How can I fix this please?

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Level 1

8 points

Itunes has mixed up all of my music. How can I fix this please?

For years now, Itunes has been dropping songs or albums here and there. It has been somewhat frustrating, but i soldiered on.This week, it has mixed up all of my music. I have over 18000 songs. With the exception of 8 or 9 tracks purchased from itunes, they were all ripped from CD in apple lossless. I had taken to using Itunes match, but this had caused my sync time with my phone to jump from a few minutes to hours. I read that Genius was the likely culprit so I turned off Apple Match and genius and resynced my phone. This step caused all of my tracks to be mixed up. Ripping so many albums in lossless would take me weeks to redo (in my spare time). I am desperate for a fix. Can anyone help? Please?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2008), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Aug 3, 2013 1:21 AM

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Answer 1

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Michael Allbritton

Level 6

16,951 points

Aug 3, 2013 3:13 AM in response to Sliedude

Please define "mixed up."

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Answer 2

Sliedude Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2013 3:56 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

Hi Michael,

By mixed up, I mean, for example, when I click on "Come together" being the first track of Abbey Road, It will play a different track from another (Non beatles Album). When I play this track, the title "come together" appears in the player window. So in other words, Itunes is not playing the track selected, even though it is showing as playing.

This is the case with most of my songs. Another variation is that sometimes when i select a track, it will play a track from a completely different album, but now show the actual track playing in the player window. This happens less frequently.

Do you have any thoughts?

Simon

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Answer 3

Aug 3, 2013 4:41 AM in response to Sliedude

Instead of trying to sort all this out I suggest you simply restore the iTunes library from a backup. You do have backups, don't you?

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Answer 4

Sliedude Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2013 4:47 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

Regrettably no

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Answer 5

Sliedude Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2013 4:52 AM in response to Sliedude

I actually store my itunes media library on a synology NAS running two separate hard drives in RAID. the thinking being if one of the NAS disks fails, I replace it and back up te other. I never thought that Itunes would screw up the whole order of songs so badly.

My itunes experience has been pretty disappointing as I indicated in the first message. it has constantly misplaced songs, or mixed them up. When I was using Itunes Match, it would replace the Apple lossless file with the inferior lossy mpeg that Itunes match has. All in all I'm sick to death of itunes. I wish there was an alternative for music storage that will work on my mac.

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Answer 6

Aug 3, 2013 6:56 AM in response to Sliedude

Hm. Honestly, I'm not sure what to tell you. I've never seen a problem quite like yours before. The best suggestion I have is to quit iTunes, then go to ~/Music/iTunes and delete the iTunes Library.xml file and only that file. Launch iTunes and see if that helps. Otherwise I think the only soution to your problem is simply to delete the iTunes Library.itl file and start the library over from scratch. There is, however, no reason to re-rip the CDs as far as I can see.

Sliedude wrote:

IWhen I was using Itunes Match, it would replace the Apple lossless file with the inferior lossy mpeg that Itunes match has.

This did not happen in the iTunes library unless you had deleted the original file and downloaded the track from the cloud.

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Answer 7

josalepo

Level 1

0 points

Aug 3, 2013 9:06 AM in response to Sliedude

I started having the same issues. First noticed it yesterday 8/2. Deleting the XML file didn't work. I hadn't made any changes to any settings recently, so I'm still trying to figure out the cause.

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Answer 8

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Aug 3, 2013 9:23 AM in response to josalepo

josalepo wrote:

I started having the same issues. First noticed it yesterday 8/2. Deleting the XML file didn't work.

Because iTunes does not use the .xml file. It is created ONLY for other apps to access the ITunes library.

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Answer 9

Sliedude Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2013 4:37 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

Michael, thanks for your help so far.However, I'm not really sure what you mean when you say I don't have to re rip all my CD's. If I delete the library.itl file, isn't the song gone? Or are you saying that Itunes match, if i turn it back on will download al the songs again? (albeit in the lossy format)

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Answer 10

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Aug 3, 2013 4:41 PM in response to Sliedude

If I delete the library.itl file, isn't the song gone?

No. That is only the database file that keeps track of what is in iTunes.

Your media files should be in /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/ folder.

SlOr are you saying that Itunes match, if i turn it back on will download al the songs again? (albeit in the lossy format)

If you are subscribed to ITunes Match and the songs are not on your computer, you can downoad them again if you wish.

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Answer 11

Aug 3, 2013 7:51 PM in response to Sliedude

Sliedude wrote:

If I delete the library.itl file, isn't the song gone?

No, of course not. The music files are still on the HDD of the computer. The .til file is just the database iTunes uses to store information about the iTunes library. Deleting this file will remove all data in the iTunes library and it will be as if you never had any music in iTunes. You can then add the music back to the library a little at a time.

Sliedude wrote:

Or are you saying that Itunes match, if i turn it back on will download al the songs again? (albeit in the lossy format)

As Chris says. However you have all the ALAC files availble so there is no reason to for you to download the track from the cloud.

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Answer 12

Sliedude Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2013 10:29 PM in response to Michael Allbritton

Ok, so I delete the Itl files and then drag each album back into Itunes (which file) to reload it in itunes

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Answer 13

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Aug 3, 2013 10:47 PM in response to Sliedude

No.

Just File > Add to library and select /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/ folder.

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Answer 14

Sliedude Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2013 11:29 PM in response to Chris CA

Ok,

So I should

1. Delete itunes.itl file ?

2. File add to library and select /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/ folder ?

Should I change the itunes media location in the itunes / preferences /media file location? If this is still pointed at the itunes media location, aren't all the tracks in that location anyway? Should I do this before step 1 and 2 (or after?

i look forward to hearing from you

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Answer 15

Aug 4, 2013 12:13 AM in response to Sliedude

Sliedude wrote:

Should I change the itunes media location in the itunes / preferences /media file location? If this is still pointed at the itunes media location, aren't all the tracks in that location anyway? Should I do this before step 1 and 2 (or after?

No. Do not change anything in the prefs. There is no need.

Sliedude wrote:

Ok,

So I should

1. Delete itunes.itl file ?

2. File add to library and select /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/ folder ?

Yes. I suggest you add the music back a little at a time, say one Artist at a time, to make sure the ID3 are not messed up. This is unlikely, but adding the music back a little at a time will allow you to catch any mistakes that might not be apparent if you add it all back at once. But if you want to add it all back at once you are free to do so. It is your choice.

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