Why did iTunes 11.1 (126) delete all (SEVERAL HUNDRED) Podcasts?

I'm mad. I sent an angry email already to Apple. Never before have I been so upset with them. I don't know how much I've lost, but my current guess is 100GB of postcast data. Not all my data has been wiped, but this is obviously a huge chunk. I hope they understand the fury I feel right now. But I didn't come in here JUST to rant..

Firstly, I seem to have lost podcasts that have been both watched and unwatched.

Secondly, I assume (because I can't tell for sure) that the podcasts that were deleted were ones that it sees copies on the server. So, I think I can redownload them all. (After about a week..)

Of course, I have redownloaded podcasts several times only to have them deleted again. This is happening even with podcast syncing turned off in the preferences. And I have my settings on "Keep: All" and have (via the list view and contextual menu) set my files to "Do Not Auto Delete". They still disappear from my hard drive.

I'm with the person who wants to punch someone, although I'm of the mind to pull a Khan and crush someone's skull with my bare hands. Deleting my data is akin to smashing a newly discovered dinosaur's complete skeleton in front of an archeologist and going "Oops." This is something that actually makes me question if I want to use future Apple products and software if this kind of mass disaster happens again.

Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash covers the common post-update corruption of the library. This will normally restore missing playlists. However you should always have a complete backup of the library and media files so that you can restore everything in case of disaster.

tt2

There are/were two different podcast problems created with iTunes 11.1.

The first is that some users found many of their old saved podcast episodes deleted from their system. The second is that all users were given a view in which all podcast episodes that are live on the podcast feed were displayed in the list, regardless of which had been previously listened to and deleted, and with no option to delete episodes.

This second problem is resolved in iTunes 11.1.1, but the update cannot reverse any damaged caused by the first one. Optional automatic deletion of played podcasts has been a long standing feature of iTunes, and for some users it is just what they want. The mass removal of old episodes from the library that some users experienced following the update is, one assumes, down to an error in the design specification of the new system to link podcast subscriptions and playback status through the cloud.

I don't yet know if new users switching to iTunes 11.1.1/iOS 7 are still at risk of losing their saved podcasts however in another post here it has occured to me that order in which iTunes & iOS were updated may have some bearing.

tt2

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.

Then use the Show Old Episode controls so you can get access to the old episodes again.

And please, please, please, everyone make a backup of their libraries.

tt2

I don't know if you've read my post back here but I think this is an unintended consequence of a scheme that is meant to allow you to, for example, subscribe to a new series on one device and then resume playback on another one, without resubscribing on the second device. I think the problem comes when an iOS device uploads its list of subscriptions to the cloud and saved episodes and then iTunes attempts to match it by discarding old episodes. Someone at the design phase probably hasn't appreciated that we might want to store many episodes on our computers with ample storage and only a few on the device. Not syncing subscriptions should put you back in control.

Reverting to a pre-upgrade backup of your library (once you've put the episodes back in place) should fix any other weirdness with podcast details. Merging split series is usually possible, but requires some tricky editing with a third party tag editor, but better not to have to try.

tt2

Did you read this from the previous page?

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.

Then use the Show Old Episode controls so you can get access to the old episodes again.

And please, please, please, everyone make a backup of their libraries.

tt2

😟

If the files have truly been deleted from the hard drive, and you've no other backup, then recovering from the drive using a file recovery tool may be the last resort. In the past I've used FileRecovery from Seagate ($99) to recover some crucial video files from a friend's 500Gb hard drive that suddenly decided it was completely empty. From a fairly brief test it seems FreeRecover can do the same task, if not so elegantly, for the low low cost of free. Provided that the area of the drive that a file occupied hasn't yet been used then it is usually possible to recover a copy of the data. The scanning and recovery processes take time, but don't require constant manual input. What you are likely to need is a new drive to restore the data to or you may damage files that could have been recovered.

Assuming you can pull back the files then, having backed them up to another location first, you can then use the techniques on page 2 of this thread to reintegrate them into the library.

tt2

Side topic for letting know...

I decided to listen to the iTunes shared lib music on my ipod while I am away from iTunes server in the bedroom. It was a surprise that none of my apple devices (ipods, iphones, ipads) can see the itunes server now. I am staying with iTunes 11.0.5 and iOS6. I started looking for an info. Here it is:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5485148?start=0&tstart=0

Looks like the issue is in the Apple cloud servers which control each device access. My software versions are old and still affected. People propose a workaround. Is it a robust solution? Looks like Apple software platform just falls apart. Wow...

tt2 posted a solution (Oct 11, 2013) to prevent this problem from occurring again (in this thread). It was so long ago that you may have missed it. It is apparently a bug caused by syncing podcasts across devices. I turned off syncing and have had no further problems (perhaps there are other causes as well). Anyone with this problem should read the post which I copy below (he also offers other good advice in other posts). It won't recover your podcasts, but it (hopefully) will prevent it from happening again. I was fortunate and could recover the deleted podcasts from a backup.

It's crazy that Apple still hasn't fixed this issue. I doubt if I ever will use podcast syncing again!

Dave

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.

Then use the Show Old Episode controls so you can get access to the old episodes again.

And please, please, please, everyone make a backup of their libraries.

tt2

As I've said before, I think the podcast deletion problem is a poorly thought out, and possibly unintended, consequence of using the option to "Sync podcast subscriptions and settings". A good backup is the only defense against this kind of error, but is also required because we can make our own mistakes, and all hard drives fail eventually.

As for the search issue, click the small magnifying glass in the search box and untick "Search Entire Library" to restore the old search behaviour.

tt2

The backup tip I suggest backs up both the media and the database. In the event of a problem you can either manually restore just the damaged/lost data, or restore the entire thing as a unit, or if your library is portable, connect directly to the backup version of the library. Either way provided you don't update the backup with a "corrupt" version of your library or let it delete data that you wanted to keep then you ought to be able to recover from any single point failure.

tt2

iTunes 11.1 deleted more than 329 GB of podcasts (4 hours to restore from Time Machine), but I was able to restore, thanks to tt2's fine work. You've saved everyone that can be saved! Much appreciated.

tt2's whole solution didn't work for me (more in a minute), but

• turning off Sync (for each podcast) in the Podcasts app (plus setting Keep All)
• and then starting the new iTunes, with a pre-update library and unchecking Sync Subscriptions, etc.

pretty much fixed the issue.

But first a plug for back-ups… Compared to the heartache, Time Machine drives are cheap.

We all learn this lesson the hard way - by losing priceless data.

You don't need an expensive drive, USB 2 is OK for Time Machine.

You just need to have it there, backing up irreplaceable data.

And if you're worried about the drive, replace it every 2 years & give it to a relative who doesn't have back-ups. Yes, Time Machine drives cost money, but it's the best money you can put into a computer. You won't appreciate it until the back-up saves you, you just have to take it on faith.

Back to my "solution" - tt2's method didn't quite work for me, still resulted in no-podcasts, even after (4 hours) restoring the folder from Time Machine. Turning off Sync Settings when iTunes "first" opens, is key to saving restored podcasts, but it didn't fix the library problems. Somehow, I ended up with multiple Library files and nothing at all (no music, movies, etc) in my iTunes (even though all the files were in their media folders).

I'm not sure all MY Library problems are fixed, as iTunes still hangs for at least 10 minutes (not responding), every time I click the sync podcasts tab for my device, but everything except Smart Playlists seems to be working, now.

I have the iTunes folder on my internal drive, and the media on an external drive & yes, I always 'copy to iTunes media folder' and let 'keep media folder organised'. This is what worked for me -

• restore the Podcasts folder from back-up
• restore the iTunes folder entirely from back-up
• open (upgraded) iTunes, go to podcasts, un-check Sync Subscriptions etc
• refresh Podcasts, to download any missed since the last good back-up

I had to go back a couple of days to find an iTunes folder back-up with the library .xml file. For some reason, the just-prior to upgrading iTunes back-ups didn't have this file(??). So check that 'it's all there' before you restore the iTunes folder.

I still have the issues listed above, but everything looks much better in iTunes & I'm syncing without issues - if the Smart Playlists problem ever gets fixed.

Opening the device in iTunes shows the Smart Playlist on the iPhone, but the Podcasts app doesn't show the Smart Playlist itself, even though the podcasts from the list are there. Luckily I have only one Smart Playlist, Latest Podcasts (to my specification), so I'm surviving. I pity anyone with anything more complicated.

And it only took 3 very, very late nights to "fix" !! Good luck everybody.

I followed turingtest2's advice a couple of times but to no avail.

In my case, the problem seemed to be that iTunes would always insist on picking up the .itl library file in the default location (ie. on my C drive) rather than on a different interal drive. Even after changing the location of my iTunes Media folder I still couldn't get iTunes to recognise the backup copy of 'iTunes Library.itl'.

1. So, I deleted the iTunes folder from my C drive because this was only created after a fresh install.
2. I then restarted iTunes by holding down the 'shift' key. This allows you to select the library file before iTunes opens.
3. I then selected my original 'iTunes Library.itl' from the D drive where I have all my music and previous iTunes installation stored.
4. After a few seconds iTunes loaded and everything's back to normal.
5. Sigh.

Hope that helps!

Reverting is something I am thinking about....

1. Im setting up a smart playlist of everything i've added to the library (except podcasts) between the back up and these podcast problems.
2. Copying those items to a folder.
3. Making another folder of the podcasts that I have downloaded
4. replacing my current library with my two month old back up. (this will be an overnight task, again 960 or so gigs)
5. opening itunes again. add the non podcast files
6. voila, they should all be there, except the episodes from the last two months ill have to redownload.(which again kind of been a problem for me...) If I have trouble I go to the other folder and manually add them.

hows that sound for an idea?

I'm fairly sure the reason for this is a due to a mismatch between options to Keep all episodes in iTunes and Keep all unplayed or some similar option on your device when the new option to Sync podcast subscriptions, settings and stations has been enabled. I lost all played episodes of all podcast series that I synced to my devices. 😠

Series that weren't synced were left untouched. iTunes still records both my default option and series specific options to Keep all episodes. iTunes doesn't manage my media folders. The deleted episodes were not sent to the recycle bin, nor left in their original folders. 😕

I'll file a bug report later, but in the meantime here is the recovery process, assuming you have a backup of the deleted files...

1. Restore copies of all the deleted podcasts to the Podcasts folders from your backup.

2. Restore a copy of the pre-upgrade library from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder.

3. Rename the current .itl file with the suffix (BAD), then move it into the Previous iTunes Libraries folder.

4. Remove the trailing date from the library file restored in step 2.

5. Start iTunes, go to the Podcasts section.

6. Uncheck the option to Sync podcast subscriptions, settings and stations then click Continue. This should prevent a repeat of the deletions.

7. On your devices you may also want to change the Episodes to keep to All in Settings > Podcasts and then again with the settings for each subscription in the app.

8. If, like me, you updated a whole bunch of apps before realizing there was a problem, you may find the restored library has multiple broken links to any apps that you updated. Use File > Add Folder to Library and select your Mobile Applications folder. Accept the offer to replace older versions with the files you are adding. iTunes may prompt that certain files cannot be updated because it can't find the file to add. Keep a note of these as it looks like this happens when both the old & new versions would be given the same file name and iTunes unhelpfully erases the file that it is supposed to add. You can delete any remaining broken entries, close iTunes, then reopen and download from iTunes Store > Purchased > Apps > Not on this computer.

If you don't have the episodes to restore then at least visit iTunes|Edit > Preferences > Store and Uncheck the option to Sync podcast subscriptions, settings and stations before attempting to redownload any older episodes.

tt2