Itunes 11.1 deleted almost all of my music! WHY?

Guys please someone help me.. im having the same problem.

i dont backup my ipod and my music is not store on my pc, i put it in my ipod and delete it right away. i upgraded my itunes and ipod to the latest version it started syncing but then my music dissapeared, as of now i have no music on my ipod but when i connect it to itunes i can see all the music in my library.

any suggestions pleaseeee?

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device. The iLounge article listed at the end may help extract the media if it is still on the drive.

tt2

If you do not have the music files in your computer library, I don't think reassigning the location path will do any good. I remember having to do that when I had my iTunes on a pc and the files were in two different folders. I worked to reassign the location path, but that was because the files were located on the computer. If your files are not on your computer, you will have to go with one of the options TT2 advised. There are a couple other apps or programs out there that may work as well. I have tried using iExplorer, iPhone Backup Extractor and iBackup Extractor to access picture and video files from a backup. I don't think any of these were available thru the App Store and they may cost some money to purchase fully functional version of these apps.

The get info does not work for those songs since they are located in the ipod and not in the computer library. I have not had any other issues since restoring as a new device on Saturday, and I will contiune to update here for a few weeks if that changes. I would recommend restoring as a new device, but also start a case with Apple so they can become more aware of this problem. They told me that the software had become corrupted, but I think they are hesitant to admit their updates may have corrupted it. The more people contact Apple, the more they may look into the problem.

I would also recommend backing up your ipod to either your computer or to iCloud, depending upon the size of your music and other files. I had over 44 GB of music on my ipod when this happened and lost about half of it, but all my music was still in my iTunes on my mac.

Good luck!

I tried iExplorer but I wasn't able to extract my music files or anything and I did back up my ipod on both the computer and the iCloud before restoring the device. I too haven't had any problems playing my music since doing so, so that's that for me. I did start a case with Apple regarding this issue though I'm not quite sure what they'll actually do about it. I just hope it doesn't happen again.

Thank you so much!

As ever... back up your library, then you're ready for whatever happens.

tt2

Not sure if this is here on this thread, but it worked

in iTunes with iPod connected deselect Sync Music and select remove - iPod will sync without your music except that downloaded from itunes store

then select Sync Music and select the music/playlists to sync, then sync again and all is well

I am having the same problem since up dating to 11.1 and it would seem to me that in view of a lot of people having the same problem that this is an apple issue. They should therefore be working on a solution to this and NOT be expecting us to solve a problem caused by their upgrade.

The article HT1451 - iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists shows that Apple are aware that the library may become corrupted on occasion. The same can happen with any data which is why you are encouraged to back up.

The article TS1967 - No content shows up in iTunes after updating is essentially the same process as in my original advice in this thread. That article hasn't been modified in three years. While it might be nice if Apple would make iTunes more robust with respect to problems caused, perhaps, by third party software, there is no obvious sign that they plan to. And even if they did they are never going to retrospectively fix whatever has gone wrong with your library now, Only you can fix it. You should alsoback up your library and other personal data in advance of the inevitable "next time".

tt2

While I agree with tt2 on the importance of backing up your iTunes library as well as your iDevices regularly, the point I and others would like to make is that all this came about (files corrupted) by an update to iTunes and our iDevices, therefore IT IS a problem with the software updates from Apple and they should at least take a look into the problems that have been brought up in this forum.

I am not mad at Apple or insistent they replace my library. Since I opened a case with them, they DID get my issue resolved, although it did require a restore of my ipod touch 5g as a new device which involved having to put all my music back on my device. Although there may seem to be a lot of people affected by this problem, in reality we are probably a small percentage with this issue. Nonetheless, Apple should look into it as it is a bug.

I encourage those of you with this same problem to contact Apple, if for no other reason than to report the problem to them. It was fairly disappointing to update to the "newest and best" software for this platform, only to have it cause some major problems to my music library on my ipod.

As I said in my previous comment the problem appears to have been caused by Apple. I am fortunate that I have all of my songs backed up on an external hard drive. What is particularly frustrating is that when i import the missing songs back to my itunes library some of them reappear just to disappear again at a later time. Also some of the songs that did not disappear in the first place have also now gone. Am I supposed to just keep putting songs back on to iTunes indefinitely. As I stated before this is obviously a problem caused by the 11.1 update and presumably has affected a lot of people. I therefore would suggest that rather than losing a lot of custom iTunes would be better employed finding a solution rather than just putting out comments regarding the fact that they know that their files can corrupt

Yeah, that does sound pretty frustrating. I only had the files lost on my ipod, not in my iTunes library, but I am on an iMac running iTunes. I was so frustrated at times with the compatability issues with iTunes and Windows, and that is one of the reasons I switched to Mac.

When you get the exlamation mark next to the songs, does it allow you to click on th exclamation mark and try to locate the files? And did you unistall or re-install iTunes after you had the issue? Did you restore your iDevice?

I agree witht you 100% on the files corrupted issue, as they were not corrupt before you updated their software, right?

Apple don't generally monitor these boards for technical issues. Drop a line to iTunes feedback or register for a free developer account and file a bug report.

tt2

Ugh. So it happened again and this time it deleted out of 3982 songs all but 243 and this happened after updating iTunes to 11.1.38. I updated two days ago, everything was fine the first day (it even fixed another issue I was having where changing the album title wouldn't sync through to the iPod), but then the second day that stop working though at least I still had all of my music, and even today I still had it all up until exactly 20 minutes ago. I had my iPod connected, was organizing my music, left my computer for a few minutes, and when I came back hardly anything would play and whatever didn't was removed from the device. And just like before, the music won't show on the device, but when I plug it into the computer everything's still there under the On This iPod tab.

There's still no word over what's going on but at this rate I don't trust updates anymore. It's getting ridiculous with only restoring the device as an option and having to replace all my music (and organize it again). In fact, is there any alternative program I can use to put music on my iPod?

I hope iTunes are now aware of the problems the upgrade 11.1 is causing. I was asked to contact iTunes feedback 2 days ago - which I did - but have yet to receive a reply.

For your information my problem is occuring every time I right click on iTunes to perform any function. If I right click - for example to change some information - I immediately lose the songs on that folder. The track number disappears to be replaced by an exclamation mark surrounded by a circle.

If I try to drag a song from my iTunes library to my ipod the same thing happens. Some of the songs that I have lost can then be returned to the library by switching my computer off and back on again, which sounds great.The problem is that once I right click on iTunes the same things happen.

My music is backed up on an external hard drive and I have tried deleting some albums from my library and putting them back on iTunes but the same thing happens. As a last resort I deleted 2 albums from my library and used the origional cd's to put them back - guess what - same result.

This problem has only started since installing update 11.1 and as it would appear that I am not the only person suffering from problems following this update I feel that apple should be looking seriously at this update to determine what has gone wrong.

Woah, that's even more ridiculous. I don't know if this may help your situation, but I did find an alternative iPod manager (I'm still looking through it myself but it seems more reliable than iTunes at this point). MediaMonkey is compatible for both iTouch and iPhone but it's for Windows only. In fact, here's a list of other managers if you happen to have Mac or Linux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_iPod_Managers . I also found this link to be helpful: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2231776?answerId=10570955022#10570955022&messageID=10570955#10570955 .

Additionally, I believe I managed to confirm that the music files are indeed being corrupted somehow by the iTunes updates. I used a program called iRip that managed to rip the music off my iPod (it grabbed everything under the On This iPod tab), and when I went to go play those mp3 files in MediaMonkey only the ones that remained on my iPod played while the ones that were seemingly deleted did not. Regardless if they appear to have been deleted or not, a mp3 file is an mp3 file, right? So shouldn't if it shows in iTunes and can digitally be ripped, shouldn't it play regardless?

In any case, until update 11.1 is more stable I'm just not going to use iTunes for managing my music. The sad part is, this is my first time owning an Apple device and I already don't like the "Apple experience." Music management shouldn't be this difficult, and despite their whole one-click outlook, it seems to have more complications than benefits.

I wish the best of luck to everyone with this issue.