My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator was used). ITunes does not recognize the back up files - help! (it does show cloud & recently burned music)

Question

My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator was used). ITunes does not recognize the back up files - help! (it does show cloud & recently burned music)

My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator backup software was used). ITunes does not recognize these back up files even though the location is the same as cloud & recently burned music that does show- help! The backup files consist of 34,000+ songs; almost all burned from my own CD collection. I do have most of the songs on an ipod classic but hesitate to try to restore from that. Can someone tell me how to get these 34,000 songs to show up in iTunes? Thanks!!

Windows 8

Posted on Jan 17, 2014 8:28 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

Jan 17, 2014 8:46 AM in response to dave tiedemann

Will the restored files play in Windows Media Player or MediaMonkey? Where were they restored to? If they have been restored complete with security permissions it may be that you need to fix those. Or is iTunes showing them as "missing" tracks in which case the issue might be resolved by tweaking the paths a little or running a script to reconnect things? Or are they just not listed in your library at all? A new library won't pick up content simply through changing the path to the iTunes Media folder.

See also Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.

tt2

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Answer 2

Jan 17, 2014 10:36 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the response. By opening up the folder and double clicking a song, iTunes plays it (as does Windows Media Player when it is selected by "open with"). The song I played with iTunes now shows. The files were copied back to C:\Users\dato\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music which is the iTunes Media folder location. None of the songs, albums or artist in the restored files show in iTunes (apparently unless I manually play one by double clicking on the song in the album folder). I tried holding the shift key down while starting iTunes to reset the library location but that didn't help. I must be overlooking something obvious!

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

Jan 17, 2014 11:18 AM in response to dave tiedemann

This diagram shows how a typical iTunes library ought to be set out (click on it to enlarge)

The red outline highlights the media folder and its contents, the various subfolders are only created if that kind of content is in your library. The right-hand side shows the files that should be found in the iTunes library folder; sentinel is normally hidden so may not be visible. The core of your iTunes library is the file iTunes Library.itl, you need to restore this, the other library files and the Album Artwork folder, as well as the media folder, to restore your library.

tt2

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