Lost iPhone Playlists - tried most suggestions

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Level 1

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Lost iPhone Playlists - tried most suggestions

All playlists and CD loaded songs have disappeared from my iPhone. They are all present in iTunes. Let me tell you my setup, what changed and what I've tried. Your assistance is appreciated.

Setup

Win 8 - iTunes 11.2.2.3 (current version)

- I do not manually manage my music

- I do not use match or iCloud services

iPhone 4s with iOS 7.1.2 (current version)

What Changed

- I just unlocked my iPhone with AT&T. Their process is to do a backup, restore the phone to factory settings, and then restore the back. The process worked fine and all music, playlists, etc was there.

- later the same day, when I was using the iPhone to play music in the car, the music stopped playing. 2/3 of my songs and all of my playlists had disappeared. The only songs left were the iTunes purchased music and each had a cloud with a red arrow beside it.

- Looking at iTunes on Windows, all the music is there and the playlists. When I sync, no additional music shows up and the cloud stays by each of the songs.

What I've Tried

- Verified that I don't have manual music management ticked in iTunes

- On iPhone I touched each of the arrow / clouds and the music downloaded again to the iPhone.

- Attempted this: 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!!!! but the file "iTunes Library.itl" does not exist on my computer.

What's Next

I haven't tried a backup from restore again as I'm thinking I will end up in the same place. What am I missing?

Posted on Jul 10, 2014 8:15 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

272,749 points

Jul 10, 2014 11:25 AM in response to underdawg

iTunes opens and shows your content and playlists? You have an .itl file somewhere, but since the library works there is no need to go hunting for it right now (though you should backup your library). Restore the phone as a new device, and then put your device backup on to it again.

tt2

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Answer 2

underdawg Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 14, 2014 7:41 AM in response to turingtest2

I reloaded the backup and after a few hours the phone reset to just purchased songs as before. Could I possibly have my playlists and from CD loaded songs setup incorrectly in iTunes? Or is this some sort of sync timing issue (e.g. it thinks I have the music but I don't). The other weird thing is that it has all of my iTunes purchased music but not my iTunes purchased ring tones. Those simply aren't on my iPhone.

Any suggestions?

P.S. I did find the .itl file. iTunes is on my D: drive but for some reason the .itl file is on my C: drive.

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