I was trying to sync music from my MacBook library to my iPhone but, after the sync, the computer library now matches the small library that was on my phone. How do I recover the old library? Support says to use the "previous iTunes library folder" but I don't have a folder like that in iTunes. Can anyone help?
Thanks.
Something is not making sense. If you have found a way to get a computer to sync to what is on a phone rather than a phone changing to match what is on the computer then thousands of people will converge upon you because we get dozens of requests daily asking how people can transfer their phone libraries to their computers and it just isn't set up that way. I suspect there's lot more to this story we aren't hearing.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6477809?answerId=26404702022#26404702022
I was trying to see if I could get my music library from the computer MacBook Pro) to my iPhone 6. But when I did the sync, it erased or overwrote the library file on my computer so I can now only see what is on my phone. I looked through the information you sent and, in one of the articles, it says "Previous iTunesLibraries contains, well, previous iTuneslibraries." That is what I am looking for, so I can presumably go back to the old library file which has my music (including ripped CDs). I don't know how this happened, but it seems like every time I sync, whatever is on my phone overwrites what is on my computer.
iTunes works through two main components. One is all the media files you have. Those are in the iTunes Media folder. The second is a database (iTunes library.itl)of what files you have and where they are located, playlists. That is what you see when you open iTunes. The application itself does not "look" for media files, it relies upon the database being correct and updates it as items are added and deleted.
The database has copies:
1) The iTunes Library.xml file. This is updated whenever iTunes is opened. You may find you still have the old version, or it may have already been overwritten. It also does not contain some information of the original such as ratings, date added, play count.
2) The most recent previously added library. Old libraries get moved to this folder when the iTunes application is updated so for some people that may have been quite some time ago.
3) Backups you make of your computer. This is by far the best source of a replacement database file.
Realize the database may include a listing of a track but if the media file is gone from the computer it won't play and will show with a broken link -- !
I don't know why this is happening regularly on your computer -- I do not own any i-devices and while people report this here occasionally it is usually a once-off thing.
Hi Limnos,
Thanks for responding. Just having someone else thinking about this encouraged me to not give up!
I think I figured out what happened (thanks also to Verizon Wireless), and thought I'd reply so that someone else might benefit, too.
When I transferred files (and my library) from my old computer to my new one, the music list transferred, but the actual music files were not on the computer (/user/username/Music/iTunes/iTunesMedia). Before I did this, I didn't think to check this folder to see if the artists/songs were actually on the computer. It seems like I did play music through through the computer, which is why I thought the library was there but perhaps sharing was on? In any case, the music files were nowhere to be found. During the sync with the phone, the list was updated to reflect what was actually on the computer so it looked like the library had been erased.
How I fixed this: I still have my old computer with all the music. I connected (using LAN) an available external hard drive to my old computer. I then manually copied the music files to the hard drive (surprisingly, it didn't take long). Then I used my new computer and connected (wi-fi) to that hard drive and imported the music into iTunes,
After importing, the sync to the phone had all the music.
*Sigh* It is key omissions such as not mentioning having just moved files from one computer to another that lead us along completely wrong tracks when answering questions on this forum. 😟 I just get tired of having to make my first response to all posts here, "Is there anything you have omitted to tell us that might relate to the issue?"
And:
During the sync with the phone, the list was updated to reflect what was actually on the computer
Yes, that is how it should be. The phone gets synced to the computer's content. But you said,
but, after the sync, the computer library now matches the small library that was on my phone
intimating the computer's listing changed to match that on the phone.
Well, I didn't intentionallily omit "key" information. I moved data from one computer to another months ago and everything was working fine. The phone upgrade was recent and I'm still trying to familiarize myself with the workings of the new equipment. Seeing the old library list on the new computer made me think it was all there, so when I synced and it disappeared, it didn't occur to me that the data wasn't there in the first place. From my perspective, it looked like the phone overwrote the computer's library.
Since I don't have your knowledge and experience, it was hard for me to pick out what might be pertinent or not, I just assumed I had done something odd during syncing. Sorry if you feel frustrated, you have to realize that the newbies out here don't have your insight and expertise.
Where is the previous iTunes library folder
