Almost Entire iTunes Library Metadata Screwed Up After Update!

Question

Level 1

7 points

Almost Entire iTunes Library Metadata Screwed Up After Update!

So after upgrading to the whole new iTunes update along with Apple Music and iCloud library and all the crazy sh*t they've decided to add at once, my iTunes library is all over the place.

First of all, at least 50%, maybe 2/3 of my library of about 5,000 songs has the wrong names for songs, albums, or artist, or all of them. However, it seems that cover art is actually correct more often than all the other data.

Also, some artist names have been duplicated many times on the artist sidebar in iTunes, with incorrect songs under their names.

Yes, I used iTunes match a while back, but it's been over a year. And I've turned off iCloud library and all that.

Please help, I just want everything back in order!

Thanks,

-Josh

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Yosemite (10.10), 15", 2.0 GHz Intel Quad-Core i7

Posted on Aug 15, 2015 12:48 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Aug 15, 2015 4:40 PM in response to JoshHProx

Easy answer? Restore from the backup you made of your computer before updating a major item of software affecting a large number of files.

Not so easy and less satisfactory answers?

ASC user turingtest2 help document: Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6561

If you don't see your content after updating iTunes - https://support.apple.com/kb/HT203225

Reply

Answer 2

JoshHProx Author

Level 1

7 points

Oct 17, 2015 4:31 PM in response to Limnos

See, the problem I'm having is that I do not seem to have a backup of the library from the past year or so, and I don't want to lose what I've added since.

Is there a program that could "listen" to each track, identify the waveform, and then re-assign the correct information to the tracks? I would prefer not the pay for it, but if its cheap, I'll buy it. I just want my music library back, Apple.

Reply

Answer 3

Oct 18, 2015 1:30 AM in response to JoshHProx

Can't change the music I think. But I have an app on my smartphone called Shazam. Which listens to the music, and returns the result of artist/title. Apart from some obscure Dutch music it recognized pretty much everything here. I have an Android phone, but I think it's also available on iOS and OSX.

Reply

Answer 4

JoshHProx Author

Level 1

7 points

Oct 26, 2015 5:56 PM in response to SandsOfArrakis

See, I know there are programs to do this, but I don't know which will actually be able to go through my music and put things back into order. I think iTunes may have even moved some files around so the actual tags may need to be changed back.

Anybody? This is a very major issue that I know is affecting many users.

Come on Apple, don't lose me over this. Don't lose us over this. You are better than this.

Reply

Answer 5

Oct 28, 2015 6:25 AM in response to JoshHProx

I feel your pain. I only noticed that everything since 2012 was wiped from my itunes app (but not the music files themselves, which are still in the itunes music folder system) AFTER I had wiped my Time Machine backup, because of problems i had with the disc.

So the only .itl folders I have, in the previous itunes libraries folder, are from 2012 and yesterday. I don't know why it went back 3 years (Anyone?), but the thought of going through all the files and re-loading them into itunes is nauseating.

Could there possibly be a solution to this problem?

Reply

Answer 6

JoshHProx Author

Level 1

7 points

Apr 25, 2016 8:02 PM in response to Barney Trouble

It's been 8 months since this issue began and it has still not been resolved! Come on Apple, I thought you were better than this!

Can someone please help me find a way to get correct information for my songs, automatically?

Thanks.

Reply

Answer 7

Apr 25, 2016 8:14 PM in response to JoshHProx

Oddly enough I wonder if Match may be your best bet. I recall reading a web page where somebody noted Match bases its Match data on audio fingerprinting. They could rename a track by one artist to something completely different and it would match the file with the bogus tags with the correct one.

Unfortunately this is a classic case of needing to make regular backups. 😟

Reply

Answer 8

JoshHProx Author

Level 1

7 points

Apr 25, 2016 8:37 PM in response to Limnos

I would consider trying that, but there's absolutely no way I'm going to pay Apple more money to fix a problem they created. I would expect them to supply a free subscription to iTunes Match. After all, it's their problem, and software doesn't cost them to give me.

The other terrible part is that my computer didn't make a backup of my iTunes library until after the damage had been done, and the most recent other backup was from years ago, missing much of my collection.

Reply