Q: 12.3.3.17 Update has wiped my music library

All the re-naning of the .itl file does is restore the old file which stores the information telling iTunes where to look at the files. Usually the files are still there but updating has not successfully rewritten that file and you have to use the old version.  If the files themselves are actually missing then that is when you rejoice at having made a backup of your entire computer before ever running any kind of update.

Yes, there is commercial (= $) software which will copy files from i-devices.  I guess Apple does not include this as part of iTunes through agreement with the media companies who do not want to make this kind of thing easy because of it facilitating pirating.  Note, if you have used a lower quality track on your i-device than on the computer it is the lower quality track you will get. Nothing beats a proper computer backup.

Before doing anything I would check your actual media folder.  iTunes relies upon the .itl file and its record of additions and deletions to be correct. It does not actually inventory the media folder for what is there. Your music may still be there but you nee to rebuild the library file.

I just noticed that I can't add new content to iTunes. 12.3.3.17 it one of those disaster updates.

I also just updated to 12.3.3.17 and have a similar problem. My music seems to be there but my playlists are all gone.

I restored my iTunes library from the most recent backup but the playlists were still missing. I then restored from the oldest backup version I had and found that when iTunes started the playlists were there - but only for an instant before they disappeared. I repeated the process with the same results. It may be this also happened with my original backup but I did not notice it. The backups appear for less than a second.

At least I know the playlists exist in the backup. I guess I just have to wait for Apple to resolve the problem. Grrr.

That is exactly what is happening to me. My playlist folders are still there, and most of them appear to be 100% intact. But a handful of them were reduced to only two or three songs. Thankfully as far as I can tell all the songs are still in my library. But I cannot restore an old library from Time Machine--or, I can, but after a few seconds all the songs disappear from those playlists again. I've turned off all the iCloud buttons on all my devices, but that does not help. It's very frustrating!

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device. It should be possible to recover the media without commercial software.

tt2

Thanks so much for responding. For me, recovering the library from the iPod won't work because what is on the iPod is far less than what is in the library. I do have some playlists intact on the iPod, but I would only want to somehow transfer those playlists, and not replace my library with the iPod's contents. I understand why that won't work--but I would lose far more than I would gain.

My DIY solution is that I am allowing my iPod to play the entire playlist (1400 songs, it will take a while) that is the hardest for me to put back together. Then I'll plug my iPod into my desktop, update, and hopefully those songs will show up as "last played" and I can drag and drop them over. I'll lose the contents of a couple other playlists, but most of them I can eventually replicate. I just hope it doesn't happen again. The frustrating thing is having library files inside my Time Machine that I can recover...but then watching that recovery disappear in five seconds and the library revert back to what it had been.

Take the machine offline. Restore the library file. Export playlists. Go online. Import playlists.

You can use the tools to selectively import media that you don't have elsewhere. Syncing would likely remove it.

I have Windows script that imports playlists from a iDevice, but as yet I haven't mastered AppleScript.

tt2

Unfortunately this did not work for me. Even though the PC was offline the playlists were still deleted.

I noticed that in the process my iTunes library was moved to the Previous iTunes Library and replaced with a new iTunes Library approximately 30% smaller.

See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash. iTunes 12.3.3 has introduced a change to the database so it creates an archive copy in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder and build a new one. It seems it is falling over somewhere for you. Sometimes restoring the pre upgrade database and trying again sorts things out. If that corrupts the db again the restore the backup once more and try holding down command+option as you start iTunes to launch it in safe mode which might work better. If that doesn't work then you could try importing a recent version of the XML file if they are being generated and captured by TM, or delete iTunes and reinstall the previous build.

tt2

Glad to hear you got it back. Probably time to shell out a little more and invest in some backups. I bought a 3TB portable drive for £110 the other day.

tt2

Thanks for the suggestion tt2. Starting in safe mode worked - but only sort of.

My playlists were back and were not being deleted but only a fraction of the songs were present. I suspect many of the songs are themselves missing from the library backup. Although I have various backups going back to September 2015 (from Carbonite) they are only 3MB where I expected more like 3GB. It is possible that the songs got deleted before the last backup possibly due to a previous iTunes "upgrade". I would not have noticed as I have been using Spotify almost exclusively for over a year now. Fortunately I have never trusted iTunes and whenever I have added music I have also put a copy in My Music. I am in the process of building a fresh iTunes library by adding all of these songs to the library. It is going to take a while and I will have to rebuild my playlists which, frankly, needed tidying. It will also take an age to tidy all the titles. When I am done I will make sure that in addition to Carbonite I put occasional copies on my new NAS drive.

We live and learn.

Good luck with the rebuild. I have three parallel clones of my library and use a folder syncing tool to review and update any changes so I can spot and reverse anything unintentional.

tt2

Me too. All playlists but one gone. 12 is nothing but trouble.