Itunes 12.3 (Corrupt) Library without update

See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash. Are there any .tmp files in the iTunes folder? Do you have a Time Machine backup? Importing the new songs is easy enough. It might be possible to recover playlists if they were synced to a device.

tt2

All of your song (and other media) files are still on your computer's storage (and likely to be fine), even if the iTunes library (database) file has become corrupted. If you use the default iTunes settings for where media files are stored, they are located at

[startup disk]/Users/[user account folder]/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media

NOTE: In some cases, that last folder is called iTunes Music.

That iTunes Media folder has sub-folders for each media type. Songs are in the Music sub-folder (in iTunes Media), organized by into additional sub-folders by Artist name and then Album name. Take a look using Finder, to confirm they are there.

The Previous ITunes Libraries folder has backups of your iTunes Library.itl file. These backups are made by iTunes, when you install a major update to iTunes. The backup allows you to recover, if you have problems with the new version. What you probably did was this procedure (or something close to it)

If you don't see your content after you update iTunes - Apple Support

Do you use the built-in Time Machine feature to back up your data? If you do, you can restore your iTunes Library.itl file to a version just before this corruption occurred. That would be ideal.

Otherwise, I see these choices, and none are ideal.

(1) Start with a brand new (empty) iTunes library. Use the Add to Library command to import your entire iTunes Media folder. If all of your existing media files are stored in that iTunes Media folder, you should have all of your songs (and other media) in that new iTunes library. However, you won't have any of your playlists, so you'll need to recreate them. You also won't have any "history" data, such as play count, ratings, date added, etc.

(2) Use the procedure linked above to go back to the last available backup of your iTunes Library.itl file. Manually add missing songs (and other media) from the iTunes Media folder. This could be a pain, if you added "more than 1000 songs" since that older version of your iTunes library. And you'll need to recreate missing playlists too.

(3) Use this method (linked below) to "rebuild" your iTunes library using the .xml files, if that file is fairly recent. If it's old, option (1) is better. If it's called "iTunes Music Library.xml," it may be MUCH older than the last available backup from option (1). But if it's recent, this article provides a good description of how to "rebuild" your iTunes library using the .xml file

http://www.mcelhearn.com/how-to-rebuild-your-itunes-library/

Please post back with any questions about the above.

I don't think those "Corrupt" files were created after the problem. Those ARE the corrupted files that caused the problem. iTunes probably named them that way, instead of deleting them, when they became corrupted and unrecoverable, and gave you new files.

It's possible that your Mac's drive is becoming unreliable, which caused this problem to appear. You may want to run Disk Utility, and do a First Aid check on your startup disk. Be sure to select the startup disk volume (indented below the drive) in the Disk Utility sidebar.

And now would be a good time to get an external drive and start using Time Machine. Then, even if you have another problem, you can quickly recover to a backup state before the problem occurred.

Which "old iTunes library" are you trying to open? The old ones to which we are referring are the ones in your Previous iTunes Libraries folder which have to be re-named.

When you rename a file on OS X, or move it within the same volume, OS X will try to match up any request for the file to the original unless there is a different file at the original path to connect to. It would seem that you've renamed the broken library as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl, but have not supplied an iTunes Library.itl to replace it. iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl is now the default library. When iTunes accesses an itl file it will make the support files <Library Name> Extras.itdb, <Library Name> Genius.itdb and, if share XML is enabled, <Library Name>.xml if these files don't already exist.

You should copy your most recent library file from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder up into the main iTunes folder, rename it as iTunes Library.itl and then option-start iTunes to connect to this version of the database. Note however my previous questions. There may be a .tmp file in your iTunes folder which is the full library that you want to restore. If so copy and rename this instead. Otherwise you can import the media folder to add in any new tracks that were not listed in the old library.

Can you post a screenshot that lists the content of your iTunes folder?

tt2

It is possible that any .tmp files would be hidden. See http://ianlunn.co.uk/articles/quickly-showhide-hidden-files-mac-os-x-mavericks/ for example for steps to reveal them.

tt2

You're welcome. 🙂

No, date added will be whatever date you add the tracks back into the library. Date modified might show the time tracks were added to your computer, or when you edited them last.

tt2