Restoring iTunes music & playlists from Time Machine

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Level 1

8 points

Restoring iTunes music & playlists from Time Machine

For some unexplained reason, iTunes decided to forget all my music and playlists, even though nothing had knowingly been changed. As far as iTunes is concerned, I have no music and no playlists.

I can see all the music is still on my hard drive, so importing it again would presumably load my music into iTunes, but I have a number of large playlists which I also wish to preserve. I thought it best to ask advice before rushing in and possibly making things worse.

My hard drive is backed up to Time Machine daily. What is the best way to get everything back to how it was by using TM? Which files need to be restored?

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), iTunes 12.3.3

Posted on May 5, 2016 2:23 AM

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Answer 1

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Limnos

Level 10

411,193 points

May 5, 2016 6:03 AM in response to AlanHanwell

Try holding down the option/alt key while starting iTunes and select the iTunes Library.itl file in the iTunes folder. If it is not there search for it with Spotlight.

If necessary:

06/2014 ChrisCA post: Restore iTunes library from Time Machine backup - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6374283?answerId=26104480022#26104480022 Useful tips where restoring to a new drive: http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html --> https://web.archive.org/web/20150511032110/http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html and https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6811322?answerId=27599985022#27599985022 Make sure you go back far enough for the version you want. If Time Machine just backed up the "latest" version may be one you do not want.

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Answer 2

AlanHanwell Author

Level 1

8 points

May 5, 2016 6:05 AM in response to Limnos

That sorted it.

Selecting an older version in 'previous iTunes libraries' did the trick. I hadn't noticed that folder before, but once you explained what to look for, Spotlight came up with the goods.

Thank you very much.

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