Why did my music just disappear from iTunes library?

turingtest2 wrote:

• As far as I am aware neither Windows Defender or Microsoft Security Essentials have caused iTunes Library damage. Stuff you've run in the past, or anything you need to run manually isn't relevant. McAfee has at various times been one of the main culprits.
• The machine is clearly powerful enough to run iTunes, so that shouldn't be an issue. It isn't a Sony VIAO, which once had some notable iTunes breaking software.
• Do any of your playlists exist on a device? I have a script that can extract them. See ImportDevicePlaylists.
• See this post on Re: Duplicate Songs.
• On Windows View > Only Downloaded Music will suppress cloud content. If the cloud tracks are duplicates of files recently imported they may disappear after restarting iTunes, or if you sign out of the store and then sign in again. Otherwise download what you want and hide what you don't. See Hide and unhide iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store purchases - Apple Support.
• I don't see a Previous iTunes Libraries folder inside the iTunes folder, which would normally be there. If you run third party clean up tools perhaps one of them has been overly aggressive, or is it simply because you have a newly created library in that location? What about the old one? What happens if you select the computer in Explorer and then search for *.itl ? I'm clearly a little unusual in having a bunch of test libraries but I found nearly 90 .itl files. I still think it ought to be possible to reactivate your lost library if you can find the right file.

tt2

1. Never had issue with McAfee and iTunes. Perhaps I was just lucky.
2. I know my iPod nano 3rd generation has a couple of playlist but not the one I really need. The one I need is the playlist of what is on my wife's iPods (nano and shuffle). Thank god I have the iTunes set to only sync manually so that when I connect her devices they won't automatically erase what she has, I hope. She would be really ****** 😟. I have it in *.m3u and *.wpl formats but I can't convert them to txt (csv) format. I will check my laptop. I will review the "ImportDevicePlaylist" and "Duplicate Songs" post when time permits. Thanks in advance for that information.
   1. Unfortunately, as I suspected, my laptop has an empty Music folder (no iTunes folder) because as I said at the beginning my Music folder (which held my iTunes folder and all music files under the iTunes Media folder is gone. If you will remember, I told you I returned the Music folder back to the hard drive using my XPS8300 (desktop) and laptop also used the same Microsoft account, meaning the same OneDrive. This why I had my iTunes and Music library on OneDrive. So I could always have access to my music and it would automatically be synced regardless of which computer initially bought the file onboard. This approach has worked for several years until the last iTunes upgrade which unfortunately I didn't discover until just before I initiated this stream (post) a few days back.
   2. I checked out the link Hide and unhide iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store purchases - Apple Support. It is very helpful except I am a bit confused. There is only one music item on the All list that is not on the In My Library List. But when I checked my library the album is there. Oh well that is a minor issue because when I returned to my library almost all the clouds had disappeared except to a few.
   3. Still, I don't understand why if a title (song or album) is in my library on the computer why does iTunes want to include the cloud version in my library too?
      1. If I download the cloud version will it overwrite the version I have on my computer?
      2. If download a selection (song or album) from the cloud and it is not already on my computer will it be added to my computer and will it go, the "Downloads" folder or the iTunes Media>Music folder?
3. Re: On Windows View; I am not sure I understand "only downloaded music will suppress cloud content". Do you mean I have to download the music with the cloud and down arrow icon in order to prevent it showing as part of my library? If so I don't get it. Yes, the clouds tracks are duplicates of files already in my library but they haven't been suppressed. If you mean by recently imported added to library by selecting File>Add Folder to Library..., then the answer is yes they are recently imported. I will send a screenshot of my iTunes library sorted by song. Perhaps that will clear it. Also, I have signed out and signed into the store numerous times but the cloud files are still showing along with the copy on my desktop (xps8300) hard drive.
4. You didn't see a Previous iTunes Library because there is none there (I always have view hidden files enabled). I will assume there is none there because I had to recreate or more accurately re-add the music folder to iTunes.
   1. I did search across entire computer (this computer I'm using now the xps8300) for *.itl, itl and only file that came up is current 'iTunes library.itl'. I also did a search on my laptop and found nothing at all.
   2. Will also send another screenshot of the iTunes folder including the Details List that shows when that folder is selected.
5. Back to the playlists and itl files. I might if I'm lucky have copies of them on an old backup drive. Hopefully they haven't been removed.

As you see below, iTunes is telling me I have lots of files missing although they are actually in the Music folder and including some that are on the cloud. Which is why I asked what happens when I download from the cloud.

Ok, I given plenty enough for today.

Again I want to say thanks for hanging in here with me on this. I two major issues I still need to resolve.

1. Can get my playlist back? I have to research my old backups for this.

2. Can I move my iTunes folder back to OneDrive once I've resolved (pro or con) the rest of the issue?

I use Windows Defender AV along with manually running SuperAntiSpyware and CCleaner. I've been doing this ever since Windows 8. Actually used SuperAntiSpyware and CCleaner with Win7 too but used McAfee AV then.

If it matters this particular computer is a Dell XPS8300 x64 16GB RAM Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s) , 1GB HD.

I finally go iTunes to build my library but I had to File>Add Folder to Library... looks like I have everything except my playlists which is what I was really trying to save. I was able to get one playlist back using the import function because I had saved it as txt (CVS I presume). I tried to import others but iTunes wouldn't recognize either the xml file and I didn't have the others as txt.

The other thing is I now have several duplicates. Most are listed as not found but some are because there is a copy on the cloud. I still don't understand why I have cloud files. I realize that I have automatic cloud storage by virtue of having purchased music, books, etc from the Apple Store but why can't I turn that off.

Here is screen shot of my Music folder which I moved by to the local hard drive, i.e. C:\Users\....\Music.

Thanks for hanging in there.

"As given in both my user tip and the document

If you don't see your entire library after you update iTunes on your Mac or PC - Apple Supportthe recovery steps are to rename or delete the existing active database file, copy in the archived version, and rename it so that it becomes the active file."

I did the above, it didn't work.

As for whether OneDrive captures archives or backups or whatever you said, it does because as I've said repeatedly I've used OneDrive as the place all my files reside for at least 2 years. Perhaps the latest iTunes update is prohibitive to using OneDrive as the location for the iTunes library location.

Apparently you're the you're ultimate authority on iTunes in this forum so tell me is it possible to keep the actual media files in one location and the library in another. As an example I'm a photographer and I use Adobe Lightroom (LR) as my DAM. LR allows for your catalog database file *.lrcat and associated database files to be held at one location e.g. external hard drive, internal hard drive

(except a NAS), and the actual media files i.e. images to be at another location typically an external raid or standalone external hard drive. LR can do this because the catalog basically only references the location of the actual images. I would think the geniuses at Apple would have figured out how to that by now.

Ok I get it but if I have music, apps, books, etc I've purchased from Apple Store which are available to download, then why can't I get my library to work? Since I can't get iTunes to recognize or load my library if I download a previously purchased item where will it go, to the downloaded folder instead of into my library?

Also, not to muddy the waters but isn't there a way to rebuild an iTunes library itl without completely uninstalling and removing iTunes? What about deleting all itl files? Will deleting itl files cause iTunes to rebuild the library?

Finally, I can't find an answer to the question, can itunes folder be located on MS OneDrive since Windows 10 sees OneDrive as just another location on the hard drive?

You are obviously knowledgeable on all things iTunes.

I really don't think OneDrive is the issue as my music library has been there for at least a couple of years. At this point, I have moved everthing, i.e. itunes\media\music, back to my user directory on my hard drive. Before going to the trouble of uninstalling/reinstalling I will try the shift launch to point to a specific itl file because just moving it back to hard drive didn't help. I'm pretty much over iTunes but my wife and I have iPods. So if it doesn't work I'll uninstall and reinstall. I kniw most Windows programs that use libraries will automatically rebuild the the library file if the old is deleted or renamed, e.g. Lightroom will rebuild your catalog if you point it to your images location and do an import, but apparently Apple doesn't work that way.

Thanks for help. If you care I'll post whether I get if fixed and what fixed it if applicable.

Even if I had time this way too much work. No, my files have been in same location. As I've said several times. The reason I put them on OneDrive is so both my desktop and laptop would gave access to same files without the trouble of maintaining libraries and playlists for 2 computers.

Thanks for trying to help.

That didn't help. The only music displaying says it is on cloud. Here is the funny thing, I don't an icloud account! Any other ideas?