Can I Delete This Folder in iTunes Windows Folder?

Can I Delete This Folder in iTunes Windows Folder?


Hello, I'm the same user who posted about iTunes "spawning multiple ITLs" a week ago.


I now have another problem with my new iPod Touch 6th Gen: As I am adding music to it and updating album art on existing songs in iTunes, the iPod itself is starting to get wonky again - the last few songs I added, with correct album art in both iTunes and in my Windows music folder - are having random art assigned to them as viewed on the iPod Touch.


Since the "Album Artwork" folder(highlighted in my screenshot) is not updating as are the ITL files in my iTunes folder, is it okay to just go ahead and delete that too?


User uploaded file

iPod touch, iOS 9.3.5, 6th Gen 64Gb

Posted on Sep 15, 2017 6:06 AM

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Posted on Sep 15, 2017 10:18 AM

If the art is correct in iTunes then it is probably the device that needs wiping and restoring. However you can delete the Album Artwork folder then scroll through your library to rebuild the artwork cache if you really think it might be corrupt.


tt2

22 replies

Sep 15, 2017 10:48 AM in response to iKLutzSupreme

Are you manually managing the content that you're putting on the device? Interrupting iTunes while it is transferring data is one possibility.


See also Grouping tracks into albums. It is perhaps possible that some tagging inconsistency (same sort value for different primary values) could cause a repeatable issue with the cache.


Deleting the Album Artwork cache removes associated iTunes store artwork, but doesn't delete art embedded in tags. You have to manually scroll through the various sections of the library so that iTunes has a reason to show each image, which will make it update the cache.




You could try the following all-purpose steps for dealing with erratic device or sync behaviour. They assume that all of the content you want on the device is in your library ready for restoring. If it isn't see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device first. I would also recommend you copy everything out of the camera roll if you haven't already.


  1. Backup device.
  2. Restore as a new device.
  3. Restore the backup you made earlier.


Use an encrypted backup (*) if you want to preserve passwords, Wi-Fi settings, web history and health data where appropriate. I also suggest syncing with a selection of playlists (unless you're using iCloud Music Library) rather than manually adding content as, if nothing else, the process above is easier to do if you ever have to go through it again.


(*) The downside with backup encryption is that if you forget the password when you need it again, which could be years later, you may need to invoke a workaround to Disable iOS backup encryption, which can only help if your device is in a state that can backup to iCloud.


tt2

Sep 15, 2017 11:22 AM in response to iKLutzSupreme

Have you just installed iTunes 12.7? This discards features for managing apps, iBooks, and tones, so is likely to result in a smaller library.


Where is the Previous iTunes Libraries folder? I'd expect to see that and a pre-upgrade backup of the ITL file in it.


The modified date of the Album Artwork folder won't get automatically updated, even though new items might be added or removed somewhere inside it when you add or change content in the library.


Screwy artwork is more likely related to some other issue. Back in the iPod classic days I recall one issue where having a single case change in one artist name could throw subsequent images out of sequence.


Unfortunately you cannot really turn off iTunes features you don't like.


tt2

Sep 16, 2017 3:50 AM in response to turingtest2

Don't ask how, but I managed to delete and replace the errant artwork on those 3-4 songs from yesterday morning!


I just right clicked on Get Info for each song, deleted the incorrect graphics, and clicked OK. Then I right clicked Get info for each of the same songs, and added the correct art work. I then played the song from thr Touch 6, and the artwork, after a second or two into the song playing, changed from the wrong to the correct artwork.


If I had not done the above, any future music I put on this thing would have wonky artwork from the last 4 songs to have correct artwork, as explained a few posts back. I suspect this whole mess began when I went from working in iTunes on the new Touch 6, to working on the old Touch 4, then back to the new Touch 6. Really gave iTunes, and the aforementioned devices, a fit! It was after that when the four songs I added to the 6 displayed art from the songs I added to the 6 before the short session on the 4.


GRRRRR!


I think '****', as described in the Bible as a 'lake of fire', would more aptly be described as 'DEALING WITH ITUNES'! lol


So now I can replace about 55 more songs on this Touch 6 with versions that I have added the artwork back to. Ohhh joy!

Sep 16, 2017 3:38 PM in response to iKLutzSupreme

Is your media folder preference getting reset each time you start iTunes? The standard location is the iTunes Media folder inside the active library folder where the iTunes Library.itl file lives.


Is your media folder in the modern layout with a subfolder called Music, and which in turn contains the Album Artist folders?


Are the files that are resyncing in mp3 format? Do they have values in either of the Work or Grouping fields? When Work was introduced it was copied from Grouping, and I've seen reports that suggest having a non-empty Work value may cause a track to be treated as updated when it isn't.


tt2

Sep 15, 2017 12:07 PM in response to iKLutzSupreme

No worries, the edit window is 15 minutes, and I get caught out too.


Not sure what the library shrinkage is about. Have you taken a full backup of the library in the way I outline here? Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy? This would let you spot changes and reverse them. You can also manually backup the active ITL when iTunes is closed.


tt2

Sep 15, 2017 10:41 AM in response to turingtest2

I had a feeling you might say that. So how does a brand new i-Anything get 'corrupt' in that manner?


It just took me over one week to load everything on to the new Touch 6, and create at least 40 playlists. That's two hours per day on average. I would hate to go through all of that again.


The album art the Touch is associating with the last three CD rip mp3s I loaded on it is art associated with the 3-4 previous songs loaded on it. In other words, songs X, Y, and Z have, on the Touch, a mixture of album art from songs T, U, V, and W. If I do it again, it's a slightly different mixture of the same, wrong art.


I have turned everything off - the computer, the iPod Touch, turned them all back on, re-re-ripped the final three songs in iTunes, added correct album art, but on the iPod the wrong art is displayed. Even under 'On My Device' in iTunes the art for the final three songs I loaded is correct. It appears wrong only on the iPod Touch.


I'll leave it alone for now, but I don't know what will happen in the future when I rip future CD tracks to iTunes and put them on the Touch.

Regarding the Album Artwork folder in Windows: If I delete that, will the album art be removed from all 3,600+ song in iTunes? When you say 'rebuild the artwork cache', what is involved and how long will that take?

Sep 15, 2017 11:00 AM in response to turingtest2

TT2:


I just spotted something else odd: Look in my other post(spawning new libraries) for the screenshot of the iTunes windows file a week ago, and in this post for the screenshot I posted today.


You should see that the top item listed(iTunes Library, has both different created dates, modified dates, and, the one created today is SMALLER in size than last weeks. So it did it again: at some point it created another iTunes Library file!


That might explain the screwy album art for the last three songs loaded on the Touch 6.


So how can I 'force' iTunes to look at the ITL immediately preceding this newer, smaller, one?

My patience is running thin.

Sep 15, 2017 11:57 AM in response to turingtest2

iTunes 12.7: No, I did not update to it. According to Apple phone support, 12.1.3.6 is the latest I can run on a Windows Vista Service Pak 2 desktop.



There are no "Older Libraries" folders or individual older ITL files in the iTunes folder in Windows. Just the one Library you see in the screen shot in this thread. The list of songs in iTunes that go onto devices is exactly 3,634 - what it should be as of this reply. My "iPod Touch Image" music folder in Windows has just over 3,700 songs in it, but some are duplicates and other stuff not intended for iTunes or devices associated with iTunes.



This morning I did have to misspell something intentionally in order to get the best version of it on to an older iPod. My reasoning there had to do with space available on that old Touch. I then deleted its double from that iPod, and correctly spelled the song name of the replacement. No issues with that songs Artwork or with that of anything else on that older device, or with that song and its artwork on my new Touch 6.



I then found some more songs afterwords, in the iPod Touch Image music folder, that weren't in iTunes and therefore not on the new iPod Tch 6. I do not recall if it was right after that business with the older iPod, or some time later, during the addition of those songs to the 6, that the album art started going bonkers.



But again, I *guess* I can live with incorrect Album Artwork on 3 out of 3,600 songs within 40 playliste on a 64gig iPod Touch, lol! I'm just incertain if correct artwork will display on future additions, especially home-brewed stuff and CD rips, in the weeks and months ahead.

Sep 15, 2017 2:26 PM in response to turingtest2

As recently as yesterday I copied the entire contents of the iTunes folder in windows to my portable hard drive.


What I will do next, in iTunes, is to click on a dozen or so random songs and see if they either (1) still play, or, (2) trigger a circled ! exclamation point symbol and a dialogue along the lines of "iTunes was unable to play the select file because the source could not be found".


Except for this new iPod Touch 6th, whenever I connected a first-time device over the years I would get at least a dozen such circled !'s. Exercising the option to find the "missing" song files usually repopulated them into iTunes. Of course, I still had to re-add album art! Heaven knows many 'new libraries' were unbeknownst to me being created in the background. smh...


In the case of the used Touch 5th gen which I have since returned to Amazon, I got no exclamations, but my total song count in iTunes plummeted by at least 150-200 songs compared to what was in the windows Ipod Image folder! As stated previously, at least 5-10 also disappeared or reverted to older versions in my windows iPod Touch Image music folder that expressly feeds itunes.


No wonder so many former Apple fans abandoned iTunes and Apple devices and went with dedicated portable media players costing twice as much with only half the storage!


If my situation at least raises eyeballs in Cupertino perhaps they could find a way to stop this behavior for users who manage more than one device via their Windows iTunes. Apple: do you copy??

Sep 16, 2017 2:13 PM in response to iKLutzSupreme

What the heck is going on?? When I connect my iPod Touch6 this starts happening(see screen shot). Not every time, but when it does it takes 3-5 minutes, during which I cannot do any updating or rebuilding of my iTunes music list:


User uploaded file


Just this afternoon I found sixteen more songs that needed newer versions, with appropriate artwork, loaded into iTunes. After doing that, I connected the touch 6, and what is shown in my screen shot starts happening. After that, I proceed to move the 16 corrected songs into the iPod touch 6, and at least 10 of the songs light up with ⚠ symbols!! So I then have to spend another 20 minutes pointing iTunes to the correct folder to 'find' the songs! (slamming fists on desk!)


After that, I was able to successfully delete the older versions of these songs off the iPod Touch and replace them with newer versions, and sort them out into the appropriate playlists.


What happened?? Did another library just spawn?! I looked in Windows iTunes folder but found nothing unusual. The ITL files were updating right behind me. Am I the only iTunes/iPod user in North America this weird bat-tihs is happening to???


I am getting tired of this!

Sep 16, 2017 6:29 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for your patience and persistence TT2! Appreciate it.


I would need step by step instructions where to check each of the items you mentioned, above. Work or grouping fields? What's that? yaaaaaahhhh! 😕


The only question I can definitively answer is Yes - the vast majority of files on my iPods and in iTunes are mp3 format, and not dinky 128. I use 192kbps or higher.

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Can I Delete This Folder in iTunes Windows Folder?

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