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Don Pickett · May 4, 2008, 05:00 AM

So, I plugged my Touch into my machine to throw another song on there, and find that all 20GB of music has disappeared. Far as I know, I didn't do anything to it. Has anyone else seen this happen?

mduell · May 4, 2008, 09:53 AM

Have you plugged it in to another machine lately?
Are there other user accounts on your machine?

BRussell · May 4, 2008, 01:04 PM

Why do you think the iPod deleted your music? Since iPods as a rule take music from iTunes rather than deleting it, it doesn't seem plausible that the iPod would be responsible for accidentally deleting all your music.

imitchellg5 · May 4, 2008, 01:20 PM

Did you change your short username if you're using a Mac?

Don Pickett · May 4, 2008, 01:47 PM

The answer to all questions: no.

imitchellg5 · May 4, 2008, 02:08 PM

An iTunes library can't just disappear without other items disappearing as well, and it wasn't your iPod. Moral of the story: Backup, backup, backup.

Don Pickett · May 4, 2008, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by imitchellg5

An iTunes library can't just disappear without other items disappearing as well, and it wasn't your iPod. Moral of the story: Backup, backup, backup.

I'm not sure what you're saying here. It happened: I had ~20GB of music on the thing. When I plugged it in the next time, there was no music whatsoever on there. So, while you may tell me it didn't happen, it clearly happened.

Mayhaps I have found a very serious bug in the Touch.

edit: if you Google around you will see I am not the only person this has happened to.

Andhee · May 4, 2008, 03:36 PM

When you opened iTunes, was your music there? Was it after you plugged in your iTouch that it all disappeared?

Don Pickett · May 4, 2008, 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by Andhee

When you opened iTunes, was your music there? Was it after you plugged in your iTouch that it all disappeared?

Yes: all the music in my iTunes library, on my Mac, was still there. All of the music on my Touch was gone, even to the point where the Info window showed the Touch with 30 GB of free space.

CharlesS · May 4, 2008, 04:11 PM

Maybe you accidentally synced the iPod with an iTunes library on another machine or user account which had no songs in it?

Don Pickett · May 4, 2008, 04:14 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Maybe you accidentally synced the iPod with an iTunes library on another machine or user account which had no songs in it?

Nope: never been attached to another machine, and there is only one user account on this machine.

For the record, I resynced my music. I hope it doesn't happen again.

clint999 · May 5, 2008, 01:41 PM

Did you change your short username if you're using a Mac?

imitchellg5 · May 5, 2008, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by clint999

Did you change your short username if you're using a Mac?

Wow, I asked the exact same thing. I'm guessing the answer is still no.

vmarks · May 5, 2008, 07:00 PM

connect iPod. Click on ipod in left column. Verify settings in the music tab. Make sure all music or your selected playlist is set to sync. Make sure your playlist has music in it.

Don Pickett · May 6, 2008, 10:49 AM

Originally Posted by clint999

Did you change your short username if you're using a Mac?

Nope: didn't do anything of the sort. Music just went "woof!"

Anyway: resynced all my music. Waiting to see if it happens again.

Mac User #001 · May 6, 2008, 01:01 PM

This title reminded me of "iTunes broke my cd player".

I'm glad to see its nothing of the sort.

hbone · May 10, 2008, 09:40 PM

It happened to me last week. I was listening to my itouch and was looking for a song and it was gone. So then I plugged it into my Powerbook to do a search and it wasn't there. After I had unplugged itouch, I clicked on the itouch and all of my songs were gone. When I looked at it again on my Mac the info read 7GB of other, when before it read 7GB of music.. My videos were gone too. My restore did not set the itouch back.

Most of the Apple Widgets were missing and the touch screen did not work.

AGGHHHH!!!! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

imitchellg5 · May 10, 2008, 09:49 PM

If some of the apps were gone but not all and there was 7 GB of other sounds like it was just a bad restore.

hbone · May 11, 2008, 10:12 PM

Somehow my 7GB of music was moved. I'm guessing somewhere on the iPod. When I took it to the Apple store they restore it to the original w/o upgrade, it was fine. At home I tried twice and it didn't work. Apple guys said the same thing, that my Mac file could be corrupted. So, he gave me a new itouch. On the 2nd itouch, my restore worked. So I don't think my files were corrupted. Something on my 1st itouch caused all of my media to move.

very weird.

kbender05 · May 23, 2008, 01:19 PM

The same thing happened to me today. My 16gb ipod touch is brand new. I got it yesterday and I only plugged it into my laptop. I installed the most current firmware and the software upgrade. My touch worked fine last night and this morning playing all my 10gb of music, but after lunch I was using safari, I went back to the home screen and pressed the music button and it said that I had no music. I am resynching it now and the ipod is reloading all my 10gb of music (when I plugged it in after it registered no music, there was 0gb of music on the ipod), but it sucks that this happened and I hope it doesn't do this again.

Don Pickett · May 23, 2008, 02:35 PM

Methinks a bug has been found.

manuelrimora · May 24, 2008, 08:27 PM

that happend to me couple of days ago. no music and no video and i just plugged it for charge

bytor4232 · Jul 1, 2008, 11:54 PM

Same thing happened to my Touch today. It never touches another computer, I always charge it from my iLive and sync it wirelessly, I'm a Ubuntu user. I got up this morning, and there was no video, and half my songs were missing.

Luckily I'm using gtkpod, and the "Check iPod Files" feature under the File menu saved my collection. It scanned all the files, and restored everything including the artwork. Unfortunately it couldn't restore the video's filenames, since there was no tag. All my videos are named "gtkpod0101010101.mp4" or something similar.

I'd say there is probably something wrong with the latest firmware.

blackflag · Jul 31, 2008, 05:45 PM

I have 16Gb iPod Touch and have experienced the same problem twice. The first time I completely restored my iPod, but I am looking for a more friendly solution.
iPod Touch 16 Gb 1.1.4 Jailbroke with ziphone.

msuper69 · Jul 31, 2008, 06:18 PM

Originally Posted by blackflag

I have 16Gb iPod Touch and have experienced the same problem twice. The first time I completely restored my iPod, but I am looking for a more friendly solution.
iPod Touch 16 Gb 1.1.4 Jailbroke with ziphone.

If you hack your iPod or iPhone, all bets are off. Try calling Apple for help and see what they say when you tell them you've hacked it. Gee, you're now having problems. What a big surprise!

BuffyLyon · Sep 3, 2008, 09:23 AM

Same thing here; once on an iPhone and twice on an iPod touch. I don't think I can blame it on iTunes, because neither device has been connected to a computer since the last reload, and the music was there just fine after that. I think I'll leave one of them sitting for a few days; just turn it on to check the music once or twice a day until it disappears again to confirm this. If it doesn't disappear again in a week or so I'll start using it for one function, say web browsing, until it does or another week passes, then add functions until I find something that seems to cause the problem.

roxrnj · Dec 29, 2008, 03:27 PM

mac elite: did you ever find a solution to your problem?? I just got an ipod touch for xmas and i'm having a similar issue... i synced my ipod with one of my playlists and the next day i looked, the music was gone! (just from the ipod, not from my library). yesterday, i synced my ipod with some newly purchased music, and although it appeared, everything that was already on my ipod disappeared!! this has happened to me 3 times... any advice?

wheater · Jan 7, 2009, 12:47 PM

Same problem here. New Ipod 16 GB touch for Christmas. Updated 2.2, Itunes 8 on PC running on XP. Connected it fine. Could drag and drop music and play lists from library. Had some music and playlists added to touch. Sometime last week noticed all music on the touch was missing! Here is another detail different from other posts. Now when I connect my touch I can no longer add (drag and drop) songs from my library to the touch. I get a circle with line through it. .

len-morgan · Feb 7, 2009, 02:58 PM

Same just happened to me. 8GB iPodTouch. EVERYTHING is going and resyncing doesn't do anything because the backup it made was after the music was deleted. I can't resync because I the circle with the line through it when dragging my songs over.

len

smeg89 · Jun 3, 2009, 12:36 PM

I had this the other day and managed to sort it one day it was fine went to use it again the following day everything was gone. But when i plugged into my comp it was saying the songs were still there, but i couldnt sync back to computer, ARGH! eventually I tried copying purchased items which then backed up everything to my comp and restored all my playlists on my ipod. I hope this will help a few ppl out there.

Quich · Aug 13, 2009, 08:23 AM

The same thing just happened to me. I was listening to music when I wanted to sync a new song to my iPod. I plugged it in and when it was done I played the song. The song was jumpy on my iPod, but on iTunes it was playing fine. So I plugged it in to try and re-sync. When it was done, I clicked the music icon and it's telling me there's no content. I don't know what do do :S

xhiitsmecorii · Sep 2, 2009, 04:53 PM

This is happening to me. This morning I plugged my ipod into my laptop to charge it and then when I was on the bus on my way to school, I went to listen to it and all the songs were gone! I tried restoring twice but it didn't work. What to do? The nearest apple store in like 45 mins away =/

cgc · Sep 2, 2009, 08:19 PM

All those reports may be people hypothesizing their iPod is flakey because they forgot that one thing they did to delete their songs. Reminds me of the thread on here a couple years ago about some guy who blamed iTunes for messing up his potable CD player.

There could be a bug, but think about the things you did to iTunes, to your iPod, and consider the environment it was in (e.g. magnetic fields, maybe it got jarred, etc.).

lalabeven · Dec 15, 2009, 09:44 AM

im having t same problem this is t second time it has happened

Wiskedjak · Dec 15, 2009, 10:12 AM

hmmm ... a string on one-post-only Fresh-Faced-Recruits all reporting "same-here"?

Not saying the OP's concern (from May 2008) wasn't legitimate, but the one-post-only "me-too"s are certainly interesting.

anthology123 · Dec 18, 2009, 01:24 PM

To OP: is your iTunes setup to auto-synch your playlists or are you managing your playlists manually?

Allecksis · Dec 26, 2009, 07:41 PM

the same thing happened to me today and i just got it yesterday for Christmas
all of my music is gone but the pictures and apps are still there i restarted it
i reset it i backed it up and now i cant even resync the music...any advice

oscar · Dec 29, 2009, 10:03 AM

Restore your devices, bad firmware load or corrupted OS on the devices can lead to this as well.

Coley1994 · Jun 24, 2010, 11:16 PM

The same thing just now happened to me. I went to listen to music after leaving safari, but when I clicked the music option it said updating library. I had been downloading som stuff and didn't think much of it but when it finished there was no music, I have everything else( videos, pics, podcasts, iTunes u) but no music... There was 12 gb there, it will take me forever to sync again

Eriamjh · Jun 27, 2010, 01:37 PM

Regardless of whether this is an iPod touch bug or not, it shows you how important it is to have a backup of your main computer where your music is stored.

As long as you have that, you can always restore your music no matter what.

Railroader · Jun 27, 2010, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak

hmmm ... a string on one-post-only Fresh-Faced-Recruits all reporting "same-here"?

Not saying the OP's concern (from May 2008) wasn't legitimate, but the one-post-only "me-too"s are certainly interesting.

This is the strangest thing I have seen on the forums ever. Someone's been racking up usernames for a long time.

Can we get a mod to check IP addresses?

AKcrab · Jun 27, 2010, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by Railroader

Can we get a mod to check IP addresses?

A cursory check shows that these are all indeed unique individuals, but I'm a n00b..

Reader is good at this stuff.

Railroader · Jun 28, 2010, 12:11 AM

Weird. I think we do indeed need a 2nd opinion. No offense.

Wiskedjak · Jun 28, 2010, 12:48 AM

Originally Posted by Railroader

Weird. I think we do indeed need a 2nd opinion. No offense.

If it were me and I wanted to generate the illusion of a problem, which is what might be the case here, I'd hit a bunch of forums from as many different IPs as I could. I could probably jump on 10 unique IPs in a day without building up much of a sweat. Throw in an IP proxy service and you could appear to be coming from a bunch of different locations.

Wiskedjak · Jun 28, 2010, 12:50 AM

For example, unless I'm mistaken, the IP address for *this* post should be unique and show me coming in from California.

el stasho · Sep 20, 2010, 07:54 PM

I have an Ipod Touch 32gb 3g firmware 4.0. Here is what happened..
First my Ipod Touch stopped playing any of my songs both on the ipod itself and on itunes. When I tried to play a song on itunes, the song would receive an exclamation mark next to it, indicating it cannot be played. My web browser would still work fine, but my pandora application installed also would not play any music. My videos as well would no longer play.
Today I plugged my Ipod into my mac and it no longer even has my music registered. Under the music tab it is empty. Under the Ipod Summary page, Itunes says I have 15.92 gb of "other" on my ipod and 446.7 mb of applications, 12.93 gb free space.
What a Bummer!!
Note, I manage my Ipod Touch Manually. I do not sync, ever. As my mac is relatively new, my itunes has only a handful of songs on it but no music that was on my ipod. It is all gone now.

Once I noticed I could not play my songs, I tried removing them from my Ipod to my desktop with various applications, however, none of them worked. They would either do nothing or say the file is corrupt.

Up to this point I have been satisfied with apple. Consumer satisfaction is down..

jcastane · Mar 1, 2011, 12:37 AM

Reading through this thread, it seems their are some doubters that this is a "real problem" and as a real person, I have to say this thing DOES happen. This same thing happened to me, and I found something that fixed it. I have a classic iPod, and all of a sudden it just had NO music on it. I didn't sync it or hook it up to a new computer, it just lost all of the music, videos, everything. BUT it still had 20 gigs of "other" data on it when I looked at it in iTunes. I figured it SURELY had the data on there somewhere, my iPod just wasn't giving me access to it. So I followed the instructions below, and BAM, everything is back. It was originally posted here:

Music won't show up but is still on iPod // 80GB 5G iPod - Page 3 - macosx.com

Originally Posted by GoldenArm
OK, I seem to have figured out how to get everything back if your data gets shifted from "Music", "Video" etc.. into "Other" for whatever reason.

1) Plug your Ipod into your pc
2) Find the Ipod in Windows Explorer
3) "Unhide" Hidden files & Folders in Windows
4) In one of the ipod's hidden folders, locate "itunesDB" and an "itunesDB.old_mlpmp"
5) Rename "itunesDB" to "itunesDB.old" (this is the newly corrupted DB), and rename "itunesDB.old_mlpmp" to "itunesDB" (no file extention). This restores the automatic backup of your DB that Apple doesn't seem to think we need to know about...

It worked fine for me. I didn;t pay attention to when the backup was made, I believe it was last time I synced with Itunes. I didn't add anything new on that last sync, so I'm not sure if you will be missing some files if you do this restore and you had changed the Ipod's contents on your last sync...

Either way, it's a whole lot better than rebuilding your library and all your playlists (they have also miraculously re-appeared!)

Hope this helps some of you!

PhilCat · Mar 1, 2011, 09:32 AM

I didn't want to, but was forced in the end to update to 4.0 on the 3Gs.
Now I have issues all the time.
I never had problems with iCal, Notes before.

Wiskedjak · Mar 1, 2011, 09:43 AM

Wow ... it's the return of the Fresh-Faced Recruits with iPod Touch problems.

Jasoco · Mar 13, 2011, 12:32 AM

Wait, did the files also disappear from the HD too? If not, just restore the iPod. If they did, then I have a feeling something else is wrong.

Also, have a backup no matter what. To not have a backup in this day and age is really stupid. HD's are cheap as dirt. 2TB for under $100. No excuses.