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UnixMac · Aug 18, 2006, 11:42 PM

I have no idea how, but either I or my wife just deleted the whole itunes library... the songs still apear in the library on the itunes app window, but when you select a song you get an error that "the original file could not be found, do you want to locate it?"

And I looked everywhere using spotlight and I can't find any of the songs.. the only thing is that I stil have many of them on my ipod, but the only way I can see to sync up the ipod to the computer is to "copy the itunes lib to the ipod" and not the other way..

Also, I tried to get my purchased songs, and itunes just tells me that it's all there, and that songs can only be downloaded once.. Am I screwed?

thanks.. and I hope this is the right forum to get an answer..

zerostar · Aug 18, 2006, 11:47 PM

Just go to your backups and retrieve your music folder!

Oh, no backup?

Try one of the many ipod to computer transfer programs to transfer your songs back, try this program: iPodDownload 1.0.1 - MacUpdate

BTW, your songs should reside in. Your Drive>Users>Your Name>Music>iTunes>iTunes Music

Good Luck!

P.S. if you have a super drive, now may be a good time to backup your Home folder, if you use iphoto, imagine loosing all those photos!

UnixMac · Aug 19, 2006, 12:19 AM

zerostar.. good info, thanks.. I'll try it tomorrow am and see if I get lucky.

lavar78 · Aug 19, 2006, 12:59 AM

Originally Posted by UnixMac

And I looked everywhere using spotlight and I can't find any of the songs..

Spotlight may not have indexed your music folder (i.e., it was excluded in the preferences). Why don't you look around manually in the Finder? Of course, the iPod route is probably easier.

aepple · Aug 19, 2006, 08:00 AM

Originally Posted by UnixMac

I have no idea how, but either I or my wife just deleted the whole itunes library... the songs still apear in the library on the itunes app window, but when you select a song you get an error that "the original file could not be found, do you want to locate it?"

And I looked everywhere using spotlight and I can't find any of the songs.. the only thing is that I stil have many of them on my ipod, but the only way I can see to sync up the ipod to the computer is to "copy the itunes lib to the ipod" and not the other way..

Also, I tried to get my purchased songs, and itunes just tells me that it's all there, and that songs can only be downloaded once.. Am I screwed?

thanks.. and I hope this is the right forum to get an answer..

Always...always back-up your files, I have hundreds of songs from I-tunes that I put on cd's every time I down 10 new songs. At any giving time the worst that could happen is I lose 10 songs out of two hundred. Backing up through I-Mac if you have an account you can schedule a back up once a week through the apple website

techtrucker · Aug 19, 2006, 08:23 AM

This thread brings up the fact that backups are getting tougher due to massive size requirements...my Music folder is about 20 GB, iPhoto about 15 GB, and let's not even mention Movies. I wound up buying an external 160 GB drive to do my backups, and I use .mac to sync bookmark, iCal events etc.
Best of luck UnixMac, I hope you can find your music files somewhere!

Mastrap · Aug 19, 2006, 08:52 AM

Back up, back up, back up. Data loss is not an 'if', it's a 'when'.
I've got my important stuff backed up three times, in different locations.

Having said this, are you sure the songs got deleted? I mean, you have to go through a couple of very determined steps to throw you entire music collection away. Could the library have become corrupted in any way?

UnixMac · Aug 19, 2006, 10:37 AM

Ok, the weird this is WHY did my itunes library (just the songs, mind you) disappear? I don't get it? IT's the weirdest thing!!!

The other thing is EVERY program I've found including the one recommended in this thread to do this ipod to computer copy is NOT DOWNLOADING!

What could be causing that?

as for backups.. I agree they're important, and we back up the important things like my wife's photo's and the business related files all the time, but I never would have thought to back up the itunes library? After all I paid for those songs, I should be able to re-downlaod them I figured, and it's a lot of GB's to do... I guess I'll have to from now on, if I ever get it back onto my computer that is!

TETENAL · Aug 19, 2006, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by UnixMac

I never would have thought to back up the itunes library?

Not even after iTunes told you to do so?

This comes after a couple of downloaded songs.

Here is a tech support article that might help you to locate your purchased music. It also contains a link to Apple's replacement policy in case the songs are lost.

iTunes Music Store: Finding missing music and video downloads

UnixMac · Aug 19, 2006, 12:03 PM

Ok, thanks for the info.. I guess this thread has now turned into a "you should have backed up 260gb of data you idiot!"

I'm just going to plug a FW drive into my Powerbook and copy that lib onto it and then to my desktop.. what few songs I've bought are gone.. oh well..

I'll just move on.. thanks.

lavar78 · Aug 19, 2006, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by UnixMac

Ok, the weird this is WHY did my itunes library (just the songs, mind you) disappear? I don't get it? IT's the weirdest thing!!!

The other thing is EVERY program I've found including the one recommended in this thread to do this ipod to computer copy is NOT DOWNLOADING!

What could be causing that?

You didn't sync the iPod after you lost the files, did you? If you can still play the songs on the iPod, you can get them back on your computer. Even if those programs don't work (which shouldn't be the case), you can just show invisible files and copy the iPod_Control folder that contains all of the music.

UnixMac · Aug 19, 2006, 12:52 PM

Originally Posted by lavar78

You didn't sync the iPod after you lost the files, did you? If you can still play the songs on the iPod, you can get them back on your computer. Even if those programs don't work (which shouldn't be the case), you can just show invisible files and copy the iPod_Control folder that contains all of the music.

I'm good now.. I've got the library off my Powerbook copied over, plus I added the few songs that I bought from my ipod using a program called Senuti that worked like a charm.

Thanks for the help, and I've also now just copied the entire library onto my FW Lacie..

jamil5454 · Aug 19, 2006, 02:42 PM

You didn't by any chance change your home folder name or mess with account settings recently did you?

UnixMac · Aug 19, 2006, 02:47 PM

Originally Posted by jamil5454

You didn't by any chance change your home folder name or mess with account settings recently did you?

No name change, but I did clean out some stuff from my "storage" drive which is a physically separate drive.. Plus, I ran the Onyx utility as I notices some instability with Safari and iPhoto that seems to have gotten better with a Cache clean and daily/weekly/monthly services run..

Its' weird I tell you, cause I hardly ever do anything with my user folder since I store everything in my drive which I've been calling "User" and now am changing to "Storage" .. I wonder if it's name lead to this mess.. even though it worked fine for 24+ months

Mastrap · Aug 19, 2006, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by UnixMac

Plus, I ran the Onyx utility

There might be your culprit. If you're on Tiger, running any maintenance programs is not only unnecessary but can actually be counterproductive.

UnixMac · Aug 19, 2006, 03:20 PM

Originally Posted by Mastrap

There might be your culprit. If you're on Tiger, running any maintenance programs is not only unnecessary but can actually be counterproductive.

That's news to me.. I was told by my friend who was responsible for my screen name "Unix" Mac that you need to do these every so often.. I never heard anything different about Tiger... aren't these things that you do for any unix system? More over, they've been helpful when I've had problems with unstable programs like Safari, iphoto, or mail in the past..

Any advise is much appreciated however, so if you know a reason to trash Onyx I'm open ears..

UnixMac · Aug 19, 2006, 03:23 PM

So get this...

I emailed Apples' ipod tech support with the problem, and God bless them and Apple.. they're letting me re-downlaod my purchased songs if I need to.. THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE AND CLASS that is lacking these days with large corporations, and why I'm a loyal Apple customer for life!

Now the bad news is I don't need this anymore.. so I don't want to waste it! I wonder how long it's good for??

Chuckit · Aug 19, 2006, 03:51 PM

I'm curious about what's wrong with Onyx as well. I don't use it, but from what I know of it, I'm having a hard time imagining a reason it would eat your iTunes library.

techtrucker · Aug 19, 2006, 08:00 PM

I backup my entire Music folder to an external FW drive, and I use Apple's Backup to back up the iTunes playlists, it's only about 15 MB, and it saves you from having to ever recreate all your carefully created playlists.
Glad to hear you're more or less back up and running!

wadesworld · Aug 19, 2006, 08:24 PM

The notion that the maintenance scripts help with application instability is far-fetched at best.

UnixMac · Aug 19, 2006, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by wadesworld

The notion that the maintenance scripts help with application instability is far-fetched at best.

Well then anecdotally I have been lucky I guess..

Repair Permissions is my favorite placebo...

thought it's not a maintenance script persay..

UnixMac · Aug 19, 2006, 08:30 PM

This is a good read..

Maintaining Mac OS X