Recovering an iTunes Library
Just recently, my computer BSODed (i.e. shat itself) while I had iTunes running. I opened iTunes back up afterwards and discovered my whole library had disappeared. Obviously, this is a bad thing, especially as I’m currently attempting to rate every song in my library.
After a little digging, I noticed that my library still existed, in the form of an “iTunes Library (Damaged).itl” file. It didn’t appear too damaged to me, and I wondered how to import it back into iTunes. After trying iTunes’ import function and finding that didn’t work, I replaced my “iTunes Library.itl” with my damaged one and deleted my “iTunes Music Library.xml” file. After then opening iTunes up again, all my music had reappeared and the world was at peace once again (at least, until I put my rock music back on).
I do have one tip for Apple however: either make this more obvious, or let iTunes import .itl files, so that that backup folder (”Previous iTunes Libraries”) can actually be put to use by non-techies.
OMG!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! You have no idea how bummed I was when this same thing happened to me today. I found your blog entry through Google by searching “iTunes Library (Damaged)” and your solution worked like a charm. You saved me so much agony with this post!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! -Ken
I BSOD’ed too with iTunes 8. I wonder: did Apple even test iTunes 8 before they put it out?!
Fortunately, I didn’t lose my library.
@Ken - You’re welcome
@Kevin Porter - iTunes didn’t BSOD it by the looks of it, I’ve BSOD’ed twice since then with Flash, so it looks like that is the culprit.
I can’t thank you enough! I upgraded to iTunes 8, opened up the program, and my entire library had disappeared. I used your trick, except in this case since it happened during an upgrade, it had named the backup .itl file as previous itunes library with the date I upgraded. I did as you said, replaced the current library file with that file by renaming it, and getting rid of the .xml file. However, when I opened up and could now see my library back again (YAY!!!!!) I couldn’t access it. It turns out in this case that you need to find where it stuck your files from your old library–in my case that took doing a search on.mp3 on my pc and finding the very odd place it had stuck them, then under preferences I put the path to the where the files had been moved, and voila, I had my library back, and iTunes now knew where to find the songs and played them!!!! Also, it then asked me if I would like it to automatically move and organize the files in the iTunes music folder. I opted for that and that’s when it moved all the files over and I now am back to where I was before I upgraded to 8. I had put off upgrading for a year because I know every new rev of iTunes is worse than the next, but I got a new iPod that required 8 to work.
I put in all that extra info in case someone loses their library in the way I did, unlike your disaster mid-play. I can’t thank you enough, I thought this was going to be a nightmare to try to fix, and it took about 15 minutes (and would have taken alot less long if my PC in general wasn’t messed up!). So thank you thank you thank you, and if anyone runs into this problem, this solution is the right one!!!!
I think this has also happened to me. I have an itunes library (damaged) and my itunes library has only 256 on more than 2000 left. I know nothing about computers, so could you please send me a step by step guide of what to do to recover my itunes library (damaged).
I would really appreciate your help!! PLEASE! And be as simple about it as possible too…I really don’t know what I’m doing.
The BSOD seems to have been the source again, the same happened to me.
PLEASE HELP!!
@Oli I only knew how to recover my own library. You may have better luck at Apple’s own forums for iTunes.