so i screwed up my itunes library

[beerman]

I copied my itunes library to an external drive, went into my preferences and selected the new folder, and all my movies music and tv shows played fine. So I deleted my original itunes folder. My tv shows and movies continued to play fine but itunes can't find any of my music. What do I do now?

[deckeda]

Take your iTunes Music folder and drag it into the iTunes' Source pane, where it lists MUSIC, Podcasts, etc. on the left-hand rail.

This "adds" the files to the Library, but since they're already there, it has the effect of just letting iTunes KNOW they are there. In other words it updates the XML library file. Sorta like a table of contents.

[beerman]

I got all my music working again but lost all my playlists, they were all empty. Found lots of posts on line about recreating them from a library.xml file but I don't have one, not even on my timemachine. I ended up salvaging some of the playlists using a util called senuti and my ipod. I'll have to recreate the rest. Next time I'll use the instructions from apple and move my library using the preferences in itunes. I had no idea it would be this difficult.

[Black Landlord]

Sorry this happened to you. It is one of my larger frustrations with iTunes.
I have about 110 GB that I had internally, then had to move externally, and now have internal again. Needless to say I've kind of made peace with having to recreate playlists.

[WHiiP]

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660

Information is Knowledge . . .

:woot:

[modelamac]

This is a perfect example of why full backups should be made BEFORE modifications take place.

[beerman]

Actually I did have a backup but it didn't do me any good. Let me explain.

1. I manually moved my itunes folder from the internal drive to the external drive, this folder contained my library file.
2. I left the old itunes library in place "just in case" even though I have timemachine.
3. I specified, in the itunes preferences, the new location of the library.
4. I started adding lots of content to itunes.
5. I did not realize that although the new content was going to the new location, itunes was still updating the library at the old location. I verified this later by looking at the modification date.

So when I finally deleted my old itunes folder all of my library info and playlists went away. I brought it back via timemachine, moved it to the new location, but it couldn't find my music or my playlists. So I added the music back and recreated the playlists. What a pain in the butt, I couldn't have done this worse.

[beerman]

Ah, salvation at last. I had ALSO made a ccc copy to an external and THAT backup had a library.xml file which I could import my old playlists from.

[beerman]

My only concern at this point is that itunes thinks my library is at /Volumes/shows/iTunes while itunes is updating the library at /Users/dave/music/iTunes . Now both folders are actually the same since it's an alias. I suppose it doesn't matter as long as the next time I move the library I do it the way apple says to do it.

[testcase]

Doesn't sound very "Mac-like"