Comments on: iTunes library, fixing a broken one or moving one

By: paul

paul — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:15:46 +0000

If you have backups, get them back in place quickly. See if iTunes can work with them. The recent additions for the nano might be gone but that’s not that important.

If you have the backups and that all works, you’re ahead of most people. Good luck.

By: Don

Don — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:37:29 +0000

All was perfect in my iPod world. Then my teenaged son blew up the computer, and a techie friend just reformatted it–didn’t ask first, no attempt at data recovery-like the library database files…soooo I had to download iTunes 8 on this clean old PC, but I’ve done nothing with the new iTunes install yet out of fear. The intact library (pre-vers. 8) sits on the external, but I have no matching .itl/.xml files. Then dear husband buys himself a new Nano, and starts importing CDs–so he’s begun a new library! So…do I delete *everything*, re-install iTunes 8, restore the library backup from the DVDs? I saw your instructions for rebuilding the database files, but I’m…not really understanding the binary thing and the replacing the path, etc,etc…

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:24:30 +0000

Well, for the record this worked for me today (mostly) on iTunes 9 on windows – iTunes rebuilt from the XML file but then had to recheck all the audio volumes etc. as if they were new tracks – it also lost a good portion of the artwork which I had laboriously added (even for music that I had not moved) – so if this is important to you, beware. Thanks for this tip though, saved me hours!

By: paul

paul — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:26:34 +0000

These instructions are not 100% guaranteed to work as they did in iTunes 7. Not sure what changed but people using iTunes 8 reported it wasn’t working as well. iTunes 9 is unknown at this point.

OK, here’s something you can try. In File -> Library, see what happens if you export, then shutdown cleanly. You could compare the file it creates with the one that iTunes writes on exit and experiment with swapping it into place.

Also, try moving the library w/in iTunes by changing the Media Folder location (in Preferences -> Advanced). Again, let it work, then quit iTunes and see if the file(s) look sane, as far as sizes and modification times.

By: Wes

Wes — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:34:21 +0000

Might as well ask this here. I’ve been whoring this question out all over the web, and no-one, not even Apple Support has been able to help. Here goes:

I keep getting the “damaged library” message when I open iTunes. This began happening shortly after I upgraded to iTunes9 (which I don’t think is the problem, will explain later). After iTunes “reconstructs” my library file and renames my previous one “damaged,” I’m able to use iTunes for that particular session. God forbid I shut down iTunes, though. Every time I re-open iTunes, I get the damaged library error message.

Here is what I’ve done so far:

1. Called Apple “expert” support. They recommended uninstalling iTunes, quicktime, bonjour, etc and reinstalling. Not helpful.

2. Pulled out my library.itl and my library.xml files, open iTunes, and tried to reimport from these files. Worked fine… until you try to restart the computer, or open/close itunes.

3. Followed the knowledgebase articles on Apple for “recreating your library.” Again, works fine, so long as you never shut down itunes or your computer.

4. Uninstalled iTunes 9 and downgraded to iTunes 8. Same problem. (this is why I don’t think it’s an iTunes 9 problem)

5. Copied my entire library over to a 1TB external drive (thinking my HD might be nearly caput), reimported the songs… same problem.

6. Said many curse words, kicked the dog. Same problem except now my wife wants me to start going to church and the dog just growls at me.

What I’ve think might be going on: Something funky is going on when the computer or itunes is shut down. That funky something, whatever it is, is corrupting my library file.

Any ideas on how to pinpoint the problem?
I’m at my wits’ end. The next step is alcoholism!

I anxiously await some words of wisdom.

By: da

da — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:22:33 +0000

This post got my hopes up! Alas, this doesn’t appear to work in iTunes 9.
I edit my XML file, save it.
I then create a blank .itl file.
When I re-launch iTunes, it just names my itl file as damaged and then opens with a blank library. It doesn’t seem to make an effort to rebuild the library based on the XML file.

Sorry about that. I think Apple has “improved” iTunes in some unhelpful ways since 7.x. –ed

By: paul

paul — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:51:54 +0000

You may want to avail yourself of the instructions. You might be OK if you can make a copy of the backup file before iTunes clobbers it. Quick summary: there are two files, a binary (machine-readable) database file and a text file backup. If the text file backup is OK, iTunes can rebuild the binary file (the one it uses) from that. So check your dates and file sizes in the iTunes directory and cross your fingers that the text file is older than the binary (the filenames escape me at the moment but I think it’s .XML for the file and .itl for the database.

By: Sherry Villeneuve

Sherry Villeneuve — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:41:37 +0000

PC. Problem is ugly. was in process of opening iTunes to add downloaded song. Pop up box msg states cannot load iTunes library. I quit. Now says library is damaged. Gives me a new one with what looks like most but not all songs. NO PLAYLISTS! Yes, I cried. Cannot restore to earlier date. Not all on iPod, it’s only 8G….gift giver thought that was enough. (Butthead. Help?

By: Jim Araali-Kabyanga

Jim Araali-Kabyanga — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:40:54 +0000

Over the last day or so, I have learnt more about the innards of iTunes than I ever wished to know. I wish I had stumbled upon this ages ago. Completely fixes “the original file could not be found” problem that many people seem to have encountered, and now that I’ve inserted this as a comment will hopefully find this solution.

Thank you very much Paul.

By: bj

bj — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:36:20 +0000

just to update on my situation..
i have managed to copy all external-hd/media/iTunes back to the original location it was on the /users/music/iTunes and also restore the itunes Library & iTunes Library.xml back from time machine… so iTunes is now working again to the same position i was at about 4 hours ago before i started the new external hdd stuff!

so now i want to try the whole thing again, but make it work – but will wait for you advice this time rather than just plough in!! lol

hurry hurry :)