iTunes error says it was damaged and all playlists and settings are gone! help!

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
So I opened iTunes the other day and while my music is all still on my computer all of my playlists and settings are gone and it is telling me to re add all my music to itunes. When I opened it up some error message saying it was damaged came up. I tried calling apple but they are telling me I have to pay $50 just to talk to someone. Is there a way to restore all of my stuff to the way it was? I have a Mac Book Pro from June 06.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Your library is in /Users/<name>/Music/iTunes/. Check if there are any files in a folder called Previous iTunes Libraries. Not sure if there are apps to rebuild the database from the XML file but if you can restore a previous one, that would be the quickest option. If you have a Time Machine backup, you can get it from there.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    The most recent one is listed as from November. Does that mean the stuff I added since then won't be there? I'll have to add it manually? Will this mess with anything like my iPhone I sync to my laptop?
  • Reply 3 of 6
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DrStrangeL0ve71 View Post


    The most recent one is listed as from November. Does that mean the stuff I added since then won't be there? I'll have to add it manually? Will this mess with anything like my iPhone I sync to my laptop?



    Yeah the new stuff won't be there but you just add it back in. It shouldn't affect the iPhone, if anything is missing from iTunes that was on the phone, like new apps, it will pull them back off the phone into iTunes.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    63457896345789 Posts: 6member
    I had the same problem, lost my entire library, after a few phone calls to them i had to go over to the store today . It took them half an hour to restore it all. They didn't charge me as they accepted it was not my fault!

    good luck
  • Reply 5 of 6
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    After this is straightened out... invest in a cheap external drive for use with time machine. Time machine has saved me from a total of three hard drive failures and one motherboard failure. Then you too can give smug advice to unfortunate strangers.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dfiler View Post


    After this is straightened out... invest in a cheap external drive for use with time machine. Time machine has saved me from a total of three hard drive failures and one motherboard failure. Then you too can give smug advice to unfortunate strangers.



    I did that and got a "WD My passport for mac" cheap but useless, had to pay somebody to restore some files. The phone support was also useless and just spoke to me in "geek technology speak" Am gonna get a Lacie.

    cheers

    alan



    PS you get what you pay for, cheap or expensive!
Sign In or Register to comment.