Damn you Itunes 7
October 17, 2006 9:11 AM Subscribe
Itunes deleted all my playlists and ratings, but they are still on my ipod. Is there anyway to retreive them back onto itunes?
After upgrading to the new itunes, all my star ratings and playlists are gone. However, they are still on my ipod. My intunes does have some new songs since I last synced it with my ipod. Is there anyway to merge my ipod and itunes so that I can recover all my playlists and star ratings? Thanks!
After upgrading to the new itunes, all my star ratings and playlists are gone. However, they are still on my ipod. My intunes does have some new songs since I last synced it with my ipod. Is there anyway to merge my ipod and itunes so that I can recover all my playlists and star ratings? Thanks!
Make sure your iTunes preferences are set to not update your iPod automatically when you plug it in. From what I remember from my first experience with my iPod, all the music got removed from the iPod when it auto-updated (because it wasn't in my library anymore).
Once the iPod is connected and not updating, try dragging and dropping the iPod playlist into your library. Or perhaps selecting the songs and creating a playlist from them. I don't have my iPod cable with me, so I can't check which one actually works the best at this moment... I'm sure it's possible though.
posted by youngergirl44 at 9:26 AM on October 17, 2006
Once the iPod is connected and not updating, try dragging and dropping the iPod playlist into your library. Or perhaps selecting the songs and creating a playlist from them. I don't have my iPod cable with me, so I can't check which one actually works the best at this moment... I'm sure it's possible though.
posted by youngergirl44 at 9:26 AM on October 17, 2006
Make sure the ratings and suchlike are actually gone. Do a search for files with .xml or .itl extension (is iTunes still using that format? my work computer hasn't been upgraded since iTunes 4). It's possible iTunes 7 picked a new location for the files that contain your ratings and playlists. That's what happened when I upgraded at home, but I was able to find the old files and clear everything up.
posted by I Am Not a Lobster at 9:33 AM on October 17, 2006
posted by I Am Not a Lobster at 9:33 AM on October 17, 2006
As I understand it, the star ratings are not stored in the actual song files -- they're part of the overall iTunes Library file (or the equivalent database file inside the iPod). So if you just copy the files back across from the iPod, I don't think you'll get your ratings back.
Similar sort of thing for the playlists.
If you are on a Mac, you might want to give Senuti a shot. I have not used it personally but I understand that it can copy back playlists and ratings from the iPod to iTunes; there is a page here about using it to rebuild iTunes.
On the PC, I believe CopyPod is an option. Again, I haven't used it personally, but the home page mentions specifically that it can directly import playlists and ratings back into iTunes.
posted by chrismear at 9:37 AM on October 17, 2006
Similar sort of thing for the playlists.
If you are on a Mac, you might want to give Senuti a shot. I have not used it personally but I understand that it can copy back playlists and ratings from the iPod to iTunes; there is a page here about using it to rebuild iTunes.
On the PC, I believe CopyPod is an option. Again, I haven't used it personally, but the home page mentions specifically that it can directly import playlists and ratings back into iTunes.
posted by chrismear at 9:37 AM on October 17, 2006
Response by poster: hmmm...the new itunes doesnt seem to have an option of "not updating itunes upon detection of an ipod." As I recall, there used to be an 'ipod' tab under which this option used to be listed, but that tab is completely gone now. any ideas?
posted by nyu2 at 10:20 AM on October 17, 2006
posted by nyu2 at 10:20 AM on October 17, 2006
the iPod tab didn't have anything of use on it unless you had an iPod connected (the tab was there but either all the options were grayed out or it said "No iPod connected."). all that stuff has been rolled into the new Devices section in iTunes 7, and you don't get the one for your iPod until you actually hook the iPod up. I'd second trying to find the iTunes library data files.
posted by mrg at 11:02 AM on October 17, 2006
posted by mrg at 11:02 AM on October 17, 2006
iTunes Music Liberator is pretty handy if your files really have been deleted off your computer. The free trial works well enough - even though you can only move 5 songs at a time, it goes faster than you might think.
posted by wandering steve at 11:46 AM on October 17, 2006
posted by wandering steve at 11:46 AM on October 17, 2006
After you turn off the "automatically update," use EphPod to get whatever you need from the iPod to your PC (is it a PC?). I recommend EphPod only because when I was in this situation a year ago, it worked well for me. I'm not sure how you can merge the libraries, but at least that will get you both versions of the files on your computer.
I wound up looking at the old playlists on the iPod and manually recreating them on iTunes, but I had playlists that either were small enough or operated by simple enough rules to make that method worthwhile.
posted by booksandlibretti at 11:47 AM on October 17, 2006
I wound up looking at the old playlists on the iPod and manually recreating them on iTunes, but I had playlists that either were small enough or operated by simple enough rules to make that method worthwhile.
posted by booksandlibretti at 11:47 AM on October 17, 2006
(EphPod is completely free, by the way. Although you can donate, I don't even recall any prompts of "Hey, like this? Pay us $5" in the program.)
posted by booksandlibretti at 11:50 AM on October 17, 2006
posted by booksandlibretti at 11:50 AM on October 17, 2006
How do you turn off the "automatically update" feature in iTunes?
posted by WyoWhy at 1:09 PM on October 17, 2006
posted by WyoWhy at 1:09 PM on October 17, 2006
Response by poster: I was worried about plugging in my ipod because I thought itunes would automatically start syncing my itunes to my ipod, but I just figured out that with the new itunes, once you connect your ipod, you can then select whether you want the update to be manual or automatic.
posted by nyu2 at 4:47 PM on October 17, 2006
posted by nyu2 at 4:47 PM on October 17, 2006
Response by poster: Ive found the old .xml or .itl files, but I cant open them. how do I see if they have the information I am looking to recover in them?
posted by nyu2 at 4:48 PM on October 17, 2006
posted by nyu2 at 4:48 PM on October 17, 2006
You don't say whether you're on a mac or a pc...
Go inside the itunes folder
(windows: my documents\my music\itunes)
(mac: ~\Music\iTunes)
Take the existing .xml +.itl file and move it to your desktop (we don't want to damage them, just in case...)
Take the old .xml + .itl files and move them into the iTunes folder. Open itunes and see if it recognizes your music.
posted by filmgeek at 7:06 PM on October 17, 2006
Go inside the itunes folder
(windows: my documents\my music\itunes)
(mac: ~\Music\iTunes)
Take the existing .xml +.itl file and move it to your desktop (we don't want to damage them, just in case...)
Take the old .xml + .itl files and move them into the iTunes folder. Open itunes and see if it recognizes your music.
posted by filmgeek at 7:06 PM on October 17, 2006
A lot of people seem to be misreading the question. I had this happen to me a few years ago and I found a great application called Synch iPod-iTunes Data. Worked like a charm and restored all my playcounts and ratings. It doesn't look like it's been updated in a while though, so your mileage may vary...
posted by web-goddess at 9:10 PM on October 17, 2006
posted by web-goddess at 9:10 PM on October 17, 2006
with the new itunes, once you connect your ipod, you can then select whether you want the update to be manual or automatic.
Umm, be VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS. If your iPod was previously set to automatically sync, and then you turn off automatic synching, iTunes WIPES YOUR IPOD to start fresh. This happened to me yesterday... I didn't particularly care, because I had all the tunes on my hard drive already, but it meant waiting while 50 gigs of mp3s were deleted off the iPod, and then having to re-upload the whole damn shebang again.
posted by antifuse at 1:55 AM on October 18, 2006
Umm, be VERY CAREFUL WITH THIS. If your iPod was previously set to automatically sync, and then you turn off automatic synching, iTunes WIPES YOUR IPOD to start fresh. This happened to me yesterday... I didn't particularly care, because I had all the tunes on my hard drive already, but it meant waiting while 50 gigs of mp3s were deleted off the iPod, and then having to re-upload the whole damn shebang again.
posted by antifuse at 1:55 AM on October 18, 2006
Seconding what filmgeek said to do. If the old files are there, you haven't lost anything.
posted by I Am Not a Lobster at 9:18 AM on October 18, 2006
posted by I Am Not a Lobster at 9:18 AM on October 18, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
DO you store your mp3s on your hard drive? If so, they probably still exist, they're just not loaded into iTunes! Any music you buy from the iTunes store (or that is converted from another format) is put in your My Documents\My Music\iTunes folder. Check there and see what's up.
If the files are indeed not on your hard drive, do a google search for copying files off of your iPod. It's doable, but it's a pain in hard disk mode. There are a few programs out there that make easier drag and drop work of it, but most of them are pay. See if you can find a free one.
posted by PetiePal at 9:14 AM on October 17, 2006