I want my music back

May 1, 2008 6:50 PM

iTunes failure. Version 6.0.5. Attempting to open it through terminal gives "terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::out_of_range' what(): basic_string::substr"

What does this mean? What are my options? I've kept 6.0.5 because it works with OurTunes and various other cheats around DRM, also because I haven't felt the need to upgrade. But it just stopped working (like, crashed) on Tuesday night and I haven't been able to find any advice since then on what to do.

posted by klangklangston to computers & internet (9 comments total)

I had initially thought that it was because of permissions issues or disc errors, but after clearing all of those, it still persists. Do I have to try to reinstall that old iTunes? Should I bump up to whatever version is current, seeing as I don't actually use most of the plugins that only work with that version anymore? Am I wrong to look for causation in computer errors?
posted by klangklangston at 6:54 PM on May 1

From the error it sounds like a string is getting handled improperly. In particular, iTunes is trying to make a substring using weird indices.

The first thing I would try is to find, back up, and delete your iTunes Music Library files. Try starting iTunes after that. It could be that the offending string is in the music library files. Maybe you downloaded a screwed up podcast episode?

After that, try removing all of your plugins. If that fixes the problem, then add them back one by one.
posted by jedicus at 7:11 PM on May 1

Yeah, I think it's an error in the XML file, since I found 'em, backed up and deleted them, and now it opens, then asks for the XML file, then dies with the same error message.
posted by klangklangston at 7:22 PM on May 1

Does it die after you tell it where the library file is or after you tell it to start up anyway?
posted by jedicus at 7:27 PM on May 1

If it is indeed the library file, you'll want to recreate the library file.
posted by jedicus at 7:29 PM on May 1

Well, no, it's maybe in the regular library. I deleted the plugin for the calendar thing (since it was crummy anyway), tried reimporting the regular library file and got a -50 error (WTF?); it's attempting to import from the .xml file now. I hope that doesn't mean that the user data (like dates added, or ratings) is lost.
posted by klangklangston at 7:40 PM on May 1

Rather, that error was -050, and it's taking forever to import the .xml (but there were about 20k files in the library).
posted by klangklangston at 7:43 PM on May 1

Well, it seems fixed-ish. I have lost the date-added data, which is a total bummer, and it says some songs are missing, but I don't have an easy way to find out which ones.
posted by klangklangston at 8:32 PM on May 1

You may be able to approximate the date-added data with the file creation date of the music files. iTunes can be automated with AppleScript, so if you're on a Mac you may be able to hack up a script for that. Or wait a couple of weeks and AskMe about it. :)

As for the missing songs, iTunes should put an exclamation point in the leftmost column of the Music Library display for any songs that can't be found. I don't know if you can sort on that column, though, which might make locating those entries among 20k songs kind of difficult.
posted by jedicus at 8:59 PM on May 1