itunes won't load my music library or work with my iphone. help!
April 3, 2010 5:10 AM Subscribe
itunes won't load my music library. help!
I finally bit the bullet, wiped my old 10.4 hard drive and did a much-needed clean install of snow leopard. almost everything is working. except itunes.
I copied my old itunes music folder to an external drive. that includes the itunes library. I thought that by starting with the alt key held down I could just point it to this library and everything would be fine but that didn't work. my new itunes doesn't see my library and doesn't know my playlists. it's pretending to be out of the box.
that's bad because it also means I can't properly sync my iphone. trying to do so just caused 17 apps to disappear and I can't pull my carbon copy playlists and songs over into my computer-based itunes library.
is there a way to copy all the playlists and songs off my iphone and place them in a folder so that itunes will accept them as its files without much manual setup?
I cannot wipe the iphone, which is what itunes wants me to do, because doing so would erase all the playlists. I do have the thousands of songs on my hard drive as well but I'd never be able to resort them.
I discovered iphone explorer but all the files have different names and I can't find the playlists, so it looks like that won't help either.
I finally bit the bullet, wiped my old 10.4 hard drive and did a much-needed clean install of snow leopard. almost everything is working. except itunes.
I copied my old itunes music folder to an external drive. that includes the itunes library. I thought that by starting with the alt key held down I could just point it to this library and everything would be fine but that didn't work. my new itunes doesn't see my library and doesn't know my playlists. it's pretending to be out of the box.
that's bad because it also means I can't properly sync my iphone. trying to do so just caused 17 apps to disappear and I can't pull my carbon copy playlists and songs over into my computer-based itunes library.
is there a way to copy all the playlists and songs off my iphone and place them in a folder so that itunes will accept them as its files without much manual setup?
I cannot wipe the iphone, which is what itunes wants me to do, because doing so would erase all the playlists. I do have the thousands of songs on my hard drive as well but I'd never be able to resort them.
I discovered iphone explorer but all the files have different names and I can't find the playlists, so it looks like that won't help either.
Just start over.
Close iTunes, wipe the current contents of the music folder then recopy your backup there. Start up iTunes again, but don't click alt.
posted by wongcorgi at 7:22 AM on April 3, 2010
Close iTunes, wipe the current contents of the music folder then recopy your backup there. Start up iTunes again, but don't click alt.
posted by wongcorgi at 7:22 AM on April 3, 2010
Best answer: I'm suggesting this, assuming that you have a backup.
Adjust the iTunes preferences (under the "Advanced" tab) to point it to the library on the external drive. Restart iTunes. It should then convert your library file over and use the music folder on the external drive as the source for your music.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:13 AM on April 3, 2010
Adjust the iTunes preferences (under the "Advanced" tab) to point it to the library on the external drive. Restart iTunes. It should then convert your library file over and use the music folder on the external drive as the source for your music.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:13 AM on April 3, 2010
Response by poster: thanks, everyone. that worked like a charm.
posted by krautland at 10:51 PM on April 3, 2010
posted by krautland at 10:51 PM on April 3, 2010
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Also there exists programs that makes sense of the odd file names and allows you to transfer your stuff back to your iPod/iPhone, I found this free one quickly using google - maybe someone knows of a better one:
http://www.podtomac.com/
posted by glenno86 at 6:02 AM on April 3, 2010