Need iTunes advice...

[johnmiic]

OK iTunes experts! My iTunes library is backed up on an external hard drive but it froze up; I can't access it. I want to add new tunes I acquired but thought I had to rebuild my whole library too. The old tunes show up. I tried to re-download some CD's I thought I lost but it states:

Do you want to replace this item for the one that already exists?

I don't know why. If I do the synch to add the new songs will iTunes erase the old songs I don't have access to anymore? Or has iTunes been fooled into thinking I still have the songs so a new synch won't remove them? Any thoughts?

I'm running iTunes on a pre-Intel Mac, G4, OS 10.4.11.

[chunky B]

I may be a little rusty, I am running 10.6.8 so I think the library may be in a different location, anyway when you say it's backed up on the external drive do you mean that you have your itunes library stored on the external meaning when you download a song or convert a CD that you directed the library to use the external, or that the library is duplicated on the external?

Usually your itunes library exists in your user folder on the HD, Apple used to store all your music in the user (usually your name)>Library>and a folder named music or itunes (I am on my work machine so this folder does not exist, no music, I'll check my home machine tonight).

One sure way to see if you have music, is to launch itunes, and play some of the songs. If they play they are in the user library, if not they are gone (on the unaccessible external drive). It has been my past experience, having stored and lost my only library on an external that itunes will list the songs, but when you hit play the title will "ghost" and you will get a message to the effect that the file is missing.

I would make sure you still have a library before syncing your ipod, iphone, etc. I do not think it will let you sync if items (songs) are missing, I could be wrong. In my case I used a app called Senuti (iTunes spelled backwards) to rebuild my library, it ripped from the ipod back to the drive. Warning some titles or album names may be altered, I had to go back and fix a few I came across.

Here's the wikipedia link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senuti

Hope some of this helps.

[johnmiic]

An old thread once ignored-now resurrected. What happened was the list of what I had still appears on my HD so nothing was lost as I added the new CD's. The Mac remembers what I copied to iTunes and didn't erase anything. I guess I can just keep adding away.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

If you can't access your backup it shouldn't affect your actual library. That's stored on your real hard drive. Should be in your "My Folder>My Music>iTunes Library." If you have them backed up somewhere else and need to add them, the new iTunes will have an "add ti itunes automaticly" folder in your library. Just drag and drop your stored songs there and they'll get added.

Don C.

[chunky B]

ctc is right, I knew it was located somewhere in there

I was going to say it just sounded like you lost your backup when the external froze and the actual library is still on the HD. Time to replace you backup drive and re run time machine.