# iTunes Nightmare! Please help!!!



## IronMike778 (May 16, 2002)

OK, I'm kind of freaking out right now. I opened up my iTunes player that I've had on my computer now for almost 6 years....and everything was gone!! Nearly 6 years of "work" perfecting my iTunes just how I want it with about 2,000 songs and a bunch of playlists......all gone!!! As soon as I opened the player it automatically started loading about 600 songs and it looks like it's back to it's original setup of 6 years ago!!


What happened here?? When I logged off from my computer yesterday everything was totally normal. Please tell me there's someway I can restore it to it's most recent form. I'm so PISSED!!!!!!!



Problem #2:

What do I do with my iPhone?? I'm scared to death to sync it because I'm afraid everything will disappear. I use my phone as my iPod too so I have a ton of music on it organized very well in playlists. Is there any way I can transfer the music on my phone into the iTunes player?


Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!! My computer setup is in my sig.


Mike


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

I am saying this very nicely and don't mean to tell you I told you so, but backups are crucial.

Check in your My Music folder and see if under the iTunes folder all of your music is still there. 

I wouldn't plug the iPhone back in just yet... I have gotten music to go backwards from the iPhone to the computer, so we could try that.


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## IronMike778 (May 16, 2002)

Thanks for the response.

I have checked my iTunes folder and the good news is that all of my apps for the iPhone are in there and looks like a very simple drag and drop to put them back into the iTunes folder. But strangely a lot of music folders are in the iTunes folder too but definitely not all that should be.


I did a complete catalog back up of my iTunes a year ago and have since done a few more back ups, but none since January. So I guess I can live with the fact that I may just have to redo all of my music and won't be the end of the world. It'll still be a monumental pain in the *** but it could be worse.


Here are my main questions:

1. Can I transfer my playlists from my iPhone to the iTunes? 

2. I get the new iPhone 4 this week. How the hell am I going to get everything on my current 3G phone to the new phone? I'm scared to death now to sync because I don't know what will happen with my calendar, contacts, music, etc. With my ITunes being back to almost it's original look I'm afraid it's going to treat my iPhone like it's never seen it before.


Any help is greatly appreciated.


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

Like you've found, even if the itunes database has somehow gotten corrupted/deleted, your original apps/music should still exist on your HD. Even in the case that files were deleted, usually these are usually moved to the Trash, not out right erased.

How you handle your iPhone depends on the settings you are using to keep your phone music synced. 
What sync settings, using one playlist, multiple playlists, etc?

I find the easiest way for me dealing with my music is making a playlist folder just for the iPhone. I can then move songs and playlists I want on the phone into it and choice to sync that folder. Adding a new or second iPhone is easy as picking that playlist folder and all the same music will be copied. (This playlist folder and contents is always accessible in iTunes too.)

Getting your new iPhone shouldn't be a problem. Like your current iPhone all contacts, calendars should sync fine. (** after you resync with your current iPhone and recover any info that isn't in your computer address book, calendar etc **)


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## IronMike778 (May 16, 2002)

I don't use my iTunes player all that much to listen to music on my computer. So basically the playlists I had set up were mostly for the sake of my iPhone. I use my phone as my iPod every day in the car, etc. So my big thing right now is making sure I don't sync my phone because the iTunes player shows no playlists at all and the phone will lose all music after the sync.


At the moment I'm loading all of my backup discs back into the player. My last backup was 6 months ago so unfortunately it won't reflect my song catalog and playlists as of earlier this week. So if there's still a way to copy my iPhone music/playlists to the iTunes player I would love to know how before I start the tedious task of redoing everything.



I'm happy I backed up as much as I did through January or I'd really be screwed, but lesson learned....6 months is too long of a gap between backups.


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## IronMike778 (May 16, 2002)

Well my problem is pretty much solved. Sort of.

I used all of my back up discs to get my iTunes caught up to January '10. Then I found a 3rd party software program for $30 and it allowed me to copy all of the music from my iPhone back into my iTunes player. That was HUGE!!!


So while I still have some work cut out for me to get my library completely back to where it was two days ago, I'm in a much better position now than I was 5 hours ago thanks to copying my iPhone playlists to the player.


Thanks for everyone's help!


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

That third party software is what i was going to tell you about, but I was going to help you do it the free version. But looks like you got it with the software. Sorry I couldn't get to you sooner to tell you how to do it for free.

Now, please backup your whole computer. Say you lost a whole drive. From the looks of this thread it looks like you would be devastated. As soon as you get done here making everything nice again, do an iTunes back up. You could use DVDs to make the backup a lot quicker and with less disks, but do the whole computer too.

After you have your library the way you want it, and all backed up sync the iPhone so everything can go into equilibrium. When you get your new phone, sync it and you should be good to go with contacts, apps, music etc.


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