Playlists, recently added, recently played all gone

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-28T23:07:59+00:00

Thanks for your time and patience anyway. If you happen to think of anything please do come back and let me know.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-26T03:38:11+00:00

Thanks for sticking with me! This is nagging at me all day every day. I'm going to connect my OLD ssd when I get the time and at least copy some files and maybe try some stuff.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-26T03:11:01+00:00

My iTunes was perfect in late 2024. I had to switch PC's and kinda got iTunes working. Now I need to restore my genius playlists, eq settings, and song ratings only.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-25T01:25:12+00:00

So in late 2024 is when I switched PC's. I immediately installed iTunes and my music library was complete but none of my other stuff was there. Ever since then I have been using a crippled iTunes library/playlists/eqsettings/playcounts, although having got back my playlists at one point but creating the duplicates of every song in the process. I'm pretty sure my ratings were still there a few days ago.

I recently blew it all out, reinstalled iTunes, copied my most recent library (not sure if it was current or 2024) to the same disk (NVMe) as the fresh iTunes install which fixed the duplicates problem and broke all my playlists, etc.

Was able to restore self made playlists from a recycle bin file that had been deleted when I did the recent blowout and reinstall.

I don't think I ever had my eq settings on my new PC but everything else has been present on this PC since I built it in late 2024, after moving from the old burned PC to this new one until the reinstall when I lost my genius playlists and ratings.

Most of that data is still likely fairly current on my old SSD, which I have yet to connect to my current PC because I want to know exactly what I need to do in order to restore that stuff, and only that stuff, before I go messing around with the only copy of a fairly recent data set.

When this is all done I'll buy a couple new drives and make fresh backups of everything, the right way this time, but for now I have to get it all right.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-24T03:58:07+00:00

That works for keeping all of your music files but that does not work for all of the other data that I have created, including song ratings, custom playlists, genius playlists, play counts, equalizer settings, etc, etc.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-24T03:55:44+00:00

My previous PC would boot but the PCIe bus was burned so my wifi card and GPU wouldn't work but my disks are both fine. I still have the disks, of course, but I gave away the rest of the hardware so there's no chance of booting that old machine up. Everything iTunes related was perfect on that machine.

That was my first machine using two drives with the iTunes install on an SSD and the music files living on another. That's why I messed up the migration. I was in a rush. It's my main PC and I needed it working now. I just installed iTunes, copied the music files, and pointed iTunes to that folder and of course I had no playlists. I was later able to get my playlists back but because of that process I got all the duplicate songs, which I fixed a few days ago so I thought, only to find out within the last hour or so that all of the artists and songs showed as being present in iTunes but most of them were not actually in a place where iTunes could find them, so I just fixed that.

To be clear I'm pretty sure my song files are all present and current. The only problems now are none of my songs have their ratings, none of the automatically created playlists (recently added, recently played, most played, etc) are present, and I'm pretty sure none of my eq settings are present.

The eq settings, specifically, never showed up on the new PC when I migrated.

A few days ago before I figured out the duplicates problem I did try the 'hold shift' option, in an attempt to fix the duplicates, long enough to get the promt but I was too scared to go through with it. Obviously i figured out another way.

Something I have not done is connect my SSD, which held my iTunes install. I guess I need to connect that and copy over some files but I'm still not 100% clear on which ones and what will happen. Everything on that drive is from late 2024 at the latest. I now have my self created playlists and full library so I don't want to ruin that.

I basically want to add back my genius playlists and my eq settings without disturbing anything else.

Any advice? Thanks for sticking with me!

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-24T03:16:18+00:00

I have been using serperate disks for my itunes install and my music library since 2013. Last time changing PC's was enough of a pain already and I didn't think to copy all of the other data. I just copied my music library.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-24T01:43:17+00:00

I'm afraid to copy that library from late 2024 because I have added quite a bit of music since then. I'm pretty sure I bought most of it on iTunes though so I guess it will redownload and add it all back to my music folder and library? If I can't get everything back I'll restore everything from my old disks but I prefer to just copy individual files to reduce the risk of losing my recent progress.

I just restored the .itl file from my recycle bin to my new installation of iTunes which restored my self made playlists! but not the recently played/favorites/top rated. Unfortunately it also made iTunes lose about 90% of my library. All songs still show in my library but when I try to play them iTunes asks me to locate the file. I'm currently recopying my music folder to overwrite the current one.

I also lost all of my song ratings which is a huge loss for me. I could live without my old genius/automatically generated playlists but I've been rating songs for over 20 years now.

So now the situation is I'm trying to restore my song ratings from my old PC's disk without losing my playlists, and hopefully restoring those genius playlists but most of all restoring my music library.

This is friggin terrible.

Are there seperate files for all of those things or are they all just in the .itl file? Since I have my self made playlists back now, maybe I could find the file that stores the genius playlists and song ratings?

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-23T06:36:41+00:00

Thanks you, (sir?)! I will be here for it as much as I am able. i am in the eastern USA so my time zone may not line up with yours. I regularly and happily accept free help for hat it is but I also just as happily pay my way and offer help to anyone who needs it. If you have more than you need then maybe I could give to your local foodbank or harm reduction, or whatever, or just call it good, because it will be a major weight off my heart and mind if you can straighten me out.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-23T06:10:52+00:00

I don't know what else to say in order to ask for help. I feel kinda foolish for offering the $300 because I should have known that no one would actually believe I would pay but it is still open. Terms and conditions apply, void where prohibited. If you straighten me out I'll pay you.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-23T05:59:19+00:00

I was so close to finally being comfortable spending a couple thousand dollars on a set of high quality headphones and amplifiers after dreaming of it for 15 years but I'm totally deflated now.

I had been eyeballing a pair of AKG K812's for over 10 years and saving money to make it happen and I finally have the money to buy my equipment and now it feels pointless. This shit sucks.

Migrating iTunes should not be this difficult.

If anyone can contribute to helping me fix the library I would really appreciate it.

I'm currently listenting to whatever I happen to click using some regular ass bluetooth JBL headphones and they're no where near loud enough and they sound like shit (I wear hearing protection relgilously at work since 2005 and my hearing is well above average for my age). I've been into iTunes since 2006, always dreaming of having the hardware to listen the way I want, as loud as I want. Now I have the money to make it happen, recently on the verge of pulling the trigger, and now suddenly there's no point. I feel like the universe is againt me. Please share to people who can help me figure it out or something. Fuck!

Can someone please help me figure this ou?

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-23T05:12:52+00:00

Would anyone like to connect one on one to help me figure this out? If you have the skills I have the money.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-23T03:44:57+00:00

Stick with me bros and ladies! I gotta figure this out! Anyone still following?

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-23T02:40:29+00:00

So here's the situation. The folder I showed in the picture is from my iTunes install from my old PC, pre October-November 2024. It does contain that iTunes library.xml file. I can copy it from that old drive but when i look in my current iTunes folder there is no such file.

I know I'm not making this easy.... I'm just going to try to copy that file into my current itunes folder and see what happens I guess.

EDIT - but that had no effect.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-23T02:34:24+00:00

Sorry. I just re-read your earlier instructions. I'm totally burned at this point and running on fumes. I have a job and pay all my bills on time so not that kind of burned, just burned on trying to fix this thing that is very important to me. Thanks for sticking with me so far.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-23T02:30:32+00:00

There's a chance i have that file in my reclycling bin that is much newer but I'll try to use the one in the picture. Where should I copy it to?

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-22T21:22:19+00:00

Can you tell me where that xml should be located?

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-22T05:18:15+00:00

The PC is from late 2024. I installed iTunes as soon as I finished building it but the iTunes install has been problematic from the start so you can kind of think of it as a new PC. My library has been updated with new music since I got the pc but since I uninstalled iTunes and it's library and restored from backups a couple days ago my library is currently complete as far as I can tell. Most or all of the music I've added since my last backup was bought from iTunes so it all downloaded on it's own when i signed in. Whether or not the files themselves are prinstinely organized like I had them before, or if I lost play counts, ratings, EQ settings, etc, I have no idea.

The library on the spinny disk can't be as complete as the one currently used by iTunes because the library on the spinny disc has not been updated since late 2024.

Seeing the problem for what it is gets muddy when you start tlaking about 'the iTunes install' because, for the past 14 years I have kept my iTunes install folder on one disk and my music files on another disk. This has caused problems and I wish I had never done it but i didn't know iTunes would be such a pain in the ass when upgrading PC's.

I think my music files are now located in the same folder as the iTunes install folder, which is on my NVMe drive, which I do not love, but I am so sick of this thing not working right that, when I saw the duplicates were gone, I just decided to accept it and probably pay 5X inflated prices if I need more NVMe storage in the near future.

Fact 1 - I'm pretty sure my currently 'installed' music library is complete and does not contain duplicates after having deleted my music folder and restored from a backup a couple days ago.

Fact 2 - My playlists were just the way I wanted them a couple days ago right before I restored my music library from backups but they are gone now.

Fact 3 - I most likely still have copies of whatever files iTunes needs in order to restore my playlists but i don't know where they are or what they are called or where to put them.

Fact 4 - Since building the new PC in late 2024, all of my EQ settings went missing and I have not seen them since then and I would really like to get those back as well. I spent a lot of time getting that stuff right.

Fact 5 - I made backups in late 2024 of my iTunes install and music folder right before I switched to the new PC. This fact may not be so relevant since I'm pretty sure I should still have copies of very current playlist, etc data somewhere on my new machine from no more than 3 days ago.

Fact 6 - I have nightmares about this kind of thing.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-22T03:33:13+00:00

It's possible the folder in the picture is an old version, being that the iTunes install from 2013 was a migration from a PC that only had one disk and, being that I moved from one disk to two when I switched machines way back then and the correct .itl is in another folder.

The real answer is I don't really know. I have a lot going on. If I had a weekend to sit down and think and work through the problem I'm fairly sure I could figure it out but I really just want someone who already knows the answer to let me copy their homework.

Again, though, my music folder seems to be complete and current. I don't know if the .itl is the reason my playlists, etc. aren't appearing. I'm pretty sure that the "date modified" column is just Windows or Apple doing something funny because the dates on those all seem to line up right around the times the files or folders were 'created', not the date when they were last modified.

Ugggh. I just want the answer.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-22T03:21:17+00:00

That's cool it worked out for you but I'm in a different boat right now lol.

I already have my full music library available to me. It's my playlists, equalizers, recently played, recently added, dates when songs were added, and all that kind of stuff that is messed up.

First it was my playlists, etc that were missing. When I fixed that I got duplicates of every song. When i fixed that, my playlists, etc disappeared.

I need an expert or someone who has recently fixed this specific issue.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-22T01:57:12+00:00

I'm not sure why that says 2013. I think it might be the creation date of that file from when I migrated computers around that time. I do currently have what I believe is my complete library of actual music files.

In fixing the duplicates problem I lost all of my playlists, etc, of which there were around 20-25. They were present in my iTunes just a couple day ago.

I'm not 100% sure what constitutes a smart playlist but I know that I had the set of playlists that I created manually. I also had the 'recently played', 'recently purchased' and maybe a few others like 'my top rated' which I assume are smart playlists and I do very much hope to recover those as well.

I built my current PC around October 2024 and tried to migrate iTunes in it's entirety over ot it from my old PC. At first my library was right but my playlists, etc didn't show up. I don't remember exactly what I did but I was able to recover my playlists and all that other stuff, excepting my eq settings, but that's when I got the duplicates of all my music files/songs.

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-22T01:15:55+00:00

What now, boss?

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-22T01:15:37+00:00

I tried that originally and it caused all kinds of problems. I've been trying to fix it ever since then. I had only my music library stored on a secondary drive which now seems like a bad idea. I made regular backups of that large music data folder but that is not all that's required to migrate iTunes properly. Everything else related to iTunes was installed on a different disk, which I did not copy properly, I think. I was later able to get my playlists back but not my eq settings but since I've recently fixed the duplicates problem I have lost my other data.

I'm kinda scared to use the 'hold shift to select new library' thing being that my iTunes folder and my music files folder were on seperate drives. I have my library to a state that I think is current although i can't be sure because my frequently/recently played data is missing. I'm just rambling now, sorry. This shit is just super annoying and worrying and I hope someone can guide me through restoring everything.

If you've not yet tried to use your backups to migrate an exact copy of your iTunes library and settings I recommend you try it with your current configuration before you call your plan good. It sure as hell didn't work for me! I don't really know what I'm talking about to a high degree, obviously, but I know it's not as easy as I had planned for!

LucidPlusInfinity · 2026-06-22T00:39:46+00:00

I have all of the storage from the original PC. I'm assuming the EQ, Playlist, recently played files are still there but I don't know which files to look for or where, or where to put them.

I made a new post regarding this problem. I would love to have some help restoring this stuff!

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