HOW DO I RESTORE MY iTUNES LIBRARY ???

[pedropete]

H E L P !!!
My beloved iTunes Library has just crashed.
140 GB of Music PLUS 200 Movies loaded in the Movies section I watched via Apple TV.

I was trying to delete a duplicate film when it crashed, saying ' iTunes Library is damaged - replacing with new one'.

I can recover most of the music files, but cannot find the Movies anywhere.

IS THERE A GO-BACK FUNCTION like on Windows where I can return to yesterday's configuration to salvage my old iTunes complete ???

Am using Mac OS Snow Leopard on an iMac.
ANY SENSIBLE ADVICE GREATLY APPRECIATED .

 

[Kevriano]

"IS THERE A GO-BACK FUNCTION like on Windows where I can return to yesterday's configuration to salvage my old iTunes complete ???"

Only if you use time machine as a back up to an external drive. If not then you may be out of luck. I assume you've looked in the movie folder in the home section of your HD?

 

[MYmacROX]

If anyone owns a computer and/or digital camera and does not regularly backup their data, they are just asking to lose it all.
You might want to Google 'data recovery', but I can't honestly say if that will work in your situation. Plus it can get rather expensive.
At the very least, I hope you learned a valuable lesson.

 

[pedropete]

Ironically, I have full back-ups of my 3 other Windows p.c.'s, but my external drives will not accept files from my 3 Macs !!
And - I have been intending to get an Apple TB Time Capsule / or Ext.Hard Drive for that purpose very soon.
WHAT I CAN'T BELIEVE - is that my Mac has DUMPED 200 MOVIES FROM iTunes !!!!
They MUST BE SOMEWHERE on my machine surely ??
There has been NO DECREASE in the total of GB's 'available ' on my machine.
They weren't dumped into Trash....
So ??

Nor can I believe that my Mac could dump the entire iTunes prog without giving me warning or an alternative option.

Anybody please ?!

 

[Kevriano]

Ok. How have you tried looking for them? If the GB count is the same you are correct to think they must be there somewhere.

 

[dtravis7]

Were these your movies or movies you downloaded from the ITunes store?

I agree with Kev, sounds like they are there.

 

[Slydude]

This is just a shot in the dark but since the GB count seems correct I wonder if somehow those files have been set to invisible. Here's one way to search for them if they are invisible In Mac OS X, how do I view invisible files? - Knowledge Base> I suggest using a second criteria such as movie instead of just "invisible" otherwise you will have to wade through many system files that are usually hidden.

 

[pedropete]

Just to say - that I finally found my Movies !

Yes-they were hiding there after all !!

 

[dtravis7]

Where were they? Curious.

 

[Kevriano]

Yes, where!

 

[TattooedMac]

Dont think we will see pedro pete again, got his answers and shot thru ........

 

[pedropete]

They were hiding among my thousands of music files, alphabetically under m for movies !
OK - Next question - HOW do I get my iTunes 10 to recognise my Apple TV in the Devices section under Preferences ??
It did in the previous iTunes 9.2.

 

[sau124]

I haven't updated to iTunes 10 so cannot answer the last question... but since you now were that close to loosing your file, I would recommend getting an external drive and setup time machine on the same. This way all your files are secured...