Music library corrupted - can't recover it

[Sneiq]

Hello,

I've been using the new Music app for some months without trouble. Some days ago when I opened the app I got a message informing that my music library was corrupted and I lost all of it including the playlists. I don't use ICloud or Time Machine, so recovering that way is not possible. I still have the music library file weighing 6,3 MB, so I guess the information is still there, but it's impossible to load it back into the Music app.

I'm basically interested in recovering the rating info (stars) for the approx 7.000 songs that were in my original library.

iMac 27 (2013)
macOS Catalina 10.15.3 (19D76)
Music app 1.0.3.1

Thanks for your tips,

Sneiq

 

[chscag]

Without any form of backup, it's not going to be easy to find a way to resurrect your corrupt library.

A google search on "How to repair a corrupt music library" brings up the following suggestions:

How to repair a corrupt music library - Google Search

 

[ferrarr]

Are the music files still on your Mac?

Is that 6.3 MB, or was it supposed to be 6.3 GB?

 

[MBAmtloin]

6.Mb is a song verse, hopefully you meant 6 GB- which is still 30-50 albums.
if you have the music saved in files as mp3s you should be fine to upload them again.
if not.......

i gave up the stars after mr mavericks (osx10.9) deleted them.

 

[Slydude]

6.Mb is a song verse, hopefully you meant 6 GB- which is still 30-50 albums.

I suspect the OP is talking about the size of the iTunes database file. Not the amount of space used by individual music tracks/albums.

The term iTunes library is often used to refer to both the database file and the music tracks but iTunes does not treat the two things the same way. To use my own music as an example, according to iTunes I have over 11,500 tracks in iTunes. The files for that music consume just over 106 GB of disk space but the database file for that library consumes 6.5 MB of space according to the Finder.

If that database file has become corrupted I'm not sure how to fix that. Re-importing the songs into iTunes will get you most of the way there )it won't take as long as you think) but that won't bring back the playlists. You'll have to recreate those if we can't fix the corrupted library file.

 

[Slydude]

I found a procedure that is designed to recover a corrupted iTunes database. It was originally designed to fix corruption form a different problem but might solve your issue. I strongly suggest you make a backup of the relevant files first just in case something goes wrong.

Close iTunes
Head to your iTunes music folder (usually username > Music > iTunes)
Drag the iTunes Library.itl file from this folder to your desktop
Open the Previous iTunes Libraries folder
Find the most recent iTunes Library[DATE].itl file. Drag it into the Music > iTunes folder
Rename the file iTunes Library.itl
Reopen iTunes

The entire article can be found here.

 

[Rod]

As everybody knows I’m a strong exponent of backups so I’m always interested when someone says “I don’t use iCloud or Time Machine.”
I can understand the ongoing subscription cost and other aspects of iCloud but why wouldn’t you use Time Machine? A 1Tb USB HD is cheap nowadays and the app is free, once a week backups would save hrs of time an effort.


Sent from my iPhone using Mac-Forums

 

[hirussellsmith]

I had the same issue few months ago, and looking for recovering audio file on Mac hard drive. I used Stellar Photo Recovery software for Mac and found files its show the preview of all my previous photos, video and music files. The free version to scan & preview lost files. I hope the given info from my side helpful for you!