Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Flames! Gore! Itunes, Ex hd, Time Machine and 100g missing!

Jul 18, 2012 3:06AM PDT

Three Car Pile-Up: I-Tunes, Time Machine, External Hard Drive(s)

Help! The "Geniuses" ain't what they used to be and apparently I've lost a step myself, because this new version of an old problem has me tearing my eyes out. Too many new moving parts, I guess? Somebody here's hip enough to square this in minutes, I bet.

That's right: I've lost my I-Tunes library, and no kind of restoration I know brings all 230+ gigs back home. Rather, about 108gigs - that exact number, every time - reappear featuring duplicates all over the place.

HERE'S THE STORY.

1) This Spring my MacBook Pro was close to full-up. It had happened before with my last MacBook Pro, and I found that scoring a Lacie MiniHub external HD did the trick. This time I got a larger, 1TB Lacie, moved my I-Tunes library to that sleek black box and enjoyed a life of rigorous ripping and downloading.

2) I bumped into the Lacie MiniHub I had used on my previous Macbook Pro and realized there were audio files in its old abandoned ITunes library I hadn't heard in years. They were added and copied and all was grand. I even learned, this time, how to bring playlists with me when I switched Itunes library locations, something that's very important to me (because I'm a sentimental fool.) Up to this point I had reunited past folders from past libraries, consolidated and reaped the benefits. The Time Machine seemed to have nothing to do with it.

3) Then I left town, with my Macbook but without the hard drive that housed I-Tunes or the Time Machine/Time Capsule that performed constant backups AND, it turned out, had been backing up my Macbook to the Lacie hd that housed all the music. I avoided opening ITunes throughout the trip, not wanting to know what might happen if the program went looking for a pointer to a library that wasn't there. I thought I was being careful, and listened to my IPod (without syncing it) until a long trip ended, I returned home and reattached my laptop to the hard drive.

4) Something was wrong. I was immediately asked to "create" a new I-tunes library, but whenever I tried to re-establish the library located on the external drive that had worked so well, the contents of I-tunes added up to merely 100gigs and NO PLAYLISTS. I fiddled around with the "backups" included on the drive, because Time Machine had been backing up the entire MacBook to the external hd. Nothing worked, I panicked, and now there are a half-dozen "Itunes Media Library," "Itunes Library" and "Itunes" folders on the external drive, each of which leads to the same silly 108gigs.

5) I thought it was time to talk to the Geniuses, at this point. They were helpful, in the sense that I was sold another $110 external hd that was tiny and wouldn't be necessary to unplug, I guess. Because my Lacie hd still claims to have the 230 gigs it should somewhere inside of it, I was instructed to copy the entirety of the LaCie to this brand new drive. That way it would be (inaccessible but) safe. Then I was to scroll, with and without the help of the Time Machine, through every "Itunes Library.xml" available (especially those predating when I left town), until I could "add to library" and come up with the 230 gigs, at which point I should save that complete and restored-ish library to the new hd as well. My Playlists, the Geniuses advised, were _probably_ lost forever. When I seemed exasperated, I was cautioned. The great Genius said that in life, we all must maintain things: our gardens, our homes, our health and our libraries. I'm not sure where and how I failed here, and I wish the condescending Genius would have at least supplied that info before his philosophical speech.
6) I am rather useless on the Time Machine. Today I tried flipping back to the backup of I-tunes from before I left town, but I couldn't seem to get at the relevant files. Is this even the right path, or should I start with the question of the 127gigs missing on my Lacie hard drive... do I need to break out that original Lacie hd I copied to the new one months ago? And where do I find those playlists, anyway? I know I once read of a certain file meant to be copied to one place and erased in another that would restore playlists.


I want to apologize for my lengthiness and beg for some insight. Clearly Apple Stores are meant for servicing phones at this point and they have nothing to tell me. Has somebody been down this road - or part of it - before? Are there details I could provide that would help you help myself? Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from y'all. Sorry if you've heard this all before but certain variables make this a novel problem for me. Thanks in advance for solving all my problems and inciting a worry-free future.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Sorry to read this.
Jul 18, 2012 3:28AM PDT

But iTunes libraries on external drives seem to be trouble at times. One can only hope folk will have a backup copy as noted at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

So with that backup copy one should be able to restore as soon as the content copies back in.

For those that don't backup, I worry as they often explode on those that mention we do need backup COPIES (plural.)

Time Machine is pretty good but I've found if I want to be sure, I have no less than 2 backup copies.
Bob

- Collapse -
Thanks for your help, let me clarify
Jul 18, 2012 1:13PM PDT

I come out of the labor movement. It was sloppy of me to act as if Apple Store workers aren't nice, smart people with good intentions. The truth is that they are undergoing a "speed-up," I think, that practically eliminates their chances for sitting with customers and solving their slightly unusual problems. So please, if I came off like I thought the workers were self-righteous...well, one of them was. He was also good at his job and told me hard truths while seeking out co-workers he acknowledged knew more than he about my problem. On balance, that's a strong performance. But the performance that mattered most, of course, was when the free consult "evolved" into a $100 sale.

Anyway, I didn't want this thread to devolve into anything too ugly, so I thought I'd take matters into my own hands and demonstrate I'm frustrated and sad but not about to "explode" over zeros and ones, let alone underpaid workers who work hard and don't always have time to save my pretentious I-freight.

I appreciate how, besides editorializing a bit about moody and confused I-naifs, you made a point of trying to answer my question. I've got just two more, thank you kindly: if the remedy prescribed in your link doesn't work, am I out of luck and better off giving up? If so, why does my external hard drive still believe that there is another 100+ gigs somewhere on board? If it were counting the duplicates in various "I-tunes Libraries," the hd should be almost full. Of course I'll make copies of copies now and forever after, but presently it's torture to be left sorting through duplicate I-tunes libraries that once held the differing content that in the aggregate made up my larger folder.

Thanks again for your time and effort.

- Collapse -
That's good to read.
Jul 18, 2012 2:49PM PDT

As more and more folk need help since I'm seeing more folk buy these computers with no training and ask "what's a file?" I am beginning to wonder if the rush to this being a commodity was a bit too fast.

The iPad is a better idea for a commodity item with these computers demanding a lot more attention to backup and more. DATA RECOVERY is an art and if they are not able to put in the hours due to not getting paid for it or "you only get 15 minutes and I'm reinstalling the OS" then some folk are going to feel burned.

All this doesn't help for others to show the backup and restore systems, articles because no where did the software pester you to backup.

Should it?
Bob

- Collapse -
I'll just add to that by saying
Jul 18, 2012 8:36AM PDT

that using Time Machine to backup is a good idea but, what is not a good idea is using it to store its backup files on the drive that the data it is copying is stored.

I know I am probably preaching to the choir at this point, but it's worth mentioning. You would be surprised how many people believe a copy of a file on the same drive, is a backup.


Good luck with the restore, let us know how you get on

P