Horror: iTunes deleted 60% of entire collection during library rebuild.....

[Lowlands]

Folks,

 

I just had my nightmare come to life. My iTunes library location somehow was moved off my NAS to the usual local folder (likely a mounting issue,can happen) and somehow would not consolidate back to my NAS. I decided to re-import my entire collection from scratch (I have done the same before, without issues). So I deleted all music in my library (only in the library, not the files on my NAS), moved the music files to a differnet spot on my NAS and re-imported them (by dragging them to the auto import folder). This led to all files being in my library 4 times.. ??? I re-did the same (100%) for a second try and iTunes somehow deleted about 750 albums (it left about 450 intact) from my NAS. It somehow did not ask (when deleting music from the lib) if it should delete the files from disk as-well (which it normally always does..). I have no clue what happened, except that if this were human error from my side, my understanding is it should not have deleted a random 60% of my collection but the entirety of it...

 

Any tips of what I'm missing here (or confirmation that iTunes does these sorts of things..) are welcome...

 

In the meantime, I seriously need a beer since I just pi**ed aways a HUGE amount of time spent on libmanagement & tagging and some high-def music. I am SICK of this. I always knew RAID5 is not a backup.... and bought a 2nd empty NAS just prior to the Thai floods.... (and the global HD price hump that followed, which caused me to delay implementing it).. and was just about to implement the backup plan since prices were coming down again..

 

I guess the OS-X camp just lost a member. Windows7 & JRiver, here I come...

 

H

[BigBoreFan]

Welcome to the dark side.

 

I have no ideal. Maybe the Mac was anticipating what you wanted to do?

 

I could never come to terms with iTunes myself. I have both Windows PCs and Macs in my home, three Macs and two iPhones. The more I use Apple products the less impressed I am. Sure, they make super sexy hardware and have great design, but.

 

I must admit I am a long time Windows user and I just find Windows easier to get real work done. OS-X just seems to get in my way. I don't find it intuitive at all.

 

I feel for you though. Good luck with the solution whatever it is.

[Paul R]

Assuming you embedded the information in the files -

 

(1) If you have a library backup, restore it and put the media files back to the original location. Set the Preferences -> Advanced tab to point there.

 

(2) If you don't have a library backup (it happens) then just

(a) Put all your files back in the physical NAS folder you wanted them in. Just one copy of each

(b) Start iTunes while holding down the Option Key, select create new library

© Preferences -> Advanced - Do NOT COPY FILES to iTunes Media Folder, do NOT allow iTunes to keep your library organized

(d) File -> Add to library (Point to the top folder your music is in)

 

That will almost certainly re-import everything correctly (depending upon your tagging) and you will be back in business.

 

Yours,

-Paul

 

 

 

Folks,

 

I just had my nightmare come to life. My iTunes library location somehow was moved off my NAS to the usual local folder (likely a mounting issue,can happen) and somehow would not consolidate back to my NAS. I decided to re-import my entire collection from scratch (I have done the same before, without issues). So I deleted all music in my library (only in the library, not the files on my NAS), moved the music files to a differnet spot on my NAS and re-imported them (by dragging them to the auto import folder). This led to all files being in my library 4 times.. ??? I re-did the same (100%) for a second try and iTunes somehow deleted about 750 albums (it left about 450 intact) from my NAS. It somehow did not ask (when deleting music from the lib) if it should delete the files from disk as-well (which it normally always does..). I have no clue what happened, except that if this were human error from my side, my understanding is it should not have deleted a random 60% of my collection but the entirety of it...

 

Any tips of what I'm missing here (or confirmation that iTunes does these sorts of things..) are welcome...

 

In the meantime, I seriously need a beer since I just pi**ed aways a HUGE amount of time spent on libmanagement & tagging and some high-def music. I am SICK of this. I always knew RAID5 is not a backup.... and bought a 2nd empty NAS just prior to the Thai floods.... (and the global HD price hump that followed, which caused me to delay implementing it).. and was just about to implement the backup plan since prices were coming down again..

 

I guess the OS-X camp just lost a member. Windows7 & JRiver, here I come...

 

H

[REShaman]

That will almost certainly re-import everything correctly (depending upon your tagging) and you will be back in business. Yours, -Paul

 

Folks, I just had my nightmare come to life...Lowlands

 

Hope Paul's guidance bears fruit and restores your library as you would want, whether or not you move on to a new library architecture. I feel for you Lowlands. I have a Promise Pegasus 12TB Raid5 where I store my entire music library approaching 1700 CDs with another 2300 to archive to computer audio files. From the first archive to AIFF files I started a backup three deep in case something untoward should occur. The amount of time invested in getting this far was heroic on my part.

 

Wishing you good fortune and the outcome you desire,

Richard

[Lowlands]

Thanks for the (mental) support guys..

 

I double checked the filesystem. Files are gone guys... No way to fix this rebuild using iTunes. I also found a procedure (using Linux tools) recovering deleted files on an Intel based QNAP Turbo NAS with RAID (which I have) but that procedure does not recover filenames & extensions.... Conclusion:This horse is dead. Permanent. I must except that a many hours of work is gone...

 

My 2 x 2Tb Samsung Greens are due to be delivered today and I will be installing them in my empty Verbatim Powerbay NAS to give me the backup I need....

 

I contemplate adding "Think twice: Raid is not a backup....! " to my signature... :-)

 

Cheers!

Hans

[Paul R]

Hate to say it, but the only way iTunes will physically delete files from your disk is if you tell it to, as in operator error. Thst's assuming the hardware did not fail, no power failure, etc.

 

Backups of our music libraries are very very good things to have, and I really feel your pain over that happening. I have gotten files and libraries corrupted before, which is nearly as bad. But was able to restore from backups thank goodess.

 

Paul

 

 

Thanks for the (mental) support guys..

 

I double checked the filesystem. Files are gone guys... No way to fix this rebuild using iTunes. I also found a procedure (using Linux tools) recovering deleted files on an Intel based QNAP Turbo NAS with RAID (which I have) but that procedure does not recover filenames & extensions.... Conclusion:This horse is dead. Permanent. I must except that a many hours of work is gone...

 

My 2 x 2Tb Samsung Greens are due to be delivered today and I will be installing them in my empty Verbatim Powerbay NAS to give me the backup I need....

 

I contemplate adding "Think twice: Raid is not a backup....! " to my signature... :-)

 

Cheers!

Hans

[REShaman]

Thanks for the (mental) support guys..

 

I double checked the filesystem. Files are gone guys... No way to fix this rebuild using iTunes. I also found a procedure (using Linux tools) recovering deleted files on an Intel based QNAP Turbo NAS with RAID (which I have) but that procedure does not recover filenames & extensions.... Conclusion:This horse is dead. Permanent. I must except that a many hours of work is gone...

 

My 2 x 2Tb Samsung Greens are due to be delivered today and I will be installing them in my empty Verbatim Powerbay NAS to give me the backup I need....

 

I contemplate adding "Think twice: Raid is not a backup....! " to my signature... :-)

 

Cheers!

Hans

You're welcome, Hans,

 

I join Paul in offering you my appreciation of your unfortunate circumstances and for hard lessons learned which seems to be a secondary gain/outcome for you (my mind-read). And though it's daunting (or not), the method of the lesson seems to be for getting your attention in a stark manner. I am no stranger to that lesson.

 

As to how your result might have come about, my experience both personal and with others, includes circumstances where sometimes the best (or necessary) way to get one's attention (even if self-generated as Paul suggests or hints at) and impress/motivate the receiver to take action is facing the result of what comes from delay which is tantamount to denial.

 

Do not mean to sound preachy. Decades ago, when I was foolishly contemplating writing a first novel, I wrote a great chapter deep into the novel as if inspired by a Muse. I did not back up that chapter when I could have easily pressed Ctl "S" to save the entire chapter. I had earlier versions no where near what I had just written. Unexpectedly, my computer crashed. All I was able to recover was an older versions which were in way inspired. Long story short, I never could replicate what I had written and failed to back in contemplation of avoiding unintended consequences.

 

I never finished my first novel.

 

But I do backup, three to four deep, as a ritual on my Mac Mini and and my Promise Pegasus 12TB Raid 5 to safeguard my music collection as computer audio files and downloads from HDtracks, Linn, other vendors, etc. even if I have not archived any albums that day (still have about 2000+ to go).

 

My compliments to you on your follow-through.

 

A human-in-training,

Richard

[Lowlands]

Paul,

 

Understand what you're saying. I would have said the same. I felt totally comfortable deleting all those tracks from my library, because iTunes allways asks in a second dialog if it should of should not delete the music files from the filesystem also (I have done this a zillion times). The second dialog however did not appear this time (immediately causing a sweat alright...). I am 100% clueless why. I am hypothesizing that I might have generated the proverbial 'FU' due to some latency issue created by dragging & dropping a sizable stack of folders on my NAS using Finder.... I don't know... Also, it looks quirky to me that iTunes somehow imports all files 4x. Anyway, I'm not about to test if I can repeat the issue for the sake of understanding. First get my backup up& running :-)

 

Appreciated...

Hans

[Paul R]

Create a new iTunes library (hold down the option key when starting iTunes) and import to it, without touching a thing in the current iTunes library. (The iTunes library - not the media files.)

 

I don't really advocate the "drag and drop" route with iTunes by the way.

 

Best way I have found is to build the media files outside iTunes, and then tell iTunes to bring them in. I would bet that the problem had something to do with the drag and drop, disk buffering, and latency, just as you surmise.

 

-Paul

[Biku Toru]

Not to have any nightmares like this I just keep two backups, one on the nas and one turned off external disk. Even I know every little thing that iTunes will do, since I've been using it since day 0.