Jump to content

iTunes problem when upgrading my Mac to macOS Mojave


mjzee

Recommended Posts

I've just upgraded to Mojave, and iTunes cannot find my iTunes Library.itl.  It should be, and normally is, in the Music>iTunes folder.  I don't know what the upgrade process did to it, but I did a search for it without success.  If anyone else hears of this happening, pls let me know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The solution was simple, btw.  I backup every night, so I located my backup copy of iTunes Library.itl and copied it to the location that iTunes needs to find it: Macintosh HD/Users/(your name)/Music/iTunes (to find it, in Finder choose Go > Home > Music > iTunes). So if you're thinking of upgrading to Mojave, make sure you first backup your hard drive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BTW, I think what happened is that after the upgrade is installed, it re-indexes all your files.  So it's not that the upgrade deleted the .itl file; the computer just wasn't seeing, and couldn't access, the file at the time I opened iTunes.  But after a while, the other files can be seen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did it warn you you were about to overwrite the existing .itl file when you copied your backup copy back? (If not, then it is not due to indexing, and the file truly was missing or moved. The indexing may cause Spotlight to lose track of files, but it will not cause Finder to do so.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, lipi said:

Did it warn you you were about to overwrite the existing .itl file when you copied your backup copy back? (If not, then it is not due to indexing, and the file truly was missing or moved. The indexing may cause Spotlight to lose track of files, but it will not cause Finder to do so.)

No warning; the file copied fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's interesting about the artwork. I would have thought you might have GAINED about 5%.

They recently introduced a bug where if your artwork was not perfectly square it would not display.

That bug is fixed in the iTunes in Mojave though.

Are you sure you don't have an iTunes update waiting for you somewhere?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, mjzee said:

No warning; the file copied fine.

OK, that's a little worrisome. That means it actually lost the itl file.

If you remember: was the xml file still in there? What about the itdb files? And do you keep your music in that folder, or in a different location? (None of this ought to matter, of course, but now I'm really curious what awaits me down the road.)

Oh, and here's a long shot: is there any chance you started the upgrade while logged in as a different user than the one who owns the iTunes files?

Or is it possible that you manually set permissions on the iTunes directory at some point in the past? (I actually *do* set them so the directory is unwritable, for stupid reasons not worth getting into right now, but I suspect it's not common.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, lipi said:

OK, that's a little worrisome. That means it actually lost the itl file.

If you remember: was the xml file still in there? What about the itdb files? And do you keep your music in that folder, or in a different location? (None of this ought to matter, of course, but now I'm really curious what awaits me down the road.)

Oh, and here's a long shot: is there any chance you started the upgrade while logged in as a different user than the one who owns the iTunes files?

Or is it possible that you manually set permissions on the iTunes directory at some point in the past? (I actually *do* set them so the directory is unwritable, for stupid reasons not worth getting into right now, but I suspect it's not common.)

As I recall, there were no files in the Macintosh HD/Users/(your name)/Music/iTunes folder after the upgrade.  Once I moved my backup .itl file in there, the other files appeared.  That's why I thought it might be just a Spotlight issue.

I keep my music on an external hard drive.

As for the long shot: no.  And no manually set permissions.

As for worrisome issues: Why would the upgrade delete just one file (the .itl file)?  Did it delete other files I'm not aware of?  That's why I'm so glad I keep my music on an EHD, because that wasn't touched during the upgrade.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Album artwork can be stored in various places. Personally I attach it to the music files but it can also be stored in the 'Album Artwork' directory. I think it goes there if you buy from iTunes or ask iTunes to find artwork. I don't use this feature so I am not completely sure.

If your iTunes directory was empty then so would have been the Album Artwork directory so if you only copied over the .itl or .xml file you would indeed lose artwork.

 

For what it's worth I upgraded to Mojave with zero problems, in iTunes or anything else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/10/2018 at 9:28 AM, mjzee said:

The upgrade also lost about 5% of my album art.

What's interesting is that, on those albums with (now) no cover art, iTunes is not allowing me to add cover art - covers remain blank.  But if I add new albums to iTunes, I can easily add cover art.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Steve Gray said:

Are they WAV files by any chance?

I'm betting that the answer is "yes". iTunes generally can't work with WAV-based metadata like cover art. You could convert the WAV files to Apple lossless, then add cover art. If the files in question are not WAV, check to see if they're locked as "read-only", or if the security permissions are set incorrectly. These issues are not new to Mojave.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, sonnymax said:

I'm betting that the answer is "yes". iTunes generally can't work with WAV-based metadata like cover art. You could convert the WAV files to Apple lossless, then add cover art. If the files in question are not WAV, check to see if they're locked as "read-only", or if the security permissions are set incorrectly. These issues are not new to Mojave.

Nope and nope.  I have no WAV files, and I’ve looked - they’re not read-only.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/5/2018 at 10:56 PM, mjzee said:

What's interesting is that, on those albums with (now) no cover art, iTunes is not allowing me to add cover art - covers remain blank.  But if I add new albums to iTunes, I can easily add cover art.

I’m still on the previous OS X, and I’ve also noticed the glitch that doesn’t allow you to add album art. iTunes is truly it’s own Schroedinger’s software app. It it both great and horrendous at the same time. 

 

2 hours ago, Stefan Wood said:

This is the first Mac OS that I will not upgrade to; I have heard so many issues with it, like Windows 7 bad.  But I have an old MacMini 2012 model that I will keep on going until I have no choice but to get the latest and greatest, even though I can not upgrade the hard drive.

I thought Windows 7 was one of their best operating systems? 

Vista was the train wreck that caused me to switch to Mac. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One problem may be that my iMac is aging: it's powerful, but it's a late 2013 model.

It's odd that others aren't reporting what I'm experiencing (based on a web search).  I'm only hoping that Apple corrects whatever's going on in a future Mojave update.  Still, I remind myself that not having album art on a small percentage of my albums isn't the end of the world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My experience with Vista was that of a clean install on a new system, and updating from XP. It was also after the first two Service Packs.

I worked great for me for several years, best Windows ever. All the nightmare stories I ever heard ame for early adapters and/or people who did an update over an existing install.

Several years of flawless, and I do mean flawless, performance. And then it crashed. And burned. And could not be resuscitated.

So I got a friendly geek to pull all the date off the HD, back it up, reformat the HD, and then put in 7. 7 was good, but my Vista had been better. I had occasional, minor glitches out of 7, quite unlike Vista.

Skipped 8 altogether, then went with 10 when the old Dell finally begged to be put out to pasture so it could enjoy a little sunshine before it died completely (sunshine for a PC being an undisturbed dark closet). So the same geek guru built me a system from the ground up via a shopping trip to Micro Center. That was fun, seriously.

So now I'm on 10. There was a learning curve, to be sure, but everything works, and once you learn how to get to where you want to go, it's all good.

Just wanting to relate a Vista experience that runs counter to the standard narrative. Once it got fixed, it was a good product that was already ruined by a premature release and really faulty understanding/communication, all of which was totally avoidable. A textbook example of how NOT to roll out a product.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's another interesting wrinkle that may (or may not) be a clue.  When I rip a CD to iTunes and then add the artwork (usually by dragging the artwork from Discogs or Amazon), a small box pops up labeled "Processing..." and underneath that a procession of the album's track names appears.  For these albums that the upgrade lost the artwork, if I try to add artwork, one of two things happens.  In some cases the artwork doesn't load (and literally nothing happens).  For others, the "Processing..." box appears, but the procession of album track names does not appear.  It ends with the artwork correctly being attached to the album in iTunes.  Very strange.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It sounds like you may have accidentally turned on the wrong tag format in iTunes. There's V1 tags and V2 tags. You may have the wrong one turned on.

If this is the problem, I can't help you. No iTunes here. I had this happen once in Exact Audio Copy. It screwed up all my music files for months.

In Windows, there are tag editing programs. I fixed my broken tags this way. Maybe you can find one for Mac?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Kevin Bresnahan said:

It sounds like you may have accidentally turned on the wrong tag format in iTunes. There's V1 tags and V2 tags. You may have the wrong one turned on.

If this is the problem, I can't help you. No iTunes here. I had this happen once in Exact Audio Copy. It screwed up all my music files for months.

In Windows, there are tag editing programs. I fixed my broken tags this way. Maybe you can find one for Mac?

Where would the settings for V1 and V2 tags be located?  I've never heard of them before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...