Playlists are now empty

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ccm14

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I am using a PC with Windows 10 and ITunes version 12.9. I have made no changes to my playlists in a couple of months. I updated to version 12.9 a short time ago. Went to my playlists last week and found all lists are there but about half of them were empty. The music missing from my playlists still resides in my library. I do not backup to the cloud since I do not have many files that change on my PC but I do have an external hard drive which was backed up prior to the last changes I made to my playlists. So, logic tells me I have no recourse on restoring anything from my backups (my bad). Do I have any other options for getting my music back in my playlists?

What could have caused the music in my playlist to disappear???????

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have.

Charlie
 

cjmnews

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A failed upgrade of the iTunes library could cause music to disappear in playlists. This is rare, but it can happen.

You can try the upgrade again by:
1. Close iTunes
2. Copy the iTunes Library <date>.itl file from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder where <date> is the date you upgraded and put it in the iTunes folder
3. Delete iTunes Library.itl file
4. Rename iTunes Library <date>.itl back to iTunes Library.itl
5. Open iTunes

Hopefully this upgrade works better.
 

ccm14

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A failed upgrade of the iTunes library could cause music to disappear in playlists. This is rare, but it can happen.

You can try the upgrade again by:
1. Close iTunes
2. Copy the iTunes Library <date>.itl file from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder where <date> is the date you upgraded and put it in the iTunes folder
3. Delete iTunes Library.itl file
4. Rename iTunes Library <date>.itl back to iTunes Library.itl
5. Open iTunes

Hopefully this upgrade works better.
cjmnews:
Thanks for the reply and advice.I will work on it tonight and let you know how it goes. I may need a little clarification.

Charlie
 

ccm14

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cjmnews
I replaced/rename the files as you recommended but most of my playlists are still empty. Do you have any other recommendations?

Just wondering, if I had cloud backup would there be anything there that would help me?

I do appreciate you taking time to offer your help.

Charlie
 

cjmnews

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A standard iCloud backup wouldn't help. There is no music or playlists there. If you have other backup software and wrote it to your iCloud drive, then that could work to restore an older version of your library.

Are these playlists smart playlists or standard static playlists?

There was an upgrade a while back that forced me to edit my playlists, and save them to repopulate the lists again.
 

cjmnews

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A standard iCloud backup wouldn't help. There is no music or playlists there. If you have other backup software and wrote it to your iCloud drive, then that could work to restore an older version of your library.

Are these playlists smart playlists or standard static playlists?

There was an upgrade a while back that forced me to edit my playlists, and save them to repopulate the lists again.
 

ccm14

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A standard iCloud backup wouldn't help. There is no music or playlists there. If you have other backup software and wrote it to your iCloud drive, then that could work to restore an older version of your library.

Are these playlists smart playlists or standard static playlists?

There was an upgrade a while back that forced me to edit my playlists, and save them to repopulate the lists again.
Sorry to be so late getting back to you.

No other software involved and these playlists are static.

Luckily I had burned cd's (for my truck) from these playlist so I will attempt to import the music direct into the playlists (not the library). Will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for all of your help.

Charlie
 

cjmnews

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You can only import into the library, then add to the playlist. There is no import to playlist option.
 

ccm14

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You can only import into the library, then add to the playlist. There is no import to playlist option.
I had found this on the net:

Rip a CD directly into a playlist
Insert CD into CD drive
Open ITunes
Click CD icon in upper left corner of ITunes. This will bring up the CD. This window will cover up the ITunes window.
Highlight the songs to be ripped
Drag these songs off of the left side of the window listing the CD songs. This will bring up the playlists listed on the left side of the ITunes page.
Put the selected songs in the playlist

So, this procedure will not work?

Thanks

Charlie
 

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You can try it, but since iTunes removed multiple windows in iTunes several versions ago, I don't think so.
 

ccm14

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You can try it, but since iTunes removed multiple windows in iTunes several versions ago, I don't think so.
I tried this and it seems to work. I'm thinking about making playlists for all of my music on a thumb drive and keeping it in a safe place in case I have a disappearing playlist problem again. That way I could just import each thumb drive playlist contents into the iTunes playlist on my PC. Do you see any problem with this approach?

Another question, if you don't mind. It has been well over a year since I burned any of my playlist to CD (and I've slept since then) and when I tried a burn I get a window that says "only files that are already in MP3 format may be burned to an MP3 CD" or "iTunes Store files cannot be burned to an MP3 CD". I had chosen MP3 as my burning format. Most of my iTunes songs are either AAC or MPEG format. I can burn those that are MPEG format (in iTunes) but not the AAC songs. I tried a burn using Audio as my format and the songs play in my car but not on the PC. What am I doing wrong??????

Thanks again for all of your help.

Charlie
 

cjmnews

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So you are making a backup. I am totally supportive of backing up the entire iTunes folder with the iTunes Library.itl and all the music files. If the thumb drive is your method that works.

iTunes lets me convert AAC to MP3, even purchased ones (it has been a long time since I burned a CD). I don't see why it would not allow you to burn an MP3 CD with AAC music. I may have to dig up a blank CD to test this out again. I am fairly sure there is not much of a limitation, outside of the playlist can be burned 7 times limit that may apply to purchased tracks only.

An Audio CD should play in your PC if you have an audio player like Windows Media player or iTunes or VLC. You have to deal with it as a disc, not as individual tracks.
 
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