iTunes crash, help needed

[trener1]

So....
I am running my iTunes on a old iMac.
On Saturday morning I was syncing some podcasts with my iPod and iTunes, and it gave me some strange error message regarding one of the podcasts, and then froze.
So I force quit and restarted the computer, upon restarting iTunes , it started as a new copy of iTunes and everything was gone, 10 years of music, all the podcasts etc...
Any idea what I can do? is the data still hidden somewhere?

[jtakeda]

Did you have your computer back up with time machine?

[trener1]

No

[jtakeda]

Do you know if your hard drive is corrupted? worst case scenario the data is on your hard drive.

doesnt sound corrupted

[trener1]

I dont know but I don't think so.
This isn't my day to day computer, since it's so old.
I only use it for iTunes now and I haven't turned it on since Saturday.
I am thinking there must be away to get all of the music back, but also all of the podcast settings etc..?

[jtakeda]

The files dont exist at all on the computer when you search the harddrive?

Have you tried rebooting in recovery mode and seeing if theres any time machine back up at all?

Reboot and hold command R

[Veloo]

Double click on the hard drive icon.

To the left there should be "Music" listed.

Click on that and you should see a bunch of folders in there.

Open the iTunes folder to see if the music is still stored in that folder.

[trener1]

So it looks like the music is still all there (well not sure about all, but at least some).
How about the podcasts and al of the settings?.
It has taken me years to find a curate the podcats that I like and listen to.
Here is what I am seeing in the folder.

[jtakeda]

Once you log into your itunes account the computer should import all of your podcasts. That being said podcasts take up a HUGE amount of space on your hard drive and could be a contributing factor to the crash.

[jkbrwn]

Oh and PS. Backup! Let this be a lesson :rolleyes:

[Monsieur Toast]

Slammed at work and just taking a quick lunch break, so forgive me for not providing 100% useful information or links, but you've got an issue with your iTunes Library file. Might have been damaged / corrupted. If no one can chime in with better info do a Google search for repairing a damaged iTunes Library file. Your media should still be all there.

Thinking about it, there should be a folder on your computer "Previous iTunes Libraries" – might be able to pull from there. Good luck!

[tylercheung]

I would back up the hard drive ASAP just in case, beforehand.