The feeling of losing, miss or deleting your iTunes can be really sickening. It doesn’t whether it happened accidentally or not. You may be having a massive library of music and videos that you can’t live without but it all vanishes in the air. Scary, right? The good news is that this particular problem has some solutions. The first one is preventive. Before transfer, make sure you have a back-up. Secondly, you can recover missing playlists of you haven’t added new ones yet.

If you haven’t added any new content, you can still get your lost iTunes data. First, you have to leave iTunes. Then, navigate to your home folder, then into your music folder, followed by the iTunes folder. You will get an xml file named iTunes Music Library and move it to a convenient location. Delete another file called iTunes Library.itl then reopen iTunes. Then, click on Select Library and navigate to Import Playlists and go to the location where you saved the xml file and select it. Your iTunes playlist should be back in its original format.

Instead of going through that much hassle, you can always be on the safe side by doing everything to prevent loss of your data in the first place. To do an iTunes back-up, there are just a few steps to simple follow.

● Brace yourself

This is simply getting ready for the task of backing up your iTunes data. This involves the re-downloading of previous purchases. You can also get itunes free download for windows 7 here. You might also need an external hard drive with enough space or just have enough space in your computer’s drive as shown here. Additionally, make sure that local copies of videos are retained in your computer after watching. You can ensure this by deselecting the automatic deletion of watched videos.

● Merge all your playlists.

The integration of all files will involve those outside your iTunes Media Open iTunes menu because they will be added to the iTunes Media folder. Choose file then navigate to the library, then organize library. Place a check mark on Consolidate Files as shown here. Click Ok.

● Locate your iTunes media folder

For windows 7 and above, navigate to Users, then to username, then to music. It is pretty obvious that iTunes Media folder is your default iTunes folder. Sometimes, this folder can be found in a different location. This may happen for Mac computers.


● Do the back-up

Before starting, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes. Then, do a backup to an external hard drive by closing iTunes first and locating your iTunes folder. Then drag the folder from its location to the external drive. On windows 7 and above, the backup can also be stored in your computer and can be located by navigating to Users, then App data, followed by roaming, then apple computer, followed by mobile sync and finally backup.

● Restore your back-up

Close iTunes and then connect your hard drive to your computer and locate it by navigating to My Computer on Windows 7. Drag the iTunes folder that you had backed up from your external drive to your desired location on your computer memory or most preferably its default location. Then long press the Shift key while opening iTunes again. This will trigger a window pop-up that prompts you to choose iTunes Library which comprises of the iTunes folder dragged into your computer from the external hard drive. Then, click Open and select the iTunes Library.itl file inside.

Truly, things are now much easier than ever before. Today, iTunes is even more efficient, faster, and most importantly totally possible to recover iTunes whether you delete the data intentionally or by accident. But obviously, it is much easier if you always do a backup before you delete to avoid going through the rigorous hassle. Yes, accidents do happen and you may delete your iTunes before making a backup. For this reason, the following simple steps were devised. They guarantee you a magical restoration of all your iTunes back-ups every time they go missing. They need to be followed carefully though for them to work perfectly. They have been t tested by people and the results are remarkable. Good luck with restoring your iTunes.