Why does iTunes lose my music HD?

[eyelikeart]

This isn't a really big problem, but it's annoying when it happens. I came back from lunch, only to see iTunes frozen still. I leave it running 24/7, and have my music on an external 120GB firewire HD.

Anyway, it's still showing in Play mode, but nothing is working; I have to force quit it because it's not responding. I relaunch iTunes, but it won't come up & gives me the error that my Library file is locked & cannot be accessed. I resort to turning restarting my computer at this point, and my HD doesn't show up at startup. I then must turn off, then turn back on my HD to get it to show back up again.

Now things are back to normal.

Anyone know what causes this?

 

[patrick0brien]

-eyelikeart

Could be a memory leak somewhere. Perhaps both in iTunes and another process that you may be running.

It occurs to me that the memory leak may be triggered when the daily cron runs at about 3am.

I'd say write a script that quits iTunes at say, midnight, then relaunches and begins playing at 6am.

A way to see if this works, do it manually for a while.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Does your FW spin down/go to sleep? If so the drive "disappearing" might freak out iTunes for some reason. Have you ever stored music on an internal drive? If so, did you encounter the same problem?


Lethal

 

[eyelikeart]

I don't spin down the drive ever, unless it's powered down.

There's no music on my internal drive, just the external. I've got way too much to store on a main drive.

I'm curious about the memory thing though. This is about the 3rd time it's happened since getting this hard drive in January.

 

[mischief]

Some thoughts....

Your Library file is a referential file that sits in your User profile in the Music folder of yor home directory.

I had a similar issue after I updated iTunes and added some music from another machine a while back.

Being that the file is just the reference list you can delete it and re-select the folder on the 120 that your music is on.

If you do that I'd also make sure that all your music is all in one place. iTunes has the annoying habit of copying it all to the Music file in that same Home Directory and then getting confused about which .mp3 is which.

Being that you're doing this on a Powerbook (I assume) I'd look at the sleep settings. If this is your 17" iMac I'd look at fixing permissions with Cocktail.

Sometimes files on a seperate volume can confuse iTunes if more than one user created the .mp3s. This counts for more than 1 machine creating them too...

 

[jxyama]

Re: Some thoughts....

Originally posted by mischief

If you do that I'd also make sure that all your music is all in one place. iTunes has the annoying habit of copying it all to the Music file in that same Home Directory and then getting confused about which .mp3 is which.

you can turn off iTunes from making local copies of the files by

Preferences -> Advanced -> "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library"

if you deselect the above option, you can add music from ext. HD to your iTunes library without having to copy those files to wherever the main iTunes library is.

 

[eyelikeart]

more info

I'm running my iMac, with the 120GB connected.

My iTunes Library file is on my iMac, in the Music folder in Home. Should it be in my Music folder on the 120GB?

I've never repaired permissions on the 120GB.

My music is all in the same place, it only causes problems for me & the program when accessing different locations.

I'm a bit apprehensive about deleting my Library file, as I don't want to incur going thru 56.5GB of files & resetting things within them.

 

[jxyama]

Re: more info

Originally posted by eyelikeart
I'm a bit apprehensive about deleting my Library file, as I don't want to incur going thru 56.5GB of files & resetting things within them.

dang, and i thought i was being extra careful with my stuff because i'm too lazy to re-organize my music partition on my HD that's 15 GB in size...

good luck finding a solution your problem, eye. (not sure if you like your new 'tar. i think i liked the evil kewpie doll before )

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by eyelikeart
I don't spin down the drive ever, unless it's powered down.

There's no music on my internal drive, just the external. I've got way too much to store on a main drive.

I'm curious about the memory thing though. This is about the 3rd time it's happened since getting this hard drive in January.

I didn't think did spin down the drive, but from my experience sometimes FW drives have a habit of spinning themselves down (no matter what the power saving settings were). This was a much talked about irritation in editing circles because the FW drive would spin down after a period of not being used, but when you accessed/played video on that drive you'd get the beachball until the drive spun back up and could deliver the video. There were a couple of work arounds. One involved an Applescript and the other, IIRC, was power everything down, then power up the FW drive before the Mac. Or was it Mac first then drive? Well, it was one or the other.


Lethal

 

[unc32]

Set you itunes music folder to be the external drive. preferences -> advanced.

I have mine on an external drive and it is no problem setup this way. If the drive is unmounted then a exclamation point appears when trying to play and leaves when mounted. Easiest way. Plus, you can then have it move the files for you when you add to the library or change things. It will move them to the external.

 

[eyelikeart]

I'm completely aware of how to setup iTunes to work properly, but I thank u guys for the obvious suggestions.

I did come across this bit of info on the Apple Support Discussions for iTunes:

The iTunes Music Library file cannot be read because it does not appear to be a valid library file.

If you happen to come across this error and you do not have a backup - do not fear. All is not lost.

I just found a fix that should be able to restore most of your database (playlists and ratings most importantly).

1) Quit iTunes
2) Move these files to the desktop

~/Music/iTunes/iTunes 4 Music Library
~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml

3) Restart iTunes. Delete all the default playlists.
4) From the file menu select "Import". When prompted, select the XML file that you just moved to the desktop ("iTunes Music Library.xml")

Give it a few minutes to restore all your data.

If at the end you get an error "iTunes could not find some of your songs" then click OK.

When it's done you should see your Library back to the way it was. Some of the fields that will not be restored are play counts, last played, EQ settings, and date added.

Restoring your Library from backups is always the best method. This is a secondary solution if you don't have a backup.

To restore missing files, drag any folders with your music files over to the Library. Any songs that were not restored should now appear in the main Library.