iTunes is a media player and media application developed by Apple Inc. This iTunes application is the default media player used to play, download, and organize audio and video files on personnel computers running on Mac OS X operating system. The iTunes keep track of songs by creating the virtual library, allowing users to access and edit a song’s attributes. These attributes are known as metadata and are stored in two separate library files. The first is a binary file called iTunes library and uses file format of (“ITL”). The second file is iTunes Music library.xml, is refreshed whenever the information in iTunes is changed.
The iTunes application has a gaping UI problem, it’s far too easy to delete a playlist and once it’s deleted it cannot be undone! There are many situations where your iTunes playlists can be lost due different problems and some of them are mentioned below:-
- Accidental deletion of playlist while deleting some other tracks on iTunes program
- The playlists will get deleted when you update the iTunes application on Mac
- Due to iTunes application crash, the playlists present in iTunes player will be lost
- The playlist may be lost while synchronizing your iTunes library of iPod to the Mac computer
- The iTunes playlists on Mac system may get deleted due to virus or malware infection
The present technology allows users to directly browse, download songs or videos from internet and save them on iTunes application library file without saving it on physical hard drive of the system. If you are missing a playlist, you can still recover it if you’re not added any new contents to iTunes library.
Restoring missing iTunes playlists on Mac:
- Quit out of iTunes.
- Go to home folder, then into music folder, and finally into the iTunes folder.
- Find a file called iTunes Music Library.xml and drag it to some other location or on desktop.
- Delete the file called iTunes library.
- Re-open iTunes and go to the file menu. Select Library -> Import playlists... and choose the iTunes Music Library.xml that you saved.
If you are not able to restore you iTunes playlist by using the above mentioned steps, then you should use any media file recovery application for restoring lost or deleted playlists from iTunes on Macintosh operating system.
Best iTunes playlist recovery tool:
Mac Picture Recovery is an eminent recovery tool used by most of the Mac users for restoring their lost or deleted iTunes playlist on Macintosh operating system. The application also has the ability to recover all media files like music, audio, video and other document files that are stored on Mac system. Yodot Mac Photo Recovery can also recover media files that are stored on other storage device of apple products like iPod, iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook etc. Yodot tool can also support recovery after losing all music on iPod classic, iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle and Mini. This program provides user friendly interface for retrieving iTunes playlists that are lost due to several faults occuring on Apple computers.
Procedure for restoring iTunes playlists on Mac by using Yodot tool:
- Download Yodot Mac Photo Recovery and install it on your Mac computer
- Launch the application and follow the recovery procedure displayed on screen
- In main screen you will find two options i.e.“Deleted Photo Recovery” and “Lost Photo Recovery”
- Select “Delete File Recovery” option to recover deleted iTunes playlists on Mac
- Otherwise, select “Lost File Recovery“ option to retrieve lost iTunes playlists on your Mac system
- After this the software will scan entire Mac computer and shows all the volumes present in the system
- Select the particular drive from which you need to retrieve your lost or deleted iTunes playlist on Mac OS X
- Click “Next” option, then the software will scan the selected volume and shows all the recovered iTunes playlists on your Mac machine
- You can preview the recovered iTunes playlist by using “Preview” option
- At last save the recovered iTunes playlists on your desired volume, but don’t store the recovered iTunes playlist to the volume from which you are trying to recover it
Thing to remember:
- Better have other backup of your favorite playlists apart from iTunes application storage
- Always use updated anti-virus application to remove virus from Mac machine
- It’s good to check playlist for favorite songs before deleting the playlists on iTunes
