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iTunes: ‘The file “iTunes Library.itl” cannot be read’ Fix

iTunes: ‘The file “iTunes Library.itl” cannot be read’ Fix

August 23, 2018 by Mitch Bartlett 80 Comments

After upgrading Apple iTunes and restarting my computer, I received a strange error message when starting the application:

The file “iTunes Library.itl” cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes.

I have had problems with the iTunes Library.itl file in the past. This one is strange because I was fully upgraded to the newest version of iTunes, yet still got this error. To solve the issue, I had to do the following steps.

Note: You will have to rebuild your iTunes library after performing these steps. All ratings, playlists, etc will be lost. The media files you own should still be available on your hard drive though.

  1. Navigate to where the iTunes Library.itl file is located.
    • MacOS – /Users/username/Music
    • Windows XP – C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music
    • Windows Vista – C:\Users\username\Music
    • Windows 10, 8 or 7 – C:\Users\username\My Music
  2. Delete the iTunes Library file.
  3. Start iTunes. Your music database will now be blank, but your music files should still be available in the iTunes Music folder located in one of the locations noted above.
  4. Drag and drop the iTunes Music folder and any other folders that contain your music files to the iTunes application window. iTunes should then take some time to rebuild the database of music.

This fix may not make you completely happy since there is some loss of data, but it’s the only solution I could find for myself.

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Filed Under: Software

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. daniel says

    July 2, 2023 at 6:39 pm

    thanks alot

  2. Mitch Bartlett says

    July 30, 2021 at 12:42 am

    Make sure iTunes is completely closed as well as any other apps that access music.

  3. Taran says

    July 28, 2021 at 10:31 pm

    i try to delete the folder but i get this error:
    https://imgur.com/a/ulVMGuT

  4. Sumesh says

    June 26, 2021 at 3:36 pm

    Hold down the Shift key while trying to launch iTunes. You should see a dialog box asking you to Choose or Create a library. Click “Choose library”

    Browse to the default location of your iTunes Library.itl file:

    Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\

    Windows Vista: \Users\username\Music\iTunes\

    Windows 7: \Users\username\My Music\iTunes\

    … and doubleclick the file.

  5. William Cruise says

    May 21, 2021 at 4:26 pm

    Ipod classic 2008 will not sync movies, video, or photos! HElP!

  6. William Cruise says

    May 21, 2021 at 4:04 pm

    My Ipod classic will only sync music. Not syncing movies, and photos. How can I fix this ?
    Sad Apple owner.

  7. Tanto Daud Imanuel says

    April 16, 2021 at 4:36 am

    This works for me. Thank you.

  8. Xander says

    March 31, 2021 at 9:36 am

    I really wish these corporations would be more honest when they do this. “We’re screwing you, because we’re rich so what do we care….” I might respect the honesty then. Sadly, my whole issue started with their “Library” not synchronizing correctly. The music had the labels for Artist, Album, and whatnot…yet 2 of 3 (of a particular one to give an example) never bothered to even display in the Library…because that would imply doing what it’s SUPPOSED to.

  9. Peter says

    March 9, 2021 at 2:39 pm

    Thank you very much!

  10. Aschenaki says

    February 5, 2021 at 9:54 am

    Thank you very much.

  11. Aznick says

    January 27, 2021 at 8:47 am

    Ty sir helped me this method

  12. Victor says

    December 3, 2020 at 5:27 pm

    Did it for me, thanks for posting

  13. Mihai Ditiu says

    October 28, 2020 at 10:02 am

    Great job! Thank you!

  14. Jielica says

    October 25, 2020 at 12:44 am

    Finally, I got the right solution…It’s been months and gave up with this issue on my iPhone4 coz the software is outdated. Thanks. I’ll try now to download an app.

  15. Adam says

    October 18, 2020 at 12:13 am

    You saved my library from complete loss. Thank you so much!

  16. Dan says

    October 4, 2020 at 8:26 pm

    Thanks so much!

  17. Elson Tauro says

    August 23, 2020 at 6:00 am

    Its working. Thanks a lot!

  18. ozan says

    July 9, 2020 at 6:31 am

    thank you so much it worked !!!

  19. YanLo says

    May 1, 2020 at 9:35 am

    Works perfectly.
    Thank you so much !

  20. arsen says

    April 26, 2020 at 12:30 pm

    thanks a lot maaan <333

  21. Lanre says

    April 13, 2020 at 1:53 am

    Thanks, it worked for my computer been trying to get it started for a month , tried every method I read online
    But I stomped on your site and decided to give it a try .
    Thanks once again

  22. Alicia says

    February 12, 2020 at 4:03 am

    THANK YOU! After hours of trying to find a solution to my problem on Microsoft Help, Apple Help and various other sites, this worked! (Feb 2020)

  23. Louis says

    January 1, 2020 at 10:08 pm

    Good job man Its Fixed thanks alot

  24. Zamiq says

    December 8, 2019 at 8:03 am

    Thanks bro, it helped

  25. minomax says

    October 7, 2019 at 11:43 am

    you are awesome
    thanx

  26. Meuh says

    October 5, 2019 at 3:46 pm

    You’re a life saver, couldn’t even back my phone up since itunes wouldn’t start… Now it’s all good, thanks so much!

  27. Ndoje says

    July 28, 2019 at 2:00 am

    Very helpfully, thanks so much, much easier

  28. Bob Kentridge says

    May 30, 2019 at 3:58 am

    Pure genius. I had struggled with all sorts of complicated recipes for fixing a broken itl file and this just works perfectly with one drag of a folder!!! This is in May 2019 with the latest MacOS and iTunes.

    thanks!!!!

  29. Shubham Tripathi says

    May 12, 2019 at 10:10 am

    This works in 2019. Thanks!

  30. Daniel Mills says

    April 27, 2019 at 5:19 pm

    Working with windows 10 on Hp product.

    Installed 64bit iTunes straight from applesupport,
    I then searched pc for itl. File
    Proceeded to delete, iTunes Works!

    Outdated software was able to download apps yet certain apps only run on there newest versions… very disappointing.

    it was a yes for me and good luck for you!

  31. vt says

    April 24, 2019 at 8:49 am

    work for me.Thank you.

  32. Hilary Williams says

    April 18, 2019 at 4:39 am

    This was THE ONLY way I could get itunes to work. Thank you.

  33. ja says

    February 11, 2019 at 5:46 pm

    Nice thank you!

  34. sachin dwivedi says

    January 27, 2019 at 3:50 pm

    Thanks@ u have save my time

  35. Ibrahim says

    January 10, 2019 at 7:10 am

    Thanks man. It works

  36. Iano says

    December 25, 2018 at 8:05 am

    Ur a life saver

  37. Ill Mitchard says

    December 12, 2018 at 3:27 pm

    Thank you. Beautiful. Clear, concise, accurate

  38. Jane Palmer says

    December 4, 2018 at 4:07 pm

    It worked. Thank you.

  39. erikochan says

    November 18, 2018 at 11:39 am

    thank you, i delet de library file and later the itunes work good

  40. Rob says

    October 9, 2018 at 3:40 pm

    This isn’t working for me, I can’t find the Library.itl file anywhere?!

  41. hey says

    August 18, 2018 at 3:58 am

    thanks, it was so simple lol

  42. Rugamba Daniel says

    July 27, 2018 at 5:44 am

    oohhhh God it worked easily thank you very much .

    I have been wrestling with this but thank God he gave you a good heart to help others in need.
    thank you and thank you a million times

  43. Bill says

    July 27, 2018 at 3:36 am

    Thanks so much, I have been working on this for hours and have been getting nowhere.

  44. G says

    July 26, 2018 at 1:36 am

    Thanks Champion – It worked a treat.

  45. Hasini says

    July 4, 2018 at 12:21 am

    Saved my day
    Thank you

  46. Raj says

    June 27, 2018 at 1:01 am

    Solved. Thank you.

  47. and111 says

    May 27, 2018 at 4:47 am

    Hey Zevie, did you find a way to do it?`or does anyone else know? 12.7. is so bad in many ways, I want to go back. They also removed iTunes U in 12.7. :(

  48. Kieu Anh Tran says

    May 19, 2018 at 10:03 pm

    oh my gosh thank you so so much i have tried many ways that i found on the internet but this is the easiest and fastest way and it worked very well to me, thank you again

  49. deepesh says

    May 19, 2018 at 4:39 am

    thank you it worked

  50. Andrew says

    May 4, 2018 at 9:00 am

    I have had big problems with iTunes 12.7.4 version syncing photos very slowly or effectively failing because its ridiculously slow.

    Now I reverted back to 12.7.3 and then deleted the itunes library as described.. now my syncing of photos of working correctly.

    basically itunes 12.7.4 is a fail. I realise i am still on ios7.1.2 which may be an issue but reverting back to 12.7;3 is now working and compatible with my phone.

    moral of the story is, dont update apple software ever and your phone and computer will last forever.

  51. Ritesh Dharmayat says

    April 24, 2018 at 2:52 am

    Thanks a lot. It worked!!

  52. STC says

    April 19, 2018 at 8:54 am

    Thanks Buddy! It worked!

  53. Suma says

    April 13, 2018 at 6:49 am

    Thank you. It is really helpful

  54. Sohaib says

    April 10, 2018 at 3:58 am

    Thanks bingo it worked !!

  55. Locke Nguyen says

    April 7, 2018 at 6:08 pm

    THanks so much, it really works, everything back to normal now with new version of Itunes.

  56. Kim says

    March 1, 2018 at 4:40 am

    It did worked! Thanks!

  57. benny hin says

    February 24, 2018 at 5:12 am

    thanks for the help really worked

  58. VintageGamer says

    February 2, 2018 at 1:41 am

    Thanks, Worked after a week with out itunes, the new update hindered my pc useless I almost gave up but came across this to roll back to previous version of itunes and i’m back in business..

    Thanks.

  59. Chris Rampton says

    November 24, 2017 at 4:18 am

    Thanks for your help with this. Worked really well.

  60. Zevie says

    November 21, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    This sort of helped. I deinstalled iTunes then went back to 12.6.3.6 because 12.7 separated the books from iTunes. I could no longer see my books because they are in a separate application ibooks and there is no equivalent. When I installed 12.6.3.6 on my PC, I was getting the iTunes: ‘The file “iTunes Library.itl” cannot be read’ error. I have fixed the error, but my library is still not showing on iTunes because I have a PC. I would prefer to sync with my machine then icloud for personal and economic reasons. Do you have a suggestion?

  61. Jasmin says

    November 20, 2017 at 12:38 am

    Fantastic thank you

  62. Jamie says

    October 28, 2017 at 8:52 pm

    Instead of deleting the file, rename it to iTunes Library.OLD (just in case you need it), then look in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder. Copy the library file with the newest date, and go back to the iTunes folder where you just were and paste the file you just copied. Then rename that file ( just take out the date part of the name so it says “iTunes Library.itl”) That should fix everything.

  63. Papiex says

    October 10, 2017 at 4:13 pm

    Thanks , worked like a charm!

  64. Jack Burton says

    October 6, 2017 at 11:40 am

    I end up getting unknown error has occurred -45076

  65. SuperBisdak says

    October 6, 2017 at 2:23 am

    It worked! Thanks for the big help, Mitch! :)

  66. Jamshid behzad says

    September 23, 2017 at 11:18 am

    Thanks alot
    my problem is solved

  67. Ken says

    September 10, 2017 at 8:52 pm

    Problem solved – I appreciate this very much!

  68. Freddie says

    September 3, 2017 at 12:02 am

    thanx a lot,it worked perfect

  69. Natan says

    June 23, 2017 at 2:14 pm

    Tnx for this helping…;):D

  70. Jerald Rubio says

    June 14, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    Works well. AWESOME!!!! so easy as 5 sec. hahahaha. great job!!!

  71. Mel Lyon says

    May 29, 2017 at 12:43 pm

    Thank you it solved my problem also …wish I would have found you before wasting 3 hrs searching apple for a solution.

  72. Jahir says

    May 26, 2017 at 5:44 am

    thank a lot…. its working

  73. Henry says

    May 25, 2017 at 7:24 pm

    Thank you so much maaann….it helped a lot.!!

  74. Lillian says

    April 29, 2017 at 11:26 am

    I’ve been trying to fix this for a week- THANK YOU SO MUCH this fix worked!!

  75. Vinoth Kumar N says

    April 4, 2017 at 3:11 pm

    Thanks very much! you saved my time <3

  76. Charles says

    March 20, 2017 at 1:46 pm

    Thank you so much it worked!

  77. sukhesh says

    February 25, 2017 at 10:33 am

    Thanks you working well

  78. TCA says

    February 13, 2017 at 2:36 pm

    Solved my problem — thank you!

  79. Letícia says

    January 22, 2017 at 10:40 pm

    ”Delete the iTunes Library file”

    lol I can’t delete the file cause its corrupted [erro 0x80070570]

  80. Rah says

    January 22, 2017 at 8:46 am

    Thank you!

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