Itunes -Accidentally Deleted Most Of Content!!

[countrykid]

I have copied into itunes approx 170 CDs over recent days to add to some more that I no longer have the original discs of.

Tonight for some reasons an old Gene Pitney CD copied as individual tracks rather than saving as a whole album, so I highlighted all the tracks and clicked on delete. Normally this would take seconds but was taking awhile. I then realised it seemed to be deleting lots more besides. At what point I could see it appeared to be deleting some photos too, although I was still in itunes.

All that is showing in my itunes library now are albums by "Various Artists". All albums by individual artists or Bands have gone. I did not click on any of those when I hit delete. Does anyone know of a way to restore them. I have looked in recycle bin, where I expected to find some that I'd deleted a day or so ago, and I clicked on Restore to original location" but the "lost" albums are still missing. HELP! I am heartbroken after spending so long transferring them, plus losing the older ones which I no longer have discs for. Thanks

[Tuvok]

You say you have restored from the bin - so are your tunes in the itunes folder?

If so, move them out of there to the desktop.

You should see a folder in the itunes music folder called Automatically Add..

Put the files into this folder and watch as itunes imports them again - they will disappear from the Automatically.. folder.

Itunes has a file that it uses to tell it what music you have in its library. Doing the above will put the music back into itunes (unless you have itunes set differently)

The pictures you saw being deleted are probably the album artwork files.

The reason that your Gene Pitney cd imported as track 1 track 2 etc. wa that itunes was unable to get the names from the internet.

Best way to import is to make a playlist and import into it - then you can go into the playlist and select all the tracks there, do a get info and change the details.

[Tuvok]

Ps. you may have to quit and restart itunes to trigger the Automatically Add..

[countrykid]

Thanks Tuvok
I am something of a "novice"! so excuse my ignorance. On my desktop I have the Itunes icon which I click on to open iTunes. Doing this displays my itunes content. Is this the "iTunes Folder" you refer to, and if so where do i find the "automatically add" feature? I cannot see any of the tracks that I moved from the recycle bin.
I just cannot understand how the library now only has CDs showing that all are of the "Various Artist" type. It's as if all others are "hiding" somewhere!! So frustrating! Off to bed now so will take another look at some point tomorrow night hopefully. Really appreciate your help. Thanks

[Tuvok]

Using the restore will have put them back in their original location.

This tells you where to look for your itunes library

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1391

The Automatically folder should be within the itunes folder you find there.

Various artists usually means they are compilations. You can edit the info for individual or groups of tracks. (see my original reply).

Lets just concentrate in getting your tunes back in first - then work on minor glitches later.

[countrykid]

Thanks Tuvok,

I've clicked on the link you gave, which was helpful. I've located some but not all of the missing music, which was in various places - eg E:\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music or E:\Music\iTunes or E:\Windows Media Music.

I'll take another look tomorrow as it's been a long day, not helped when first thing I woke to find the toilet blocked! and then when I got to work, someone revered into my parked car Happy days! I know this has nothing to do with my post about iTunes, but at least I feel better for saying it!

Thanks again for your help.

[Tuvok]

Another option is to let itunes search the computer for music