iTunes: Music disappeared after update - you can do that

If music has also disappeared on your Mac or Windows PC after an iTunes update, you are not alone with this problem. We'll show you how to fix it.

iTunes: Music disappears after an update

Since May 2016, complaints about Apple's music software iTunes have been increasing again. This time, some users lost several songs from their hard drives.
Apple commented on the issues on May 13. The mistake could not yet be re-enacted. The cause is therefore unknown to Apple.
Earlier this week, Apple promised to release an update. Hopefully this will fix the bug, but the deleted music is unlikely to return.

If the titles were not deleted, but there were only complications with the update, a restore is possible. First, close iTunes.

Open the path "C: \ Users \ username \ Music \ iTunes \" under Windows. On Mac, go to "User Folder \ Music \ iTunes \.
Copy the "iTunes Library.itl" file to your desktop and delete the file in the iTunes folder.
Now search for a file with the name "iTunes Library YYYY-MM-DD". You may find them in the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder.
YYYY-MM-DD stands for the day of the iTunes update. Now copy this file into the iTunes folder from step 1.
Now rename the file "iTunes Library" and start iTunes. Your music should now be found again.

Complaints about Apple Music have also spread over the past few weeks. The synchronization between the local songs and the iTunes servers can also make some songs disappear.
If you use Apple Music, your local library will first be compared with the entire iTunes library. If iTunes doesn't know one of your songs, it will be uploaded and saved to Apple. So you can use all your songs on your iPhone or iPad without transferring them yourself.
While this makes sense, Apple Music then deletes all songs that are already on Apple's servers. From now on, the songs will always be streamed via the Apple servers. All titles can be downloaded again, but only as long as the subscription is still valid.
Hopefully there will also be a solution to this problem in the future. If you want to protect your music collection from the well-meaning work of Apple right now, you have to make a backup of your data. It is best to save your music collection on an external hard drive.