Non-iTunes files missing

[carlboone]

A few days ago I had several thousand mp3 files on my iPad 2. This morning when I tried to play my favourite playlist I discovered that only the tracks downloaded from iTunes are on my tablet (not very many tracks). The complete library still shows in iTunes on my desktop - I tried syncing but it didn't restore the files on my iPad.

Does anyone know why this would happened and how I can get my music back? I am planning to take my iPad and Bluetooth speaker to Cuba next month and really want my full library.

 

[carlboone]

A bit more information... sync doesn't complete now - it gets stuck at "waiting to apply changes". On my iPad I can see all of the tracks but those not purchased through iTunes are greyed out.

Also, even though usage shows that I only have 109 tracks, the total space used hasn't gone down. That makes me think the tracks are still there, just not available.

 

[J. A.]

Look at your iTunes library and make sure the songs are there, especially those that are greyed out. Then try syncing again.

If this doesn't help, backup your songs and playlists. Then remove the data from your iTunes library and sync the iPad to iTunes, which will remove all the songs. That done, add everything to iTunes again, reset the iPad (press and hold Home and Power button until the Apple logo appears, let go of both and let the device power up) and sync it to iTunes once more to get everything back to your device.

Hope that helps.

 

[carlboone]

J.A., thanks for the help. I followed those steps but it did not work. When trying to do the final sync to restore the files I got a message that there's not enough storage. In Settings, it tells me that almost 50gb are used but when I add up all of the individual things using space it only adds up to 13gb. I now see only the tracks I downloaded from iTunes but I suspect the other mp3 files are still there and just not visible.

I think I will be visiting the Apple Store to see if thay can help.

 

[J. A.]

Before you go there, make sure that you have a most recent backup of your device.

There's still something you could try: restore your iPad using iTunes and then sync the files to it.

 

[carlboone]

After backing up my iPad to my computer I contacted Apple. The person I was talking to didn't seem to understand when I told her that the 35gb of "Other" must be the missing music files. Somehow we got disconnected and she didn't call me back.

So I decided to restore my iPad. It has taken afew hours to go through the process, but it now looks like everything is ok. All of my music, apps and data seem to be there.

 

[J. A.]

Sounds good! Here's hoping that fixed it.