iTunes 8.2.1 update issues: missing music, devices not recognized.

The iTunes update which was released yesterday seems to have worked flawlessly for most users; however, some people have had a couple of problems that may be shared by others.

Music missing

One Apple Discussion poster noted his music missing after applying the update, and since this has happened for previous iTunes versions, here is a way to tackle this.

With any iTunes update, there is the possibility that your iTunes library file could become corrupted and not work. As such, be sure to back up your library file before updating, even though iTunes should automatically back it up before making any changes to it with a new version of the program.

If you have experienced problems with missing or inaccessible files after updating, try locating a backup of your iTunes library (From Time Machine, a drive clone, or from the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder) and replacing the current one in your iTunes folder, being sure it is named "iTunes Library". Then launch iTunes and have it update the library again, and hopefully the second time will be more successful.

Devices not recognized

As mentioned here at MacFixIt and on other sites such as Appleinsider, this update seems to break third-party attempts to synchronize their devices with iTunes. While it's debatable whether this is an active effort on Apple's part or just them not observing support for other devices, if you rely on iTunes to synchronize with any non-Apple devices, you may choose to avoid this update until it has been confirmed that sync functionality has been restored.

If your iPhone or iPod devices are not recognized after updating, try resetting them or restoring them from previous backups. We recommend you always back up your iPod or iPhone before updating iTunes, and optionally create a full system backup with a cloning utility or Time Machine so you can easily revert back to the previous version of iTunes if your devices are not working properly after the update.

UPDATE: Since this software update does not require a restart, if your devices are not behaving properly you may need to re-initialize the system drivers responsible for interfacing them with iTunes by rebooting your computer, so give that a try first before resetting your iPod or iPhone though a reset should not harm anything.

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