Hello My Friends, 

As mentioned in a previous post, in preparation for the arrival of the latest member of Team Taylor, the iPhone 3G S, I recently downloaded the latest version of iTunes for Windows.  Today (or was it tonight) I decided to experiment with iTunes for the very first time. 

I will not bore you with the details of the head-to-head combat that took place between me and Apple’s media manager from Hell but suffice me to say that the “longtime-coming” grudge-match was ugly, grueling, vicious, demoralizing, and dehumidifying (Hmm!  That last one didn’t sound right.  Oh Well) for all involved.  

As is usually the case, Apple, in its infinite wisdom, demands that those lucky enough, nay, dare I say it, blessed enough to be given the rare opportunity to kneel before the iTunes’ alter, perform each and every task in one (and I do mean only one) manner.

Being a lifelong Microsoft Windows user, I like doing things my own way; for example deciding when, where, and how I choose to add files to my media library, be it iTunes or anything else. 

Do I sound bitter?  (Big Smile) 

Before I continue with my saga, let me say that Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 is little better than iTunes when it comes to client-side media management.  In fact, were I to be completely honest (which will probably not happen in this tale) I would suggest that, in some very extremely bizarre instances, it could be argued that iTunes is slightly bee’..ett’…  (I can’t bring myself to say it!)  (Big Grin!!!) 

Apple won the battle in that it took me quite a while to discover how to circumvent iTunes’ safeguards against independent thought but, I won the war in that successfully circumventing those safeguards, I did. 

[Image of Mark Marcus (AKA Mark Taylor) standing, arms outstretched skyward, a mobile phone in one hand, a white cane in the other hand, and a piece of crispy breakfast bacon in the other hand.  (Hmmm!  Some how that doesn’t sound quite right), at the top of Everest dressed in a SuperMark outfit (similar to the Superman costume but emblazoned with a glorious realistic letter M instead of a sullen make-believe little s] 

In order to tweak my new iTunes media library to my personal (and may I say very dysfunctional standards), it was necessary to re-index the iTunes database and have iTunes rediscover/re-index my files, in effect, rebuild its Media Library.. 

So, to those of you running iTunes 8 (or later) for Windows, who wish to have iTunes re-index its Media Library, do the following: 

1.
Quit iTunes.

2.
Locate your iTunes Media Library Folder.

NOTE 1:
For Windows XP, this Folder can be found in “Documents and Settings/[username]/My Documents/My Music”

 NOTE 2:
For Windows Vista, this Folder can be found in:  “Users/[username]/Music”

3.
Open the iTunes Media Library Folder.

4.
Delete the “iTunes Music Library.xml” file.

5.
Delete the “iTunes Music Library.itl” file.

6.
Open iTunes for Windows.  You will see that the iTunes Media Library has been restored back to its original status just after installation.

NOTE 3:
If you want iTunes to rescan your system in order to add existing files:
A.
From the iTunes File Menu, select “Add Folder to Library”.

B.
Point to the Folder containing the media you wish to be added and Click the [OK] button.

NOTE 4:
In order to learn how to perform variations on this method such as to preserve previously saved Playlists, Click Here to read more.

Good Luck,

Mark