Alex--

Q: Force iTunes to rescan library?

I've two Macs, and I just updated bunch of old songs to itunes plus on one of them. Then I used rsync to sync two libraries. However, now iTunes complains that it can't find old m4p files (they are all m4a now). Is there a way to tell iTunes to rescan what it has under iTunes Music folder?

MBP, Mac OS X (10.5.3)

Posted on Aug 28, 2009 9:32 PM

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Q: Force iTunes to rescan library?

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  • by olivierventurini,

    olivierventurini olivierventurini Oct 22, 2010 7:29 AM in response to Alex--
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    Oct 22, 2010 7:29 AM in response to Alex--
    If you want to force iTunes to rescan your library's ID3s, all you have to do is disable the "keep organized" feature then go back into the prefs and re-enable it. It takes a few minutes for iTunes to process, depending on the size of your library. Once it's done, your files should be correctly linked to the updated iTunes Library.
  • by olivierventurini,

    olivierventurini olivierventurini Oct 22, 2010 7:53 AM in response to olivierventurini
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    Oct 22, 2010 7:53 AM in response to olivierventurini
    Sorry! It didn't work. Try instead:
    File> Add To Library and select the folder with the songs in it...
    this rescans the library, adds what's missing and leaves the rest untouched.
  • by BorreBoy,

    BorreBoy BorreBoy Jul 2, 2011 1:18 AM in response to olivierventurini
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 2, 2011 1:18 AM in response to olivierventurini

    That didn't work to well for me.

    In almost all artist, all songs are gone but one.

     

    Removing all songs now, and drag the folder back in. That should help.

  • by BorreBoy,

    BorreBoy BorreBoy Jul 2, 2011 1:27 AM in response to BorreBoy
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 2, 2011 1:27 AM in response to BorreBoy

    OMG.

     

    Now iTunes can't find my song. There are missing at least 3000:

    http://screencast.com/t/gYHnPPlrq5

  • by MrMatt68,

    MrMatt68 MrMatt68 May 10, 2012 9:11 AM in response to olivierventurini
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    May 10, 2012 9:11 AM in response to olivierventurini

    Why is this such a hidden feature?  I have been deleting the library and adding my folder back for years to correct my library as i update, add or change files or tags on my server....25000 songs and it takes forever!  This is an awesome tip thank you so much.  it only took about a minute to add 1800 songs and relink everything that had changed!  Absolutely Awesome.  post is in response to oliveirventurini's suggestion:

     

    File, add to library, choose same directory and itunes scans and repairs, adds to library leaves everything else alone.

     

    Edit: does not remove dead tracks but does put exclaimation mark beside them.....easy enough to find and delete

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA May 10, 2012 10:18 AM in response to MrMatt68
    Level 9 (79,533 points)
    iPhone
    May 10, 2012 10:18 AM in response to MrMatt68

    Just select the updated songs (or all songs) then Command I (get info).

  • by MrMatt68,

    MrMatt68 MrMatt68 May 10, 2012 6:17 PM in response to Chris CA
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    May 10, 2012 6:17 PM in response to Chris CA

    Chris

     

    Do I use that to delete the songs that have exclamation marks or to add and update files and folders that I've added to my music directory on my server?

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA May 10, 2012 9:28 PM in response to MrMatt68
    Level 9 (79,533 points)
    iPhone
    May 10, 2012 9:28 PM in response to MrMatt68

    It simply updates the library so missing songs will have exclamation marks and any changed metadata will get updated in iTunes.

  • by MrMatt68,

    MrMatt68 MrMatt68 May 11, 2012 3:11 AM in response to Chris CA
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    May 11, 2012 3:11 AM in response to Chris CA

    Oh ok so new workflow is to add files to my server as usual then i can choose add files in itunes and it should add new files then i can select all, get info to update metadata and mark deleted files then i can manually remove those from itunes database.  Is there a way to sort by exclaimation mark?

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA May 11, 2012 7:34 AM in response to MrMatt68
    Level 9 (79,533 points)
    iPhone
    May 11, 2012 7:34 AM in response to MrMatt68

    No. However you can get them into a playlist.

    Create a new, regular playlist (named All music).

    Drag all music into this playlist.

    Create a new smart playlist (named Missing songs).

    Match rule:

    Playlist is not All music.

    Only missing songs will show up in this playlist.

  • by LeoBabur,

    LeoBabur LeoBabur Dec 24, 2014 11:44 AM in response to Alex--
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 24, 2014 11:44 AM in response to Alex--

    Find my video its workingitunes-fix.jpg

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA Dec 24, 2014 12:21 PM in response to LeoBabur
    Level 9 (79,533 points)
    iPhone
    Dec 24, 2014 12:21 PM in response to LeoBabur

    LeoBabur wrote:

     

    Find my video its working

    5 1/2 years later, not sure what this means...

  • by Andrew G Eronimo,

    Andrew G Eronimo Andrew G Eronimo Jul 7, 2015 12:02 PM in response to Alex--
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 7, 2015 12:02 PM in response to Alex--

    As of July 2015, neither of the above methods appear to work to update changed metadata. Re-adding the library folder appears to add duplicate songs in the case where an album was moved from one sub-folder to another (I have most of my music on a Windows-based server -- we have 4 Windows machines and 2 Macs in the house). Probably the "from" folder in this case will show missing tunes -- haven't examined the results of completely yet, since it's a lot of work to dig thru 18,000-plus songs.

  • by sanmiguel74656,

    sanmiguel74656 sanmiguel74656 Feb 4, 2016 6:33 PM in response to Alex--
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 4, 2016 6:33 PM in response to Alex--

    I force quit iTunes then went to the iTunes media folder (mine was located at "/Users/*user*/Music/iTunes") and then deleted the library file. The library file should end with ".itdb". I think there were three of them. I deleted all three. Then I reopened iTunes, clicked "Scan for media" and voila... New library. Depending on how much media you have, your voila might take a while. I have over 600GB of movies and music so mine took a long time to repopulate.

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