Victoria_M

Q: iTunes 11 cannot find music files

My son downloaded iTunes 11 on his MacBook (OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2), now all of his music has an ! in front of it in the music library and when he tries to locate the music it sends him back to iTunes without locating the file.  How can I fix this?

MacBook, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 1, 2013 12:57 PM

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Q: iTunes 11 cannot find music files

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  • by Steve Taylor1,

    Steve Taylor1 Steve Taylor1 Jan 1, 2013 1:02 PM in response to Victoria_M
    Level 5 (4,680 points)
    Jan 1, 2013 1:02 PM in response to Victoria_M

    The red exclammation mark indicates that itunes can not find the actual file. If you can still find the Music using Finder. Normally it would be

     

    Username/Music/Itunes/iTunes Media/Music

     

    If you find all the music files. Delete all entries in iTunes and re=import the music by drag and dropping the whole iTunes Medi Folder structure

  • by Victoria_M,

    Victoria_M Victoria_M Jan 1, 2013 1:25 PM in response to Steve Taylor1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 1, 2013 1:25 PM in response to Steve Taylor1

    Apparently he doesn't have an iTunes Media folder any longer.  The only place he finds all of his songs listed is in a Media folder which appears in the Sidebar of "Finder" when he selects locate in iTunes.  He used to have an iTunes Media folder, but he said one day it just disappeared.

  • by Steve Taylor1,

    Steve Taylor1 Steve Taylor1 Jan 1, 2013 1:33 PM in response to Victoria_M
    Level 5 (4,680 points)
    Jan 1, 2013 1:33 PM in response to Victoria_M

    Ok clear all the red exclammation entries out of itunes.

    Under Preferences, Advanced make sure the

     

    Keep iTunes Media folder organised

     

    and

     

    Copy files to itunes Media Folder when adding to library

     

    are ticked

     

    Click OK

     

    Open Finder, locate existing music

     

    Then Drag and drop from the finder window into itunes

    And it should start to import them and recreate the iTunes Media Folder

  • by Victoria_M,

    Victoria_M Victoria_M Jan 1, 2013 2:20 PM in response to Steve Taylor1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 1, 2013 2:20 PM in response to Steve Taylor1

    I apologize and don't mean to be difficult, I just don't want to make a mistake and make matters worse. The Media folder only appears in finder when I am trying to "Find" the file from iTunes.  If I simply open Finder the Media options do not appear.  I'm not sure if this makes sense to you.

  • by Steve Taylor1,

    Steve Taylor1 Steve Taylor1 Jan 1, 2013 2:34 PM in response to Victoria_M
    Level 5 (4,680 points)
    Jan 1, 2013 2:34 PM in response to Victoria_M

    Can you put in a screenshot of find the file from itunes? This is what my iTunes Media folder looks like

     

    Screen Shot 2013-01-01 at 22.33.03.png

  • by Victoria_M,

    Victoria_M Victoria_M Jan 1, 2013 3:33 PM in response to Steve Taylor1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 1, 2013 3:33 PM in response to Steve Taylor1

    I'm not sure which image you need so I am going to give you two screen shots.  This one is what I get when I am in iTunes and I select find the file.

    Screen Shot 2013-01-01 at 6.19.09 PM.png

     

    This is the screen shot directly from Finder

    Screen Shot 2013-01-01 at 6.31.41 PM.png

  • by Steve Taylor1,

    Steve Taylor1 Steve Taylor1 Jan 2, 2013 12:04 AM in response to Victoria_M
    Level 5 (4,680 points)
    Jan 2, 2013 12:04 AM in response to Victoria_M

    This article may help you find where your music is stored

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1391?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

     

    What version of OSX are you using because I am on Moutain Lion and I do not have Media showing in my finder sidebar?

  • by Victoria_M,

    Victoria_M Victoria_M Jan 2, 2013 8:42 AM in response to Steve Taylor1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 2, 2013 8:42 AM in response to Steve Taylor1

    Thank you so much for all of your assistance. I have reviewed the article, but it appears all of his music files are no longer located on his hard drive.  I looked in the waste bin, but the files are not there either.  I have no idea how they were removed, but I cannot locate them anywhere.

     

    He is running Mountain Lion 10.8.2.

     

    He has approx. 1200 music files and he was syncing them with his iPod.  The files are still on his iPod.  Is it possible to sync the two devices and have all his music return to his Mac in the iTunes Media folder?

  • by Steve Taylor1,

    Steve Taylor1 Steve Taylor1 Jan 2, 2013 8:48 AM in response to Victoria_M
    Level 5 (4,680 points)
    Jan 2, 2013 8:48 AM in response to Victoria_M

    Hi Victoria this article may help

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991

     

    This should help get the content back on the computer and it will be in the folder structure as discussed above. Might be prudent to have a backup copy as well.