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Mar 31, 2014 9:18 PM in response to chris934by chris934,...The error message, when I select a song is asking me if I want to locate it on my mac, but I have no idea where to locate the original file. I have a time capsule which just died on me, don't know why, I only got it two years ago; it's running when I plug it in and I can feel it running when I put my hand on it, which by the way is another question, is there anyway I can get my time machine working again, I did pay $300 for the 2 tera-byte version and would like to recover the machine, but the main issue right now is recovering my I-tunes library, or rather restoring it to where it was before accidentally messing things up. Thanks
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Mar 31, 2014 9:42 PM in response to chris934by Limnos,Well, the easiest thing to have done would have been to use "undo" in Finder immediately after moving the items.
iTunes works by keeping a list of the location of the items in your library. You moved those items from that location and so it now doesn't know where to look. Unless you drag them back to exactly where they were located originally iTunes' library listing of the file location is wrong and you get a brokken link.
Adding files back to your library should have restored everything but created duplicates next to the broken links. However, you do not say exactly how you do things, and it can make a big difference. It sounds like you did not end up with duplicate entries so I don't know what you did exactly and it is hard to provide suggestions.
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Apr 1, 2014 6:19 AM in response to chris934by Limnos,I accidentally moved my library to the trash by selecting all but three of my albums (I thought I had only selected the album I wanted to delete, and then somehow, in not being careful, moved most of my files to the trash).
How did you do this? Did you select them in Finder or did you select them in the iTunes window?
I imported the library back into I-tunes
What exactly did you do? The "library" is a file called library.itl in the iTunes folder which is in fact what you see when you have iTunes open. I have never attempted to import this into a copy of itself. If that is possible you will just end up with 100% duplicates of your broken links. You don't mention duplicates so I'm guessing yu didn't do this, but now I have no idea what you really did. The bottom line is, I really don't know what you mean when you say you tried to import the library into iTunes so I need you to tell me line by line whati t was you did.
Yes, yes, the message you are seeing means iTunes cannot find the file it has listed for your track when it looks for it. When you add a track to iTunes it puts a copy (usually does not move) of the file into the correct media folder and makes note of its location.It does not look at that file again until you next try to do something with it. It also assumes the file is where it, iTunes, put it. If you move the file or rename it, iTunes gives you the missing file message.
I am trying to diagnose the issue so as to try to repair things with minimal disruption. The easiest thing, of course, would be to delete your library,itl file, start with a brand new blank library file, add all your media files to the Automatically Add To iTunes folder, and start off with a brand new library. That's the easy way, but of course you will lose ratings, playcounts, playlists, date added. If you want to repair the existing library then we need to know exactly what was done, not just the symptom (that message in your post) which could have
multiple causes.
So, what you are saying has many possible interpretations.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
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Apr 1, 2014 6:52 AM in response to Limnosby chris934,1. I was trying to select a group of files (about 11 or 12) and so I selected the first file in my library (a blue border appeared around the image; album cover artwork) I must have accidentally selected the first file in my library and while holding down shift on the last file in the 11 or 12 selections that I wanted to delete, selected all files; albums, up to the items I wanted to select for deletion, these files being three albums from the entire library, subsequently after right clicking and choosing delete, because I thought only 11 or 12 files were selected; all albums up to those three were deleted.
2. I then went into I-tunes, clicked import, thinking I could retreive these files from finder and did in fact find all of the files in finder, highlighted all of them in the list view and clicked import.
3. The album cover artwork is in there for most of the deleted albums, but when I click on an album to listen to, I have an exclamation point next to each song with the above error message appearing when I click on a song.
I will try your links and if you can help thanks, if not, no worries.
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Apr 1, 2014 6:58 AM in response to chris934by chris934,...I didn't drag any files into the trash, I was mistaken. I deleted the files directly from I-tunes by the right clicking mess described above.
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Apr 1, 2014 7:07 AM in response to chris934by Limnos,I included the links so you can read on how iTunes works. It works differently from how many people expect.
When you "imported", the files you imported were in the Trash? Usually when you delete a track in iTunes it asks if you want to move the file to the Trash. Or are the files still in thier original location in the media folder? If they are still in their original location, when iTunes asks you to locate a file go and do so, then ask it to find others based on the location of that one.
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Apr 2, 2014 5:43 PM in response to Limnosby chris934,Most are all there, but no specific names, that is, all files are named by format not title of song, album...and some of them are grayed out. Have no idea how to recover these files and would really like to. Thanks
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Apr 2, 2014 5:48 PM in response to chris934by Limnos,Dragging media files to an iTunes window will add them. It will not re-link them. It will create new entries and the broken entries will need to be deleted at some stage.
If the files are WAV format they will be entered without any information. This is a negative aspect of the WAV format.
It is unusual that the files are not in a structured format. Usually you can work with filename and folder structure. This suggests that something very unusual is happening here but without highly specific information which you need to supply (can't quite see your computer from here) I can't really determine the details.
