alsim88

Q: my music gets deleted

This happened once before and I Just opened up my library and entire albums are gone. Some are actually doubled and theres a ! next to the names and they won't play.

 

anyone else have this issue? I have absolutely NOT deleted them myself. I have a macbook and my desktop computer is rarely in use. There is nothing in the trash.

 

What the ****? Help

iMac, iOS 9.2

Posted on Jan 7, 2016 1:47 PM

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Q: my music gets deleted

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  • by Kenichi Watanabe,

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe Jan 7, 2016 3:22 PM in response to alsim88
    Level 8 (38,766 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 7, 2016 3:22 PM in response to alsim88

    Do you have an iCloud Music library (from either iTunes Match or Apple Music)?  If you have an iPhone (or other device) associated with the iCloud Music Library, deleting songs from your iPhone (instead of removing download) will delete those songs from your iCloud Music Library, which is the same library that your Mac sees.

    theres a ! next to the names and they won't play.

    That usually means iTunes can no longer access the song's file for some reason.  Do a Get Info on the song in iTunes.  On the Info window's File tab, look at entry for Location.  That is where iTunes expects to find the song's file.  Use a Finder window to go to that location (or as close to it as possible).  If you see an obvious problem, like the file path changing because a folder name along the path was renamed, undoing the change may resolve your problems.  If the expected song file is missing, use a Finder window to try to locate the song file (using the song's name in in Search field).  That may provide a clue about what happened to cause this problem.

  • by alsim88,

    alsim88 alsim88 Jan 7, 2016 3:58 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 7, 2016 3:58 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    Nope. I haven't moved any files. My iPhone is synced with my laptop. I do plug it into the desktop in question to charge but I never change any settings or anything. I manually add/remove music on my phone.

     

    I haven't removed or deleted any music. For some reason, a number of songs doubled up. They showed up twice on iTunes but both of them have the !. These songs are songs I've imported from CDs so its not like its purchased music that may have gone lost in the inter webs or whatever. its the weirdest thing. Just random songs from albums or entire albums are missing.

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe Jan 7, 2016 4:03 PM in response to alsim88
    Level 8 (38,766 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 7, 2016 4:03 PM in response to alsim88

    You don't subscribe to either iTunes Match or Apple Music?

     

    What happens when you do as described in previous reply, and look at where iTunes expects to find the "missing" songs?  Show the expected path in Get Info window in iTunes, and then go to that location using a Finder window.

  • by alsim88,

    alsim88 alsim88 Jan 7, 2016 4:10 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 7, 2016 4:10 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    The files are nowhere on my computer.

     

    They are entirely gone.

     

    Not in the trash. Nowhere. I have not deleted them. Thats the bizarre part. They just vanished.

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe Jan 7, 2016 4:19 PM in response to alsim88
    Level 8 (38,766 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 7, 2016 4:19 PM in response to alsim88

    And do you subscribe to either iTunes Match or Apple Music?

     

    You said the songs are listed twice.  Is there any difference in the Get Info File tab expected Location for the song files, in the two listings?

     

    Can you copy/paste what you see for Location in the Info window, in your next reply?  (you can replace your actual user name with "My User Name")

  • by alsim88,

    alsim88 alsim88 Jan 7, 2016 4:58 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 7, 2016 4:58 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    lol my bad,  I do not subscribe to those.

     

    And i actually deleted those entries in my iTunes library. basically some songs were listed twice. right next to each other. and they both had ! next to them. I know they were there about a month ago which was the last time I was listening to music on this computer.

     

    I just deleted them from my library right now cuz the ! were annoying. I tried searching for where the songs would usually be in my iTunes folder on my HD but entire albums were missing.

     

    so to keep things clean, I just highlighted them and hit backspace to just wipe them off the screen. The actual music files are nowhere on this computer anymore.

     

    If their location were to change, how would that happen on its own? i haven't moved any of my music. I always keep it in the iTunes folder under music.

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe Jan 7, 2016 5:12 PM in response to alsim88
    Level 8 (38,766 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 7, 2016 5:12 PM in response to alsim88

    Depending on how iTunes was set up when you added those songs (and how you added them) to your iTunes library, their files may not be stored in the designated iTunes Media folder location.  I was curious about where iTunes expected to find their song files, in case that location was not at the "expected expected" location (in your current iTunes Media folder).

     

    If you can think of anything those songs had in common, it may help solve the mystery.  Were they all songs added many years ago, or all more recently added songs?  Did they all come from importing music CDs?

  • by alsim88,

    alsim88 alsim88 Jan 7, 2016 5:20 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 7, 2016 5:20 PM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    the location they are or where iTunes is "expecting" them to be shouldn't change all on its own though.

     

    This happened a while back and I sort of let it go but it happened today again and i decided to post. All the songs today were from a CD. One of the songs was from a Michael Jackson CD. Just one from that. There was another artist and half of his songs were missing, the other half were there. Then TLC had an entire album missing. These were all imported from CDs. These songs have been on this computer for years. Not anymore though. As of today they are gone.

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe Jan 8, 2016 5:25 AM in response to alsim88
    Level 8 (38,766 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 8, 2016 5:25 AM in response to alsim88

    If it happens again, don't delete the entries in your iTunes library for the missing songs.  Use the Get Info window to see where iTunes expects to find its song file, and go there using a Finder window.

     

    Since the songs remained listed in your iTunes library, the problem is likely to be the song files either no longer being there or getting moved outside of iTunes.  You may want to check for general data corruption in your Mac's drive.  Data corruption can make files inaccessible.  It has happened to me, although in my case the song files were still there, but unplayable.  Fortunately, I could restore all song files from my Time Machine backup, using the date/time state before the corruption occurred (along with my iTunes library file from the same state).

     

    You may want to run Disk Utility, and run First Aid on your startup disk volume (and any other volume with iTunes data).  Make sure you select the volume (indented below the drive) in the Disk Utility sidebar.

     

    Do you use Time Machine to back up your system and user data?  If you do, you could "go back in time" to when those song files were there, and restore them.  You don't have to restore the entire library, but you can restore missing song files and add them back to your current iTunes library.  Time Machine can let you recover files to within one hour of them becoming corrupted or unintentionally deleted.

  • by alsim88,

    alsim88 alsim88 Jan 10, 2016 10:04 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 10, 2016 10:04 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    I will do that next time for sure.

     

    However, keep in mind I did a manual search for the music. I used spotlight search and there was nothing. Those songs have mysteriously disappeared from my computer. The actual files are gone.

  • by YetAnotherJames,

    YetAnotherJames YetAnotherJames Apr 8, 2016 8:44 PM in response to alsim88
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Apr 8, 2016 8:44 PM in response to alsim88

    I have been using iTunes since it was new, and I suddenly have the same issue now. Even personal demo songs, that I made myself, are not stored in the iTunes library on my laptop anymore shortly after I import them to be there--so if I disconnect my wifi, I can't play my own songs. Reconnect, and voila, they're playable. When I agreed to iTunes Match, I must have missed the part where it said, "User agrees to not actually own his own content, and to be at the mercy of constant internet bandwidth and paying Apple for accessing his own files on his own device."

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe Apr 8, 2016 9:18 PM in response to YetAnotherJames
    Level 8 (38,766 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 8, 2016 9:18 PM in response to YetAnotherJames

    Go to iTunes preferences Advanced pane.  Make sure the checkbox for Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library is checked.  If that checkbox is not checked, and you are adding song files (like your "personal demo songs") to your iTunes  library from a removable source (like an external drive or USB flash drive), iTunes does not use make a copy for itself to put into the designated iTunes Media folder.  Instead, iTunes links to and accesses the song's file from the location where you added it (the external storage).

     

    When you disconnect your laptop from the external storage, iTunes no longer has access to its locally stored song file.  Since you subscribe to iTunes Match, iTunes works as designed and starts accessing the song's file from your iCloud Music Library, without complaining about about missing local files.  That seems to be what you are describing.  That's why you only have access when you have a WiFi connection.

     

    With Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library checked in iTunes preferences Advanced pane, there will be a copy of your song files stored on your laptop's internal drive (if that's where the designated iTunes Media folder is located), in addition to the songs being matched or uploaded to your iCloud Music Library, for songs you add going forward.  (You should also checkmark the other checkbox for Keep iTunes Media folder organized.)  For songs that are already in your library, you need to download them from your iCloud Music Library, so that you have a copy stored locally.

  • by YetAnotherJames,

    YetAnotherJames YetAnotherJames Apr 13, 2016 8:17 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Apr 13, 2016 8:17 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    Thanks for the detailed response. Sorry, I was wrong to use the term "Match." I signed up for Apple Music, and Apple has confirmed with me (on the phone) that their software did, in fact, delete (not relocate) all of my music. 123 GB worth. These songs were all stored in my iTunes library on my laptop's internal drive (not served via an external one). The Apple representative to whom I spoke said that "the software is working as intended." She explained that, after signing up for Apple Music, the user's music library is evaluated by iTunes. Any files that iTunes "thinks" Apple already has a copy of online are deleted from the user's internal drive, and instead the user is linked via the internet to the version of the song that Apple stores. No internet connection, no music. Any files that iTunes doesn't recognize (like my demos and rough mixes) are uploaded to the cloud and then automatically removed from the internal drive of my computer. Deleted. I can click the cloud icon to download them back, but then I'll only receive MP3s, even if they started as WAV files before iTunes removed them from my computer.

    As an example, she said that many users signed up for the free, 90-day trial of Apple Music. iTunes went through the songs stored on their internal drives, matched them to files Apple was serving, then deleted them. After 90 days, when the users declined to stay with Apple Music, they discovered that they no longer had the music files on their computers. Those who didn't have a time machine (or other) backup dating to before iTunes deleted their files were out of luck. She even admitted that, due to this overreach, she personally avoids Apple Music.
    I hope this thread helps someone else in my position. The solution to my specific problem is to restore iTunes library from Time Machine (before the music files went missing) while also cancelling the Apple Music subscription and making sure that iCloud is not backing up music.

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe Apr 13, 2016 8:30 AM in response to YetAnotherJames
    Level 8 (38,766 points)
    Mac OS X
    Apr 13, 2016 8:30 AM in response to YetAnotherJames

    That's not true, according to Apple's own document

     

    iCloud Music Library: Understanding differences between Apple Music and iTunes Match - Apple Support

     

    which says, in the Apple Music section

     

    "When Apple Music adds these matched songs to your iCloud Music Library, Apple Music doesn’t change or alter your original music files that reside in iTunes for Mac or PC or on your iOS devices from which they were added."

    She even admitted that, due to this overreach, she personally avoids Apple Music.

    Unlikely... 

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