chuckpanel

Q: itunes cannot find music files to play when they are listed on my playlist

I was doing something with my ipod the other night and noticed that a number of my songs will not play on my computer because itunes cannot find the music file. Yet when it asks me if I want it to find the file, it has found it. It happens with any song that has a circled small "i" before the song. I have not found a pattern yet except that when I hook up my ipod to the computer (windows) it shows that there is 17g over capacity and a playlist catagory that has 2,000 some songs of a mixed variety that I did not create.

 

any help would be appreciated.

iPod touch, iOS 6.1.6

Posted on Jul 5, 2016 8:15 AM

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Q: itunes cannot find music files to play when they are listed on my playlist

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  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jul 5, 2016 2:02 PM in response to chuckpanel
    Level 10 (86,986 points)
    Apple TV
    Jul 5, 2016 2:02 PM in response to chuckpanel

    The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, or the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter, or you've moved a non-portable library to a different path (see Make a split library portable for details). It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.

     

    Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case. If everything is where it is supposed to be try Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.

     

    In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info, or when playing a track, but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" I think it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout they were in previously, with one systematic change to the path.

     

    If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files, or the library has been moved from OS X to Windows, then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.

     

    If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

    1. The location of the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced
    2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Get Info > File > Location that begins file://localhost/
    3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

     

     

    tt2

  • by chuckpanel,

    chuckpanel chuckpanel Jul 6, 2016 8:11 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 6, 2016 8:11 AM in response to turingtest2

    I think I found the problem. It is  a wrong path.

     

    In the Get Info panel for Andrea Bocelli, Caruso in the Romanza album, iTunes is looking for: local host/c/users/chuck/my music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Andria Bocelli/Romanza/05/Caruso. The actual path is local host/c/users/chuck/my music/iTunes/Andrea Bocelli/Romanza/05. can I change it in the panel: Edit/Preferences/Advanced? or do I want to get everything to follow the path iTunes is looking for now? If the latter, how would I go about that?

     

    Thank you very much for your help. You really know this stuff.

     

    Chuck

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jul 6, 2016 8:45 AM in response to chuckpanel
    Level 10 (86,986 points)
    Apple TV
    Jul 6, 2016 8:45 AM in response to chuckpanel

    What is shown under Edit > Preferences > Advanced for the location of the media folder? My guess would be that it was accidentally changed to C:\Users\Chuck\My Music\iTunes at some point in the past when it should really have been set to C:\Users\Chuck\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Media. Restoring the wrong path might fix up the library, but it might be better to move the artist folders down into C:\Users\Chuck\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music (and any media kind folders like Movies or Podcasts into ...\iTunes Media) so that files are where iTunes is now expecting to find them and in the standard layout that makes moving the library and backing up easier.

     

    tt2

  • by chuckpanel,

    chuckpanel chuckpanel Jul 6, 2016 2:14 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 6, 2016 2:14 PM in response to turingtest2

    I think I have one more piece of the puzzle. I entered a search for one of the artists in my iTunes music and it turns out that the file chain is: local disc C/program files(x86)/windows media player.exe. That brings up all the music files and you can play any song in the library..

     

    I tried first creating a music file in iTunes media so that it would conform to the path that iTunes was expecting and then populating it with the artist files listed in the file "iTunes". The songs would still not play from the itunes program but if I went directly to the file Music (the one I created) under iTunes media and selected an artist and then a song and hit play that song (double click on the song), then it would play, albeit with media player. Windows Media Player seems to be the controlling path. How do I change that?

     

    Thanks again for all your help. As you can tell I am not that computer savy but kind of get drawn into it by necessity and ignorance.

     

    Chuck

  • by chuckpanel,

    chuckpanel chuckpanel Jul 6, 2016 2:18 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (8 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 6, 2016 2:18 PM in response to turingtest2

    one more thing, I would like to make iTunes program as whole as possible because we use our iPod touch for travel and at home and have virtually all of our music on it (with a back up, of course).

     

    Chuck

  • by The Old Fart,

    The Old Fart The Old Fart Jul 9, 2016 9:32 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 9, 2016 9:32 PM in response to turingtest2

    Thanks for the offer to set up correct path I may eventually have to ask but in the meantime I have a couple of extra questions that puzzle me.

     

    Sometime I have see a folder on the PC that says automatically add file to iTunes.  Should this folder always be available & more important does it work?  If it works I should be able to find any stray misfiled tracks  & paste them into this folders, shouldn't I?  If this works any tracks added in this manner should be at top of list of recently added where I could correct any info that was wrong?

     

    I have also noticed that some albums in my library don't have any covers displayed.  I was going to try getting a few covers but find that I can't find the option listed either at top of page or via right click & I know that I was able to do this before.  Is there some other setting or prerequisite that I'm missing?  I'm using iTunes for windows version 12.4.1.6  64 bit.

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jul 9, 2016 9:58 PM in response to The Old Fart
    Level 10 (86,986 points)
    Apple TV
    Jul 9, 2016 9:58 PM in response to The Old Fart

    Yes, the Automatically Add to iTunes folder (inside the media folder listed under Edit > Preferences > Advanced) can be used to add content to the library. Anything that iTunes understands will be moved to an appropriate spot in the media folder (typically \Music\<AlbumArtist>\<Album>\## <Name>.<Ext> for music). Anything that iTunes cannot understand is moved into a Not Added subfolder, hidden files are discarded.

     

    Context menus have been thinned out in the recent release. Right-clicking the album artwork or empty placeholder for it in the Albums or Songs view should show a Get Album Artwork option.

     

    tt2