Q: Any software that can rebuild iTunes songs lost to Unknown Artist/ Unknown Album

Got the v14 file!  Thanks!  Unfortunately same error now on line 524...

Thanks, I sort of expected to get an error again, it was just trying to tie it down. Still couldn't force the error to occur at my end but I spotted the mistake in the code. Hopefully I've squashed it this time. Try FindTracksV15.

tt2

That did it!  Thanks!  The files are (almost) all connected back to their associated entries in Unknown Artist Unknown Album.

Per your info above, all I need to do to get folders created for artists and albums is to re-enable "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" or use ConsolidateByMoving,right?

Thanks again, awesome job!

You're welcome.

I'd let iTunes tidy up by enabling Keep iTunes Media folder organized. It will be faster than my script.

As you've probably discovered .wav files are particularly tricky if you lose your library database as they don't have a tag to store metadata. See this backup tip if you haven't already sorted that out.

You might want to consider converting the files to AIFF or Apple Lossless unless you need the .wavs for some other application. My script ConvertFormat can help with this task.

tt2

This may be a dumb question, but how do I run the script? I didn't see anything to download when I clicked on the link above. Looks like you are up to version 34? I'm running Windows 10.

Thanks.

See Re: Finding itunes files for a more recent discussion on the FindTracks script which includes a link to the download page for the current version.

tt2

Thanks, tt2. I was able to download the script and run it, but it only found 241 out of 4343 tracks (iTunes says there are 4454 tracks missing even after the script found some). I made sure the “Keep iTunes Medial Folder Organized” option was not checked. The folder path in my iTunes preferences is set to C:\Users\~\Music\iTunes. The folder structure for the songs I am attempting to find is iTunes\Music. The script seemed to find most of the songs in the Artists folders that are sitting directly in the Music folder (iTunes\Music\Artists\Albums), but I also have two other folders labeled CDs MP3 and Other Music Folders that contain the majority of my music. The file paths for these folders are iTunes\Music\CDs MP3\Artists and iTunes\Music\Other Music Folders\[Various Folders]\Artists. The script doesn’t appear to be finding any songs from these two folders. Am I doing something wrong with running the script? My understanding from your instructions was that the script should find songs that are in any sub-folder of the folder being searched. Do I need to move the songs in those two large folders to a different location?

Also, in case it matters I have just copied these files from an external hard drive on to a new computer, which is why iTunes can’t find most of them. Additionally, the files were running on a Mac, but my new computer is a PC.

Here is an example of what iTunes is showing for the location of a song vs. the actual location.

iTunes path: File:///Volumes/Seagate Backup Plus Drive/Music/iTunes Media Folder/Music/Beastie Boys/Ill Communication/01 Sure Shot.mp3

Actual file location: iTunes\Music\CDs MP3\Beastie Boys\Ill Communication\01-Sure Shot.mp3

Any additional guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks.

GoA

Try running the script again, but this time point it at C:\Users\~\Music\iTunes\Music\CDs MP3. It should then be able to locate anything stored in \<Artist>\<Album> folders below that.

Repeat with \Other Music Folders\ or the various subfolders inside that as the starting point for a search.

tt2

How do I point the script at just those folders? Do I need change the iTunes Medial Folder location to that particular folder in preferences? No matter which tracks I select in iTunes the script wants to run for all 4353 tracks. I couldn't get it to run on just a couple like you suggest in your instructions.

Lost & Found Playlists

Create a playlist called Found, select everything in Music and drag it into the Found playlist. It should only add the tracks without exclamation marks. Create a smart playlist called Lost matching All the rules Playlist is Music and Playlist is not Found. Your lost tracks will be in this playlist.

If you select tracks before calling the script it should only attempt repairs on the selected tracks.

Don't change the iTunes Media folder. When you run FindTracks it attempts to identify the active media folder based on the location of a track that isn't lost. One of the dialog boxes offered by the script lets you edit this path before the script goes on to search for things.

tt2

I got the playlists set up. I tried to run the script again to see if I could change the location to search, but it didn't give me an option. This is the only box that pops up when I double click the script icon on my desktop.

If I click No so each track will pop up it asks me if I want to add each file it finds to the found playlist with the file path (iTunes\Music\<Artist>\<Album>\<Song>). If I click Yes it runs through all the tracks automatically and gives me the result that 241 tracks were found. Do I possibly have an older version? I just pulled it off the website yesterday.

You have the current version. The script should work with selected tracks if you select them first.

Alternatively edit line 116 from:

Source="Library"    ' Named playlist to process, use "Library" for entire library

to:

Source=""               ' Named playlist to process, use "Library" for entire library

So that it reverts to the current playlist instead of the whole library if you haven't made a selection.

Answer Yes to the first prompt, the second prompt will show the path to the media folder that it will search. It should look something like this:

tt2

Thanks for the suggestion. I made the change and the script now runs only on the selection of tracks I choose. I'm still not getting the second prompt though.

Weird, I've compared the version online with the one I have here and they seem to be the same.

Line 141 reads:

Root=""

You can edit that, putting the path you want searched inside the quotes. Hopefully that still functions as intended.

tt2

For some reason the script that I downloaded was apparently different than the text of the one on the website. I copied and pasted the text manually into the script and it seems to be working now. I get the second prompt to choose the location now. I'm working my way through each folder and hopefully will be able to connect most of the broken links.

The following message has popped up several times in the process. I've just hit OK each time and the script continues to run.