Q: Someone smarter than me - please help me figure this out - songs can't be found
This issue has lingered for years, but I am currently on iTunes 12.5 on Yosemite.
At some point in time, and I can not associate it with any specific event like an upgrade, a large amount of my 13,900 songs became "broke" - unable to locate. Not all, just a portion..maybe 1/3 to 1/2.
I have trouble shot and gave up many times, not wanting to do a drastic rebuild, I just skipped the songs that were broke.
I let iTunes manage my Library - always have. All files, including "broken ones" are sitting right in users/myname/music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Artist....right were I would expect them all.
I recently found an album that had two songs right next to each other, one "broke", the other plays fine. If I go in finder they are right where they should be.
If I look at the .xml, the Location key says the identical location, just different name for the song...and that location/song name combo matches the location in finder.
Here are two songs from the same Album next to each other:
Track 651 Sugar Magnolia is fine and plays, Track 652 E_One More Saturday Night is "broken" and can't be found.
Here is the xml data on the two files, you can see locations are correct:
<key>6023</key>
<dict>
<key>Track ID</key><integer>6023</integer>
<key>Size</key><integer>14551501</integer>
<key>Total Time</key><integer>505391</integer>
<key>Track Number</key><integer>20</integer>
<key>Year</key><integer>1979</integer>
<key>Date Modified</key><date>2008-12-23T19:46:10Z</date>
<key>Date Added</key><date>2010-04-17T01:23:05Z</date>
<key>Bit Rate</key><integer>230</integer>
<key>Sample Rate</key><integer>44100</integer>
<key>Play Count</key><integer>1</integer>
<key>Play Date</key><integer>3380317111</integer>
<key>Play Date UTC</key><date>2011-02-12T05:58:31Z</date>
<key>Skip Count</key><integer>1</integer>
<key>Skip Date</key><date>2016-09-21T15:52:06Z</date>
<key>Rating</key><integer>100</integer>
<key>Rating Computed</key><true/>
<key>Album Rating</key><integer>100</integer>
<key>Persistent ID</key><string>859F0AE52E3FACA9</string>
<key>Track Type</key><string>File</string>
<key>File Folder Count</key><integer>5</integer>
<key>Library Folder Count</key><integer>1</integer>
<key>Name</key><string>d3t03 - Sugar Magnolia</string>
<key>Artist</key><string>Grateful Dead</string>
<key>Album</key><string>1979.12.01 Pittsburgh, PA (SBD)</string>
<key>Kind</key><string>MPEG audio file</string>
<key>Location</key><string>file:///Users/myname/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Mus ic/Grateful%20Dead/1979.12.01%20Pittsburgh,%20PA%20(SBD)/20%20d3t03%20-%20Sugar% 20Magnolia.mp3</string>
</dict>
<key>6025</key>
<dict>
<key>Track ID</key><integer>6025</integer>
<key>Size</key><integer>8459472</integer>
<key>Total Time</key><integer>291474</integer>
<key>Track Number</key><integer>21</integer>
<key>Year</key><integer>1979</integer>
<key>Date Modified</key><date>2008-12-23T19:46:10Z</date>
<key>Date Added</key><date>2010-04-17T01:23:05Z</date>
<key>Bit Rate</key><integer>232</integer>
<key>Sample Rate</key><integer>44100</integer>
<key>Play Count</key><integer>2</integer>
<key>Play Date</key><integer>3472053636</integer>
<key>Play Date UTC</key><date>2014-01-09T00:20:36Z</date>
<key>Rating</key><integer>100</integer>
<key>Rating Computed</key><true/>
<key>Album Rating</key><integer>100</integer>
<key>Persistent ID</key><string>0AD50DB205887189</string>
<key>Track Type</key><string>File</string>
<key>File Folder Count</key><integer>5</integer>
<key>Library Folder Count</key><integer>1</integer>
<key>Name</key><string>d3t04 - E: One More Saturday Night</string>
<key>Artist</key><string>Grateful Dead</string>
<key>Album</key><string>1979.12.01 Pittsburgh, PA (SBD)</string>
<key>Kind</key><string>MPEG audio file</string>
<key>Location</key><string>file:///Users/myname/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Mus ic/Grateful%20Dead/1979.12.01%20Pittsburgh,%20PA%20(SBD)/21%20d3t04%20-%20E_%20O ne%20More%20Saturday%20Nigh.mp3</string>
</dict>
<key>6027</key>
Here is the Finder physical file location of both files:
ONE DIFFERENCE I DO SEE:
When I right click - Get Info in iTunes, the "location" info is different - the "broke" file includes the "file:///" and the songs that play fine do not (starts with /users/). Meta data is the same.
The above file plays fine, this one does not (and this is consistent with all thousands of broken files:
So I am stumped - any help would be greatly appreciated. I thought I was going to need to do a simple "search and replace" for "file://" but after reviewing the xml file and meta data, I am stumped.
Oh yeah - here is the meta data for the "broke" song above that has the "file://" in the location:
...it shows the location like the other playable songs...just /users/...
stumped
iPad 2, iOS 7.0.3
Posted on Sep 21, 2016 4:46 PM
Another thing I notice is the broken reference is missing a "t" at the end of the line but is complete as "night" in the Finder view.
It appears everything is on the internal drive at this stage but were you using a networked drive in the past or a different setup?
Posted on Sep 22, 2016 2:58 PM







