Songs Disappearing from iTunes

Chris CA, sometimes that works...the songs, usually multiple copies appear which is also a memory eater...I have noticed at times deleting the exlamation poit will being the song back......weird.

Go to Edit in your iTunes library. Then go to Preferences. Then go to Store - there should be a box you can tick that says Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases. If it's unclicked, then click it. Likely that is the issue, as it was in my case. The problem is you have to redownload all the songs you'd downloaded from the cloud. It's RIDICULOUS but after an hour on the phone with iTunes support this is what worked for me. Good luck.

I guess I am fortunate, I have an iPOD Classic and when I sych it , my purchases if they were loaded previously will put them back in my library if they've disappeared. Found this out yesterday,,,,DOH!!!

welshwife wrote:

Go to Edit in your iTunes library. Then go to Preferences. Then go to Store - there should be a box you can tick that says Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases. If it's unclicked, then click it. Likely that is the issue, as it was in my case. The problem is you have to redownload all the songs you'd downloaded from the cloud.

This will simply redownload the song.

If the song is still on your computer (but iTunes cannot locate it) you will now have two copies of the songs on your computer with one not being used.

My music disappears as I look at it. All my music is from CDs, I don't purchase from itunes. For years I have had no problems, now all of a sudden my music is disappearing. Today I played a few songs on itunes, then later went to put them on my iphone, but all I got was the exclamation mark and that the music wasn't there! I had just listened to the darn song. Then the exclamation marks were popping up all over the place. I have searched my computer and they are gone. Not only from itunes music file, but there is no sign of them anywhere. I manually manage my music, I don't sync. I daren't load itunes again, I fear all my music will be covered with !!!! What a pile of rubbish.

I foolishly went back in to my itunes, and about a third of the five thousand songs now have an exclamation file next to them. I have clicked on the find file option, but it can't be found. I have searched, and there is no sign of the ones I tried, anywhere on my computer. These tracks are all from CDs I purchased (and now don't have)

This problem seems to have been going on a few years, judging by the google results. I think it's time to move on to a different way of listening to my music, Apple is history for me now. My next phone will not be Apple, and there's not much point having ipods/classics etc if my music keeps disappearing.

You should still have the CDs that you ripped music from.

You should have a backup of your library, media and other personal data.

Assuming any of this media is still on any of your devices see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.

tt2

I have some of the CDs, but like most people, once I put these into itunes, I got rid of many of them. I do have a back up from a few weeks ago. I just uninstalled itunes and rebooted the pc. I then downloaded itunes, and all my music appeared in it again, again with lots of ! next to the songs. I have never known music go in automtically before, I have always had to use the back up. How do I get rid of all these darn songs that aren't actually there, and use my back up?

Years of it working fine, and now it is absolute rubbish. Sorry to sound so angry, but it has taken me years to build up this library and for some reason today, itunes decided to get rid of many of my songs. I have deleted nothing, but they are quite definitely not on my computer any more. If I try to play one song, suddenly the ! start appearing on lots of songs I haven't even tried to play!

The exclamation mark shows when a track isn't where it is expected to be, either because it has been moved or deleted. One possibility is that iTunes has mistakenly moved some tracks from the old layout (artist folders in <Media Folder>) to the new layout (artist folders in <Media Folder>/Music), or vice versa, in error. If that were the case however the files should be somewhere. I've also seen a post from one user who found that their missing media was still there but hidden. I can't think of an obvious mechanism for this to occur however, nor is there any indication if it was caused by iTunes or something else. Over on Windows I have a script for fixing broken links if the files can be found, but I don't yet know how to replicate this in OS X.

tt2

Thanks for the reply. I have very little on my computer, it only has photos, music and my emails on, so finding things is pretty easy. This music was disappearing before my eyes. I truly had just played one of the songs minutes before, then when I went to play again, it was gone. As I clicked on it, the ! appeared on lots of songs. There is no rhyme nor reason for it, on some it is one track from a CD, on others it is nearly all, it is madness. I am using windows.

I have uninstalled itunes and removed all the music in the itunes folder. For some reason, that folder with music remained when I uninstalled itunes. Just for info it is windows 8 (hate it!) and a Toshiba satellite. I have searched all over, no sign of music anywhere else. As I say, there is very little on my laptop, so it is easy to find stuff.

I guess I join the list of what appears to be thousands where their music just disappears.

There is nothing more frustrating than someone who is clearly IT savvy, telling you how simple it is to retrieve something that should never have been lost in the first place.

I just want to plug and play, not become an amateur IT geek searching my computer to try and locate files that the programme has moved or deleted.

ITunes is a nightmare, I have given up trying to fathom out why it randomly moves or deletes stuff? I purchased a third party software to copy my itunes library off my I-pad (which was only intact because I refused to follow the advice of Apple Support who said all songs would automatically get uploaded back into I-Tunes off the I-pad!).

With this software I repopulated I-tunes and all was fine for a while - now they are all gone again. I don't care anymore - I just use Spotify and will go back to I-Tunes as and when this stops happening.

It used to be great - maybe it will be again at some point.

I hear you loud and clear! My daughter refuses to update itunes, and she never has a problem. I update, and suffer the pain. I am no computer geek, but can find my way around a computer. I removed every trace of itunes, and I am now putting it all back on from an old back up (not the last one, I thought I'd go back a bit). We shouldn't have to do this, I have wasted hours of my life on this. I will definitely be switching to some other thing, but no idea what is out there, I have used itunes for so long. But come renewal, my iphone goes and things are getting changed drastically. Life is too short to be spent trying to sort out Apple's mess.

Have the same issue and frustration. Apple must know by now that there is something wrong, but will not admit it nor issue a fix. I was a keen Apple supporter, but after losing so many CDs of great music I am also moving when my current iPhone contract is over and when my laptop is due for replacement. Apple was frequenty used as a case study of a great customer-focused and innovative company. Recently I was at a workshop on Business Process Excellence and Apple was a case study again, but this time as a company that had lost its way and was now embroiled in internal politics - the customer has been moved to the irrelevant bucket again.

Coming back to the topic at hand. I have used various posts and instructions over the past 6 months to find the 'hidden" files in OS X - they are gone. I have turned off every possible way that Apple that can access my library (including turning off Genius, stopping iTunes manage my library etc.) but my library continues to disappear. Yesterday I lost another 47 songs. The "reburn your CDs" solution is not a fix - I've done this and the same CDs were deleted again. This "solution" is equivalent to telling a person whose micro-wave oven doesn't work properly to just reload another batch of the same food and try again. The issue is in iTunes.

Fix the cause Apple! My apologies to all for my frustration, but when a company you've respected and defended for so many years lets you down ...

@Ukhutula Something else to consider is whether or not you're experiencing hard drive failure. Particulary if you've disabled all automatic music management in iTunes and are still seeingsongs go missing. Are you able to eliminate that as a suspect?

I ask because that was my experience but I wouldn't rush to replace a hard drive unless you've run some diagnostics on it and identified issues.

OS X 10.8.4

iTunes 11.0.4

Pete, I will look into Spotify. No idea what it is though! I have put itunes back on my laptop and the back up music, and it is there again . . . but for how long?!