Songs Disappearing from iTunes

I've had all sorts of problems with iTunes over the years (songs that won't play or sync with devices, etc), but now I have a new one. My music library is on an external drive, which I forgot to plug back in after moving the Mac. So when I tried to play a song, it reported that the song could not be found. Fair enough. I plugged the hard drive back in and restarted iTunes. But what iTunes has done, is take the liberty of removing the song it couldn't find from its database altogether. I have confirmed that the song is still there on the external hard drive, but it simply doesn't show up in iTunes anymore. The album now has no track one, and starts at track two.

Obviously I can just manually drag the missing song back into iTunes, but this is madness, and has left me wondering what other tracks iTunes might have deleted from the library database without me knowing.

II've lost $12.5k of songs, 3 drives that held my backups and spent $300 to make sure it doesn't happen again. I even have a full library that will demonstrate this yet Apple exec support wants to play hard *** and doesn't care. So I have the DOJ on them. Even tcook@apple has been silent. But I have the before music with a correct name and after turning on Apple Music under the newest version will scramble metadata. Forget them finding out why or giving compensation even though it's a legal requirement when an offered service corrupts the product.

I Have had 4 separate issues with Apple products and had to solve everyone myself.

Hey Gizmonic,

I apologize if I am repeating someone else's response; I am not going to read through every answer to your question. I have had your problem off and on. This is the solution I have found: open iTunes; open your Program Files/iTunes/iTunes/iTunes Music folder (which should have a copy of every song you have downloaded and/or burned to iTunes - by the way, what I typed here is not a typo and applies to Windows 8.1); copy the whole folder (or just the files missing from iTunes); copy and paste to iTunes. I have had to do this more than once, but it has worked . . . at least until the next time Apple decides to delete more than half of my music. Good luck!

Maleficent13

An apple article is there : Locate and organize your iTunes media files - Apple Support

IF you are running windows then get Media Monkee. Those guys understand how to write a music inventory system. They test pretty well too.

Often, songs (or sometimes movies, etc.) I have purchased say this item is no longer available in this store. For me, I thought one of the main selling features of a service such as I-Tunes is that once you had purchased it, then it would be available to download forever. it's not even like the song is not available in my store, it is.

That small print will get you every time. It probably helps for me that I started using iTunes back when anything you bought was sold on a one time download basis, but it is there in the terms of sale. Repeat downloads as long as the item hasn't been withdrawn from the store. See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for a suggested backup strategy. (I know this thread is in iTunes for Mac, there are alternative tools suggested for Mac in there too.)

tt2

I Just recently figured out as well that my music has disappeare. I have been a iphone user since the 1st one came out and started with the ipod video. A lot of the music that i have grown up with that i uploaded from cds is almost all gone, music that I downloaded as well is also almost gone. It seems to me they slowly planned for this to happen so they would keep getting our money. Not only that but i hate many other annoying things they "forgot" to clarify. For example when you went to delete music in your phone you have two options and if you pressed delete from library its gone for good, by the way if you did wanted it again you gatta repay to have it! This sneaky b*****ds are more than willing to trick us into constantly giving them money...this will be my last iphone due to this crap, theres more i noticed as well...apple died with Steve jobs.

It's only gone because you failed to keep backups. I learned to backup stuff when I used my first computer 30 years ago.

Deleting items on a phone does not delete them from the main iTunes library.

Limnos wrote:

Deleting items on a phone does not delete them from the main iTunes library.

It might if the user were subscribed to iTunes Match or Apple Music, but then again a backup is essential before commencing with either service and if they had one it would not be an issue.

tt2

You are correct, it does not delete them in your library. It does however delete the fact that you used real money to purchase the item and if you delete it on your phone it will erase the purchase. Obviously you dont get your money back.

It doesn't erase the purchase, just hides it. See Hide and unhide iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store purchases - Apple Support.

As always, protect your investment with a backup.

tt2

I have the same problems too and when I call apple they fix it but I while later it goes missing again and this has been my 5th time so I don't know if there is a permanent fix to this problem it's more temporary.

Nope. Here it is 6 years after you posted this. I have been having this problem for YEARS. They DGAS. They just want our money and then take what rightfully belongs to us. I have NO idea how many songs they have taken but I have called them out on at least 10.

One more thing, this happens on my iPhone, laptop and mac pro