iTunes can't find my music anymore.

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Level 1

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iTunes can't find my music anymore.

Every few months iTunes tell me that it can't find any of the songs in my library even though I haven't moved any of my music, the exact phrase itunes is using is "The song " _" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?".

This has already happened to me 3 times this year. The only way to fix it, besides going line by line and telling iTunes where the song is, is to delete the entire library and then import it again. Every time I do this I lose all of my play lists. Is anybody else having this problem? Is there a way to fix it?

I have all of my music stored on a My Book Essential Edition external hard drive.

Pentium 4, Windows XP Pro

Posted on Jul 27, 2009 8:17 PM

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Answer 1

norm007

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2009 6:54 AM in response to Squady

Hi.
Yes I am having the same problem.
Very frustrating as well!!!
I dont know a solution, just letting you know that you are not alone with this.

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Answer 2

Jul 28, 2009 7:12 AM in response to norm007

Hallo!
So I am not the only one with that Problem! It happens to me all the time. Why does iTunes delete a lot the the CDs one puts on the computer? I often sit in front of my computer loading audio books and music to put on my iPod - and then it just disappears, only leaving the CD covers I had scanned! Windows Media Player on my old PC however, does the same thing. Isn't there any reliable player?
I do hope someone can help with the problem.

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Answer 3

Squady Author

Level 1

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Jul 28, 2009 11:23 AM in response to norm007

Great to hear that I am not the only one having this problem. Maybe someone can chime in with a solution.

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Answer 4

the fiend

Level 7

22,458 points

Jul 28, 2009 2:52 PM in response to Squady

War_Path171 wrote:
I have all of my music stored on a My Book Essential Edition external hard drive.

That may be the problem. Suppose for example:

you connect the external drive, it will be allocated a drive letter by Windows. The next time you connect it, it might be allocated a different drive letter. This could happen if you connect other external devices and connect them in a different order to previous occasions. I've even had it happen when my external device was the only thing connected on two separate occasions.

So to begin with, you need to make sure the same drive letter is allocated every time.

This is because, if not, songs imported on (for instance) occasions one and three could be on one drive and songs imported on occasions two, four and five could be on another letter. Then - the actual problem of a song not being found would happen when you or iTunes looks for those songs. In other words, even though you imported 25 songs on an occasion, only two of them cannot be found on another occasion.

To see if this is the problem;
1. make sure the same letter is allocated each time, and if it isn't, force Windows to use the letter you want.
2. when a song cannot be found, make a note of where iTunes thinks it is. (it is probably on a different drive to 1. above.) Then you can "locate it" and it iTunes will then think it's on the drive letter you "made sure it has" (from action 1.).
3. once you discover a few lost songs, are they always on a different drive to the one you are using now? If so, that's the problem.

I hope that makes sense.

Phil

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Answer 5

Jul 28, 2009 4:15 PM in response to Squady

We had to do a defrag on the computer and it lost everything. I am trying to get things back up, however cannot see or play anything on my ipod. Is there anyway apple can resend the downloaded songs from my account so I can put them back on the ipod?

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Answer 6

Jul 28, 2009 7:15 PM in response to the fiend

Hello fiend!
I think the thing with the drive letters can't be what causes the music to vanish from iTunes. My music and audio books disappear very often as well but I've got a MacBook pro which doesn't use drive letters. I have given all my external drives names and these are always recognized correctly by the computer. And except for the external drive for time machine which makes backups of all my files, I don't store any music on my other external drives. By connecting the time machine drive I can recover all the lost music but that's not the point. I would like all my audio files to stay in iTunes exactly where I put them, to be available when I want to listen to them without having to start searching and recovering tracks. Another strange thing is that only the CDs I have imported myself get lost. The music I have purchased from the iTunes store has never disappeared.
Magali

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Answer 7

Squady Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2009 7:56 PM in response to the fiend

the fiend wrote:

War_Path171 wrote:
I have all of my music stored on a My Book Essential Edition external hard drive.

That may be the problem. Suppose for example:

you connect the external drive, it will be allocated a drive letter by Windows. The next time you connect it, it might be allocated a different drive letter. This could happen if you connect other external devices and connect them in a different order to previous occasions. I've even had it happen when my external device was the only thing connected on two separate occasions.

So to begin with, you need to make sure the same drive letter is allocated every time.

This is because, if not, songs imported on (for instance) occasions one and three could be on one drive and songs imported on occasions two, four and five could be on another letter. Then - the actual problem of a song not being found would happen when you or iTunes looks for those songs. In other words, even though you imported 25 songs on an occasion, only two of them cannot be found on another occasion.

To see if this is the problem;
1. make sure the same letter is allocated each time, and if it isn't, force Windows to use the letter you want.
2. when a song cannot be found, make a note of where iTunes thinks it is. (it is probably on a different drive to 1. above.) Then you can "locate it" and it iTunes will then think it's on the drive letter you "made sure it has" (from action 1.).
3. once you discover a few lost songs, are they always on a different drive to the one you are using now? If so, that's the problem.

I hope that makes sense.

Phil

Phil,

I understand what you are saying but how do I check where iTunes thinks the songs are? If I click on the info part of the selected track it is blank. Is there another way to see where iTunes thinks my music is?
FYI. I only use one external HD but I disconect it on occassion.

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Answer 8

Jul 29, 2009 8:18 AM in response to Squady

Hello again!
Well, I'm trying not to care about where iTunes thinks, the track or albums are. I am by no means an expert, I just work by trial and error. One thing I have noticed is that if you don't import your CDs into iTunes but click iTunes away, create a new folder in your music file and copy the CDs into it, there will always be the original file for iTunes to find. All the CDs I have loaded into an extra folder are still there even if iTunes has deleted its copies in the library. It takes much more time to do so though. You have to open the the album folder track by track, iTunes does not open the whole album at once. This seems to have worked on my MacBook as well as on my old XP-PC up to now. But I would still like to know why iTunes does not store the albums I have imported for as long as I want them to be on the computer.
Still hoping to find a solution.
magali

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Answer 9

the fiend

Level 7

22,458 points

Jul 29, 2009 8:40 AM in response to magali mistral

Magali:

Since you having problems with iTunes on a MAC, can I suggest that you start a new thread in the *Using iTunes for MAC* forum which is here; http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=789 where other MAC users may be able to help you. (I know almost nothing about MACs.)

Phil

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Answer 10

the fiend

Level 7

22,458 points

Jul 29, 2009 8:47 AM in response to Squady

War_Path171 wrote:
If I click on the info part of the selected track it is blank.

Ooops! Good point.

FYI. I only use one external HD but I disconect it on occassion.

Well perhaps the thing to try is to note what drive letter is allocated now, and then check again when you next disconnect and then reconnect it.

As I said though, my PC has been known to allocate a different drive letter even though it was the only drive in use. Windows should logically allocate the next unused letter of the alphabet, but sometimes I see drive F and other times drive G, for no reason.

Don't forget, if you power off your computer, when you power on again, it has the same effect as disconnecting the drive, so if you power off (as I do) your external drive will have been disconnected. Restarting Windows may even have the same effect, although I have never noticed.

Phil

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Answer 11

Jul 29, 2009 9:33 AM in response to Squady

Thanks for the MAC-link, fiend, I have always been looking for a way to post a new thread and never succeeded. Although I do think, the problem is of a general nature and applies to macs as well as PCs - I've got both and iTunes has always deleted my files on the PCs as well, only that I don't use my PCs very often anymore since I've got the MAC. The Windows Media Player on the PCs did the same thing.

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Answer 12

Squady Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 8, 2009 12:52 PM in response to the fiend

the fiend wrote:

War_Path171 wrote:
I have all of my music stored on a My Book Essential Edition external hard drive.

That may be the problem. Suppose for example:

you connect the external drive, it will be allocated a drive letter by Windows. The next time you connect it, it might be allocated a different drive letter. This could happen if you connect other external devices and connect them in a different order to previous occasions. I've even had it happen when my external device was the only thing connected on two separate occasions.

So to begin with, you need to make sure the same drive letter is allocated every time.

This is because, if not, songs imported on (for instance) occasions one and three could be on one drive and songs imported on occasions two, four and five could be on another letter. Then - the actual problem of a song not being found would happen when you or iTunes looks for those songs. In other words, even though you imported 25 songs on an occasion, only two of them cannot be found on another occasion.

To see if this is the problem;
1. make sure the same letter is allocated each time, and if it isn't, force Windows to use the letter you want.
2. when a song cannot be found, make a note of where iTunes thinks it is. (it is probably on a different drive to 1. above.) Then you can "locate it" and it iTunes will then think it's on the drive letter you "made sure it has" (from action 1.).
3. once you discover a few lost songs, are they always on a different drive to the one you are using now? If so, that's the problem.

I hope that makes sense.

Phil

Phil,

Your solution ended up being the correct one. For some reason the short cut on my desktop for my external hard drive changed from an E to an F, don't know why. I figured it out by checking the letter of the drive under by going through the My Computer icon. All I had to do was create a new short cut on my desktop with the correct letter and iTunes was able to find/play my music again. Don't know why it happened or why it worked but it did. Thanks for the help.

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