Q: Making iTunes library find missing tracks in multiple, not one by one

Thanks for prompt reply

1. "Advanced" }  E:\new iTunes media [use this one]\music

2. I have checked "info" and iTunes is looking at } File://localhost/c:/users/beastie/desktop/itunes media/music/Volumes/Complete Motown Singles vol-8-CD2/24 Ain't that lovin' you2.mp3

3. Missing Track is in} E:\new iTunes media [use this one]\music\Volumes\Complete Motown Singles vol-8-CD2\23 Ain't that lovin' You

Volumes is the name of the artist.

beastiebaz wrote:

 

Thanks for prompt reply

1. "Advanced" }  E:\new iTunes media [use this one]\music

2. I have checked "info" and iTunes is looking at } File://localhost/c:/users/beastie/desktop/itunes media/music/Volumes/Complete Motown Singles vol-8-CD2/24 Ain't that lovin' you2.mp3

3. Missing Track is in} E:\new iTunes media [use this one]\music\Volumes\Complete Motown Singles vol-8-CD2\23 Ain't that lovin' You

Volumes is the name of the artist.

OK, Some minor discrepancies which I think are down to typos (track number and file extension). One more question. Under File > Library > Organize Library is the option Rearrange files... greyed out?

Normally this would be greyed out with the designated media folder connected one level higher. In practice it might be best to tweak the folders again so that you have the following folders:

• E:\iTunes
• E:\iTunes\iTunes Media
• E:\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music

and the media folder preference is pointed at E:\iTunes\iTunes Media.

iTunes should now be able to do a better job of fixing broken links.

See Make a split library portable for more details on the standard layout of the library. Anything that iTunes still can't fix could be tackled by my FindTracks script. You could also then move the library files into E:\iTunes to make the library portable and Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for security.

tt2

Sorry for the delay.....Time difference, I am in France

Under Library>Organize Library> I have two options} Option 1 Consolidate Files.   Option 2 Reorganise files in folder "Music" [nothing is greyed out] I have not ticked these box's since changing the address below, should I?

I have changed folders in external disk to}  E:\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music & changed to this address in iTunes>Preferences>Advanced. iTunes ran "Organised" & "Copy"

There problem is still the same, on the songs that cannot be found, from the "info box" itunes is looking in the "C" drive as previously detailed. Please note the address I gave you on the C drive is what is shown under "info" the / are forward facing & 2.mp3 at the end of the song is correct.

"INFO">File://localhost/c:/users/beastie/desktop/itunes media/music/Volumes/Complete Motown Singles vol-8-CD2/24 Ain't that lovin' you2.mp3

I have 5 iTunes Icons on the desktop [I have no idea why these are on my desktop }
1. iTunes Media} only  inside is} a. Album Artwork + b. Automatically add iTunes + c. iTunes preferences

2. iTunes Extras>ITunes database file [,itdb]

3. iTunes Library Genius>iTunes database file [.itdb]

4. iTunes Library>XML Document [,xml]

5. ITunes Library>iTunes database file [.itl]

I'm in the UK, so it isn't that different, though I do keep odd hours.

The folders appearing on the desktop hints at a permissions problem with the location that iTunes is trying to use. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows for details on fixing that. Apply to E:\iTunes.

The reversed slashes is expected behaviour. The trailing 2 in the true filename hints that perhaps there have been some duplicates at some point, and that you have the kept the second duplicate copy of that track rather than the original. iTunes own reconnecting mechanism works best when the tracks are exactly where iTunes would put them. This would be <Media Folder>\Music\<Artist>\<Album>\[D-]## <Name>.<Ext> where Artist is replaced by Album Artist if not blank, file and folder names are limited to 40 characters, and any character that is invalid in a file path is replaced with an underscore. My script copes better with variations in the file paths.

The iTunes advanced preference for the media folder should now be E:\iTunes\iTunes Media not the Music folder inside it.

Under File > Library > Organize Library tick the box Rearrange files in the folder iTunes Media and click OK. Obviously iTunes cannot move the things it cannot find at present, but it ensures that it is adding in the Music subfolder in the path for music items.

The ideal location for the library files is E:\iTunes. Move the following files & folders into E:\iTunes:

• Album Artwork
• iTunes Library.itl
• iTunes Library.xml
• iTunes Library Extras.itdb
• iTunes Library Genius.itdb

Press and hold down shift as you launch iTunes and browse to the library file E:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl.

Try getting iTunes to repair links using the locate one broken file method.

Use FindTracks to fix anything else. You can use this technique to identify the tracks that are still broken.

Lost & Found Playlists

Create a playlist called Found, select everything in Music and drag it into the Found playlist (it may take some time to count the tracks that are to be dropped - and you must use drag & drop, not add to playlist). 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.

tt2

Hi Again.......nothing has worked :-(

1. Security permissions all OK

2. I do not understand what you mean by "My script copes better with variations in the file paths."

3. Changed advanced preferences not to inc. Music

4. Organize Library>Rearange Files in Folder iTunes Media is now greyed out.???

5. I have moved Files from desktop to E:\iTunes

6. Shift+Start iTunes gave me an options "Choose Library" or " Create Library" I chose Choose Library and directed it to the .itl file that I had moved to E:\iTunes

7. Run the locate one file......I can find song in the E:\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music ...but iTunes cannot find all the missing songs [worse still it now says cannot find 23,000 trax, it was 20,000 before???] iTunes see's all the trax 66,368 [I have been transferring my large vinyl collection]

8. I do not understand what you mean by "Use Find Tracks"?

9. I have created a new playlist called FOUND and dragged trax to it .  [ [got  a msg say did I want to transfer duplicates , I said NO....??? there are only 42,392 trax in FOUND] I dragged Music again with into a new Found playlist but it still contains  only 42,392 trax
I have created a Smart Playlist [All + Playlist is Music + Playlist is not Found] There is nothing in the Smart Playlist [which I named Lost] I have never used the Smart Playlist before, so I hope I did it correct>>>> Clicked "+" ["Al"l came up and was ticked] I did not touch the 1st  two blocks, in the 3rd blocks I entered the selection criteria]

1. Good.
2. See this post for some background on the script.
3. Good.
4. OK, this means that folder already had a .iTunes Preferences.plist file in it set up for the newer layout so the option is now no longer available. For good housekeeping delete the one in E:\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music if it is still there.
5. Good.
6. Good.
7. That's annoying, although given that it wasn't managing before perhaps not entirely expected.
8. I was referring to my FindTracks script as mentioned earlier. This has been evolving over a few years and is usually able to locate tracks that iTunes won't. I am also able to extend it if needed to work with a peculiarity of a particular person's library.
9. The number of found tracks seems sensible, though I'm not sure why you would have been questioned about adding duplicates. The rules of the Lost smart playlist should look like this:
   
   It should show all of the things that are in the main Music playlist that are not also in the Found playlist, being the remaining tracks that iTunes currently cannot find. I would expect it to contain 66,368 - 42,392 = 23,976 items.

tt2

Hi....Yes I have all the missing trax  23,936 in the new Smart Playlist "Lost"........ I was not setting it up correct

What should I do now?

Download the FindTracks script. Select a small sample of tracks, e.g. an album from the Lost playlist. Double-click on the script to run it. Follow the prompts. Your media folder, if it guesses wrong, is E:\iTunes\iTunes Media. If it works as it is supposed to, select a larger group and let it fix those. Depending on various security settings and your choices at run time you may get a progress bar, If you don't then use smaller groups as you'll get no feedback when the script is running and you'll worry if it is still running or has silently crashed. If it still cannot locate missing tracks then we can dig deeper.

tt2

I think it is working :-)

The Script is slowly going thru the missing 24,000 trax

I did highlight an album and it found the trax [did not find 1]....however it continued thru the playlist "lost" and has found 40 odd so far....Yipee

Shall I leave it running all night?

I would have perhaps broken the task up into smaller chunks, particularly if you don't get a progress bar, but yes, you can leave it running. When it is done you can remove the files from the Found playlist and then repopulate it to find out what is still lost. Depending on the numbers you can fix by hand, or clean up the files that are really missing, or if there is systematic reason why the script fails to find a certain group of tracks I could perhaps tweak it for you.

tt2

Good morning.....you are unbelievably helpful.....I wish I could hand over my PC to you

The script ran for 14hrs.........processed 10,279 of 66,375 ..... Alas only 10%, 1004 were updated [3 skipped & 16 missing]

Looking at the ones processed [I am assuming it is doing so alphabetically by artist as that is the view in iTunes???] It looks to be updating those with an Album as the source [ie Greatest Hits] [does it look up an album on the internet?] the vast majority of trax not updated but processed are where I have entered manually a title under Album [ie Motown 1234 ] can this be tweaked?

OK, the first thing is to preselect tracks from the Lost playlist for fixing. That avoids going over the same ground. If/when a group of tracks has been fixed you can drag them into Found which will update Lost.

The script only connects to iTunes, it doesn't process the media files themselves nor does it connect to the internet.

Pick one of the tracks that haven't been repaired. It would be useful to have the following details to see what might be going wrong:

1. Album Artist
2. Artist
3. Album
4. Disc Number
5. Track Number
6. Song Name
7. Path shown in iTunes Get Info
8. True path in Windows Explorer

My script has access to the tag information, which it uses to predict possible locations for the track, based not only on the way iTunes would lay things out, but also allowing for misspellings, truncated filenames, omitted disc & track numbers, flatter folder structures, etc. however it is most effective if the layout matches the general <Media Folder>\Music\<Album Artist>\<Album>\## <Name>.<Ext> form. If you turned off iTunes option to keep the media folder organized and then made major changes to the properties then the expected locations based on the tags won't match the original unchanged paths.

You mention that it is "updating those with an Album as the source [ie Greatest Hits]". Does this mean that a large proportion of the lost tracks have incomplete metadata, or metadata that isn't reflected in the path? In iTunes every track should really have properties 1-6 above filled in, although Album Artist will be inferred from Artist if blank and blank disc numbers are OK for single disc albums.

If it turns out that it is going to be too difficult to make FindTracks work with the files in their current locations then an alternative approach would be to first close iTunes, make a backup copy of the iTunes Library.itl file, open iTunes, check the options Keep & Copy are enabled, use File > Add Folder to Library to import the media folder which would import duplicates, but arrange them in the standard form according to their tags, then close iTunes, restore the backed up version of the iTunes Library.itl file and then try iTunes self-repair mechanism again.  Again the success of such an approach depends in part on consistent metadata.

Yet another approach would be to use my DeDuper script instead of restoring the pre-import .itl file. If your library contains many duplicates you may want to run this script at some point anyway.

tt2

Hi I am tinkering around with selecting Album groups at the moment [all with the same name, which I have previously inserted manually]

So far it has found 100% with groups ranging in size from 500 to 60.......I will press on with these groups for the next few days

"Pick one of the tracks that haven't been repaired. It would be useful to have the following details to see what might be going wrong:"

1. Album Artist...........I do not normally use this tag........at least not knowingly [I dunno what it is meant to be!]
2. Artist......yes
3. Album........yes
4. Disc Number......no
5. Track Number........sometimes
6. Song Name.........yes
7. Path shown in iTunes "Get Info".......File://localhost/c:/users/beastie/desktop/itunes media/music/Volumes/Complete Motown Singles vol-8-CD2/24 Ain't that lovin' you2.mp3......this is as I gave you before.....they are all pointing at the same address in my "C" drive up to the artist that is, all that I have checked have 2.mpg3 on the end???
8. True path in Windows Explorer.I dunno what you mean..... all I have located manually are on my external drive in Music
9. The following are the usual tags/info I have } Genre+size+length in Min.+Bit Rate+Sample Rate+Date Modified+Date loaded+Plays+Last Played?+Volume+Group+Where [as above in 7......there maybe a tag for Ratings[not important]

I will continue with the same groups of Album names.........and maybe try a small mixed Album batch...... which would be mainly my Singles [ie. 7" 45rpm Discs]

Album Artist is the name of the artist, group, ensemble, etc. that released the album. This may be the same as the artist for each individual track but it isn't necessarily so. Think compilations, collaborations, guest or featured artists, etc. A common Album Artist will link things together in iTunes. iTunes will use Album Artist in preference to Artist if it is in charge of moving files about.

My assumption from above is that

1. Album Artist = <Blank>
2. Artist = Volumes
3. Album = Complete Motown Singles vol-8-CD2
4. Disc No. = <Nothing> or 2
5. Track No. = 24 (or 23? - Earlier you said "Missing Track is in} E:\new iTunes media [use this one]\music\Volumes\Complete Motown Singles vol-8-CD2\23 Ain't that lovin' You")
6. Name = Ain't that lovin' You or Ain't that lovin' you2 ?
7. iTunes Path = file://localhost/c:/users/beastie/desktop/itunes media/music/Volumes/Complete Motown Singles vol-8-CD2/24 Ain't that lovin' you2.mp3
8. Windows Explorer Path = E:\iTunes Media\Music\Volumes\Complete Motown Singles vol-8-CD2\23 Ain't that lovin' You.mp3 ?

For completeness I should have asked for the value of the compilation flag. iTunes would normally store tracks marked as part of a compilation in <Media Folder>\Music\Compilations\<Album>\## <Name>.<Ext> form. However since my script checks both alternatives I don't need that information.

I've just created a dummy track with the same properties as above, then moved it into an equivalent location to break iTunes connection to it. The FindTracks script was able to relink the file when it was told to search in E:\iTunes\iTunes Media, so I'm not sure why it has failed for you.

tt2

I am not sure why the script "appears" to not be working too well. I am pressing on in smaller batches of selected  Albums and the strike rate is very good so far

The problem with bigger batches is [ [I think] that the script stops when it finds say a duplicate waiting for my imput...... or does it carry on with other lost items?

The overall problem may be something to do with "Album Artist" I do not use this, it may get completed if I have downloaded from the net or from a CD, but a lot of my songs are from vinyl and a lot of the info is entered manually

But why is iTunes looking in C drive........ could this be something to do with me backing up incorrectly?

Is there a way to say to all those missing with a [ ! ] that are in C drive to put in the external drive [which incidently is G not E [ my error]