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Apple Music won't find "missing" songs - file path issue

I saw this recent question and answer: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251382996?answerId=252692078022#252692078022


However, my issue goes beyond that. I've done as recommended and found that for some reason unbeknownst to me, Apple Music believes that some of my songs are under file path ...iTunes/Music/[band]/[album]/[song] (which is correct) and others are under file path ...iTunes/Music/Music/[band]/[album]/[song]. Duplicate "Music" folders. This is not and has never been the case, i.e. I did not create a second Music folder nest.


The songs it believes are in the Music x2 folder are totally at random, and the songs don't show the (!) until after I've clicked on them. Is there anyway to fix this for the Music x2 songs aside from clicking on every one of my thousands of songs to see which folder they're in and manually fixing them all?


Thanks in advance for your help.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jul 18, 2020 10:25 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jul 19, 2020 4:29 AM

Modern (post iTunes 8) libraries typically put artist folders in <Media Folder>/Music. If you're seeing Music (the app) suggest that a tracks should be found in .../iTunes/Music/Music then the chances are that you've incorrectly declared .../iTunes/Music to be the media folder when .../iTunes is the more logical path given the stated location of some of your tracks. Setting the right media folder might be enough to fix things. Otherwise read on...




The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes or Music expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, the drive it lives on has had a name change, or you've moved a non-portable library to a different path (see Make a split library portable for details). It is also possible that iTunes or Music have changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place, or that you've been too aggressive when deleting duplicates at some point.


Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Cmd-I to get Song Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location the library thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drives. Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive label has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case. If everything is where it is supposed to be try Repair security permissions for iTunes for Mac - Apple Community.


In some cases the library may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info, or when playing a track, but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" I think it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout they were in previously, with one systematic change to the path.


If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

  1. The location of the media folder under iTunes|Music > Preferences > Advanced
  2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Song Info > File > Location that begins file://
  3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2



See also FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music - Apple Community.



tt2

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6 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jul 19, 2020 4:29 AM in response to fifdude

Modern (post iTunes 8) libraries typically put artist folders in <Media Folder>/Music. If you're seeing Music (the app) suggest that a tracks should be found in .../iTunes/Music/Music then the chances are that you've incorrectly declared .../iTunes/Music to be the media folder when .../iTunes is the more logical path given the stated location of some of your tracks. Setting the right media folder might be enough to fix things. Otherwise read on...




The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes or Music expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, the drive it lives on has had a name change, or you've moved a non-portable library to a different path (see Make a split library portable for details). It is also possible that iTunes or Music have changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place, or that you've been too aggressive when deleting duplicates at some point.


Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Cmd-I to get Song Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location the library thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drives. Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive label has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case. If everything is where it is supposed to be try Repair security permissions for iTunes for Mac - Apple Community.


In some cases the library may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info, or when playing a track, but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" I think it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout they were in previously, with one systematic change to the path.


If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

  1. The location of the media folder under iTunes|Music > Preferences > Advanced
  2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Song Info > File > Location that begins file://
  3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2



See also FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music - Apple Community.



tt2

Jul 19, 2020 12:54 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks, tt2. I don't know much about script, but maybe that'll end up being the solution.


I recently moved my music from one external disk drive that was failing over to a SSD. I'm sure that's part of the problem. I don't know why it would think that some songs would be in /Music/Music and some would just be in /Music, though.


  1. Location of the media folder under iTunes|Music > Preferences > Advanced: /NF [this is the external SSD] /Nathan/Seagate drive [this is the copied folder from the old malfunctioning external drive] /iTunes/Music
  2. Location of a sample missing track shown under Song Info > File > Location: file:///Volumes/NF/Nathan/Seagate drive/iTunes/Music/Music/[artist]/[album]/[song title.m4a]
  3. The true path to the file whose details I gave in 2: file:///Volumes/NF/Nathan/Seagate drive/iTunes/Music/[artist]/[album]/[song title.m4a]


When I Locate and browse for the lost track, and it asks if I want to use that location to find other missing tracks, it doesn't seem to search above that one folder. That is, it finds all the other songs from that single album, but nothing above the album folder.


The tracks all worked fine (in terms of where the computer was looking for them) on the old external drive. It was when I moved them to the new SSD that it got confused. I thought I did everything right by changing the Preferences > Advanced path, but I guess not... Should that just be /NF/Nathan/Seagate drive/iTunes (without the /Music)?


Apple Music won't find "missing" songs - file path issue

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