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What happened to my music?

I just upgraded to the most current version of Catalina and none of my songs will play in the Music app.

I keep getting a message that I need to find the song file!!!!!!!!!@


Mac mini, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 29, 2020 6:51 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 6, 2020 8:00 AM

Hi jpleck,


We understand the Music app is unable to find the file location for songs. We're happy to help.


First you'll want to check that the folder you currently have set as the destination for Music is the folder you have your items stored in. You can check that with these steps:


  1. Open Music.
  2. From the menu bar at the top of the the screen, choose Music > Preferences.
  3. Click the Advanced tab.
  4. Look in the box under "Music Media folder location" for the location of your Music Media folder.


You'll then want to go in to Finder and check to see if that folder is actually the one you have your media files stored in.


If your media files are stored in a different folder, you'll want to change the destination folder to that one in the Music Preferences window. You can find more steps to change your folder location here: Change where your music files are stored on Mac


We hope this helps. Cheers!

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 6, 2020 8:00 AM in response to jpleck

Hi jpleck,


We understand the Music app is unable to find the file location for songs. We're happy to help.


First you'll want to check that the folder you currently have set as the destination for Music is the folder you have your items stored in. You can check that with these steps:


  1. Open Music.
  2. From the menu bar at the top of the the screen, choose Music > Preferences.
  3. Click the Advanced tab.
  4. Look in the box under "Music Media folder location" for the location of your Music Media folder.


You'll then want to go in to Finder and check to see if that folder is actually the one you have your media files stored in.


If your media files are stored in a different folder, you'll want to change the destination folder to that one in the Music Preferences window. You can find more steps to change your folder location here: Change where your music files are stored on Mac


We hope this helps. Cheers!

Oct 15, 2020 4:01 PM in response to jpleck

Hi jpleck,


Thanks for the update! If songs are showing an exclamation point next to them, that means iTunes is unable to find them through the current file path that is set up for them.


Here's the steps you'll need to use to correct the media file path:


  1. In iTunes, select the song, album, movie, or TV show that has the exclamation point next to it.
  2. From the menu bar at the top, choose Edit > Get Info.
  3. When you see a message asking if you want to locate the file, click Locate.
  4. After you recover the file, use Get Info again to locate the file, then point iTunes to the correct location.


If you continue to have issues recovering your music files, you'll want to contact Apple Support directly: Get Support


Take care!

Oct 10, 2020 4:21 PM in response to i_rina

i_rina,

Thank you. I followed your instructions and the files were in the Music Media Folder. They still won't play. Most of the songs have an exclamation point next to them and they want me to "go locate" the songs. I wouldn't mind this for a few songs, but not 0% + of my library. Do you know if there is another solution? Is there a way to sync with the Music Media Folder?

Thanks for your help,

John

What happened to my music?

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