iTunes library disappeared, how to recover

tcphoto1 wrote:

Apologies if it's been asked multiple times but I've searched and cannot find a solution. I rarely listen to music on my computer but use my iPhone and iPad regularly. I went to listen to my music on iTunes and every song said it cannot locate the song. I use Time Machine every week and have looked at it trying to restore but it's a bit confusing. I have bought music through the iTunes Store and copied my CD's into the library. There is no issue on the devices but nowhere to be found on my MBP running OS 11.1. Suggestions would be appreciated.

Usually the songs would be somewhere on your computer, or could be recovered from Time Machine if it had been backing up your iTunes or Music folder. Had you moved your media to an external drive? Or have you copied the Music folder to a new computer, but not the old iTunes Media folder it was dependent 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

Greetings tcphoto1,

We understand that you are having some difficulty with your iTunes library, and we'd like to help. You can learn how to locate and switch between iTunes libraries here:

Use multiple libraries in Music on Mac

Take care.

tcphoto1,

Thanks for the update. You can learn how to locate where your content is stored here:

Change where your music files are stored on Mac

If any issues remain after completing those steps, Contact Apple Support for further assistance.

Take care.

If it isn't possible to track down a source of your media files on this computer, Time Machine, or a previous computer see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device - Apple Community.

tt2