How do I find my ripped music and put in my library?

Thanks for following up, k8scott.

When you add music to your iTunes library, it is either ripped from CDs to the .ACC format and added to your iTunes library, or it is converted from .MP3s to .ACC and added to the iTunes library. In both cases, iTunes is not a backup of the original source files, just a conversion to a format that can be played on your Apple devices.

In the case of CDs, the actual CD may be the original unless you exported the songs as .MP3s and stored them elsewhere. In the case of .MP3s, whether from your CDs or downloaded in another fashion, those would remain in whichever folder or hard drive you had them stored prior to importing them into iTunes. To add them back, all you would need to do is follow the steps we provided in our last message to import the music from these locations.

If the folder or drive has been deleted, or if no folder was ever made, you may need to look for a backup to recover the library. You didn't mention if you were on a Mac or Windows PC, but on a Mac you can Recover all your files from a Time Machine backup. If you're using a Windows PC, Microsoft offers guidance on their support page to restore your device to a previous version before the library went missing: Back up and restore your PC.

If you don't have any backups, or any backups containing the missing library, and you don't have any original .MP3s you can import, you may need to rip the CDs manually to recover your music.

(Alternately, you may want to consider subscribing to Apple Music as a way to avoid processing a large number of CDs, as you would have access to the entire Apple Music catalog with a subscription and can focus on only ripping CDs that aren't included in the catalog).

Hope that helps.

Take care.

Thanks for reaching out, k8scott.

It sounds like you had a number of songs in your music library that have disappeared, and you want to know how to get them back. We can help.

While it isn't clear on which device you had your music collection stored, if any content has been removed from iTunes or the Music app, you'll want to import them back from your collection.

If you are using a Windows PC, check out How to add items to iTunes on PC and if you're using a Mac, you can try Import music from a computer to Music on Mac. Once you've imported your music collection, you can sync with your device of choice.

Hope that helps.

Take care.