iTunes is looking for the wrong mp3 file

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Level 1

4 points

iTunes is looking for the wrong mp3 file

Hi, I've run out of things to try, I'm looking for some help.

Windows 7 Computer, 5000+ songs on my itunes.

My computer is running a bit slow, but I still use it for a few things (like syncing my phone to my itunes).

I was hoping to get it to run a bit faster, so I decided to put my itunes library on my NAS drive. I tried to follow a tutorial to make sure things went smoothly, but apparently I made a mistake when I tried to consolidate the library- it made a copy of every single song, as in "Song Title.mp3" and "Song Title 1.mp3"

Since that effectively doubled the size of my music folder, I tried to start over again. I deleted the folder from my nas drive and reloaded the folder from my computer. However, now all the songs in my itunes library are looking for the copy file.

My entire library shows up with the error exclamation mark. When I select control+i, the path it's looking for is correct, but each song is looking for the "Song Title 1.mp3" file instead of the "Song Title.mp3" file. Is there any way I can correct this?

Thank you!

Posted on May 4, 2022 9:59 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

274,192 points

May 4, 2022 10:11 AM in response to exceltea

Ideally you would have made a backup of your .itl file before making the change. Consolidating shouldn't make copies of files that already exist in the media folder, unless perhaps it doesn't recognize the exact pathnames for reasons. A casing error might do it for example, or you'd copied the files over manually and then tried to consolidate from local storage.

See FindTracks for a script that may be able to make the repairs.

iTunes will perform better with media stored locally, or an an external drive, than it will when content is on a NAS. I'd generally recommend external for the primary copy of a library, which can then be backed up to NAS for security. See Make a split library portable - Apple Community for more.

tt2

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