iTunes sees only songs obtained from Apple Store

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iTunes sees only songs obtained from Apple Store

I'm having difficulty setting up my iTunes music library on a new Windows 10 computer. Specifically, iTunes does not "see" all the songs in my iTunes Media folder. Apparently it sees only music I obtained from the Apple Store.

My iTunes Media folder is large, so I have it on an external drive. When I installed iTunes v12.11.13.17 to my new Windows 10 computer, I designated that external drive as my iTunes Media folder location. In the iTunes Library view, however, iTunes now seems to list ONLY the songs I'd downloaded from the Apple Store. NONE of the songs that I'd copied from my CD library (or that I bought from other sources) appear in the Library list. The songs that do appear have a cloud icon with a downward arrow. Those icons appear in the second column.

How can I get iTunes to recognize all the items in the iTunes Media folder on my external drive?

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on May 28, 2022 3:44 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

272,767 points

Jun 7, 2022 3:22 AM in response to Casey Guy

See Identify cloud status icons in your music library on your Mac or PC - Apple Support for more on the status icons. iCloud Music Library is a feature of Apple Music and iTunes Match. Presumably you have a subscription to one of these services. If you'd transferred the library correctly then you wouldn't have duplicates, broken file references, or the need to match/upload content to the cloud. You might want to redo the migration if the library is still available and working on the original computer. Otherwise see Duplicate songs in iTunes - Apple Community for some thoughts on deduping.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

272,767 points

May 28, 2022 5:47 PM in response to Casey Guy

See Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community.

tt2

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Answer 3

Casey Guy Author

Level 1

13 points

Jun 6, 2022 4:02 PM in response to Casey Guy

Thanks to info provided by turingtest2, I've made good progress with the installation of iTunes on a new Windows 10 computer. Apparently, iTunes now recognizes that my iTunes Media folder is on an external drive, rather than on my C: drive in Music > iTunes. I have a few other issues, and would like to get the Apple Community's advice on the best way to proceed.

-1. All my songs show up in the List view. However, some appear twice. Those that appear twice were all originally bought in the iTunes Store. In the listing for each duplicate pair, one has a green cloud icon with a downward arrow. The other duplicate in the pair has a green cloud icon with an exclamation point. I want all my songs to be saved locally, in the iTunes Media folder on my external drive. So which of the dupes should I delete? Or should I even bother deleting?

-2. All songs that I installed from CDs (ie, songs not bought from the iTunes Store) have a green cloud icon with an exclamation point. Should I worry about that?

-3 When I quit iTunes, I get a warning, "Your music is being uploaded to your iCloud Music Library. If you quit now, your upload will be canceled. Are you sure you want to quit?" I was not aware that I even HAVE an iCloud Music Library. Is that something we get from the iTunes Store, to keep track of past purchases? Or is that iCloud storage/backup of my entire 300 GB iTunes Media folder? I don't want to buy any more cloud storage than I'm already buying.

Many thanks for any help the Community can provide.

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Answer 4

Casey Guy Author

Level 1

13 points

May 29, 2022 11:37 AM in response to turingtest2

Many thanks for the details provided in your reply. I'll check them out.

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iTunes sees only songs obtained from Apple Store

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