I had to restore iTunes from a back up recently, and almost half my songs have the little exclamation point next to them because iTunes cant locate them. All the "missing" music is definitely in the media folder but I can't get iTunes to find / locate them in one go, it requires clicking every missing song individually and show iTunes the location.
Is there a way to force iTunes to scan / re-scan the media file for the missing songs?
Good news, I've found a way..
This happens if you have renamed or moved the file containing the song outside of iTunes, or you have edited the song info within iTunes and didnt have the options to keep the iTunes Media Folder organised and the option to add new musicto iTunes Media Folder selected.
To recover the missing music-
Right-click a missing song and click 'song info'. Click the tab that says files and it will show the last known location of the song. Check a few of the other missing songs. If it looks like most are in files within the same location, or in 2 or 3 locations, this will work.
Start by backing up iTunes before you start by copy and pasting the iTunes folder to another location.
**If the location doesn't exist anymore, scroll down for instructions to create a temporary folder to use.
If you still have the folder location with missing files, open iTunes click the 'edit' tab, select 'preferences' then select 'Advanced'.
Ensure you have backed up iTunes.
ENSURE the boxes that to keep iTunes Media Folder organised, and to add new music to the iTunes Media File automatically are selected before you start. This is crucial.
Note the location of the current media file. Click the Reset button next to the window, , the folder will reset to the default location. Then click the Change button and choose the location back to the current media file. Click 'OK'. A dialogue box should appear showing the library being updated. iTunes will then ask if you want to organise the media file loctaion, click 'Y.
This ensures your current media folder matches all the media in iTunes you don't end up with more missing files.
Close and re-open iTunes so that the changes were saved.
Now repeat the above process, edit>preferenes>advanced, ENSURE the 'keep iTunes Media Folder organised' and 'add music automatically to iTunes Media Folder' boxes are checked. Click Change, but this time change the path to the folder to where the missing songs were located. Click OK. This will force iTunes to update the library with the missing songs in that location. Say Yes to organise the media folder.
Now all you have to do is change the Media folder location back to the original location, using the same process. The library should update again, forcing iTunes to bulk transfer all the missing files from the previous location to the current location and doesnt change and song data like date modified / date created etc.
If you had more then one folder with missing files, keep repeating the process until complete.
If that was the only folder with missing music, you should see most or all the missing songs are now "found', so long as the missing files were definitely in that location and the path name wasn't changed. Close and open iTunes to save the cahnges.
**If you check the song info, and the path locations are for a media file location that doesnt exist because the name was changed, go to windows explorer, in any location you choose, create a new folder with the old path location. This folder will temporarily hold your media files so ensure there is enough space to accomodate. Now go to the location that contains the files for the missing songs. Highlight all the files and copy and paste to the new folder.
Now you can use the process above to transfer all the missing files in iTunes. Then just copy and paste the files from the temporary folder back to the location it came from and delete the empty folder.
Good news, I've found a way..
This happens if you have renamed or moved the file containing the song outside of iTunes, or you have edited the song info within iTunes and didnt have the options to keep the iTunes Media Folder organised and the option to add new musicto iTunes Media Folder selected.
To recover the missing music-
Right-click a missing song and click 'song info'. Click the tab that says files and it will show the last known location of the song. Check a few of the other missing songs. If it looks like most are in files within the same location, or in 2 or 3 locations, this will work.
Start by backing up iTunes before you start by copy and pasting the iTunes folder to another location.
**If the location doesn't exist anymore, scroll down for instructions to create a temporary folder to use.
If you still have the folder location with missing files, open iTunes click the 'edit' tab, select 'preferences' then select 'Advanced'.
Ensure you have backed up iTunes.
ENSURE the boxes that to keep iTunes Media Folder organised, and to add new music to the iTunes Media File automatically are selected before you start. This is crucial.
Note the location of the current media file. Click the Reset button next to the window, , the folder will reset to the default location. Then click the Change button and choose the location back to the current media file. Click 'OK'. A dialogue box should appear showing the library being updated. iTunes will then ask if you want to organise the media file loctaion, click 'Y.
This ensures your current media folder matches all the media in iTunes you don't end up with more missing files.
Close and re-open iTunes so that the changes were saved.
Now repeat the above process, edit>preferenes>advanced, ENSURE the 'keep iTunes Media Folder organised' and 'add music automatically to iTunes Media Folder' boxes are checked. Click Change, but this time change the path to the folder to where the missing songs were located. Click OK. This will force iTunes to update the library with the missing songs in that location. Say Yes to organise the media folder.
Now all you have to do is change the Media folder location back to the original location, using the same process. The library should update again, forcing iTunes to bulk transfer all the missing files from the previous location to the current location and doesnt change and song data like date modified / date created etc.
If you had more then one folder with missing files, keep repeating the process until complete.
If that was the only folder with missing music, you should see most or all the missing songs are now "found', so long as the missing files were definitely in that location and the path name wasn't changed. Close and open iTunes to save the cahnges.
**If you check the song info, and the path locations are for a media file location that doesnt exist because the name was changed, go to windows explorer, in any location you choose, create a new folder with the old path location. This folder will temporarily hold your media files so ensure there is enough space to accomodate. Now go to the location that contains the files for the missing songs. Highlight all the files and copy and paste to the new folder.
Now you can use the process above to transfer all the missing files in iTunes. Then just copy and paste the files from the temporary folder back to the location it came from and delete the empty folder.
Missing songs in iTunes Library
