Music on Match is not syncing to PC only iPad and iPhone

The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes 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, or the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter, 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 has 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. See Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely if you're trying to access your media with any other media players.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive letter 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 Windows.

In some cases iTunes 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 another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files, or the library has been moved from OS X to Windows, then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works. It might need some tweaking if your media is in a non-standard layout.

If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

1. The location of the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced
2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Get Info > File > Location that begins file://localhost/
3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

Note the addition of file://localhost/ (and the flipped direction of slashes in Windows) is normal for a file that isn't quite where iTunes is expecting to find it.

tt2

That message typically appears because iTunes can no longer find the file for the song. This can happen if you (or another programme) moves, renames or deletes the file, or the path to the file after it has been added to your iTunes Library. I'm not too familiar with Apple Match, but basically, the message is still saying the same thing; that it cannot find the source file.

So - have you moved, renamed or deleted the file that you downloaded, after it was seen by your iTunes Library? Did you actually download it, or did you link to an online version that is no longer available (perhaps because you're no longer online)?

If you did any of the above, either reverse the process, or locate the revised version that you created, or download it again.

steenrocks wrote:

@turingtest2

My private library that I had on my PC was first uploaded to Apple Match, then I deleted all music files from my PC.

The thing is that my Apple devices (iTunes) were able to find my private music collection on Apple Match and sync it. This is not happening on my PC.

In other words only my Apple devices are syncing music on my iTunes with what I have on Match, but my iTunes on the PC is NOT syncing with Match.

I will assume iCloud Music Library is enabled in iTunes preferences.

If you want to use iTunes Match or Apple Music to free up local storage you're supposed to select tracks in your library, right-click, and use the Remove Download option, not manually delete files using Windows Explorer. The library still thinks tracks are where they were last known to be. You can use the Remove Download option now to server the link to the missing file, after which you should be able to stream tracks from the cloud, or download them again should you wish.

Ideally you would keep locally downloaded copies of all your music on at least one computer or external drive as a resource in case you accidentally remove something from the cloud library in error and need to be able to restore it.

tt2

Did you try selecting some tracks, then right-clicking? I think the Remove Download option should be listed unless all tracks in the selection are known to be in the cloud.

tt2

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2