Apple Music App "Missing Files"

This has been asked a few times, but my situation seems to be different. I imported my music library from an external HD time machine backup because I wasn't able to restore via time machine from the backup due to a corruption which was causing a wifi issue. It seemed to work fine, but now iTunes is telling me that 1,000+ songs cannot be found. The problem is that which files can't be found seems to be totally random. An album will have 10 songs, five will be fine, and five will be "not found" when they are all in the same folder/subfolder. The type of file seems to not matter. I can locate them individually just fine, but this will take forever. Can anyone help? If not, can anyone direct me as to how to start again - re-import the library from my time machine backup, while keeping playlists/ratings (on which the playlists are based, etc. - this is 25+ years worth of ripped mp3s and whatnot). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!!!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Mar 13, 2023 7:47 PM

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turingtest2

Level 10

279,581 points

Posted on Mar 14, 2023 9:05 AM

The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks happens if the file is no longer where iTunes or Music 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, the drive it lives on has had a name change, 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 or Music have 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 at some point.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Cmd-I to get Song Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the file tab for the location the library thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drives. Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive label 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 Mac - Apple Community.

In some cases the library 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 you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

The location of the media folder under iTunes|Music > Preferences > Advanced
The location of a sample missing track shown under Song Info > File > Location that begins file://
The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

tt2

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turingtest2

Level 10

279,581 points

Mar 14, 2023 5:40 PM in response to David Schepard

That's OK. If I recall you need to create the Music subfolder, and then the Scripts one inside it. Or you can run the script directly in Script Editor. The menu thing is a nicety. The play button in the script editor will make it run.

tt2

Mar 14, 2023 5:57 PM in response to turingtest2

I had a very bad experience with Apple Music a few months ago, during a free trial. After trying to do the "sync with the cloud" thing (I forget what it is called), it messed up my playlists, I couldn't get it to sync to my computer correctly, etc.

The m4a vs. mp3 thing is extra weird, because ALL of the songs in the folder are m4a, and the app only thinks some are missing. And they were all imported together from a CD, if I remember right.

Mar 17, 2023 2:25 PM in response to turingtest2

That helped. We got all the songs from that album located... Still a ton that it could not find, though... When it asks me where to search, do I tell it the folder that directly contains all of the artist folders?

Oh, the number thing WAS there before the file name. Here's a couple more randomly selected songs that haven't been found.

Nirvana - About A Girl

Kind - MPEG audio file

location file:///Users/davidschepard/Music/Music 1/Media.localized/Nirvana/Greatest Hits/02 About A Girl.mp3

Actual path: /Users/davidschepard/Music/Music 1/Media.localized/Music/Nirvana/Greatest Hits/1-02 About A Girl.m4a

There are a bunch I'm looking at that have that "1-" in front of the file name. This just get curiouser and curiouser. I also am finding that songs from albums I purchased on iTunes have disappeared. Like, some of the songs from the album are there, others are not...

Should I just clear everything off, and try re-importing my library from the time machine backup? If so, could you help me do that so I don't **** off the Gods?

Thanks so much again!

Mar 17, 2023 2:34 PM in response to turingtest2

Wow, I just checked my old backup, and the songs that I am missing from the album I was looking at that I purchased on iTunes are right there where they are supposed to be. Clearly, something went really wrong when I tried bringing back my library from my Time Machine Drive without using the "Restore From Time Machine" backup. Should I try it again? If so, can you help me do it correctly?

Thanks!

Mar 17, 2023 7:36 PM in response to turingtest2

OK, maybe you can help me a little bit more... I erased the old library, and all the files. I plugged in my external drive with the time machine backup and used your directions in another thread to have the Music App open the old library. It did so successfully. But none of the files have transferred over from my external HD, despite going to "settings" and giving the non-external HD as the new Music Media Folder location, making sure the "Keep Music Media Organized" and "Copy files to music media folder when adding to library" are clicked on, and answering "yes" to the follow up question. The files still play when the external drive is connected. What am I not doing? Do I need to bring the actual music files over manually? Thanks again!

Mar 18, 2023 6:38 AM in response to turingtest2

The library I directed Music too was /Volumes/TOSHIBA EXT/Backups.backupdb/David’s MacBook Pro/2023-01-15-151417/Macintosh HD/Users/david/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl

The files are collected in /Volumes/TOSHIBA EXT/Backups.backupdb/David’s MacBook Pro/2023-01-15-151417/Macintosh HD/Users/david/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music

If I just copy the entire folder which contains both the above library and files: /Volumes/TOSHIBA EXT/Backups.backupdb/David’s MacBook Pro/2023-01-15-151417/Macintosh HD/Users/david/Music/iTunes

and copy it to my computer's HDD: /Users/davidschepard

(note that the username is different, does that matter?)

and then direct the Music app to the now copied library.itl file, will that work?

I don't see any .musiclibrary or Media.localized anywhere, but that could just be me being an idiot.

Thanks yet again!

turingtest2

Level 10

279,581 points

Mar 18, 2023 8:11 PM in response to David Schepard

You're welcome. 🙂

Once you've fixed those you might want to look at my earlier recommendation of the user tip Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community which shows how to finish the conversion of the legacy iTunes layout to the Music format.

tt2

Mar 16, 2023 4:41 PM in response to turingtest2

Is there a chance the script could be made to work? Is there anything I can do (aside from just clicking each song individually)? Thanks again for all your continued help.

Mar 18, 2023 12:03 PM in response to turingtest2

OMG, I think it worked!!! It looks like I'm now down to 14 unlocated songs!!! Thank you SO SO SO much for all your help. I'll let you know if something goes wrong from here. Thanks again!

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Apple Music App "Missing Files"