Fix Broken File Path Locations for iTunes Library

Hi,

Apologies for the delay in my reply. Work got incredibly busy leaving no time for my hobby helping here. I did have a half composed reply the other day but that got lost in a reboot so I shall have to start over.

The script as written is designed to find tracks in the following general layout:

<Media Folder>\[Music\]\<Artist>\<Album>\[D-]## <Name>.<Ext>

Where artist is album artist if present, or artist if present, or Unknown Artist if both are blank, or Compilations if part of a complication is set. The script can handle certain inconsistencies, such as missing track numbers, or a dash between the track number and the track name, etc. If a perfect match cannot be found the script can also use a fuzzy matching algorithm which can sometimes help if third party software has been used to edit tags and rename files. It should also cope when the usual structure has been flattened as it searches, the media folder, possible artist folders, and possible album folders within those. When it consistently fails then a new search pattern needs to be defined.

You've described your layout thus:

Z:\Audio\Albums\Commercial\Artist\[Year] Boxset Name\Disc 1 Boxset Album Name\Song Name.mp3

Are each of the parts of this either static, or derived from data in the tag? Could you perhaps show me a few concrete examples so that I could replicate the layout at my end, and then tweak the script such that it can successfully relink tracks in that layout?

tt2

Hi. Unfortunately iTunes doesn't report the old path when it cannot see the file there, so it isn't as simple as doing a search and replace via a script. Those values are available in an exported XML version of the library, but reimporting an edited version of the XML would reset all of the date added information for each track. If you had let iTunes, or a suitable script, manage the transfer of the files to a new location then that would have worked too, or if you had the library in a portable layout where there is a library folder (normally iTunes) with the .itl file and all media is inside a subfolder of the library folder called iTunes Media that too could have survived a manual relocation to a new drive or path. After the fact it is a little more complicated.

Looking at your examples, admittedly without the benefit of seeing all of the tag metadata, I suspect tweaking my FindTracks script wouldn't be that easy, even though you are clearly familiar with your layout. An alternative approach, somewhat manual, might be to take an exported XML version of your library, use a text editor to perform the necessary search and replace operations on the location properties, and then use the XML file to construct a suitable input file for my Exportmport script. This would require another script to process the XML, extract the GUIDs and local paths, and produce an output file with the corrections to apply to your library.

tt2