Moved iTunes Library following 'split-library' move. Now itunes cant locate songs

Hi there,

Let start with my general boilerplate for this sort of issue:

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.

From what you've said so far it seems you've probably moved the iTunes Media folder independently to your G: drive. Ideally you would have moved the iTunes folder, then held shift when starting iTunes and used the choose library option to access the library at G:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl. Reinstalling iTunes and telling it to put the software on the G: drive (not advised) doesn't affect where iTunes will look for the library, neither will double-clicking a .itl file even though it might cause iTunes to open.

From your first shot it seems that track used to be stored at:

C:\Users\Casey\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\Future & Metro Boomin\WE STILL DON'T TRUST YOU\1-02 Drink N Dance.m4a

is going to be somewhere on your G: drive, perhaps at:

G:\iTunes Media\Music\Future & Metro Boomin\WE STILL DON'T TRUST YOU\1-02 Drink N Dance.m4a

Knowing the exact location would help refine my advice, but as long as you still have the file somewhere and can locate it should be possible to manipulate the library back into a working state. If I'm right and you moved the iTunes Media folder independently then I suggest you move the iTunes folder from your C: drive to G: as G:\iTunes, then move the iTunes Media folder that you already copied to the drive into G:\iTunes as G:\iTunes\iTunes Media (merge with the folder that is already there), then launch iTunes with the shift key held down, click Choose Library, and open G:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl. Hopefully you will find that your music plays as before.

tt2

Fine. Not sure what you might have done exactly, but with purchases you can select as a batch, right-click, then use Remove Download to remove the reference to the missing local copies, then right-click again to Download those same items to your current media folder. Or you can allow them to steam from the cloud if you don't want to download them.

See Hide and unhide music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and books - Apple Support in case you've inadvertently hidden any of your purchases at some point.

tt2

Surely you copied the files as they were from one place to another, rather than deleting anything? If you search the whole computer for say 05 H.Y.B. (feat. Central Cee).m4a does Windows Explorer find it for you? If so what is the full path? If not do you have these files on any other drive, computer, or device they might potentially be recovered from? Do you have a subscription to Apple Music, or iTunes Match, or is it only purchased media that you need to retrieve?

Leftfield thought. Did you buy your external drive from a reputable brand/vendor? There are some bargain drives that claim to have much larger capacity than they really do and just throw away older files as space runs out.

tt2

You stated that you copied the music to your external drive, correct? When you select "locate" you need to find the actual file (which you moved to the external drive). However you copied the music, your library does not know that the file is on the external drive, it is still looking on the C drive. I suspect that you just copied the music outside of the app.

Your music is still pointing to the C drive. Next time, select locate and point to the file. That should fix your issue

You’re welcome. 🙂

tt2