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Apple Music has the wrong locations for some of my files - how can i clean them up?

Hi! I have a large collection on Apple Music (~53K songs), and am trying to move it to a new location (by having "keep my library organized" and using "consolidate my library" to bring it all to a new location). But it seems I was only partially successful, as some songs show up with the exclamation mark icon next to them, and an invalid location when I click on "Get Info" - to illustrate:


This is a song on the right location post consolidation:

  • /Candle/Music/Music/Media/Music/Army of Lovers/Massive Luxury Overdose/02 Crucified.m4p


But other songs show the file location as this:

  • file:///Volumes/Candle/Music/Music/Media/Music/Army of Lovers/Massive Luxury Overdose/02 Crucified.m4p


Yet still, some songs show this third scenario which is really weird:

  • /Candle/Music/Music/Media/Apple Music

(Yes, just a folder, no actual file location -- other songs in the same album point to the same path)


And some songs show a file size on the list view, but are really in cloud (and thus streaming)


Feels like a lot is going on. What can I do to address these? I do have all the files, just need to do some serious mass editing, maybe with a regular expression.

Mac mini, macOS 15.1

Posted on Nov 12, 2024 7:41 PM

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4 replies

Nov 13, 2024 2:06 AM in response to roman_rm

Content downloaded from the Apple Music service is placed in the Apple Music folder in the standard /<Artist>/<Album>/## <Name>.<Ext> layout, but this detail is omitted from the Song Info display. This is normal. You cannot use these files except through Apple Music. They cannot be imported into a different library, even when that is using the same Apple ID.


File size is displayed for tracks in the cloud, presumably so you can decide if you have enough space to download a selection for local playback/offline use.


A leading file:///Volumes indicates a track that cannot be accessed at the precise path that follows. This is the expected or last known location of that track. Check carefully to see if there is a discrepancy. More on this topic...


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, (see the iTunes Media Organization section of Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for details) 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:

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



See also FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music - Apple Community.



tt2

Nov 18, 2024 8:34 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you! was trying to reply yesterday, but now Apple Music is not quite loading. When I started, it gets stuck with the message "Updating Cloud Music Library" on the bottom left, and the cursor turns to the spinning colorwheel when I hover anywhere over the app.


I tried logging out of my apple account on my mac, restarted and started Apple Music - did not get this problem but also many of my songs did not play. I logged back into my apple account, and it went to the same error. I tried giving it some time, but it'd been doing this for about 28 hours (for a collection of 53K songs). Is it supposed to be taking this long? it's never done this before.

Nov 20, 2024 11:19 PM in response to turingtest2

I tried this, apple music displayed a dialog box confirming i was starting in safe mode, and it said on top that Sync Library was off. However, it also got stuck with the message "loading" in the center of the window, and the cursor turning into the spinning colorwheel while over the app. Do I need to remove apple music and reinstall it? My collection should be mostly in iCloud. if I do that what i'll need to check are incorrectly matched songs that i'll need to replace with the right file (which I have) - i have a fair amount of rare mixes and versions which sometimes apple music matches as the standard version of the song.

Apple Music has the wrong locations for some of my files - how can i clean them up?

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