iTunes keeps moving files to wrong directory

Do you have your external connected before launching iTunes? If not, the library location will default to the internal drive...and it will not change back unless you reset it in the preferences.

PT wrote:
So likely you have added tracks after you have accidentally done an iTunes start without ext. drive mounted.

if that's the case, simply go iTunes > preferences > advanced and point +*iTunes media folder location+* back to the proper location.

next, file > library > organize library > consolidate files

assuming you have +*copy files to ... when adding to library+* check marked in preferences > advanced, this will copy all files (not currently in the +media folder+ location set above) to the specified location. when done, you may delete the original files from your local iTunes media folder (to free up space on your startup disk).

J GG

I just had this same problem. I was keeping my iTunes library on an external hard drive. I was fine for months/maybe a year. Then I noticed the exclamation point (indicating a song was no longer in the right place). I found that it was moving some random files/songs to the root drive of my computer.

So then I tried putting everything on my computer to avoid the "external hard drive" and it still does it. I even moved the location in iTunes to be the typical place (Music folder/default). It again moved files to the root.

Let me know if you figured out a way to solve this.

Happened to me too... Seems like this is a glitch that should be fixed by Apple... So, rather than change the directory of each of the 8,000+ songs back to the location of the ext hard drive, I guess it's best to delete the entire library and reload them from the ext HD?

I figured this out. Not sure if it's the same problem or solution for others, but definitely wanted to share what I found.

Initially I had moved the songs from my hard drive back to my computer. I have 30 Gig, so that was a pain. The problem still occurred. Then I figured it out.

I had a niece that had plugged her iPod into my computer. As a result, she had saved music onto my computer. I later found out that it was music that her friends had downloaded from the internet, etc. (Justin Bieber, etc.). Anyway, I started watched the Hard Drive where iTunes was moving files and started to watch exactly what tracks it was moving. I started to remove those from iTunes. After I felt assured I had moved those files which were being moved, I then reimported the remainder into iTunes fresh. There was something about those files that was causing problems. After I removed those offending songs, it worked just fine. I can move it back to the hard drive, etc. and it all works just fine with those songs deleted. I was able to figure it out by 1) figuring out that my niece had done this back about the time that the problem occurred 2)watching which songs were getting moved initially and starting the problem.

I hope this helps. It seems pretty isolated and may be specific to me.

Not sure if this will help anybody else, but it worked for me. I was having the same VERY annoying and troublesome problem. External hard drive with over 1 TB of music. Anytime I would edit metatags through iTunes, random folders of music would get moved (not copied) from that external to my hard drive root folder (not even the music folder in my user account).

I saw that in another similar post, someone was running the app Zumocast (which runs in the background and allows file sharing to iPhone,iPad, etc.). When it was shut off, that seemed to fix the problem. So I tried it. I shut off Zumocast,and the problem has not happened again since.And I have done a TON of metatag editing since.

Again, not sure if that was definitely the cause of the problem, but so far so good.

Good luck

I also had been having this problem! Thanks for the solution! #$@# you Zumocast!

Zumocast was my problem too. Major Fail, Zumocast!