Anyway to automatically relink random missing song files in iTunes library? Random songs have "!" while other songs in same album folder are fine.

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Anyway to automatically relink random missing song files in iTunes library? Random songs have "!" while other songs in same album folder are fine.

I can manually relink a missing song by navigating to the album folder in my iTunes media folder where all of my music is stored, but there are hundreds of "missing" songs in my 100+ GB Library. Any way to get iTunes to reconcile the library in a more automated fashion? I am fearful of solutions that may introduce a ton of duplicates.

Would also like to know why this has happened so I can prevent it in future. Why are some songs in an album coming up missing and others in the same root folder playing fine?? It's not like my library is missing, 80% of my music is fine.

My MAC iTunes library is organized by iTunes and all new media is copied into the iTunes folder (which I have "living" on an external USB 500GB hard drive, which I sometimes use with my PC Laptop when I travel - I don't do this often and it has never caused a problem before.)

iTunes-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on May 25, 2011 10:57 AM

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Answer 1

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Chris CA

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May 25, 2011 11:36 AM in response to cvion

Use this AppleScript -> iTunes Track CPR

This script attempts to locate the files of so-called "dead tracks"--iTunes tracks designated with (!)--that you assume are not actually missing but are still located in the iTunes Music folder in their "iTunes File Order" (Music -> Artist -> Album -> file.xxx).

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Answer 2

cvion Author

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May 26, 2011 6:49 AM in response to Chris CA

Thanks Chris. This looked like exactly what I was looking for, but it didn't work. I read all of the ReadMe's and Instructions, my library is organized in standard Artist>Album>Song format, I repaired disk permissions, verified file type associations, and unchecked the "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" option from Advanced preferences before running script. But when I ran the script it says it found the number of songs I had selected in iTunes (prior to running script) as MIA, but that it Recovered zero and Still MIA is zero. Back in iTunes the tracks are still "missing", but I can relink them by manually navigating to the song file in its applicable Album folder.

Thanks for trying to help, it looks like I am stuck doing this manually a little every day for like the next year.

Another weird thing, after I relink a song iTunes used to ask if it should look for other missing songs where I just "found" that song. It doesn't do that with any regularity any more. Any ideas there? At least if iTunes would do that again it would cut my relinking time done some.

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Answer 3

cvion Author

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May 26, 2011 8:59 PM in response to cvion

UPDATE: I contact the developer fo the iTunes Track CPR script just to give him some feedback. His reply, "

Thanks for letting me know. CPR needs a good looking at. But have you tried "Music Folder Files Not Added"?

http://dougscripts.com/466"

I used that script and it found all of the MIA "missing" songs and then added them back to my iTunes library (took about 7 hours to auto add about 2000+ songs.) This process also created duplicates, but I was able to use the "Manage Duplicates" feature of iTunes under the File menu to see a list of all duplicates; then I deleted all of the songs with the"!" next to their names (took about 45 minutes.)

So I think in the end this did save me a lot of time and aggrevation.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Chris!

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