iTunes can't find music on my new computer, songs are 'unchecked' & won't play

I suspect you missed out a step in the transfer process somewhere that was designed to avoid this situation...

The exclamation mark shows 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, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. 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.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary 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, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.

Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .

Ctrl-click on an empty check box will check them all...

tt2

There should be a progress bar running in an IE window depending on which option you chose. If you choose track-by-track confirmation there is no feedback while it is scanning for tracks that need fixing.

tt2

It should be something like C:\Users\Elaine\My Music\iTunes\ITunes Media...

Hmm WIndows 7? It might be that you have to use C:\Users\Elaine\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media

Windows Vista/7 have some odd redirects that make the "old" XP paths visible to some processes but not others. The script simply checks for the existence of the path that was entered. If it can't find it then it loops around again. Might be worth checking under Edit > Preferences > Advanced that iTunes hasn't got the extra "My " in the media folder path.

tt2

Recover media from iPod

See this post from forum regular Zevoneer for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.

However if you have the media then you can just import it again and throw away the dead links using iTunes Folder Watch and its Check for dead tracks on startup option.

Was your libray full of dupes before you moved it? Would you mind giving me an example of one of the match lists? I'd like to improve the script if I can but part of that involves working out in what novel ways people manage to break their libraries.

tt2

Ok, if you still have a working library on the old computer do the following:

1. On the old compuer, if available, use the command File > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange files in the folder "<Media Folder>".
2. Make sure your iTunes Media folder location is given as ...\iTunes\iTunes Media or ...\iTunes\iTunes Music. If it is something else change it to ...\iTunes\iTunes Media where ...\iTunes\ is the location of the library files. If space on the hard drive is a concern don't consolidate at this stage - everything outside the iTunes Media folder will need to be copied into it which may double the space your media takes up on the drive.
3. If you didn't consolidate due to space concerns use my script ConsolidateByMoving to move files to the correct location instead of copying them. After using my script on the whole library use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to pick up any stragglers the script didn't cope with. (Should just be any ringtones which for some reason are invisible to the script)
4. On the new computer rename the existing iTunes folder as iTunes Temp - you can delete it later, but might as well make sure the new copy works before you do.
5. Now copy the entire iTunes folder from the old computer to the new one, putting it into your profile's music folder.
6. Start iTunes - it should "just work" 🙂

tt2

I take it all is working now? BTW If your media folder is/was called iTunes Music it is probably a good idea to rename it as iTunes Media to make it match the default layout introduced with iTunes 9. Simply close iTunes, rename the folder and start iTunes again. iTunes will automatically adjust for the change.

In future, as long as you keep all your media inside the iTunes Media folder and keep the media folder inside the main iTunes library folder then to migrate from one computer to another you just copy the iTunes folder.

PS. You should really back it up as well.

tt2

Hi there. I am having a similar problem. I recently deauthorized iTunes on my old Mac after transfering all of my iTunes files (following the Apple Support Directions using an external hard drive) to my new Mac. I am also receiving the ! message stating that iTunes cannot locate certain songs. I no longer have my old Mac. I still have my external hard drive with all the old files from my old Mac (as well as those on my new Mac) on it. I can't seem to figure out how to fix the problem. I'm guessing the song files are in the wrong place and that is why iTunes cannot locate them, as you said above. I'm hoping you might have some suggestions as to how to remedy given my situation? I tried to start with what you wrote in your initial response (pasted here again below), but can't figure out how to commence after that:

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary 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, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.

gyggyg wrote:

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary 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, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.

On a Mac CTRL+I becomes CMD+I, You should see a path beginning with file://localhost/ - I'm interested in that and the real path to the same track as seen in Finder. I may be able to suggest an easy fix, otherwise we can try to prompt iTunes own self-repair mechanism.

Also useful to know where your iTunes Library.itl is, where you think your media folder should be and what is given under iTunes > Preferences > Advanced.

tt2

Thank you for your response. I should mention that I am not particularly literate in this area, so, please bear with me if I am rather slow.

When I hit CMD+l on a track that has the ! notice the location info says:

file://localhost/Users/graceyvettegemmell/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Yann Tiersen/Amélie/09 Le Moulin.m4a

In the finder I can't seem to find the file. When I do a search for it what I get is two results:

iTunes Music Library.xml

and

iTunes Library.xml

My iTunes Library.itl is located in

Music>iTunes

In the same folder (Music>iTunes) there is another folder named "Previous iTunes Library. In this folder there are 6 separate .itl files categorized by date.

I do not know where my media folder should be. I suppose under music? (again, this is not my forte, obviously)

Under iTunes > Preferences > Advanced I see:

Don't know whether I gave you all the correct information needed. Thank you again for your patience and help.

Also should say that on my iPod all of the songs in my entire iTunes library still play and that I do sync my iPod with my current iTunes library. Don't know whether that is another way to solve any of this.

Message was edited by: gyggyg