Help - iTunes can't locate music files on drive!

I have read all of your posts and love that you give your time to help us all get our music back. The solutions above are not working for me, perhaps because I copied my hard drive using the "windows easy transfer" which copied my entire hard drive to my new laptop. The laptop works fine, but now the original pc has an exclamation next to all 7k songs.

I have the localhost prefix you mentioned. I tried using the script, but it only altered 1 song about every minute or so, and wanted me to choose 1-2 or cancel for each of them to decide on a filename. With my library that is simply too much time. Is there a way to get it to just select one of the choices without asking me?

My songs are where they should be, which is the same filename that itunes says it is looking for them under preferences/advanced etc.

I feel like one time this happened I was able to tell itunes to locate the song, and it prompted me with something like "Should I look for more songs in this folder?" and it found them all. I guess that was just a dream.

I am perfectly willing to lose all my ratings etc by deleting the library xml or itl or whatever, but I have a number of them, and dont want to delete something I shouldnt. I have itunes 4 music library extras, " " " genius, itunes 4 library, all the above without the 4 in it, and I have 3 temp files. If I delete them all will itunes reload and find all my songs in their current location?

I seem to recall reading a suggestion that if the files are where they are supposed to be but iTunes isn't connecting properly then changing the media folder location to something else, then putting it back again, without consolidating any files either time may help.

If not please post up a typical "missing" track location and the real path to the same file just in case something occurs to me.

tt2

Didnt change anything.

Songs info in itunes shows: file://localhost/C:/Users/Hunter/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Beck/Guero/03 Girl.mp3

C:\Users\Hunter\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Beck\Guero is where it is located.

Thanks again for your help

The difference in the two paths is that one has an extra Music folder between the media folder and the album folder. The most likely cause is that iTunes is reading a hidden preference file .iTunes Preferences.plist inside the media folder which tells it that the files should be in the newer layout, but in fact they are in the older one.

Either create that Music folder and move the artist folders down into it, or edit the preference file and change the layout value from 1 to 0.

tt2

Created a Music file and moved everything to there. Works like a charm. I guess the localhost is not an issue?

Turingtest2, you are my virtual hero. Thank you for curing my headache.

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

tt2, actually my predicament is that went i go to map to music folder it says that my C drive music is corrupted or unreadable. then when i go into the "edit>preferences>change folder (from c drive to my libraries folder the songs still dont transfer). i DO have an ipod mini however, so is there any way i can recreate the music files from my ipod mini (sync it backward) back to my hard drive? i need help, im so frustrated, i fear i lost all my songs on my computer itunes is so frustrating.

If the Music folder is corrupt you might not necessarily get a message to that effect. I'm suspecting a corrupt library database instead, in which case this approach should work.

Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash

Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.

See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.

If that doesn't work then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.

When you get it all working make a backup!

tt2

tt2, ok thanks but when i do that, none of the songs from the previous version populates itunes when i start it up, in fact it is wiped clean 😟 i dont even have the song lists with the exclamation point, just literally nothing. i renamed the most recent version (9/22/2012) like you asked but nothing populates.

so i log into "my account" to at least see all the "purchased" to try and redownload but when i go to download on right side it just tells me the same thing that the file coud not be located! 😟

Hi I upgraded my computer and re-installed windows 7. I relocated all my songs (.mp3 files) from the normal

C:\Users\blair\Music

Now there relocated

D:\Windows\Music

I also relocated the itunes folder too that location too.

In my itunes music they all have to be relocated.... How do I get itunes to do this all together instead of doing it one file at a time.

I'm going to use one song as a example itunes still thinks this file is here:

files://localhost/C:/users/blair99/Music/Kim Mitchell - Go For A Soda.mp3

Either move the media files back to where iTunes is looking for them and then when it is working move things the right way, or use my FindTracks script to fix the broken links.

For a simpler life in future you want the iTunes library files in a folder called iTunes, either in <User's Music> or the root of a drive, and the media set out inside iTunes\iTunes Media. You can let iTunes organize everything or use your own structure but that basic layout allows the library to be easily moved in when needed.

tt2

Hi turingtest2, I have red your very helpfull posts, and I have downloaded your script. But when I run it I get this error message: "The function "ExtFromKinfd" needs updatinfg to generate correct the extension for files of type: MPEG"
What does this mean? How can I fix it?

Hmm, is that the entire message? I don't recall running across "MPEG" on its own as an iTunes description for media? If it is correct, what is the associated file extension? E.g. .mpg .mpe .mpeg? The script needs to know which extensions might be relevant in order to search for likely candiate files to reconnect to.

tt2

Hi Turingtest2, not sure if you are still engaged with this thread, but I have a similar problem having migrated my itunes library from PC to Mac. Itunes 11 on the Mac cannot find the location of some elements of the music library, whether ripped, purchased or matched. The library is organised on disk in the current Itunes structure, but for some albums the location path omits the 2nd instance of "Music". That is, itunes has location as:

..../Music/Itunes/Itunes Media/Artist/Album/track instead of where it actually is, which is:

..../Music/Itunes/Itunes Media/Music/Artist/Album/Track

It seems like the common thread is either the "Artist", "Album", or Track Name is unusually long and has been truncated in some way when I copied the file structure, and Itunes has been unable to match the library reference to the file location and has defaulted to a wrong location. Which is interesting but unhelpful. Very long names are not uncommon in some world or classical music.

If the track is purchased or matched then if I play it, cancel the request to locate it, iTunes will retrieve it from icloud. However, about 500 tracks are affected. So the question at the end of this, do you know if there is some way to force Itunes to re-load the missing tracks without doing them one at a time?

cheers Ross

Whether or not iTunes includes the extra /Music/ layer in the path is controlled by the integer value stored in the hidden file .iTunes Preferences.plist. 0 means the old layout without it, 1 is the new layout. Change the value with iTunes closed and it should fix things next time you start.

Windows has a maximum file path limit of 256 characters. To avoid creating over long paths iTunes for Windows imposes a limit of 40 characters on each folder & filename that it generates.

tt2