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

Thanks tt2,

I am new to mac but I found the file and it is set to 1 for the new format. Makes sense, because 80% of the music library is stored that way and working fine. Issue seems to what happened when copying Windows Itunes library folders with truncated names to a Mac that is presumably looking for full length names that match those in the library index.

Unless you know of a shortcut, I guess I have to patiently start to play each missing track that is matched or purchased then click "download from icloud" to restore it. Hopefully there aren't too many ripped tracks with long names that Itunes has not matched.

Ross

In Windows I have a script to automate the process of relinking files, but it wouldn't translate to OS X. You could use Doug's scripts Music Folder Files Not Added and Super Remove Dead Tracks to add in tracks that aren't connected to the library and delete the entries connected to missing files. You would however lost ratings, play counts and playlist membership for the tracks you delete.

tt2

Turingtest2, I want to thank you for your scripts as they have helped me greatly. However I have an odd problem. Apparently the file size of some of my files is off by a small amount and this is making me have to confirm each change in your script. For example I have to confirm each time when a file is just 2 bytes different. I think the change in file size was caused by my updating the tags in mediamonkey.

Not knowing VBS, can you tell me how to modify the scipt so that the file sizes do not have to match exactly but instead are in a range of say 100 bytes.

Thanks again.

Are there occasions when more than one file is suggested and you're being asked to choose, or is it always just to confirm that the size discrepancy can be ignored? I'll take a look at the code and see if I can come up with a suitable tweak when there is still only one likely candidate.

tt2

I would say it is 90% size discrepency of a couple of bytes and 10% more than one file from which to choose. The cases when I have to choose are usually when I have variations of the same album (Example: A file named "Pinball Wizard" is on the the original Who album "Tommy" and the Tommy movie soundrack though the songs are different).

I assumed (correctly I trust) that we were discussing FindTracks. 😉

I've uploaded a new version of the script that has a setting for limited discrepancy. I've left it at 0 after testing that it works since I think this setting will suit most people, most of the time. Use a text editor (Notepad, or better yet Notepad++ if you want to attempt to read and understand the script) and change the line that reads:

Limit=0

To your prefered value, e.g.

Limit=100

It is line 87 in the current incarnation of the script. Setting Limit to 100 would allow the found file to be matched automatically if it was up to 100 bytes larger or smaller than the file "missing" from iTunes, as long as only one potential match has been found. Where there are multiple potential matches you will still be asked to choose between them.

tt2

Yes FindTracks. Thanks. That has helped greatly. I just made the limit 10 and it is fixing many more files.

I am still seeing the problem of it asking to choose between two or more files. This seems to ocuur anytime there is are two or more songs on an album that start with simiar names. For example, I have the following:

All the same album, but only the first letter of the song is the same.

Also, do you have your prior versions of the script available? I know I ran the find tunes script about two months ago when I built a new computer and it worked flawlessly on my entire library. I am currious to compare the current to the older. Thanks again.

If the file sizes hadn't changed by touching them with a third party app there wouldn't be a problem. There is a fuzzy matching algorithm used to locate potential matches when people have used different naming patterns from the iTunes standard. If just one track matches for the correct size then the script will pick that as the winner. With the new tweak it will also match a single track whose expected size is within the bounds set. I suppose I could look tomorrow to see if I could extend the limit to work with multiple tracks so if there are 3 matches, but only 1 is within the limit of the expected size then automatically relink to that one.

And no I'm afraid I don't generally keep an archive of earlier builds, though I probably should do.

tt2

Thanks again for the reply. I understand now.

FYI I had to tweak the script for matched aac files. The script has:

"Matched AAC Audio files" while iTunes has it "Matched AAC audio files" [lower case a in audio]

that one little change was preventing me from fixing the mached files until I changed the a in audio to lower case.

Thanks... I'll make those sections case insensitive while I'm working on the next update.

tt2

Been a busy day and I didn't get to this yet, but with luck I can catch it tomorrow. 😊

tt2

Changed some code, but haven't yet had time to test it fully... Back tomorrow.

tt2

thanks turingtest2 once i found the location of the files i was able to click a song to play and then when it asked if i wanted to loacate i was able to say yes and follow the path it showed in the get info window after double clicking the one song i tried to play itunes asked if i "wanted to use this location to find other missing files" and after saying yes it found them all. thanks again

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2