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Nevis99 Author

Level 1

20 points

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

The list of my songs in iTunes has an exclamation mark on all of them. This indicates the the locations could not be found on mt drive.

I tried to re-establish the link, but get an error "Program has stopped working....windows now closing program" and iTunes shuts down.

I have all my songs arranged in a folder with each folder for an album. How do I delete the current library an rebuild with the original music folder?

Thanks.

iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Jan 30, 2012 8:57 PM

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

274,582 points

Posted on Jan 30, 2012 10:41 PM

This happens if the files are no longer where iTunes expects to find them. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the files, or that the drive they live 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.

tt2

View in context

69 replies

Jan 8, 2014 3:05 AM in response to Nevis99

Thanks Nevis,

I moved the "Itunes library.itl" folder to the previous itunes library folder that was already present and then opened up itunes and resynced all my music. It took less than a minute.

Turingtest2's Find track script was also very cool and worked for me but too many of my songs had similar names and was taking too long checking them.

Thanks guys - this issue was annoying me for some time.

Feb 14, 2014 9:06 PM in response to turingtest2

TT2. iTunes legend. Please help.

Two Windows 7 computers.

Music files and itl file sit on RAID.

Desktop that physically has RAID (f:) connected works fine.

Laptop connected to network opens itl file but gets file://localhost/f:/Music/etc...

itl file predates RAID and existence of f: drive

Do I need to create new itl and add all the music with current locations (losing plays, playlists, etc)?

thank you for any guidance

turingtest2

Level 10

274,582 points

Feb 15, 2014 2:42 AM in response to UrbanAchiever

Hi... Three questions to start with, from the perspective of the desktop.

What is the full path of the .itl file?
Path of media folder shown in Edit > Preferences > Advanced?
If you select the menu File > LIbrary > Organize Library... is the "Reorganize..." option grayed out?

tt2

Feb 15, 2014 7:29 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for the reply!

Okay, your questions made me realize where the problem is -- my mapping...

On Desktop:

Full path of .itl - F:\Music\iTunes\

Path of Media Folder - F:\iTunes

Reorganize is not grayed out

On Laptop

Full path of .itl - f (\\Achiever-PC) Y:\Music\iTunes

Path of Media Folder - Y:\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media

Reorganize is not grayed out

So I'm guessing the issue is that the F: drive on the desktop is mapped as Y: on laptop?

Is that just a matter of changing drive letter within network preferences?

Thanks.

-Matt

turingtest2

Level 10

274,582 points

Feb 15, 2014 8:04 AM in response to UrbanAchiever

You could tweak the drive letters of the folder shares, but I'd recommend you restructure your library so that media folder is F:\iTunes\iTunes Media with the library file at F:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl and the library "Reorganized" into the current layout. This will make the library easy to access over the network, easy to back up and easy to migrate to a new drive or computer when the time comes. See make a split library portable for background to the steps below.

To start use File > LIbrary > Organize Library... tick both boxes and click OK
When iTunes has finished moving things around (make sure there are no artist folders left at the level of F:\iTunes - they will move into F:\iTunes\Music) close iTunes
Move the five library files, the Album Artwork folder and Previous iTunes Libraries into F:\ and shift-start-iTunes to open F:\iTunes Library.itl
Close iTunes, rename F:\iTunes as F:\iTunes Media, reopen iTunes. Check the media folder has automatically updated to F:\iTunes Media. If not correct it, decline any offer to consolidate, close iTunes and reopen.
Close iTunes, create a folder called F:\iTunes, move the five library files, Album Artwork, iTunes Media and Previous iTunes Libraries inside F:\iTunes.
Shift-start-iTunes to open F:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl. Check the media folder has automatically updated to F:\iTunes\iTunes Media, if not correct it, decline any offer to consolidate, close iTunes and reopen.

The library is now portable and can be opened remotely on the path of Y:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl or even via \\<server>\<share>\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl.

tt2

Feb 15, 2014 1:28 PM in response to turingtest2

Got it working! Thanks for the help!

I remapped the network drive with a different drive letter and moved my iTunes files around as you suggested.

I did not have iTunes reorganize my files because I have my own organization which I'd like to maintain.

Also, you need a donation button on your samsoft site!

turingtest2

Level 10

274,582 points

Feb 15, 2014 1:39 PM in response to UrbanAchiever

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

Aug 23, 2015 1:40 PM in response to Nevis99

I had this happen too for over 300 songs. I found that if I play them in the itunes player, the ! disappears. You only have to play them for 1 second and then skip to the next song. It's a bit of a pain, but really only took about 5 minutes. There was only 1 song it wouldn't work for, so I used the "Locate Song" feature for that one. Then when I synced all the songs, they were back on my phone! Hope this helps.

Oct 28, 2015 9:40 AM in response to turingtest2

Oh my gosh thank you! All my music was in a TunePlus folder from moving music in the past from old computer to new. For some reason Itunes stopped locating this music. I re added it all. Whew! I thought all my old music was lost.

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