Fixing the numerous iTunes Exclamation Point's

Chala95 wrote:

Is that the full procedure to perform reform/repair(?) a split library?

Well either I misunderstood the position earlier or the various attempts at correcting things have changed the facts, but if your library file is at <Some Path>\iTunes and the media folder is at <Some Path>\iTunes\iTunes Media then all that needs to be done is consolidate anything outside the iTunes Media folder.

From your earlier descriptions I'd got the impression we were dealing with <Some Path>\iTunes and <Different Path>\iTunes Media (plus assorted <Other Paths>\<Content>) which is generally tricky to resolve without breaking things.

tt2

Yes, all you need to do is use File > Library > Organize Library > tick Consolidate Files, then click OK and anything outside the media folder should be copied into it. 🙂

Once your library is back in the standard shape it will be easy to backup and migrate to a different drive as and when you need to.

tt2

Hello. I have a similar issue to Chala95 and I have been trying to reconnect tracks by using FindTracks.

My issue resulted from a HDD been accidently reformatted and the total loss of all media for itunes as it was stored there. I have managed to recover the files as I had a back up. However the cloud service I was using has let me down and so I was only able to partially restore the drive.

I recovered the files from the HDD using a recovery tool, and as I hadn't over written it I got all the music back.

I used the Auto sort function of Media Monkey to fix those files and give them a folder structure.

After all that I find that I need to reconnect about 2000 files.

The FindTracks script is locating some of the files but despite my pointing them to the required path, it is having trouble locating other files. I have read over several of the threads that you have given advice on, but I cannot find a solution to my problem. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi,

Give me an example of a path where the track can't be found. Replace your user name with <User> if needed.

tt2

Sent you a link to a screen shot. : )

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gme9b0eb7wfx125/kcHEf4c-YG

The Path is D:\ My Music\Music

As you can see from the screen shot , I hope, is the the folder has the year before the name due to the mask I used in Media Monkey and maybe that is why your script can't see it?

Sorry that last reply may not have been helpful. Here is a path of a track that can't be found:

D:\My Music\Music\The Beatles\ 1\Ob-la-di-Ob-la-da.mp3

Actual path:D:\My Music\Music\The Beatles\2000 - 1\Ob-la-di-Ob-la-da.mp3

Even if I direct the script to that path it cannot find the track.

Yep, took me a while to get down to an image I could read, but the gist is that you are embedding the year as part of the folder that would normally just hold the labum title, and haven't included leading zeros for track numbers. This auto-organize mask in Media Monkey will work better with iTunes

..\..\<Album Artist>\<Album>\<Track#:2> <Title>

assuming Album Artist is populated, or Media Monkey infers it from Artist if blank.

The "media folder" should be detected as D:\My Music, and corrected if wrong.

tt2

Is there any way of organising the files that way using itunes and then using your script to find them? I'm trying to keep all the metadata intact if possible. The way we had our media organised was out side itunes unfortunately.

You can manually organize your files anyway you like, as long as you don't move them once they are connected to iTunes. My script does a fair bit of fuzzy matching and, off the top of my head, I'm thinking it it might have ignored the leading digits, spaces and symbols and found things anyway. Obviously the relevant bit of code doesn't quite work that way.

I shall see what I can do...

tt2

Thank you. When you say manually organise my files, is it possible to use itunes to organise the folders same way I used media monkey?

A close looker at the screenshot shows things are more complicated. The leading digits in the Album folders shouldn't cause a problem, except for albums that only consist of digits.

Soundex("The Commitments - Vol I")=T253

Soundex("1991 - The Commitments")=T253

Howver

Soundex("2001 - 1")=1

Soundex("2001 - 1")=2001 - 1

AFAIKT the problem the script currently stumbles on for "The Commitments" is that you've added the artist into the track name, so using a MM mask of ..\..\<Album Artist>\<Album>\<Track#> - <Artist> - <Title>.

Perhpas if you let me know which mask you used it would help. Have you used this consistently? Personally I add trailing Artist names when Aritst<>Album Artist, which the script would have no problem with.

tt2

Fearganainim wrote:

Thank you. When you say manually organise my files, is it possible to use itunes to organise the folders same way I used media monkey?

No iTunes only has one naming scheme of its own, roughly equivalent to

..\..\<Album Artist>\<Album>\<Track#:2> <Title>

Although MM might substitute different characters for any that can't be used and iTunes truncates to 40 characters.

If you want to impose your own structure then after using something like Media Monkey to rearrange things you either need to 1) delete and reimport the moved tracks (losing ratings, playlist membership etc.), 2) manually relink each broken track, or 3) use a script like mine to reconnect.

I got bored of 1) and 2) and wrote a script to move things where I want them. I can probably tweak FindTracks to do the job of 3) for your folder structure but I'd like to know I understand it properly before I start.

tt2

Sounds like it might be wise to choose door #3 : )

OK I will leave folder structure as is.

Unfortunately there are some dupes in the media folder.Will that affect things?