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Cannot add songs from my PC to library

I updated to 11 a couple days ago, took a while to get used to it but it's working okay. Till now. I was able to add songs to my library in the usual way, by dragging them from a folder into the library window. I drag and drop but it will not show up at the bottom of the library list. I tried adding the other way, using the File menu and navigating to the folder and doing it that way. Still will not add to the entire music library in the window. However I CAN add songs to playlists by dragging and dropping in the playlist. But then the song still does not show up in the library, which doesn't make any sense, since tracks in the playlist must be part of the library, right? I rebooted iTunes, rebooted my PC. Still does not work. Quite infuriating. Did I change something in the settings or preferences, or did iTunes suddenly go screwy on me?

Windows 7

Posted on Dec 3, 2012 8:54 PM

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6 replies

Dec 3, 2012 9:18 PM in response to ferrarabrainpan

Well, I still don't know what happened but...


I had added some songs to my library a day ago, then removed them from the library by highlighting and clicking delete, then I got the popup window asking if I am sure and I clicked OK. Then what happened is a few hours later I changed my mind, and was not able to add the songs back to my library, as if they were forever banned from the library once I removed them the first time.


Because I tried adding some other tracks and it worked fine, they showed up in the libary and the total of songs in the status bar showed the increase in tracks in the library..


So then I thought I would try converting the files I had removed, from mp3 to mp3, deleting the old files and replacing them in the folder with the new converted files. After that I was able to add the songs back to the library.


Does anyone see any reason why this is happening? Is there some default setting in iTunes that once you remove files from the library you cannot add them again?

Dec 3, 2012 9:42 PM in response to ferrarabrainpan

Two things,


1. If a song or video matches a category and you are displaying another category, it will be there but effectively hidden. And this may not be apparent at first.


2. iTunes may reject an improperly encoded video or audio, but at this point doesn't seem to issue any messages to this effect. I had one of these. Also there are specific audio and video types that it does accept. This version seem to do deeper checking. I had two videos that had improper extension, and when I changed the extension iTunes was happy to accept them but did not give a notice during the rejection process.


The real problem turned out to be that (in my case) VLC had stepped on the file type association. So iTunes wouldn't see it. When I changed the association for .mp4 it accepted them all.


And I found out some of this by using the :Automatically Add to iTunes" folder, because it archiives media it can not import with this method.


Hope this helps a little,

-Alan

Dec 3, 2012 9:55 PM in response to Alan Edinger

Thanks for taking the time to reply.


It is not Thing 1 you name, because I was viewing the full library, and even if the added songs were hidden they would have been reflected in the song total listed at the bottom of the window in the status bar.


And it is not Thing 2, because I did successfully add the exact same song files to the library. Then I could not readd them again once I deleted them from the library. The files did not change in any way or become corrupted.


So I don't know, it's a mystery still to me. All I can do is to try to be certain I want to remove a song from the library before doing it, so I don't run into problems later when I try to add it back.

Dec 3, 2012 10:47 PM in response to ferrarabrainpan

Ok,


I set up a test environment and added, played and removed songs.


  • I removed songs and chose not to delete them.
  • I removed songs with moving them to the trash.
  • I added songs via drag & drop. -Multiple times.
  • I added songs via the "Automatically Add songs to iTunes" folder.
  • I manually deleted songs from their folder locations.
  • I Turned on and off the options to copy songs into iTunes (with the above permutations)
  • I turned on organize.


I can not get it to cause your issue.


iTunes operated as expected.


The only issue that I saw, and this may work as intended, is that if you use the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder multiple times in a row, it will add multiple copies where drag and drop no longer does. But still does not cause iTunes to fail as you described.


Sorry,


-Alan


iTunes 11

Windows 7 sp1

Cannot add songs from my PC to library

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