What is the default iTune Folder Structure for iTunes 11?

Aha, TT2 is still out there. Not sure how you do it but it's very much appreciated by many many people I have no doubt!! Thanks heaps. Ok, here's the relevent portion of your script's output. Haven't done any <user> thingy as I suspect my setup is not much of a giveaway. Please world, be kind.

Also, yep, Media Folder Location agrees with Edit > Preferences > Advanced.

Finally, please find below file info for one of the broken songs.

Thanks so much TuringTest2-san. [insert small bowing emoticon here if I had one]

Chris

No worries... here it is.

C:\Users\1\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\Magic Dirt\Life Was Better...When I Used to Be a We

and the file name is "02 Ice.mp3".

Hmm, I do notice on my properties window, from which I copied and pasted the above path name, that the actual path shown there has yen symbols separating the directory names in the path, rather than the backslashes shown above. I presume/hope/something that this is not at fault. I've had issues with this matter since getting the PC whose Win 7 starter was installed with Japanese originally*... but on the whole it seems/ed to have been behaving ok.

* I'm writing this from Japan, where I currently reside.

Ok, sounds good. Will give it a try... thanks!

Hmm, have returned to this forum as I have a momentary chance to get back onto this and try to rectify it rather than have broken everything. New(ish) iPod Touch 5 is still sitting unopened from a month ago (refusing to do so, so I retain remaining sanity in this so-long-out-of-control-it's-almost-normal quest for equilibrium across all devices (newish PC, iPad, old iPod Touch, and soon to be replacement iPod Touch)).

Ok, I see what happened, I did "give it a try" and got nowhere. Having tried again (and again, etc) I suspect that the reason I get an instant response, of 1 track processed and 0 updated, is possibly down to this "yen" seperator symbol instead of the backslash in the pathname. Basically cutting and pasting the path you provided (C:\Users\1\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media) into the dialogue box FindTracks script provided, shows the same path (IN the dialogue box, freshly pasted) but with yen symbols (capital Y with two horizontal bars) in place of the backslashes. However pasting and/or typing backslash in Wordpad and THIS text entry box SHOWS a backslash. So... if you'd be so kind, amongst the other half million threads you somehow keep tabs on...

1) IS the above result (near instantaneous FindTracks script completion with the 1 / 0 track response) normal (I assume not)? If abnormal I want to try and pin this down as this mystery yen symbol path-divider thingy seems to be something others have experienced going by my times gettin Googly widdit. I suspect it relates to Japanese/English keymaps/character maps etc as I'm living in Japan using a PC bought here but running anglified Win7.

2) I've got to the point now where I'd quite happily remove my huge library from the various locations in which it now exists due to said apparently botched duplicate-removal, and reinstall it from the multi-dataCD backup I made in some distant past when moving to new PC just-in-case. I just want to get it all in the one place (path) rather than having it reside fragmented (granted with hopefully fixed links after running your script). Basically the only issue will be extricating the samples/voicestuff etc I've added that will come up when I do the huge search across my hard drive so they don't get deleted as well when I clean the boards prior to from-scratch-library-rebuilding from the backup CDs. I'm not contemplating actually going right back to my original CD's as most of them don't reside in this country!

So what would be your advice? Pursue FindTracks (and presumably try to find some solution to yennage issue), or go back to square one. And if you take donations (praise in English or poorly-structured Japanese, or something more substantial please say). Hope you actually get a chance to sleep, eat, breathe etc. Believe it's probably been snowing where you are too... keep warm. Cheers mate. Oh yes, and Hello, World! (Sorry just reminding myself this is a forum not an email 😉)

Chris

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2005/09/17/469941.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2004/12/14/284838.aspx

Good grief. Ancient stuff going back more than half a decade... but very interesting. Seems to be a result of character mapping overlaps in Japanese and Korean codepages. Touches on tech and historical text-support issues (ANSI and unicode stuff), language and cultural issues, and I've even seen some file-system stuff too, with many comments at the bottom. Woah. Think I might just take up my option 2 and pull everything out of it's various nooks&crannies and start again. Yayyyyyyy. *cough* Anyway thanks for that, and no worries, I'll take it from here. But much appreciate your ever-rapid, helpful responses. Cheers! 🙂

Ok, back up for air again. Sorry about that. I've found that there ARE some tracks actually missing from my harddrive which must have got thrown out with the bathwater during the duplicate removal a while back. So I've decided to go for option 2) way back up there [insert emoticon pointing upwards] and get rid of everything (apart from random samples and stuff), reimport from my backup CDs, sync, and hope the respective iDevices won't go "oh no, brain exploding, umm, ahhh, let's rebuild the PC's freshly reinvigorated library from the iDevice library." Just gotta figure out now my age-old-uncertainty of whether to physically copy all the tracks to the hard-drive and then "import" from iTunes and possibly end up with mass duplication, or to try importing directly from the CDs. Anyway I digress, I'll leave my aneurysms at home.

I've just tried to do a little of the fixing approach, partly cos it seemed sensible, partly as it could be informative for all, and partly to appease my conscience given the efforts you've gone to in your suggestions. However I've had enough issues in the past with the whole annoying scenario of multiple "users" (I, like so many, being a lonely little sole-user-of-one's-PC) and resultant brain-bendingly recursive directory paths that I'm sadly unwilling to take a step closer to the men in white coats. (I assume that the concept of profile creation and user creation are similar/same). Even realising I could presumably delete it later. But I did fiddle with the IME, and changed the default language&keyboard/IME dealie from Japanese to English. Retried the script, no change re yennage/backslashage. Rebooted in case low-level pageswapping was needed to reflect the change but same deal. Despite the keymapping and languagey default being English-type, random keypresses of the mismapped keyboard still couldn't induce a backslash, and I guess the final nail in the coffin was that copy&paste of the backslash from this thread into the script input box produced yen-san.

Ok, let's drag out the external CD drive and dust off the CDs. Wakuwaku. [Japanese onomatopoeia for excitement] But seriously, thanks again!

Chris

Again, much appreciate your time and rapid helpful responses. I was meaning to post a followup to say that I *think* you might have misinterpreted what I was proposing to do, but I didn't want to jump the gun. However, bypassing the gun-jumping option has taken me much longer than anticipated. Basically coming home after work each night and gradually repopulating the library from my CDs (actually DVDs, 4 thereof, plus a memory stick), having initially removed all traces of music from my iTunes library on my PC, (and the actual files on the harddrive where they actually existed). Bingo, everything seems to be there and working independent of any external media. I can even consider opening my various newly purchased music CDs patiently awaiting some semblance of equilibrium, for transfer.

Sooooo [deep breath] - whilst I'm not able to say with 100% certainty, I think we *were* on different wavelengths in terms of my "rebuild". I was just clearing out my iTunes library & harddrive of music in order to reload them in to one consistent, correct place on the harddrive.

But. Now having sat down to try and actually get things in sync, the Apps tab has disappeared. Another classic problem over the years it seems, according to Google. Ok, did as suggested and it's back, but no apps at all appear to be on my harddrive. Another of the iTunes Woes Classic Hits it appears. I'm now following that up (so far finding just threads that appear to end in cold unresolved silence), as I didn't, to my knowledge, touch any apps. This is really, really bad. I digress, but something is really wrong, and forever fighting spotfires is not the way a company I truly respected should be addressing this kinda stuff, IMHO. I've almost forgotten my unopened iPod Touch 5, waiting to see the light of day for 6 weeks now... Anyway, another case of RTFM; people have clearly been there done that, so I'll continue the search but just wanted to update as I've left it so long...

Ok... up for air again... if only to update the thread for possibly the last time (see you in iTunes 12 😉) Hmm, I may perhaps be only talking to myself at this point, but that's nothing new!

Having restored the music library, and then the apps (still unclear WHY/HOW they disappeared but now at least I don't feel so utterly perplexed at the Apps tab having disappeared from iTunes). Then hit iCloud issues that I'm working through now, but feel they are surmountible. However today I took the big step - and thanks to Apple in Tokyo (hi Matt, kind bod you are) for allowing this - of returning my unopened iPod Touch 5 bought before Christmas. I just cannot let it enter my sync-challenged iDevice family and say goodbye to my sanity completely. Battling 2 devices (plus one ghost iPad - long story) and one PC has been challenge enough. I'll wait until a more stable day before I get back to serious family planning. 🙂

Once again, a big thankyou to tt2 for all the time, effort and patience you've provided me and countless others. 🙂

Chris