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Re-Link Songs

This question has been asked (and answered) many times before where people have moved their iTunes folders to a new location and wish to re-link. I have a different (and worse!) situation where I deleted all my music in the Finder by accident. I was able to use Data Rescue 3 to recover all my data, but it does not retain any of the folder sctrure that iTunes had created.


So...I have a single folder with many many individual songs with no structure to them. My iTunes library is still in tact, but has dead links to every song now.


Is there a script out there that will "automagically" fix my wrongs?

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 29, 2013 9:00 AM

Reply
6 replies

Jan 29, 2013 9:09 AM in response to skeelo221

If you have all your songs intact. Check in preferences, Advanced


Do you Keep itunes media folder orgainised


and Copy files to itunes Media Folder when adding to library ticked


If so then delete all entries from within itunes


File > Add to Library


Select the folder with all your songs in and when they import too iTunes it will place thenm into the folders they need to be in.

Jan 29, 2013 1:09 PM in response to skeelo221

If you want to recover your files from ipod then this previous pst should help


1). If your iPod is set to update automatically you need to take care connecting to an empty iTunes. You can also use a keyboard command to prevent your iPod auto-syncing with iTunes. While connecting the iPod to the computer on a Mac hold down the Option and Command (⌥ and ⌘ Apple) keys together. This will stop the iPod from auto-syncing with iTunes and it will appear in the source list. Wait until you are sure the iPod has mounted, and that it will not auto sync and then you can let the keys go: iTunes for Mac - Keyboard Shortcuts

Alternatively open iTunes first and go to Edit>Preferences>Devices and check the box "Disable automatic syncing for iPhones and iPods" and choose Ok. Then connect your iPod.

2). If you have full resolution copies of the photos on the iPod have a look here: Apple Knowledge Base article - Use Disk Mode to copy photos from iPod

If not, there are a few programs out there for recovering photos from an iPod, have a look at the ones below. If you search the internet you can find more. Just be aware that what you'll be recovering will be photos optimised for the iPod so they won't be the same quality as the original full resolution versions:

Keith's iPod Photo Reader Mac only

iPod Photo Liberator Mac & Windows

TouchCopy Mac and Windows Versions (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)

3). There are also few things you can do to restore your music to iTunes from the iPod. If you only want to copy your purchases to the computer that can be done using iTunes, you'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer

For everything else (including purchases) there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. I use Senuti but have a look at the web pages and documentation for the others too. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here (you'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos and games as well):

Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes

Comparison of iPod managers

A selection of iPod to iTunes utilities:

Senuti Mac Only (iPod Touch & iPhone compatible)

PodView Mac Only

PodWorks Mac Only

iPodDisk PPC Mac Only (experimental version available for Intel Macs)

TuneAid Mac only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)

YamiPod Mac & Windows

iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)

iPodRip Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)

iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)

iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)

Floola Mac & Windows

Music Rescue Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)

iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)

iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)

TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)

There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide

4). I would also advise that you get yourself an external hard drive and back your stuff up, relying on an iPod as your sole backup is not a good idea and external drives are comparatively inexpensive these days, you can get loads of storage for a reasonable outlay: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

Re-Link Songs

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