How to get rid of hundreds of exclamation points in iTunes?

Question

How to get rid of hundreds of exclamation points in iTunes?

My iPod Touch 4th Gen froze last night for about 12 hours and I had to restore it. I tried to back up all of my library, but it only worked for files that I had downloaded using the internet (don't worry, none of it is copyright material) and everything I had imported from CDs was gone. I have tried every solution I have seen on the website so far and none of them have worked. At some point it made the problem worse, because now the only songs that can be found are duplicates of songs that don't work, and there's only about ten of them. I have about 500 songs so is there any quick way of fixing this? The CD drive on my computer is broken so I can't just import music from my CDs again.

iPod touch, iOS 6.1.4

Posted on Jun 18, 2013 1:43 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

Jun 18, 2013 3:37 AM in response to GeorgeHarrifangs

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. Or if you post back both paths I can usually spot if it is a layout problem and suggest an easy fix.

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

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Answer 2

Jun 18, 2013 6:23 AM in response to turingtest2

I tried selecting the track to see where it's trying to locate it, and it says it's in iTunes/iTunes Music/Music, but I've tried looking for that folder and it doesn't exist.

I found where the music that works is (the downloaded files), but none of the songs that I imported from CDs are there.

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

Jun 18, 2013 8:16 AM in response to GeorgeHarrifangs

With a broken track look at the filename only, e.g. if looking for track one of the Help! album it would be 01 Help!.mp3 and use the Windows search feature to scan your whole computer for files with the same filename. If the file can be found then we can work out which way to go next.

If you media folder is called iTunes Music that makes it more likely that it will be in the old school layout and your music files are stored at ..\iTunes\iTunes Music\<Artist>\<Album>\## <Name>.<Ext> but iTunes has become confused and is looking in the newer layout of ..\iTunes\iTunes Music\Music\<Artist>\<Album>\## <Name>.<Ext>. If that is the problem then it can be fixed by editing the value 1 to 0 in the file ..\iTunes\iTunes Music\.iTunes Preferences.plist of using the FindTracks script and telling it to scan the folder ..\iTunes\iTunes Music.

tt2

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Answer 4

Jun 19, 2013 12:28 AM in response to turingtest2

I tried looking for it that way but it can only find them in another user account (my sister's), she has most of the same music as I do so I would be able to get some of it back but not all of it, for example we both have (well I did have) Back In Black, but she doesn't have Abbey Road. So if I really can't get everything back I suppose I could recover some of it.

I've looked it different places that sound like they could have the songs (iTunes Media/Music) and they only have the songs that are working. Is it possible that the songs that can't be found were deleted off my computer?

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,743 points

Jun 19, 2013 1:53 AM in response to GeorgeHarrifangs

GeorgeHarrifangs wrote:

Is it possible that the songs that can't be found were deleted off my computer?

Typically they have been moved which is why I suggested using the search tool to check the entire computer. Ultimately there is always a chance that something can go wrong, such as a hard drive failure, which is why you ought to backup your important data on a regular basis. You may have to bite the bullet and get the CD drive replaced, then rerip.

tt2

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