Agausnell

Q: all my music shows a explanation mark and it cant locate my music

i cant listen to my music on my computer it keeps asking m to locate my music and then when i do i cant find it?

Posted on Apr 2, 2015 9:17 AM

Close

Q: all my music shows a explanation mark and it cant locate my music

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by turingtest2,Apple recommended

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Apr 2, 2015 9:30 AM in response to Agausnell
    Level 10 (88,046 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 2, 2015 9:30 AM in response to Agausnell

    The "missing file" error happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, or the drive it lives 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. (In the case of a library moved from one system to another there are also potential permissions issues. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows if this might apply.)

     

    Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. (Due to a bug in iTunes 12 you currently have to say No twice!) 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, a folder renamed, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case.

     

    In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout that it generates, not all in one big folder.

     

    If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.

     

    tt2

  • by gusdiaz,

    gusdiaz gusdiaz Apr 7, 2015 3:55 AM in response to Agausnell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 7, 2015 3:55 AM in response to Agausnell

    I have the same issue. When I transferred the music to the external hard drive the drive letter is a L when I connect the drive to the new computer the letter is F.  I try following your steps with a few songs but iTunes did not give me the option to repair the other broken links.  What should I do.  I have a lot of music and it will be a pain go one by one. 

     

    Thanks,

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Apr 7, 2015 4:35 AM in response to gusdiaz
    Level 10 (88,046 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 7, 2015 4:35 AM in response to gusdiaz

    You should be able to choose which drive letter is assigned to your external drive. Fixing that should allow the library to work again. For flixibility see Make a split library portable.

     

    tt2

  • by gusdiaz,

    gusdiaz gusdiaz Apr 7, 2015 10:07 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 7, 2015 10:07 AM in response to turingtest2

    Thank you for your help.  What really helped me was another article I think by you where there is a image of how the library should look. I organized according to that and my problem was fixed. Thanks again!! 

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Apr 7, 2015 10:19 AM in response to gusdiaz
    Level 10 (88,046 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 7, 2015 10:19 AM in response to gusdiaz

    You're welcome.

     

    tt2

  • by ujetmonk,

    ujetmonk ujetmonk May 17, 2016 7:44 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (8 points)
    May 17, 2016 7:44 PM in response to turingtest2

    Hey, I'm really struggling with this file://localhost on my music library.  I'm trying to run findtracksv15 and I get this error.error.jpgI have looked and you have helped out a lot of people.  If you could guide me on this that would be greatly appreciated.  I have Windows 10 new computer and don't want to lose my playlists.

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 18, 2016 1:46 AM in response to ujetmonk
    Level 10 (88,046 points)
    Apple TV
    May 18, 2016 1:46 AM in response to ujetmonk

    Start with a new download of FindTracks from source. I'm not sure why your copy has a different filename but the current version shouldn't be able to generate that error from that line. Assuming you still get an error at least I will be able to look at the right part of the script to debug it. If you're lucky it is an issue that has already been patched.

     

    tt2

  • by ujetmonk,

    ujetmonk ujetmonk May 18, 2016 8:03 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (8 points)
    May 18, 2016 8:03 PM in response to turingtest2

    I downloaded the latest version and I got this error message now.  1237.jpg

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 19, 2016 1:54 AM in response to ujetmonk
    Level 10 (88,046 points)
    Apple TV
    May 19, 2016 1:54 AM in response to ujetmonk

    That probably means that the iTunes automation object isn't registered properly. Try repairing iTunes from the programs and features control panel.

     

    tt2

  • by ujetmonk,

    ujetmonk ujetmonk May 24, 2016 7:17 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (8 points)
    May 24, 2016 7:17 PM in response to turingtest2

    thank you.jpg

     

    Thank you! Now I'm on to trying to merge two libraries without having a bunch of duplicate files in the library

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 24, 2016 7:27 PM in response to ujetmonk
    Level 10 (88,046 points)
    Apple TV
    May 24, 2016 7:27 PM in response to ujetmonk

    You're welcome. You probably can't avoid the duplicates on a temporary basis, but you can clean up. See Re: Anyone know where the "display duplicates" option has gone? I cannot find it in iTunes 12.4 :(

     

    Import the XML of the small library into the large one and you'll get all of the ratings, play counts, playlists etc. The deduper script can clean up while merging that type of data.

     

    tt2

  • by ujetmonk,

    ujetmonk ujetmonk May 24, 2016 8:18 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (8 points)
    May 24, 2016 8:18 PM in response to turingtest2

    Ok so now I'm trying to find the tracks from the older library and running the same steps as the previous library. Now I'm getting this message.  newerror.jpg

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 25, 2016 12:45 AM in response to ujetmonk
    Level 10 (88,046 points)
    Apple TV
    May 25, 2016 12:45 AM in response to ujetmonk

    How come your library has WMA entries in it? I thought WMA could only be converted on import? Anyway I've updated the code accordingly so download a new copy and see how it gets on.

     

    tt2