itunes music not found

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.

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That would hint that these files were added from a temporarily connected external drive, most likely a memory stick, which was assigned to drive E: at the time. Do you have the drive?

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Close iTunes. Connect the drive. Make sure it has been assigned the same drive letter. (That can be fixed if not.) Fire up iTunes. Check that the songs now play. Assuming all is well use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to tell iTunes to make its own local copies. To prevent such problems in the future use Edit > Preferences > Advanced and tick the box Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to the library.

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iTunes will show the last known location of the file using the file://localhost form. This translates as saying that iTunes is looking for the file in E:\Music\Car Usb etc. I'd expect there to be at least a filename and an extension, and possibly another layer or two of folders, though the file could have been in a flat layout when imported.

If you can give me the full path as shown in iTunes and the true location of the same file as found using Windows Explorer I may have an easy fix. If not options include using my FindTracks script, or reimporting the media and then deduping or pruning the dead links.

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I suspect a typo and an omission. When iTunes organizes files they would normally end up at C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\<Artist>\<Album>\## Name.Ext. The leading track number would be omitted if there is no track number defined, but the other layers should be there. What is the artist and album name? Trailling digits may indicate that the same content has been imported more than once and is done to give each copy a unique filename. Perhaps you tried to clean up some duplicates?

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If you are certain there is nothing in the way of ratings, play counts, playlists, date added information etc, then easiest way to start over is to delete everything inside the main iTunes folder EXCEPT iTunes Media and then start iTunes. iTunes will start with a new empty library. It may offer to scan for media automatically, otherwise use File > Add Folder to Library and import the folder iTunes Media. Use Ctrl+B to enable the menu bar if it is hidden.

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If you truly want a fresh start, yes. Or drag them to the desktop so you can retrace your steps if needed. Most of the time stuff thrown in the recycle bin won't go until you empty the bin, but one can never be certain. However seeing Mobile Applicatiions in there is unexpected for a modern library. It ought to be down inside iTunes Media. Keep Mobile Applications as well and then we can check to see if those are duplicates or the only copies, and if we need to do something to correct the internal structure of the media folder. Your devices are going to be reloaded as well since the new library won't recognise itself as the home library for the device.

To see if there is a structure problem look inside iTunes Media. Are there folders named after artists or are these all down inside iTunes Media\Music where they are supposed to be? Is there a Mobile Applications folder inside ITunea Media folder too?

The only copy of .iTunes Preferences.plist should be down inside iTunes Media which again hints at structure problems. What value do you have for the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced? This should be the ..\iTunes\iTunes Media folder.

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