BikerRally

Q: Why am I losing songs and whole folders from my iTunes library?

Seems that I am constantly having to go dig out a CD or DVD to replace songs and whole folders in my iTunes library.  How and why do they just disappear?  It's happening on a daily basis now ... I am using iTunes more now that I have in the past, but this 'reloading' is getting ridiculous.  I may have to go to 'WindowsMedia' (gasp) and give up iTunes ... it's getting that bad.  I don't get as good of a playback with 'WindowsMedia' however, and would hate to have to do that.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you.

 

Gary ****

*********

 

<Personal Information Edited by Host>

iPod shuffle (2nd generation, Late 2008), Windows 7, Disappearing songs from Windows.

Posted on May 18, 2015 5:23 PM

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Q: Why am I losing songs and whole folders from my iTunes library?

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  • by joe_7399,

    joe_7399 joe_7399 May 20, 2015 2:37 PM in response to BikerRally
    Community Specialists
    May 20, 2015 2:37 PM in response to BikerRally

    Hello BikerRally,

     

    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

     

    I understand that some of your media in iTunes is not playing as you would expect and you are reloading that media back into iTunes. To begin troubleshooting, I would suggest reading over the attached article which has a lot of great information and steps to follow to find missing media. 

     

    If you see an exclamation point next to content in iTunes - Apple Support

     

    Have a great day,

    Joe

  • by turingtest2,Helpful

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 21, 2015 7:29 AM in response to BikerRally
    Level 10 (85,833 points)
    iPod
    May 21, 2015 7:29 AM in response to BikerRally

    Not sure what is going on, but take a backup of your library now with this method - Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy, then use the preview facility to take note of and reverse any unwanted changes.

     

    tt2

  • by BikerRally,

    BikerRally BikerRally May 21, 2015 11:07 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 21, 2015 11:07 AM in response to turingtest2

    Thank you tt2.

     

    Done.  A backup is always a good thing to have.  My iTunes collection has now grown to 3.5 Days (Big D) of music.  There were 45 errors in the process.  When I looked at those errors, they were really not 'Music'.  They were for tuning my guitar and following some riffs.  What surprised me was the amount/size of the error files.  Up in the six figures and I know those files are not that big.  But that is neither here nor there.

     

    I know I still have some missing songs in this backup, and I will have to go dig out the CD/DVD's and replace what's missing in the iTunes library and then do the backup again.  I'm not sure at this time what is more tedious ... doing the backups and then restoring, or digging out the CD/DVD's for the missing songs.

     

    So, all that said, the mystery of losing a song here and there ... on a daily basis, is still not solved.  I still cannot believe why a song here and there just disappears.  This has to be an iTunes issue.  But since, it seems, that nobody else is reporting this problem, then it has to lie with my computer, software and my setup of the iTunes library.  Although installing the library is a pretty much straight forward install, with no options.  99.9% of my music is loaded to iTunes from CD/DVD's that I own. There are a few songs that I just recently purchased from the iTunes Store.  But the problem of missing songs has been going on before that. 

     

    Anyway, thanks again for the tip on backing up the iTunes folder.  I just wish I could find out why songs disappear for no apparent reason.

     

    MyMusicBackupTotals.JPG

     

    Gary Baird (BikerRally)

  • by turingtest2,Helpful

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 21, 2015 11:25 AM in response to BikerRally
    Level 10 (85,833 points)
    iPod
    May 21, 2015 11:25 AM in response to BikerRally

    Perform a checkdsk scan of your source drive. There could be other issues such as crosslinked or unreadable files elsewhere on the drive. In some cases with unreadable files trying again with SyncToy after the computer has been off for several hours may prove successful, which is but one of the reasons it scores over using Windows Explorer for backing up.

     

    I also suggest you backup your other personal data just in case your current issues hint at an underlying problem with the drive.

     

    Do you sync your library to any Apple devices? If so do you make use of the option to Convert higher bitrate songs to ###k AAC? There have been a few scattered reports of this causing problems for some people. Are the songs going missing from the iTunes database too, or do you end up with the exclamation mark that indicates a track isn't where it is expected to be? Have you tried a thorough search for some of those missing tracks in case iTunes or some other piece of software has moved them to the wrong location?

     

    tt2

  • by BikerRally,

    BikerRally BikerRally May 21, 2015 11:49 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 21, 2015 11:49 AM in response to turingtest2

    Thanks tt2,

     

    Yes, running a chkdsk on that disk drive may prove something wrong ... I will do that later as the drive is a 2TB drive.  This drive is my 'Data' drive ... drive D:.  C: is my system drive, also a 2TB, and is backupd with a full system image every week.

     

    The explanation mark is the first sign I see when a song goes missing.  Then I look in the iTunes database and it is gone from there also. 

     

    I was syncing my iTunes database/folder with my iPod, but turned that off thinking it may be the problem.  But songs are still going missing.

     

    If the iTunes database was moving them somewhere else I can not find them anywhere on the drive, or even anywhere else in the iTunes database.  It's a mystery to me.

     

    After I run the chkdsk on drive D: I will let you know what that finds.

     

    Again, thanks for replying.  I appreciate the help.

     

    Gary

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 21, 2015 12:08 PM in response to BikerRally
    Level 10 (85,833 points)
    iPod
    May 21, 2015 12:08 PM in response to BikerRally

    If "something" is moving/purging tracks at random that could cause iTunes to start showing the exclamation mark of missing tracks. Those broken entries shouldn't then disappear themselves as rule.

     

    You're not running iTunes Folder Watch or some equivalent are you? Unlike Windows Media Player, iTunes doesn't scan the media folder for changes so the only time entries should be removed from the library is if you explicitly delete them, unless you're running software designed to update the library automatically.

     

    tt2

  • by BikerRally,

    BikerRally BikerRally May 21, 2015 12:52 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 21, 2015 12:52 PM in response to turingtest2

    I'm not running anything with iTunes.  And I've checked and I have the latest version of iTunes.

     

    There is just no rhyme or reason for the songs to be disappearing from my iTunes Library/Database.

     

    Here's one I just clicked on randomly and the explanation mark popped up.  The mark only appears when I click on a song to play.  And no, it is no where else on the disk drive, according to a file search.  This happens on a daily basis, almost hourly. I do have a ton of files in the database.  Maybe iTunes can't handle that volume.  I would think that the 'Moderator' here would forward this 'problem' to the software people.  I really need a fix.  I would rather run iTunes than Windows Media, but the change over is coming soon.

     

    iTunesMissingFileExample.JPG

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 21, 2015 1:33 PM in response to BikerRally
    Level 10 (85,833 points)
    iPod
    May 21, 2015 1:33 PM in response to BikerRally

    This is my standard post on lost tracks:

     

    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.

     

    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.

     

    But from what you've said so I'm guessing yours aren't lost, but gone altogether. Each time iTunes starts up it assumes every file is where it supposed to be, so it only displays an exclamation mark if it has cause to look for a file and fails. The Locate button doesn't attempt to find the file itself, it opens a file browsing window for you navigate to the file if you know where to look for it.

     

     

    If you want to explore the true state of your media folder try this technique.

     

    Lost & Found Playlists

    Create a playlist called Found, select everything in Music and drag it into the Found playlist (it may take some time to count the tracks that are to be dropped). Create a smart playlist called Lost matching All the rules Playlist is Music and Playlist is not Found. Your lost tracks will be in this playlist.



    This is a user to user support forum. The moderators are tasked with making sure we abide by the terms of use, not reporting problems to the software teams. There are feedback and bug reporting channels for that. Unless you can determine the precise circumstances that trigger your issue neither approach would be likely to result in any changes since it clearly works as intended in their test environments. Any fix, should it come, won't recover your lost files.

     

    tt2

  • by BikerRally,

    BikerRally BikerRally May 21, 2015 1:48 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 21, 2015 1:48 PM in response to turingtest2

    What I have tried is to right click the file name line with the exclamation point and click on find in Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer does not find it.  A search on the entire disk drive using the symbols '*.filename*.*', and variations thereof does not find it.  The file has been totally wiped out ... disappeared.  Very, very strange.  I have no idea what is going on, but it is getting very frustrating.  It is a daily occurrence.  There are no other problems with my system .... no viruses, no malware, no wicked stuff at all.  The only problem I am having is with iTunes.  Since iTunes is an Apple product, 'they' may not care too much how it runs on a Windows machine.  Dang! 

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 21, 2015 2:47 PM in response to BikerRally
    Level 10 (85,833 points)
    iPod
    May 21, 2015 2:47 PM in response to BikerRally

    The backup method I have outlined would have alerted you to the issue when it first started. If you can post the path that begins file://localhost/ for one of your broken entries and also post the location of the media folder as shown under Edit > Preferences > Advanced I will see if any thoughts occur to me. Having written several scripts of my own for manipulating files I am aware of some potential gotchas, particularly with redirected paths such as the old "Documents and Settings" folder that seems to exist virtually on newer systems. I'd also be interested to know what anti-virus program you use. I don't think iTunes moves files by copying and deleting, but that is sort of how it manages its own library files, (make new temp. copy, delete original, rename temp. to replace original) and several AV packages have been known to disrupt that process on occasion.

     

    BTW, did you ever let Windows Media Player scan your media? By default it has options that can rearrange files and will normally want to remove files from the hard drive if you choose to remove them from media player. Such behaviour has caught others out before.

     

    tt2

  • by BikerRally,

    BikerRally BikerRally May 21, 2015 6:15 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 21, 2015 6:15 PM in response to turingtest2

    As I work inside of the iTunes player, I can't see the locations that you

    refer to: '*file://localhost/' *and ' Edit > Preferences > Advanced'.   In

    other words, I don't know where these are physically located on my D: hard

    drive.  I only know that I made a folder called 'My Music' on the D: drive

    and told iTunes to put 'everything' into that folder when I load a CD or

    DVD.

     

    So, iTunes does exactly that ... and I end up with a folder that I can see

    as 'organized'.  The only problem is iTunes seems to lose stuff from that

    location.  And after poking around, I can see that iTunes has

    a separate 'place' called it's 'Library'.  I have no idea where that is

    at.  But I'm suspecting that my method is interfering with what iTunes want

    to do with my music.

     

    I set up a folder on my D: drive called 'My Music' and told iTunes to

    always load a CD or DVD into that folder when I put the media into the

    drive.  And so that is where everything I have loaded goes when I insert a

    CD or DVD.

     

    And iTunes puts each CD or DVD into it's own folder according to the Artist

    in 'My Music' ... my folder.  That seems like the simplest way to keep

    things organized, rather than to find folders here and there and telling

    iTunes to put 'these' into the iTunes library.  It also help me to restore

    lost songs because I can just grab that CD/DVD and load it into the drive.

    And iTunes asks me if I want to 'Replace All' ... even though I've only

    lost one or two from that album, I say yes.

     

    As far as the 'Edit/Preferences/Advanced' goes, I found a checkbox, that I

    just unmarked, that says "Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to

    the library".  That's strange, because I thought iTunes was copying them to

    'My Music' folder, which it was.  But I had no idea that iTunes was also

    placing songs into it's own location, which it calls it's 'Library.  What a

    strange way of doing things ... Apple, Grrrr.

     

    By me choosing the place where I want all of my music stored, seems to go

    against the grain and rules of iTunes. I'm not understanding this program

    at all.  No logic there.

    Gary

     

     

     

     

    On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 3:47 PM, Apple Support Communities Updates <

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 22, 2015 2:46 AM in response to BikerRally
    Level 10 (85,833 points)
    iPod
    May 22, 2015 2:46 AM in response to BikerRally

    Select a broken entry. Press Ctrl+I. Select the File tab. Read off the Location.

     

    I take it your media folder is set to D:\My Music.

     

    The "library" is a reference to all of the media that might be in the iTunes database, or to the combination of both the media, database and its supporting files that together determine what you can see and access on the iTunes interface. For some background on the standard layout of the library see Make a split library portable.

     

    The Keep options tells iTunes to move files around to reflect and changes you might make to tag properties.

     

    The Copy option controls what happens when you add a file to the library that is currently located outside of the designated media folder. If set iTunes makes a new copy and links to that, forgetting about the existence of the original. Misunderstanding this behaviour is the reason some users create duplicates. If unset iTunes links to the file at its current path. Misunderstanding this behaviour can lead to broken links if, for example, you add files from a memory stick which is later removed.

     

    Regardless of those options, files that iTunes rips, converts or downloads are always placed inside the media folder.

     

    tt2

  • by BikerRally,

    BikerRally BikerRally May 23, 2015 1:23 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 23, 2015 1:23 PM in response to turingtest2

    tt2,

     

    What do you mean by 'media folder'?  If I load a CD/DVD to the place I

    indicated inside iTunes (D:My Music), iTunes also creates a copy in the

    'media folder' ... where ever that is?

     

    Thanks for your help.  I really do appreciate it.  I think I may one day

    understand iTunes if I dig deep enough. However, I did not expect something

    that should be so easy to use to be so complicated.

     

     

     

    On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 3:46 AM, Apple Support Communities Updates <

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 May 23, 2015 1:42 PM in response to BikerRally
    Level 10 (85,833 points)
    iPod
    May 23, 2015 1:42 PM in response to BikerRally

    The "media folder" is whatever is indicated as the location under Edit > Preferences > Advanced. In your case it sounds like that is D:\My Music. In a standard iTunes library the folder would be called iTunes Media. Inside the media folder iTunes will normally create different subfolders for different types of media, e.g. Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, etc. and inside each of these subfolders for artists and albums, or some other scheme for different media types. iTunes acts as an index or database for this content. Your library consists not only of all of these media files, but also an iTunes Library.itl database, some supporting files, and an Album Artwork cache. All of these items together make up the library as a whole. They should all be backed up. The aim of my Make a split library portable user tip is to get the entire library arranged in the standard layout, if it has been broken up, to make it easier to move around and backup as a unit.

     

    When you say you load a CD/DVD to this place are you letting iTunes manage this rip, or are you doing something more complicated?

     

    tt2

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