I have to sign in to make my iTunes playlist appear, and when they do appear, I have lost all the categories I had before. I can't recall doing anything that would cause this. Using Windows 8.1.
I followed your instructions, and this restored my playlists, but when I click on any song, I get the message:
This song xxxxx could not be used because the original could not be found. Would you like to locate it. I'm not sure what I should do next. It asks for a file name.
Thanks for you help on this.
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. If everything is where it is supposed to be try Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.
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" I think it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout they were in previously, with one systematic change to the path.
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.
If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:
tt2
The location of the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced is: c:\Users\My Name\Music/iTunes\iTunes Media
The location of a sample missing track shown under Get Info > File > Location is: file://localhost/c:/Users/My Name/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Name of the Track. (note that all the components in this path are preceded by a forward slash).
I'm not sure what you need, with regard to the true path (in 3 above). However, if I add a new item to the playlist (from an audio file or a CD), It's actual file location is c:\Users\My Name\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media/Music\Name of the Track.
Incidentally, what does the exclamation mark indicate?
Thanks so much for your help on this.
After \Music\ I would normally expect to see a folder for the artist, then another for the album, and the file name will normally include digits representing the track number. For example, if you had replied:
Then I would know it was the layout issue I mentioned earlier. Using the actual values of a specific example track might reveal something you've overlooked or assumed when describing the path in more general terms. For 3. you need the path to the file in 2. while it is still broken, adding it to the library and the reading off the path doesn't help diagnose the problem.
The exclamation mark in iTunes indicates that iTunes cannot read the file at the expected path listed in 2. The path it is actually trying to read is everything after file://localhost/ and with the directions of the remaining slashes reversed.
tt2
Here is a sample missing track:
1. Location of media folder: C:\Users\User\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music.
2. Location of missing file: file://localhost/C:/Users/User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen/Midnight in Moscow/01 Midnight in Moscow.m4a
3. Location where I would expect to find the file: C:/Users/User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen/Midnight in Moscow/01 Midnight in Moscow.m4a.
Note that in 1., 'Music' now follows iTunes Media. I think I must have changed that when I was trying out a few things based on what you mentioned regarding file name changes, and as I mentioned above; if I add a new file to the playlists (as it is right now), the path is in fact C:/Users/User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music ...etc.
Hope this is the information you require.
Thank you once again for your time. Hope I won't have to bother you much more.
tt2
After going back temporarily to my "corrupt" Library, and then going to the 'Get Info' it indicated that Midnight in Moscow (and all the others) were in iCloud.
I then went to my external backup hard drive and copied the 'Tunes' file which contained everything, then went back to my computer; renamed my Tunes file 'Tunes (temp)' and copies the backup 'Tunes' folder to the 'iTunes Media' folder.
I now have all my files accessible - except for my Playlist categories that I had set up; all the tunes are now lumped together as one large playlist.
Unless you think there is something else I should do to tidy things up, I think I can probably manage on my own now.
You have made me much more familiar with the iTunes structure and I really appreciate your patience and time in helping me with this.
Thank you.
CA
You're welcome. 🙂
tt2
Music playlist won't appear until I sign.
