Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I've imported my song library onto my new lap top, but iTunes has not found all the file locations. When I locate a file, iTunes doesn't include the remaining 500+ 'lost' files even though they are all saved in the same location! I don't want to be forced to have to find them all individually! Is there a solution? Please help!
iPod classic 160GB (Late 2009), Windows 10
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
Yes.
tt2
Did that then tried to run the FindTracks script again but unfortunately it didn't work !
I'm in the midst of restoring my iPhone, but as soon as that is done I'll test and then post up a new version that can give a bit more information about the object that is causing the error. I'm guessing it is another issue that has arisen out of your media folder being the root of a drive.
tt2
OK that fine. As I live in the UK I'm now off to bed.
That took a little longer than I thought. Download a fresh copy of the script and try again. It should hopefully now reveal which folder is producing the permission denied error, and you may be able to continue past it. Let me know what folder is causing the problem and I should be able to get the script to ignore it.
tt2
Hi. Sorry for not being in touch for a while, I've been a bit busy with other things. Last night I eventually managed to get my iTunes working again.
I downloaded your revised version of the script and ran it again but an error occurred because of a file on drive G that had nothing to do with iTunes.
I suddenly remembered when you told me to repair the security permissions on drive G they were some files that I had to skip because access was denied. This is why I think the script did no work.
There was an iTunes folder on drive G although all my music files were not stored within it, they were mixed up with a whole number of other things stored within the drive. There was also an empty iTunes media file within the iTunes folder. I then decided to move all my music files into the empty media file, reset the location of my music in edit / preferences / advanced / G:\iTunes\iTunes Media and ran the script again entering the new location for the music on the script (G:\iTunes\iTunes Media)
Everything worked perfectly.
I really want to thank you for all the time and effort you have provided to sort this problem out for me, and it has also been an educational experience into some of the workings of iTunes. I'm not finished yet though, my next task will be to make my split library portable as you suggested, so I will take a look at that next and will probably be in touch for more advice.
Regards, Alex
Sounds like progress. Now that G:\iTunes\iTunes Media is your media folder it should be easy to move the library files into G:\iTunes to make the library portable.
tt2
Hi. Eventually have everything working as it should, I hope, with the entire iTunes consolidated on drive G (external hard drive). I did follow your instructions and everything worked well for a while but I don't know whether I messed up but something went wrong.
I then decided to delete everything related to iTunes on drive G except album artwork and media and then disconnected it from the computer.
Then downloaded iTunes again but instead of instructing a repair had it completely remove iTunes from the computer. I then reconnected G and reinstalled iTunes to the computer to DRIVE G. All I then had to do was add my media folder to the new iTunes and everything now seems OK. Would be interested to know what you think of this solution ?
However I still have a question. I have lost all my playlists on iTunes but still have them stored on my ipod. Is it possible to transfer then back to iTunes on the computer and if so, how ?
Regards, Alex
Have you created a new split library, or a new portable one?
See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device - there are a couple of scripts that I have written that are linked to near the end, one of which recovers playlists.
tt2
Is it just a portable if it is only stored on G ?
The library files and media should all be set out in a standard layout, as shown in Make a split library portable. And then you backup the entire working library to a second drive. Otherwise you're likely to find yourself back in the same position not too far down the line. 😐
tt2
OK thanks. Will try again tomorrow.
Alex
I think last time everything was listed in the right format until I tried to access my music on my computer from a different location such as Alex's music for example and then it seemed to mess the iTunes format up.How do I stop this ?
What do mean access the media from a different location? The idea was to get all of your media stored in G:\iTunes\iTunes Media\... and the library files stored in G:\iTunes. That way your library would survive a drive letter change, or being moved to a new computer, and a clone of the iTunes folder will be a fully working backup of the library. All access is made via iTunes rather than Windows Explorer. If you want to use other media applications take a look at Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely for ideas. Once the library is working properly then if your main drive has room for the entire library you could copy the folder G:\iTunes into User's Music, switch to that copy of the library, and use the G: drive as the backup copy rather than an additional drive.
tt2
Still having problems I'm afraid !
Have arranged my iTunes folder on drive G as you showed it on your Make a split library portable instruction article, so everything is now in the iTunes folder including all the library files. Also within it now is the iTunes Media file which have two sub folders, Music and Automatically Add to iTunes. I don't have any Movies, Books or Podcast folders etc.
The problem is now I seem to be back where I started. When I open iTunes I can't play any tracks as iTunes is unable to locate the Music file. I went into edit/preferences/advanced and it won't let me type in the new location. Also tried your FindTracks Script but get the following message,
Windows Script Host
Script: C:\Users\Alex\Downloads\FindTracks.vbs
Line: 759
Char: 7
Error: Unspecified error
Code: 80004005
Source: (null)
Please hope you can help
Regards, Alex
Locating files
