Songs ripped from CDs no longer appear in iTunes 12.3.3.17
This issue is strictly in iTunes 12.3.3.17. on OS El Capitan 10.11.4 (15E65), not even getting into the resulting effects on my iPhone.
I am an Apple Music and iTunes Match subscriber.
During the past couple months I ripped a bunch of CDs to iTunes. Most likely before the most recent update to both iTunes and OS X. In some (but not all) cases, the ripped songs replaced music I had downloaded from Apple Music. As in, these were Apple Music AAC Audio files which which I replaced the audio file by ripping m4a from a physical CD. If you Download songs from Apple Music, when you rip a CD and the artist/song/album titles match exactly, iTunes will overwrite the downloaded m4p file with a non-protected m4a file (modal dialog asks: "do you want to replace" the songs), and it is moved out of the Apple Music folder in Finder to the normal Music folder within the Music Library. At least, this used to be the case.
At some point in the last couple weeks, all of the songs I had ripped are now gone from my iTunes library. For no reason! I found the audio (m4a or mp3) files were somehow automatically moved to iTunes > iTunes Media > Apple Music folder, even though they are not downloaded m4p audio files. They just sit uselessly in there, unable to be added to the Music library.
I have tried moving them to the iTunes > iTunes Media > Music folder (where owned and purchased audio is housed) but then if I try to drag them to iTunes, they get moved back to the Apple Music folder! So, iTunes is doing that, but it refuses to give me the songs to actually listen to. Well, I should say taken them away, because at one time, maybe a month ago, the songs were there and I could play them, and add them to my iPhone and iPod.
It makes no sense that iTunes would do this. The songs are owned by me obviously-- they are from CDs instead of being downloaded. But now all of the songs are invisible in iTunes for no apparent reason. Audio that I have added from other sources-- downloads from other music sites such as Amazon or eMusic-- shows up just fine.
- When I locate the same songs in Apple Music > "New" (thinking I can maybe re-add them somehow), AM makes it look like the songs are already present in iTunes (check mark where download icon usually is). But they absolutely are not in my library. I don't know why AM thinks they are.
- When I do a Search in iTunes for the missing songs, it does give me results-- it shows the album name, lists "1 album", and the correct number of songs that should be there. But the songs are not there at all.
- Tried to re-rip the songs (attempting to replace the songs in iTunes) and that didn't work either. I was able to re-rip the songs as new audio, but what happened to the ones I ripped previously of the same songs?