IronJack

Q: Change media file locations

I have my itunes library and media files on a NAS unit. I recently changed the hostname of the NAS and itunes can no longer locate the files. I have repointed the application to the library file and the library info all looks good but the file information associated with each song has a localhost reference inserted in front of it.

 

File info from itunes:

file://localhost//XFILE/Media/Music/iTunes Media/Music/Supersuckers/Must've Been High/01 Must've Been High.mp3

 

Real file location:

file://XFILE/Media/Music/iTunes Media/Music/Supersuckers/Must've Been High/01 Must've Been High.mp3

 

Is there any way to update the file locations without re-importing 60GB+ of files? I'm running itunes 12.1.2.27 on windows 10.

 

Thanks

iPhone 6 Plus

Posted on Jul 10, 2016 6:10 AM

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Q: Change media file locations

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  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jul 11, 2016 3:47 AM in response to IronJack
    Level 10 (85,833 points)
    iPod
    Jul 11, 2016 3:47 AM in response to IronJack

    The "missing file" issue with exclamation marks 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, or you've moved a non-portable library to a different path (see Make a split library portable for details). 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. Look on the file 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, or when playing a track, 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, or the library has been moved from OS X to Windows, 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. It might need some tweaking if your media is in a non-standard layout.

     

    If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

    1. The location of the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced
    2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Get Info > File > Location that begins file://localhost/
    3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2

     

     

    Can you double check the values you already gave for 2 & 3? It is possible that you've overlooked a discrepancy. The real file location ought to be something like \\XFILE\Media\... etc.

     

     

    tt2

  • by IronJack,

    IronJack IronJack Jul 24, 2016 4:28 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iTunes
    Jul 24, 2016 4:28 AM in response to turingtest2

    Thanks for the response and aplogoies for the delay. The file location change was caused by me renaming the NAS unit.

     

    I see a song in the library that looks ok, try to play it, the ! symbol appears and I get the try to locate the file message. When I get file info on that entry this is the infomation:

    file://localhost//xfile/Media/Music/iTunes Media/Music/Amy Winehouse/Back To Black/01 Rehab.mp3

     

    the file is actually located here:

    \\XFILE\Media\Music\Music\Amy Winehouse\Back To Black\01 Rehab.mp3

     

    The itunes media folder location is:

    \\xfile\Media\Music\iTunes Media

     

    Which looks like it may be the source of the problem.

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jul 24, 2016 4:58 AM in response to IronJack
    Level 10 (85,833 points)
    iPod
    Jul 24, 2016 4:58 AM in response to IronJack

    From the look of things the easiest solution will be to create a new folder called iTunes Media inside \\XFILE\Media\Music and then move the other files and folders inside \\XFILE\Media\Music down into \\XFILE\Media\Music\iTunes Media. This should make the true path match the path that iTunes is already expecting.

     

    tt2