iTunes suddenly cannot find any of my music or videos. I was cleaning up my drives and did not delete *anything* that was labeled as an iTunes or library file, but all my videos (and there are many) and music (and there is a lot) is no longer in the library (the names are there but it says the files cannot be located. I *did not move them. This will take days to restore if I have to do it manually. Is there any other way?
There are three main approaches you can take when there are missing links in the library. You can try to move the files to where iTunes thinks they should be, you can try to use a script to predict where the file is and if found tell iTunes the new location, or you can import the files from their new locations and then deduplicate, discarding the items with the broken links. Some metadata such as rating, dated added, play count, playlist membership, etc. lives only in the iTunes library, so this is lost if you reimport the lost content and clean up. I have a script called DeDuper which can preserve some of this information, but not date added. Video files may also lose some properties that would normally be captured in tags for mp3 or aac files. There is a slim possibility that the DeDuper script won't be able to match your reimported files but again that is something that might be tweaked if needed.
I've updated FindTracks to give it a chance of finding your TV Shows if you start the search from E:\Handbrake. If you don't have any luck could you post a screenshot of running my GetInfo script against one of those Colombo episodes, or an episode where if doesn't work, so I can see what information there is to work with?
tt2
Clearly that metadata isn't embedded or iTunes would show it. Which makes repairing the broken links a better approach than deduping what you now have. I have thought about another approach which would scan your chosen folder and its subfolders for all files, recording their individual file sizes. Assuming the each size is unique and matches that of a broken entry in the iTunes database then it should be a safe bet that we've found the item that needs reconnecting.
I'll post back when I have something ready.
tt2
You need to select from the broken entries in the TV Shows section of your library, not from the recently imported copies in the Home Videos section.
tt2
Good morning. A little bit of elaboration:
1) I did not move any music or video files. I did briefly rename the folders (plural) in which I store music and video but then I restored the names to their previous version when this problem arose.
2) I did delete a few files (nothing that said iTunes, or library, or anything like that) and as you suggest, I did restore them from the recycle bin. Still have the problem.
3) In an attempt to re-link iTunes with my video content, I changed the address of the iTunes library in preferences. That didn't work. Perhaps I need to find the most recent xml file -- there are several archived over a period of time -- and activate that? I also see an itl file. should I click on that?
Thank you. I have added a bit more info below in response to turingtest2.
Your explanation of the iTunes library is helpful. It confirms what I had understood but it is good to hear I got it right. (To me, a library is both a list of content -- such as the Dewey decimal system -- and the content itself. As you say, the iTunes "library" is just a database.
as per response to Turingtest2, I have restored the items from the recycle bin but no success. I am wondering about using a previous (archived xml file, of which there are several, over a period of time) or whether I need to use the itl file. (but maybe that has been overwritten by my failed attempts to recreate "library".)
Turingtest2: per instructions, I selected one song, by David Bowie. ITunes *thinks* it is at: file://localhost/C:/Users/Edison/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/David Bowie/Let's Dance/03 Let's Dance.mp3
But as far as I know, my music is not on the C drive (though the link to the music may be).
The song is actually in a folder on the G drive: G:\Music\Music\David Bowie\Let's Dance
The iTunes library is currently at: C:\Users\Edison\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media (I say currently because I have played with options (eg using a location on another drive) to drive to restore content from those drives). I do not know if this is correct.
Have been backing up files before attempting anything but in the meantime I remembered I have another user account on the PC -- Edison-2-- and I checked in the C\user\edison2\music folder and there is an itl file there from January. Would that perhaps get me most of the way to restoring content?
To Turingtest2: Tried pointing iTunes to G:Music and had some success, but many songs still not available. There does not seem to be an obvious reason why some are and why some are not. Then pointed iTunes to separate drive where videos are located. Same experience -- some loaded, many did not. By way of example, some Matlock episodes are viewable, some are not, even though they are all in the same place.
Further to my last, I chose one episode of Matlock. iTunes says it should be found at C:/Users/Edison/Music/iTunes/iTunes media/Home videos/Matlock s3_d2.title2.
It is actually at E:\Handbrake\TV Shows\Matlock\The D.J..m4v
When I pointed it in the right direction, it ran the video and offered to use that guidance to find the other missing files. But then it didn't find them, even though they are also in E:\Handbrake
Ok, I clicked it, but I don't think I am doing this right. If I understand the instructions, I highlight some of the files which has become disconnected from the associated content and somehow run the script on those files. I don't see an option to select files. When I run the script, it asks for a drive where the content is located, I identify the drive where my music is located, it runs, and then says zero files were updated.
The good news is I *think* my music files are working. (I had played with creating a new itl file, then went back to an older one; I do not know whether this or the script or something else I am unaware of fixed that issue.
Problem: when I point the script to the video drive, nothing is updated and no files appear, except those on icloud. So my video files -- which remain in the same place they have been for at least a few years -- are still missing from iTunes.
Another thought: as mentioned, the videos are all in sub folders. If i copied the videos, and only the videos (ie., not the folder structure, just one Video folder, and then used Add Folder to Library, would that work? would it retain the meta data?
Thank you again for all your help on this. I tried the updated find tracks and used it a few times, on different targets, but it says zero tracks updated and they are not in iTunes.
Here is info script on a Touch of Frost episode.
Even more curious, while the name of the episode and description have been stripped from TV shows in iTunes, the name of the episode is available via File Explorer by clicking on the file and then properties/details. (Perhaps the description of the episode is still embedded somewhere as well; if so, does not display in File Explorer.)
I would be 95 per cent of the way there if iTunes would just recognize the titles that are already embedded.
Wow. Thanks!
But before you go to much more trouble, I should say that in my *current* iTunes library I seem to only have content to files with clear destinations. No broken links. Not sure how I got here, but as I mentioned, it now has found my music files, so it would be difficult to roll back.
My TV shows' links are now there as well (from Import Folder as discussed this morning); just no meta data. I am beginning to think that will need to be done by hand?
You are being very generous with your time. Unfortunately, either I am doing it wrong or this failed. When I used the Add Folder function this morning, it plopped all the files into Home Video (as you indicated). The episode names and plot summaries remain missing.
The output of Findfiles is as follows:
Ah. Well I fear that ship has sailed. As mentioned at 936am:
"But before you go to much more trouble, I should say that in my *current* iTunes library I seem to only have content to files with clear destinations. No broken links. Not sure how I got here, but as I mentioned, it now has found my music files, so it would be difficult to roll back.
"My TV shows' links are now there as well (from Import Folder as discussed this morning); just no meta data. I am beginning to think that will need to be done by hand?"
Off the top of my head, the only way to go back to a full list of TV shows (but with broken links) would be to use an earlier version of the library. But my fear is that I would then lose Music links. (As you will recall, at the outset both music and video links went missing. Music seems to have been restored, somehow)
itunes cannot find files
