Files keep disappearing

AHB900 · Mar 4, 2013

Hey guys, I just made the switch to mac from windows, and I am seriously starting to regret it. I have searched the problem and saw that I am not the only one with the issue, but I never found a fix for it.

Basically I have my music organized in artist folders, and then I got one specific folder which I use specifically for DJing purposes. I get all my music from beatport.com or DJ record pools, so nothing is pirated and everything should be virus/malware free.

Basically I download the song which goes into my downloads folder then I drag and drop them into my finder/music/beatport music folder. I go into itunes and add the song into my library and all goes well, but once I go back to my beatport music folder the file is no longer there. I go to itunes and right click the song and say show in finder, and this takes me to a folder titled "unknown album" which supposedly is /Users/username/Music/SHOWTEK/Unknown Album

When I navigate to that location the song is NOT there. Plus regardless of if it was there or not, I never put the song in that location I want my files to be where I put them.

Also, I would like to add that when I search for the file in FINDER it does locate the file, but thats really inconvenient and it is unorganizing my music and making it a mess.

Does anybody know what the problem is? Btw I am running OSX 10.8.2 and its a brand new macbook pro 13inch non retina.

Thank You

justperry · Mar 4, 2013

AHB900 said:
Hey guys, I just made the switch to mac from windows, and I am seriously starting to regret it. I have searched the problem and saw that I am not the only one with the issue, but I never found a fix for it.

Basically I have my music organized in artist folders, and then I got one specific folder which I use specifically for DJing purposes. I get all my music from beatport.com or DJ record pools, so nothing is pirated and everything should be virus/malware free.

Basically I download the song which goes into my downloads folder then I drag and drop them into my finder/music/beatport music folder. I go into itunes and add the song into my library and all goes well, but once I go back to my beatport music folder the file is no longer there. I go to itunes and right click the song and say show in finder, and this takes me to a folder titled "unknown album" which supposedly is /Users/username/Music/SHOWTEK/Unknown Album

When I navigate to that location the song is NOT there. Plus regardless of if it was there or not, I never put the song in that location I want my files to be where I put them.

Also, I would like to add that when I search for the file in FINDER it does locate the file, but thats really inconvenient and it is unorganizing my music and making it a mess.

Does anybody know what the problem is? Btw I am running OSX 10.8.2 and its a brand new macbook pro 13inch non retina.

Thank You

Don't blame the Mac or OS X for this, blame yourself for not knowing or reading on how iTunes works.

If you want iTunes to manage your Music there is a checkbox in it's preferences, uncheck it and you can manage yourself, also there is a box there which says "copy music to itunes media folder.....", if you uncheck this the file will not be copied to that unknown folder, so, read before you bash the Mac.

Krazy Bill · Mar 4, 2013

AHB900 said:
I never put the song in that location I want my files to be where I put them.

I feel your pain and recall my days going from Windows to OSX. After a while I just stopped fighting it and now I couldn't care less what iTunes does to my media on import.

You don't need to be on the "Folder" level of organization that you're accustomed to with Windows. Just let iTunes do it's thing. Do you're thing from within iTunes. (naming, albums, playlists, etc).

justperry said:
so, read before you bash the Mac.

Oh for god's sake, stop feeling so insulted. It's just a freaking OS.

AHB900 · Mar 4, 2013

justperry said:
Don't blame the Mac or OS X for this, blame yourself for not knowing or reading on how iTunes works.

If you want iTunes to manage your Music there is a checkbox in it's preferences, uncheck it and you can manage yourself, also there is a box there which says "copy music to itunes media folder.....", if you uncheck this the file will not be copied to that unknown folder, so, read before you bash the Mac.

Thanks for the reply I appreciate it, and I did have those preferences checked, but I just unchecked the boxes, not sure if it changed anything, but this still doesn't change the fact that the files are still no where to be found once I go to the directory that itunes says their in.

Krazy Bill said:
I feel your pain and recall my days going from Windows to OSX. After a while I just stopped fighting it and now I couldn't care less what iTunes does to my media on import.

You don't need to be on the "Folder" level of organization that you're accustomed to with Windows. Just let iTunes do it's thing. Do you're thing from within iTunes. (naming, albums, playlists, etc).

Yeah the problem is the fact that I have over 3000 songs and I only use a 1000 of them for DJing purposes, and I really don't want my other music mixed in with the DJing music, its already tough enough to sort through a 1000 tracks.

justperry · Mar 4, 2013

AHB900 said:
Thanks for the reply I appreciate it, and I did have those preferences checked, but I just unchecked the boxes, not sure if it changed anything, but this still doesn't change the fact that the files are still no where to be found once I go to the directory that itunes says their in.

Yeah the problem is the fact that I have over 3000 songs and I only use a 1000 of them for DJing purposes, and I really don't want my other music mixed in with the DJing music, its already tough enough to sort through a 1000 tracks.

You won't see any changes before you import or manage your own music, now that you changed those two boxes iTunes will not move nor manage these files, just try and see what happens with a new song.

I do manage My Music, I don't like the way iTunes does this, this is personal and has nothing to do with iTunes being bad or good, it's just the way Apple chooses these default settings.

3000 only

, I had 50.000 at one time, but deleted 20.000, lots of doubles and crappy Music, still not 100% optimized.

Just a tip, forget Windows and the way it works, OS X works much better, it has it's quirks though.

AHB900 · Mar 5, 2013

justperry said:
You won't see any changes before you import or manage your own music, now that you changed those two boxes iTunes will not move nor manage these files, just try and see what happens with a new song.

I do manage My Music, I don't like the way iTunes does this, this is personal and has nothing to do with iTunes being bad or good, it's just the way Apple chooses these default settings.

3000 only, I had 50.000 at one time, but deleted 20.000, lots of doubles and crappy Music, still not 100% optimized.

Just a tip, forget Windows and the way it works, OS X works much better, it has it's quirks though.

Yeah my music is organized in a specific way and if things get moved around it throws me off completely. I deleted my whole music folder and itunes library, unchecked those boxes and re added everything from scratch. Nothings moved yet, but I guess only time will tell if it solved the problem or not.

Thanks

justperry · Mar 5, 2013

AHB900 said:
Yeah my music is organized in a specific way and if things get moved around it throws me off completely. I deleted my whole music folder and itunes library, unchecked those boxes and re added everything from scratch. Nothings moved yet, but I guess only time will tell if it solved the problem or not.

Thanks

It will, I never had problems with it after unchecking these boxes, but I switch them on once in a while but for other reasons, before I do I always change iTunes directory and point it to a folder which I want to be organised automatically, it then arranges everything in a few seconds, after this is done I uncheck the box again and set the working directory to something else.
I have my music in about ten folders, some of them are not 100%, when it is I do the above.

Weaselboy · Mar 5, 2013

AHB900 said:
Yeah the problem is the fact that I have over 3000 songs and I only use a 1000 of them for DJing purposes, and I really don't want my other music mixed in with the DJing music, its already tough enough to sort through a 1000 tracks.

iTunes can help you manage this. Go to the songs you want for the DJ work and select them then hit command-i. A box like the one below will pop up. Put something unique in the Comments field (like *DJ maybe) and save.

Now make a smart playlist to show only the *DJ marked songs. Click the + at the bottom left of iTunes and pick smart playlist then set it up like my screenshot.

This will add your smart playlist to the left side of iTunes and when you select it only the *DJ marked songs will be shown. You can see how if you tweak it a little it can be used in many ways to manage your music.

Krazy Bill · Mar 5, 2013

Follow Weasel's advice. It doesn't have to be a "smart" playlist - a generic one will do. Just drag your songs to it.

AHB900 · Mar 6, 2013

justperry said:
It will, I never had problems with it after unchecking these boxes, but I switch them on once in a while but for other reasons, before I do I always change iTunes directory and point it to a folder which I want to be organised automatically, it then arranges everything in a few seconds, after this is done I uncheck the box again and set the working directory to something else.
I have my music in about ten folders, some of them are not 100%, when it is I do the above.

Everything is still in its place, thanks for the help seems like it was a much simpler fix than I expected.

Weaselboy said:
iTunes can help you manage this. Go to the songs you want for the DJ work and select them then hit command-i. A box like the one below will pop up. Put something unique in the Comments field (like *DJ maybe) and save.

Now make a smart playlist to show only the *DJ marked songs. Click the + at the bottom left of iTunes and pick smart playlist then set it up like my screenshot.

This will add your smart playlist to the left side of iTunes and when you select it only the *DJ marked songs will be shown. You can see how if you tweak it a little it can be used in many ways to manage your music.

Thats a good idea thanks for the advice.

Krazy Bill said:
Follow Weasel's advice. It doesn't have to be a "smart" playlist - a generic one will do. Just drag your songs to it.

Yeah I already throw them into a specific playlist every time I add a new song to my library.

justperry · Mar 6, 2013

AHB900 said:
Everything is still in its place, thanks for the help seems like it was a much simpler fix than I expected.

No worries, yeah, sometimes the fix is easier than people think.

Search

Search

Files keep disappearing

AHB900

macrumors newbie

justperry

macrumors G5

Attachments

Krazy Bill

macrumors 68030

AHB900

macrumors newbie

justperry

macrumors G5

AHB900

macrumors newbie

justperry

macrumors G5

Weaselboy

Moderator

Krazy Bill

macrumors 68030

AHB900

macrumors newbie

justperry

macrumors G5

Our Staff