help! itunes only plays select songs since update.

[xtinadias]

hello all, I am new to your forum but have heard amazing feedback and I was hoping to get some insight.

I have a macbook with newly installed 7.7.1 itunes prior to this install, all music played perfectly in itunes. Now there are exclamation points next to some of the tracks but not others?

when a track is selected an error message reads: " "song" could not be used because the original file cannot be found would you like to locate it?"

when I locate it manually it plays (mind you ALL of the songs in itunes, playable and non playable are in the SAME folder)

I have gone into itunes preferences and checked the directory to the music folder and it is correct, tried resetting it and consolidating the music library.

The only thing that seems to "work" is re-importing the song one by one, and deleting the dup in itunes and I just cannot do this for 2000+ songs!!

Now I know there has to be an easier way, does anyone have any insights?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[xtinadias]

still unanswered...

I still haven't found a solution to this issue even through apple support

can anyone puhleease give me a suggestion?

 

[soberbrain]

If all your music is already set up in the iTunes folder, then:

Go to Preferences > Advanced > General and uncheck "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library"

Select all songs from iTunes and delete, but when the window comes up asking if you "want to delete the songs from your computer" or "move songs into Trash" click No, so the songs stay in the iTunes folder.

Then add all the songs from your iTunes folder so that iTunes has the correct location for each song without making duplicates.

Then, go to Preferences > Advanced > General and check "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library"

 

[xtinadias]

that's one way to do it BUT my playlists, count, ratings etc would be lost!

however while waiting for a response this thread on apple discussions provided me with a much easy solution:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8022790#8022790

"iTunes creates a dup for you and puts it into the Previous Library folder. Find the one that is the most recent and make a copy of it - take that copy and put it in place of your current library data base.

Do this with iTunes closed. Drag you current library file out to the Desk Top, then put the copy file into the iTunes folder. The copy will need to be renamed to match what is currently in your iTunes folder. Open iTunes and see if you are in business."

it was super easy! and now EVERY song plays just like before!!!

only negative thing is that IF you added songs after that previous library, meaning its only on the current library data file, your going to have to re add those files from your itunes music folder (in my case it was only two albums.) Also, your play count etc from that current library will be lost and revert back to previous count from that date, but at least I wouldn't be starting from scratch ya know?

not too bad considering

thanks again for your response!!!

 

[soberbrain]

Ah, that is a much better solution!

Congrats on solving your issue