iTunes Library missing files

[tucablanca]

Hi,

I´m a bit panicking since now 5000 songs on my iTunes library aren´t being located by my iTunes... What happened is that I had to reinstall my MacBook Pro after it crashed, and my network drive failed, so no possibility of Timemachining it. Fortunately I had a second manual copy of all my data on another external hard drive, but here´s the problem:

Even though I did all right when switching from PC to Mac a while ago with iTunes (did consolidate library and allowed iTunes to keep it organized), it turns that I now have two folders for my music, on iTunes Media and iTunes Music, and my music library split in both.

I have copied all files from Music to Media, and tried to let iTunes find other missing links in the same folder (Media), but it doesn´t seem to work - it never finds them, even though they´re there, and in theory, in the same config that they were in the Music folder (as this one appears to be also organized). Tried to reboot library with option-down, and unchecking both keep it organized and copy files, but nothing worked. Also tried to have iTunes looking at the Music folder for the library, but this way it wouldn´t find the songs either.

I did edit the iTunes Library xml file, and replace all iTunes%20Music for iTunes%Media, in the hope that´ll fix it, but somehow, even Dreamweaver finds and replaces all, and I save the file, every time I open the xml again it does appear as unchanged (that´s to say, still with the iTunes%20Music references).

Can you please help me? The thought of having to manually locate 5000 songs keeps me awake at night...

Thanks!!!

 

[dogegg]

Before I switched to my MBP my PC completely crashed and the only copy of all my music was on my IPod Classic. I installed Senuti and enabled me to recover all my music.

http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/

Not sure if this helps but just an idea. Good luck

 

[LaWally]

Hi,

I´m a bit panicking since now 5000 songs on my iTunes library aren´t being located by my iTunes... What happened is that I had to reinstall my MacBook Pro after it crashed, and my network drive failed, so no possibility of Timemachining it. Fortunately I had a second manual copy of all my data on another external hard drive, but here´s the problem:

Even though I did all right when switching from PC to Mac a while ago with iTunes (did consolidate library and allowed iTunes to keep it organized), it turns that I now have two folders for my music, on iTunes Media and iTunes Music, and my music library split in both.

I have copied all files from Music to Media, and tried to let iTunes find other missing links in the same folder (Media), but it doesn´t seem to work - it never finds them, even though they´re there, and in theory, in the same config that they were in the Music folder (as this one appears to be also organized). Tried to reboot library with option-down, and unchecking both keep it organized and copy files, but nothing worked. Also tried to have iTunes looking at the Music folder for the library, but this way it wouldn´t find the songs either.

I did edit the iTunes Library xml file, and replace all iTunes%20Music for iTunes%Media, in the hope that´ll fix it, but somehow, even Dreamweaver finds and replaces all, and I save the file, every time I open the xml again it does appear as unchanged (that´s to say, still with the iTunes%20Music references).

Can you please help me? The thought of having to manually locate 5000 songs keeps me awake at night...

Thanks!!!

It is my understanding that when you copy files directly into the iTunes Media folder, they don't get added to the iTunes Library because iTunes does not know anything about the copy operation. Have you tried copying the files from "iTunes Music" to your '~/iTunes/iTunes Media/Automatically Add to iTunes' folder. iTunes only looks at this folder when iTunes is opened, so if iTunes is running when you copy the files into this folder, restart iTunes afterwards.

BTW, before you do this make sure your iTunes media path in iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced is set to /{User}/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media".

 

[tucablanca]

LaWally:

thanks. The thing is because that mix between Media and Music happened over time, without me noticing, it will be as difficult to find out which one of the songs are in Music and add them manually to Media... and they´re all scattered in different folders thanks to " Keep my Media folder organized", so I guess that´d be as time-consuming as manually locate each.

I did run iTunes Track CPR script, and found some, but there still are an awful lot missing.

Perhaps there´s other way/script/tool/thing to do to iTunes that´d help?

Thanks!

 

[LaWally]

You might want to take a look at Dave's Apple Scripts for iTunes. There might be something there to help you.

You can check them out at: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/

 

[marzer]

BTW, before you do this make sure your iTunes media path in iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced is set to /{User}/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media".

Agree. Ensure your media folder is set as desired. Check the "keep organized" option, then use the "File > Add to Library" function from iTunes. Select the iTunes Media folder and see if it finds the missing files.

 

[tucablanca]

I did run the script and found some, but not all of them. And I can´t import songs back manually since all songs are dispersed in the organized folders of iTunes, so it would take as much time as manually locating them. (Anyway, wouldn´t that create duplicates and lose my ratings?) And of course, iTunes can´t locate them automatically even they´re in the same location the song I´ve previously located manually.

I did try the methodology shown here:
http://hifiblog.com/past/2006/05/11...ou-dont-let-itunes-manage-your-music-library/

which is editing your xml with the right new path, delete your itl, and launch iTunes in the hope the itl file would read back data from the modified xml and rebuild your iTunes library. However, it doesn´t work for Lion/iTunes 10.5 (see ...added by Sean /// November 24th, 2011 at 06:24 AM at bottom of the page) - it didn´t rebuild the itl based on the xml but rather created an empty itl file.

Any tips on how to do this (which, if worked in Lion, would so solve my problem) with my current OS and iTunes version? Basically, how can I edit the itl file, or alternatively, tell it to rebuild from my modified xml?

Thanks!

 

[LaWally]

I did try the methodology shown here:
http://hifiblog.com/past/2006/05/11...ou-dont-let-itunes-manage-your-music-library/

which is editing your xml with the right new path, delete your itl, and launch ...

Thanks!

Maybe just an unintentional slip, but did not the methodology you included by reference say to zero-out your itl file, not delete it?

Did you delete your itl or zero it out?

 

[tucablanca]

Maybe just an unintentional slip, but did not the methodology you included by reference say to zero-out your itl file, not delete it?

Did you delete your itl or zero it out?

Sorry, LaWally, I wrote it wrong - I zeroed it out - opened it with TextEdit and deleted it all.

 

[LaWally]

Sorry, LaWally, I wrote it wrong - I zeroed it out - opened it with TextEdit and deleted it all.

No problem. Just wanted to be sure that some little mistake did not tank the procedure. Strange that it did not work for you.

 

[tucablanca]

No problem. Just wanted to be sure that some little mistake did not tank the procedure. Strange that it did not work for you.

It does work for other OS and iTunes version, but not for Lion and iTunes 10.5 - instead of rebuilding from the xml makes a blank, new itl with no information in it. But perhaps there´s a way of avoiding this is Lion?