I moved my Itunes music and now it won't automatically locate them?

Question

I moved all my music to a different folder, and I click one song in my library to locate it, and then I locate it, and I click locate all files and it won't add them, and I have over 1k songs so I don't want to locate them all manually one by one. What do I do? Is there a fix or program for Windows?
I have a backed up Library.xml file can I edit that somehow?
Thanks!

Answer 1

It all depends a bit on what you want to do.
Option 1
The "offical" method (i.e. there is a support article describing it) for moving your media around is to allocate a new media folder and then consolidate your content to that new location. The downside with it is that you then have to manually clean up what gets left behind. The other problem with that method is that it splits the library and the media folder up. Once this has happened it is less easy to do the following trick.
Option 2
The "unofficial" but still widely documented alternative is to move the entire iTunes folder to a new location. This assumes the media folder was inside the main iTunes folder to start with. If you move a library in this layout to a new location then you can hold down shift when iTunes is starting and choose to open the libary in the new location. (Hold shift, click icon for iTunes, carry on holding shift for some time until a prompt appears). iTunes should open the library from its new location and automatically update the preference for the iTunes Media folder to match. Everything just works.
Actually, if your library was created by iTunes 8 or earlier and you haven't updated to iTunes Media Organisation then you might need to fix up a few things like iPod Games and Mobile Apps, or better yet, upgrade to iTunes Media Organisation before  you go moving the iTunes folder with File > Library > Organise Library > Reorganise files in the folder <Media Folder>. If the last option is greyed out you've already done it.
Option 3
Finally, if you just want to consolidate files to a new folder without creating copies then my script ConsoldateByMoving will move files to their default location (i.e. where iTunes would copy it to) within the current media folder. It is also possible to modify the script to use a different root folder for all the files it is moving, or indeed adapt it (carefully & take a backup first) for your own personal naming scheme.
Option 4
There are also all sorts of move-my-iTunes-library-guides that talk about editing the XML file to update files with the new location that you've just given them by hand and then "damaging" the ITL file in a way that makes iTunes rebuild the ITL from the XML data. Ignore all such nonsense, there are easier ways to destroy your library.
I'd recommend you go for option 2. I actually organise my media with a personalised version of the script, but there is no real benefit other than a warm glow that everything is organised my way because I want it that way.
tt2