All my songs are missing in action..

I opened my iTunes, clicked on the "My iPod" folder and found my songs in gray, and after exiting and re-entering I found them gone; from both my iPod and Music Library.
* I am using an iPod Nano
Please help me, I paid for nearly half of these songs; I don`t want to waste my money..

There are usually always two copies of your music. It's highly recommended that you make *at least* one more copy by backing up your music by burning CDs or copying them to another hard drive.
1) one copy is on your computer in your iTunes Library
2) a second copy is on your iPod (all songs that are currently synced)
iTunes maintains a database file that tracks the music in your Library. If this file becomes corrupt or otherwise unusuable by iTunes, then it may appear that your music has been deleted. Plugging in your iPod will then cause it to become updated to match the Library (if you have auto-sync enabled or do a manual sync).
The first thing you want to do is search your computer for your individual song files. By default, they are stored in "/My Documents/My Music/iTunes/iTunes Music" in subfolders for each artist and album.
It may be that iTunes has simply lost track of your song files and you need to correct that.
Don't panic. Learn how iTunes is designed by asking questions and chances are you'll recover all your music.
1) Fix iTunes first.
2) Then sync your iPod second.
** BACK UP ALL YOUR MUSIC **

Similar Messages

All the songs are missing in Library

We hooked up this morning to charge an ipod and when iTunes opened, we noticed the Library was empty. This was on my son's account. I checked my account, same, Daughter's account, the same.
All Librarys showed no songs. We looked at "My computer" and found the music folders and all the songs are still in the folders. Just nothing when iTunes is opened. This is the first this has ever happened.
Is this a glich that happened in iTUnes from iTunes? Or, is it possible something happened on the PC?
How do we get the songs back in the respective libraries?
Thanks,
Andy S.
MikesDad
eMachines Windows XP
eMachines Windows XP

Unfortunatley this is a common propbelm and no one has come up with a complete explanation of why it happens.
If you are lucky, you can rebuild your libraries using the method in this Apple article.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313
If that doesn't work, you can get your music back into your library by adding the iTunes Music folder to iTunes. But then you loose all your ratings, play counts and playlists.
It is a good idea to make a backup of your library files in case this happens again.
The library files are in:
My Documents\My Music\iTunes
Close iTunes and wait about 30 seconds.
Copy iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml somewhere else e.g. into the Previous iTunes Libraries folder.
To restore, with iTunes closed drag the current itl and xml file from the iTunes folder to the desktop, then copy the backup iTunes Library.itl into the iTunes folder. The xml file isn’t necessary but can come in handy if the library needs to be recreated and the itl file is causing problems.

Downloaded 7.1 of iTunes and now all my songs are missing!!

I have been getting a message upon starting iTunes on my PC for awhile not to "upgrade",, which I have been afraid to because everytime I do something goes wrong. today i finally choose the option and upgraded. And of course upon launching iTunes my entire song lists and playlists were gone, including the folders I had created. The screen looked like it did before I bought a single song. I checked my music folder and all my music was still there, and I made sure that "preferences" was still pointing to this folder. It will let me "import" every song, song by song,, but that will take for ever!!!! how do I get iTunes to recognize the music that is in my music folder!!!

Drag the folder to the Music icon in iTunes although you may have lost your ratings and playlist. This is far the easiest way to load all your songs.

I downloaded the most recent update to iTunes, and now all my songs are gone and my library is empty

I downloaded the most recent update to iTunes, and now all my songs are missing. My library is completely empty.

See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash.
tt2

Disappointed with IOS7, i had organized my music library as per the Genre and now im unable to hear all the songs of the same genre like in the earlier versions. The options of "all albums" and "all songs" are missing in this version of IOS. Help Please..

Disappointed with IOS7, i had organized my music library as per the Genre and now im unable to hear all the songs of the same genre like in the earlier versions. The options of "all albums" and "all songs" are missing in this version of IOS. Help Please..

It would be nice if you told others the steps you've tried and/or how you used to have your setup.
Anyway have you tried tapping MORE this will then bring you to
the selection-list of Audiobooks, Genres, Compilations & Composers.
Selecting Genres gives you a list of all your music split into genres which was set within the Music downloaded via iTunes or uploaded from CD or which you may have set yourself.
Then you just select the Genre you want:
If certent songs are not correctly gategorised you may need to go into iTunes and reselect via Get-info
>Info>Genre and change it there. That way you should end up with all songs of Jazz or other in 1 place.

I update my IPhone4 to IOS6 from IOS4.3.3. My all songs are missing in the Iphone4. How to get those songs into my Iphone from ITunes. Even after sync also not coming to IPhone.

I update my IPhone4 to IOS6 from IOS4.3.3. My all songs are missing in the Iphone4. How to get those songs into my Iphone from ITunes. Even after sync also not coming to IPhone.

The iphone is not storage/backup device.
The sync is one way - computer to iphone.
The only exception is itunes purchases. File>Devices>Transfer Purchases
You should copy everything from your old computer, or your backup copy of your old computer, to your new one.

I have a iPod Nano, when it is connected to my laptop all my songs and books are there but when it is disconnected from laptop, some books and songs are missing from the library

I have a iPod Nano, when it is connected to my laptop all my songs and books are there but when it is disconnected from laptop, some books and songs are missing from the library

I have a simlar issue like this when loading my movies to my iTouch. iTunes says that all of your wanted content is sync and your iPod says that all content wasn't synced, is that what you are saying?

ITunes thinks songs are missing when they are NOT...

I've written about this in the past and I thought I had fixed it manually. For some reason a large number of my songs (about 1300) in iTunes are not able to be found on the drive when I try to play them. Once I try to play them I get an error message saying "The song "song name" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it" and then the "!" symbol shows up next to the song. The songs files ARE there though.
In the past I thought I solved this problem because I "re-added" using all the songs in my library (about 4500) "File->Add To Library". If the song was one of these "missing" songs it was re-added to the library. The songs that were not "missing" were not re-added. (and again, the song files iTunes is re-adding are the exact song files it is saying aren't there in the first place) After the "re-add" I essentially had two of all the missing songs. One with the "!" and one without it. The newly added songs did not have any of the stats the original song had. So I used a script I was told about that goes through and syncs the song's statistics. Then after the song stats were synced I removed the "!" song from the library. I had to do this one song at a time. Of course, this took a VERY long time and I don't really want to go through it again... especially now that I know it may not be a permanent fix anyway!
However here is something new I noticed now that I have Leopard: The files that are showing up as missing are also the ones that don't have a "thumbnail" icon of the album cover in the finder. Also, if I go into coverflow view in the finder those files don't have the album as the other files do. However, there should be no differences between the files. For example, one album where each song was ripped at the same time in the same way will have some songs that have the cover icon and some that don't.
As I reported last time, this is not specific to one machine and has noting to do with the drive the songs are on. This also was happening on both 10.5.1. and 10.4.11 and lower.
So, why is this happening and how can it be fixed. I'm not going to re-import the songs because then I loose all my stats, ratings, etc and have to re-do the long method of fixin the stats.. There needs to be some way to permanently fix this problem. Is it with the song files or the library? Is there some sort of validation script that can be run?
Oh, on a side note... pre-leopard the "!" would show all the time. Now, if I close iTunes and re-open the "!" are gone until I try to play the song that should have the "!". This makes things even more challenging because I can't quit iTunes if I want to know which songs are "missing".
Jeff

I have this same issue. I use an external HD connected to an Airport Extreme Base station to store my music. On Tiger 10.4.11 iTunes created a music database just fine and found every mp3. I just installed Leopard last night and left iTunes to create its database overnight. It found every song, but there are plenty with the exclamation just as you described. If I want to play these songs I must hit "Yes" to locate the song manually. I can then play any other song with an exclamation point in that particular album, but if I go to try to play another song with an exclamation point from another album I must repeat the process again.
It's definitely a problem with Leopard as I just got my mac back from the Apple store with a replaced hard drive. I created the iTunes database in Tiger on one day, then the next decided to purchase and install Leopard. So one day passed between each instance of building the database and it worked fine on a clean install of Tiger but not on a clean install of Leopard.

No iTunes exclamation marks, but iTunes still says 70 songs are missing

Hi all,
I have had this problem for a while now and haven't found it addressed anywhere online (tried searching in this forum as well as other forums through Google Search for quite a while).
Here is the issue:
My music library occasionally shows exclamation marks due to me having moved some file or folder around. I am a very organized person, so I always make sure to locate all files and make all of the exclamation marks disappear. I go through my whole music library (a little over 3000 files) until I make sure there are no more exclamation marks. As I am on the last exclamation mark, and I am 100% sure I have checked all of the files and there are no other exclamation marks except for that one, iTunes still says that it wasn't able to find 70 songs in the dialog box after it has located the one with the last exclamation mark.I double-check and triple-check, but I am totally not able to locate any other exclamation marks after that final one.
What is going on here? Why does iTunes claim songs are missing when there are no exclamation marks?
Please don't suggest that I repopulate my library by deleting and then re-adding the songs to fix this issue. I am not willing to do that as it will lose my library, which is a highly customized one (not all songs on my drive are included, only the ones I want to have on my iPhone).
Looking forward to hearing any other suggestions.
Thanks guys!

Lost & Found Playlists
Create a playlist called Found, select everything in Music and drag it into the Found playlist (it may take some time to count the tracks that are to be dropped). Create a smart playlist called Lost matching All the rules Playlist is Music and Playlist is not Found. Your lost tracks will be in this playlist.
If the missing files can be tracked down are in vaguely standard artist & album folder I have a tool called FindTracks that could help repair the broken links. Alternatively if you just want to remove them then in the Lost playlist use Ctrl+A followed by Shift+Delete.
I assume you've determined that these links must be in music rather than say podcasts or audiobooks? Widen the search if required.
For the long run why not make a playlist for what goes on the iPhone and then import all of your media to the library?
tt2

After the latest update to Itunes all my songs are greyed on my computer.

All my songs are greyed and I can´t access my music on my computer. I try a lot of solutions in forums but nothing works.

Hello HectorGtzA,
After reviewing your post, it sounds like you are using iTunes Match and all of your songs are grayed out. I would recommend that you read this article, it may be able to help the issue.
How to troubleshoot iTunes Match - Apple Support
Songs appear to be missing
Songs containing DRM (Digital Rights Management) might not appear in iCloud, or might appear grayed out. This can occur if your computer is not authorized to play that content. Try authorizing your computer, then manually update iTunes Match. To determine what Apple ID your computer needs to be authorized for to play a specific song:
Locate and select the song in your iTunes library.
Choose File > Get Info.
In the Summary tab, locate the Account Name field in the right column. Write it down.
Click OK.
Choose Store > Authorize this Computer.
Type in the account name from the Summary field and enter its password. Click Authorize.
Choose Store > Update iTunes Match.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Have a nice day,
Mario

My songs are missing , looks like a I tunes upgrade

My Songs are missing, I have a grey screen that has just an apple picture and can go to the store. I did click do not download when the upgrade box appeared.

Reboot, repair/reinstall iTunes.
Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

I am trying to delete songs from itune 11 library and i want it to delete the song from my hard drive as well. All my songs are in the music folder but not in the itunes folder?? itunes did not prompt me to move file to trash nor is there an option??

I am trying to delete songs from itune 11 library and i want it to delete the song from my hard drive as well. All my songs are in the music folder but not in the itunes folder. itunes did not prompt me to move file to trash nor is there an option to remove file to trash bin. How can i delete songs from both the itunes and hard drive at the same time?

aespinoza2210 wrote:
could it be in the itunes folder or does it have to be in the itunes media folder, which is within the itunes folder??
A Espinoza,
The iTunes Media folder is set in Preferences > Advanced, and is the key to most iTunes folder organizational activities. So I doubt that the automatic deletion will work for files that are somewhere else within the folder structure.
However, I have not experimented with that issue in quite a while, so you are welcome to give it a try in iTunes 11.

When I export a playlist and then open in excel, do whatever sorting I want, I then save the file and reimport into itunes but not all the songs are there. It appears to be from "comma's" in the song name. Any solutions?

I see songs such as "Monday, Monday" or "Paint It, Black" or even the artist name such as "Fireballs, with Jimmy Gilmer" which have comma's in them, being a problem when I try to do the following:
1. Export a playlist which contains songs which are all there and play fine, but some have comma's in the title such as listed above.
2. I then open that file in Excel and bring it in as a Tab-delimited file. Everything lays out fine, and all the songs are thing (including those with comma's).
3. I then sort the varoius fields I want (which I can't do in i-tunes because i-tunes won't sort it properly), and resave the file as a newly named file, which is also a .txt file.
4. I then import that playlist into my itunes. It is exactly the same songs that I just had exported but i-tunes says some of the songs can't be found.
I have traced this problem to comma's in the file name of the song such as listed above. There must be a solution to this either as the file is opened in excel or in how it's saved or some other solution short of having to rename song/artists without using comma's.
Thanks.

The additional problem is the file name of the song itself. Even if I were able to delete the commas or replace with a space for example, changing the file name would result in itunes not being able to find the file. I would have to go through each file (out of about 15,000+ songs) to find any that have titles such as described in this thread and change not only the song and artist in the fields, but changing the mp3 file itself.
I fear that I am really pretty much going to have to start with a list of songs that have no comma and then do a file compare to find those songs with commas and then just physically moving them into a new playlist I'm trying to create, but this is a royal pain as I want to be able to create a variety of playlists based on these chart dates/peak positions.
I'm trying to sort the songs in this manner: I use different fields in itunes so that I can put the "peak position" of each song based on Billboard charts, as well as the date the peak position was acheived. I use the "comment box" for that. I use the "grouping" field for my peak position.
So I end up with something like "10/14/1980" in the comment box as the peak position for a song which is in the grouping field, and so forth. If I try to sort the comments column in itunes for example, it won't sort properly. If I sort the Grouping field, it will bring up all the "1's", but that's followed by "10", 11, ...19, then "2", etc. This is why I want to export the playlist and sort it as I want, and then reimport the playlist into itunes.
What I'm ultimately trying to achieve is a year-by-year peak position playlist so that I end up with every #1 song (in this case) from, say, January 1st 1980 and then every #1 song in sequential order for the rest of the year falls in line. I have chart position dates from 1955 through 1999. I have entered in all the data from Billboard books I own so I can really create some amazing playlists, but these commas are problematic. Had I known this ahead of time I would have made "Monday, Monday" as "Monday Monday" and not included commas, but it's too late for that.
Any suggestions?

HT1209 My Itunes Library and iPhone have fallen out of sync on music over the yearsare - how can I compare my itunes library with my Iphone to see what songs are missing from my library so I can then bring my Library up to date

My Itunes Library and iPhone have fallen out of sync on music over the yearsare - how can I compare my itunes library with my Iphone to see what songs are missing from my library so I can then bring my Library up to date

Hello Solid Buck,
Thank you so much for providing the details about the duplicate song issue you are experiencing. It sounds like you would like to remove the duplicate songs that will not play on your iPhone, but when you connect it to iTunes, iTunes only shows you one copy of the song on your iPhone.
In this situation, I recommend deleting the individual songs that do not play directly from your iPhone. I found the steps to do this on page 61 of the iPhone User Guide (http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iphone_user_guide.pdf):
Delete a song from iPhone: In Songs, swipe the song, then tap Delete.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

I would like to copy all the songs from one Ipod into another. All the songs are into my Itunes account, I tried to drag and drop the songs from the old Ipod to the new one but it doesn't work. Is there a way to do it ?

Hello everybody,
I would like to copy all the songs from one Ipod into another. All the songs are into my Itunes account, I tried to drag and drop the songs from the old Ipod to the new one but it doesn't work. Is there a way to do it ?
I share one Itunes account with other people from my family and one person would like to keep the same songs on the new Ipod as the ones which were on the old one.
Thanks in advance for your answer.
Yan

Hello Chris,
Thanks for your answer. I was hoping for an easier answer. Too bad there is no drag and drop solution, it would have been much easier.
Thanks for answering so fast.
Bye.
Yan

All my songs are missing in action..

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