Certain MP3 files not recognized in iTunes

I have found many .mp3's that are in my music folder (on hard drive) but NOT in my iTunes library, dispite the fact that they were all manually added to the library at the same time. This may seem trivial, but when you have over 30,000 songs, it's hard to know which ones are not shown in iTunes.
I've noticed that the ID3 tags in some of these songs are only using Version 2 ID3 tags and not also using version 1. When I update the tag (using WinAmp) to include both v1 and v2 the songs are automatically recognized by iTunes. One might sumize that iTunes requires ID3v1, but I have many, many songs without v1 tags that are recognized fine.
Any ideas why iTunes doesn't recognize these songs and what I can do to figure out which of the 30,000+ .mp3 files needs to be updated??

First, iTunes' default settings are for it to copy music to the iTunes folder structure when you add them (but leave the original in place, although it no longer refers to it), and for iTunes to manage your music for you in a very specific folder structure.
Second, the listing you see in iTunes is not generated by iTunes directly referring to your files. It keeps a library database of the files you have added and in those listings it keeps all the information about that track, including its location on your drive. When you play a track, iTunes uses that listing to go find the media file and play it.
If you do any file renaming, manually deleting, or moving of files and folders, or anything to break that link between where iTunes' library thinks your file is and where it actually is (or was, if you deleted it), you get "!"
You say you are able to play them but iTunes cannot find them. It would help to know how you are playing them if iTunes cannot find them. Are you playing them in Quicktime? Also, you say you see the files, but are they in the iTunes folder structure (assuming you use default settings), or are these the originals?

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First, iTunes' default settings are for it to copy music to the iTunes folder structure when you add them (but leave the original in place, although it no longer refers to it), and for iTunes to manage your music for you in a very specific folder structure.
Second, the listing you see in iTunes is not generated by iTunes directly referring to your files. It keeps a library database of the files you have added and in those listings it keeps all the information about that track, including its location on your drive. When you play a track, iTunes uses that listing to go find the media file and play it.
If you do any file renaming, manually deleting, or moving of files and folders, or anything to break that link between where iTunes' library thinks your file is and where it actually is (or was, if you deleted it), you get "!"
You say you are able to play them but iTunes cannot find them. It would help to know how you are playing them if iTunes cannot find them. Are you playing them in Quicktime? Also, you say you see the files, but are they in the iTunes folder structure (assuming you use default settings), or are these the originals?

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Hello,
I have the same problem here in Belgium/Europe after upgrading to iTunes 10.
About 10gb of 310Gb in total is not readable anymore. I use only mp3 320kbps.
You can still find them back in iTunes, but no playback anymore.
I have deleted them from the list and do a "add to library". Impossible to import this data anymore.
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First make sure your iPod software is up to date, the latest is Updater 2006-03-23. you can get it at http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/
Also you may want to go here to follow some suggestions on songs that play in iTUnes and won't transfer to iPod http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93867
Play the songs in another player and see if there corrupt or something
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Hello,
I have the same problem here in Belgium/Europe after upgrading to iTunes 10.
About 10gb of 310Gb in total is not readable anymore. I use only mp3 320kbps.
You can still find them back in iTunes, but no playback anymore.
I have deleted them from the list and do a "add to library". Impossible to import this data anymore.
What is strange is that this mp3 data can be used in QuickTime Player.
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Hello tgraul,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information on this, take a look at:
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1538
Best of luck,
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See
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
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ed2345,
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Your post solved the same problem for me. Thank you so much! And thanks to JaketheSnake for starting this thread. iTunes used to start up automatically whenever I connected my iPod Touch, but a couple of months ago it quit doing that. I didn't think much of it as I just clicked on iTunes in the dock and opened it and went on my merry way. I just figured something in the last iTunes update changed it's behavior. But lately I noticed that my iPod Touch would be in the source list while it was syncing and then it would sometimes just disappear. I was too lazy to start a thread, I guess, because I just thought someone would tell me to "restore" my iPT and I had gotten used to my little "work arounds". But now it's fixed, thanks to both of you.
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Hello, just joined community, my name is Dominick, glad to be here.
So all of the sudden my iPod is NOT being recognized by iTunes. I have the most recent version of iTunes. I am running Windows 7 64-bit on my Lenovo Laptop. Long story/synopsis below...
It is being recognized in 'My Computer.' It is recognized as "Removable Disk." If I click on it, it then says "You need to format the disk in drive G [USB port its in] before you can use it". Then asks me if I want to Format Disk or Cancel. However, if I ask it to Format disk, it fails to do so every time. After failing, it then says...
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Can anyone provide some clarity on this statement? Can I change its properties to read-only and will that work?
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Also, I came across the Apple page dedicated to troubleshooting an iPod that is NOT recognized in iTunes, but is recognized in My Computer.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1363?viewlocale=en_US
However, after exhausting all options listed here, my iTunes is still not recognizing my iPod. I then tried uninstalling iTunes and all its component programs, e.g. Quicktime, Bonjour, Apple Device Services, etc. and reinstalling and this did not work. I then tried plugging in my iPod into a friend's computer with latest version of iTunes and that didn't work either.
To provide a little more background on how I got here, my iPod was acting funky over the past 2 weeks...meaning it would be slow to response, random songs would freeze/not play, and then start playing again, or freeze altogether, then I'de have to reset my iPod by pressing Menu and middle-button...I was planning on restoring it yesterday just to fix its minor issues that at the time were just annoying...but as fate would have it, here I am now...
When I plugged it into my laptop to Restore it yesterday morning, it took a LOOONG time for iTunes to recognize it, then iTunes told me the iPod was corrupt and I should Restore it...well, being an ignorant peion that I am, I instead disconnected it and tried Resetting it again to see what that would do...it then was totally frozen, wouldnt respond to pressing Menu and middle button to Reset iPod, and wouldnt get recognized by iTunes or My Computer when I plugged it in...once the battery died, I was able to charge it up, all the music and files were gone, and I had to select a language...I then plugged it into my Laptop to see what would happen, and per above, here I am now with iTunes no longer able to recognize iPod, but My Computer can, and everything else per above.
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Hope that makes sense. Please lemme know any thougts or questions. you may have. Thank you for your time.
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From the Classic iPod manual.
To reset iPod classic:
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2 Press and hold the Menu and Center buttons for at least 6 seconds, until the
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My iPod is NOT recognized by iTunes

My iPod worked with iTunes perfectly fine 3 days ago. Then, I got 2 iTunes giftcards for christmas. So I plugged in my iPod christmas day to the computer, but it didn't automatically open iTunes like it normally does. So I clicked on iTunes to use them and I noticed the store was lagging, so I thought "No big deal...probably a lot of people using it and it's just running slow..." Well the next day (yesterday) I tried opening iTunes and I got the "Itunes could not be opened because Itunes Library.itl does not exist" error. So I changed the library file to itl (WITHOUT BACKING UP) thinking it would allow me to now open iTunes, and guess what-it did open iTunes, only now all of my media and downloaded content is gone. Completely wiped clean off iTunes. Not even a single song left on it.
And you know what?
My 32 Gig iPod Touch STILL IS NOT RECOGNIZED BY ITUNES!!!!
I have tried unplugging and replugging the iPod multiple times, which does nothing. I have tried reinstalling iTunes MULTIPLE TIMES, which does nothing. I have even gone so far as to system restoring my computer 4 days back to a time when iTunes worked, which by the way-DID NOTHING.
So now I have lost all my media because of iTunes' crap errors, and now my iPod Touch won't even work with it anymore!
Does anyone know how to fix this problem? And is there ANY way I can get back the media and downloads I lost on iTunes? I noticed I can't re-download anything from my purchase history...which is REALLY STUPID if you ask me, seeing as I've already payed for it with my own hard earned money, why can't I just re-download from there?

Wow the customer service is even worse. Does Apple want me to go around jailbreaking my iPod now so I can use something that actually recognizes my product?

Certain MP3 files not recognized in iTunes

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