Finding moved music files

I tried to follow the directions for moving files from one hard disk to another, but itunes cannot find them. It recognizes them if I manually give it the location, but I have a gazillion songs and it would take me weeks...
Is there a way to force itunes to search my hard drive and locate all the music files (which are in the itunes folder already BTW)like when I first got my ipod?
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling with the latest version of itunes -- didn't help. Tried consolidating the library -- didn't help.
I really hope the music is all still there...PLEASE help me if you can.

open itunes
click file add folder to library
add the folder you want into your library

Similar Messages

  • How to make i-tunes find moved music files on my laptop

    I organized my music files and itunes does not see them how to make i-tunes find them and add them again

    When you move files around in Windows Explorer, or rename them, itunes loses the file path to them.
    You can drag the new folder back into the itunes window. You don't need to add them back one-by-one, in other words. This will give you duplicates, probably - the old ones will have ! next to them. You can sort your library by Date Added and get rid of the old ones.

  • Find all music files and move to one folder for all of family to access, find all music files and move to one folder for all of family to access

    I seem to have music files in various places on my laptop, on my husbands computer and our main imac.  What we want to do is put all music on imac so when each of us logs on we have the same files availabe in itunes, but we logon seperately so we can have different playlists and checked music. So here is what I want to do:
    Find all music files on each computer seperately and put everything in one folder one each computer, so three folders total to start...
    Move my husbands itunes library and my itunes library from each of our laptops to our main imac, making one huge itunes folder
    I want to store our music on an external hard drive, which I have, so I have a full library for backup purposes.
    I want all future music downloaded on any of our laptops to transfer to the main imac computer, again to keep one main library
    I want all video, apps, books, etc on each laptop to be available in one file on my main imac also so we can all use them
    So mainly I want to organize, organize, organize and put everything in one spot so things don't get all messed up and some items are only accessible to me some times and not my husband or vice versa.  We want to share everything we can so we don't have to pay twice. I have read many instuctions, but nothing seems to be helping me and was hoping someone could...
    Thanks, l

    I am totally running into the same issue as well. On top of that, when syncing to my iPhone, it took some of the tracks from my iphone and recopied them to the iTunes library, as new files, so now I have a ton of duplicates, and tons of tracks that can't find the iTunes folder, so they have the little "!" next to them.
    It would be really nice to have someone answer this question. I didn't think, moving my iTunes library to a bigger external hard drive would have caused all this madness

  • Hello! I have one iTunes library on my iPod and one iTunes library on my computer. When I connect my iPod touch to my PC, however, I cannot find any files in my iPod except for pictures. How can I find the music files so I can add them to my iTunes?

    Hello! I have one iTunes library on my iPod and one iTunes library on my computer. When I connect my iPod touch to my PC, however, I cannot find any files in my iPod except for pictures. How can I find the music files so I can add them to my iTunes?

    You can't do that.
    And before you decide to store any music that you own on a computer at work, talk to your IT department. Many organizations do not permit it for legal reasons. Standard policies are that anything stored on company owned computers is the property of the company. It could not be legally stored on their machines unless you transfer the licenses and all copies, physical and digital, to the company, meaning you no longer own the music. If they were to be audited and could not prove that they own the music, they would be subject to copyright violation penalties. Just use your iPod when you're at the office if you want to listen to music.

  • How do I find my music files in iCloud?

    How di I find my music files in iCloud?

    To Find your music You would Enter iTunes then do the following: Search for Quick links on the right> then Select Purchase> From there you can search for All Media that you have on iTunes, can all select  from the two options on the Right> All or Not on this Computer & then once you've selected your choice you can see what you have and what's not on your computer, but this only works for media you've purchases through iTunes. I hope this clears things up.

  • How do I find bad music files?  I have thousands of files, but some are bad.  When I try to load them into iTunes, it just spins.  I need a routine to identify and remove the bad files.  Any ideas?

    How do I find bad music files?  I have thousands of files, but some are bad.  When I try to load them into iTunes, it just spins.  I need a routine to identify and remove the bad files.  Any ideas?

    Hi ajoddo20,
    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
    You can use Home Sharing to import music and other media from one computer to another. Please use the instructions and information located in the attached article for information on how to complete the process. 
    iTunes 11 for Mac: Use Home Sharing to import items from another iTunes library
    Cheers,
    Joe 

  • HT1766 I cant find my music files that were on my Iphone

    How can I find my music files. I had over 300 songs and now their gone only ones left are 3 songs i had purchased in itunes.  The music was my own files from my cd collections. THey are not on my computer and they arent on my iphone any more/

    See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash.
    Has anything else changed, i.e. are the rest of your documents and settings as before?
    tt2

  • ITunes doesn't find my music files on external drive anymore

    I have some 15.000 music files on an external hard drive. I added them to my iTunes library and added also a lot of extra info (titles, genres, albums covers, etc.).
    After a great New Year's Party, where several people "played" with my iTunes playlists, for some reason iTunes doesn't sees / recognises the music files on the external hard drive anymore.
    What can I do? I don't want to import the music files all over again. Otherwise I loose all the info I added in the past year. And it is undoable to find the music files one-by-one on the external drive. That would take months.
    Who can help?

    Select one track in your library that is currently missing in action. Press CTRL-I to Get Info then look at the Where: entry on the Summary tab. You should get something along the lines of:
    file://localhost/<path 1>/<Artist>/<Album>/## <Name>.<ext>
    e.g. file://localhost/D:/iTunes/iTunes Music/Arcade Fire/Funeral/01 Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).mp3
    The true path will be something else of the form:
    <path 2>\<Artist>\<Album>\## Name.<ext>
    e.g. D:\iTunes\iTunes Music\Music\Arcade Fire\Funeral\01 Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).mp3
    Comparing the two paths should reveal what needs to be done to put music back where iTunes "expects" to find it. The examples show the different default locations before and after the upgrade to iTunes Media Organisation. I've seen problems before with the way iTunes manages this upgrade so that it occasionally reorganizes the files but then carries on looking for them in the old location. It is also surprising how easy it is sometimes to accidentally move a folder without noticing. Alternatively Windows may simply have switched the drive letter for your external drive. Windows Media Player is more resilient in these circumstances.
    If you can give the two locations for a sample file I can probably suggest what will need doing to put things right.
    tt2

  • Since upgrading to version 8.1, iTunes "can't find original music files".

    I've been building an extensive music file since the first iPod. It's about 110 GB large and for about three years I've stored it on an external drive with absolutely no problems. Now, within hours of upgrading to iTunes 8.1, every listed item on my iTunes library has an exclamation mark next to it and the message *"The song "whatever" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"* Of course I can show iTunes where the song is and then it will play it but I'm not gonna do that for 110 GB's worth of music! And yes, I've gone into iTunes preferences and told it again and again where the iTunes library is located but that doesn't work. Does anyone have a fix for this? And oh by the way, I will NEVER AGAIN let Software Update sway me into upgrading to a new version of iTunes until it's been up and running without bugs for at least three months!

    Have you tried, importing the music into iTunes again? So delete the music from iTunes only not the system, & then import to see if it finds your musics?

  • How can i get itunes to find my music files?

    i am reloading my hard drive after it crashed.  everything is there, but itunes cannot find my files.  how do i match my music files up with itunes?  I keep getting the message "  original file cant be found"

    If that doesn't work for you then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
    tt2

  • ITunes cannot find my music files and I do not have the the files on my computer

    My sister got a new computer and put music files from old iTunes onto external hard drive and then put it directly into iTunes library on new computer. The music from old computer and hard drive got deleted. She synced her iPod with iTunes. Come to find out after the sync she only had 20 songs on her iPod because iTunes cond not find the original files for the 1200 other songs. Now she only has the 20 songs on her iPod and the other 1200 in iTunes won't play and have the exclamation mark next to them. She cannot locate them because she deleted them from the old computer and the hard drive. Is there anything she can do to fix it??? Please and thank you !

    Place the iOS device in Recovery Mode and then connect to your computer and restore via iTunes. The iPod will be erased.
    iOS: Wrong passcode results in red disabled screen                         
    If recovery mode does not work try DFU mode.                        
    How to put iPod touch / iPhone into DFU mode « Karthik's scribblings        
    For how to restore:
    iTunes: Restoring iOS software
    To restore from backup see:
    iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes
    If you restore from iCloud backup the apps will be automatically downloaded. If you restore from iTunes backup the apps and music have to be in the iTunes library since synced media like apps and music are not included in the backup of the iOS device that iTunes makes.
    You can redownload most iTunes purchases by:
    Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store        
    If problem what happens or does not happen and when in the instructions? When you successfully get the iPod in recovery mode and connect to computer iTunes should say it found an iPod in recovery mode.

  • ITunes can't find my music files

    It appears all my songs have lost the path to their music files. The error message says "cannot find the original file do you want to locate it?" When I look in the Music folder they appear in the artist's folder but still will not play. Any suggestions?

    I found a solution to this on a different thread from 2005 (but it still applies) - I promised myself that, if it worked, I would spread the news... the joy. It worked! (here is the link - http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7709257#7709257) I copied the note, too (the only difference is that the "Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder selection is now in Preferences> Advanced):
    It's possible that not all of the songs in your previous iTunes library were stored in your default iTunes Music folder. At this point, you should probably just double-check to make sure your default iTunes Music folder is set correctly (to the library on the new HD) and then go to iTunes > Preferences > General and make sure the option Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library is deselected. Then select all the songs in iTunes, and press Delete. Follow the prompts to remove the songs from your iTunes library, but NOT to remove them from your computer. Then, with a Finder window open, select everything in the folder iTunes Music on your new HD and drag and drop it onto the iTunes player window.
    Please read the above instructions carefully, then read them again even more carefully, before proceeding.
    It's a little scary, but as long as you make sure that you do not move the files to the trash on the second prompt you'll be fine. You can just drag you iTunes Music Folder into the player window and all of you sub-folders will copy back into iTunes.

  • I recently got a new computer and reinstalled iTunes.  I restored my files from a Norton backup.  How do I get iTunes to find my music files?

    How do I get iTunes to search my hard drive for my music files?

    Find the location of iTunes Media folder from Advanced tab in iTunes' Preferences on your computer. Then copy the music from the Norton backup to the iTunes Media folder on the computer.
    Thanks!
    Harry
    Norton Support

  • Moving music files out of Shared User file

    Our iTunes has been set up so that all the music files are stored under the Shared User.
    We now only have one user on that computer.
    I want to move the iTunes over to a new computer but am having problems getting the music over since its not saved under iTunes.
    How do I move all the music OUT of the Shared user file back to where it should be under iTunes?
    We don't need the Shared User file at all anymore.
    Thanks so much for any help,
    L

    Thanks, I have read that.
    My problem is not moving the music to the new computer but getting the music from the Shared User file back to where it normally is under iTunes.
    If I follow the procedure you suggested I only move the playlists, albums etc - none of the actual music.
    I guess what I want to do is get rid of the Shared User file - all that is there when you click on Shared is a 13G list of albums.
    SO how do I move those music files back under the iTunes folder?
    Thanks!
    L

  • Moving music files from windows media player to itunes

    when I first got my ipod, only half of my music files moved from windows media player into itunes. Is there anyway I can import the rest of the music from windows media player into Itunes? I have tried using the import function and add file or folder to library and they do not seem to work!

    iTunes will not accept Window Media player tracks that are protected. If you imported them off your own CDs, did you check the option to apply protection to them? If so, your only choice is to re-rip those CDs.
    Patrick

Maybe you are looking for