ITunes changes links to music files to the wrong (and random) location

Recently, I've noticed that iTunes (8.2) skips certain songs in my iTunes library. No ! shows up to indicate it cannot find the file. Rather, the file link is to a completely random location on my harddrive where no music files exist. I'll link to a photo a previous poster put on the web which has the same odd file links. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/327398302018d78347a5o.jpg
Two questions:
1. How do I stop this?
2. How can I fix this short of reimporting each file and deleting the improper one?
Thanks in advance for any insights.
Dan

Remove the compilations indicator from the tracks and iTunes should relocated the files for you. Make a playlist to pick up all the tracks in the album, highlight all the songs and right click on the selection, choose Get Info and when you are asked if you want to edit multiple items say yes, In the box that opens change Compilation to "No" and press OK.

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Inadvertantly added music files to the wrong library

I created a 2nd library in itunes and then inadvertantly added music files to it instead of to the original library. My original intent was to move files from the 1st library to the 2nd but I forgot we had added music that hadn't been scanned into itunes yet and when I hit "scan music" it started to add all those files to the new library, so now what?
And how do I move the files I originally intended to move from the 1st library into the 2nd?

Karen,
There is not really such a thing as "move" in that context. Get copies of any files that you wish to add to the 2nd library, and add them. When you are sure that this has been correctly accomplished, then go into the 1st library and delete whatever you don't want to be there.

How do I "link" my music folders to the iTunes Library?

I have recently upgraded my computer. I have formated my disk and installed a new XP, Office, iTunes etc.
Now I have all my music files on a disk D: and my iTunes at C: but I can't manage to "add"/"link" my music folders to the iTunes Library. After iTunes installation, I have changed the path at Edit/Preferences/Advanced/iTunes Music Folder Location to D: ... but the iTunes Library keeps "empty".
Help please !!!
Thanks.

Goncalo,
Changing the location of the iTunes Music folder will only affect songs you add with iTunes in the future.
To add the songs you already have, use the File menu > Add Folder to Library ... option and select the folder that contains your music in the navigation pop-up window that appears.

How do I move music files from the startup disc to iTunes in the other internal hard disk os 10.5.8?

How do I move music files from the startup disc to iTunes in the other internal hard disk os 10.5.8?
The music I want to move was in iTunes but is now just files. I had to reinstall a new iTunes and lost all my old music.
Thank you!

That article is about using your iPod as an external hard drive, to move files from one computer to another computer. It is not related to your question.
You can't use iTunes to move song files from iPod to computer, except for songs you purchased from the iTunes Store (and you can also re-download purchases). However, there are third-party methods and utilities that can move song files from iPod to computer. If you do a Google search on something like "ipod transfer," you should get some links.
Once the song files are on your current computer, add them to that computer's iTunes library by dragging the files (or folder containing the files) to the iTunes window. After confirming everything is there (and fixing the data issue you mentioned) you can sync the iPod. You may want to do a Restore on the iPod, if it might have a data corruption issue, which will erase the iPod's hard drive, re-install the latest software, and set it to defautl settings.

ITunes music files cannot be edited, and new music files imported. The messages says I do not have enough access privileges even though I am the administrator of the system.

Since installing the latest version of iTunes all my music files cannot be edited, and I cannot import new music files into iTunes. The messages says I do not have enough access privileges even though I am the administrator of the system. If anyone can help me sort this out I would be really grateful. I have checked the read and write privileges for all the iTunes folders and it all seems in order so I can't understand it.
In general, I am getting really frustrated with Apple. They seem to be getting ever more controlling in their approach to their consumers. I need to edit music file information as I am a dj. And why can't I import music, unless I buy it from iTunes? Most of all, why can't I use the devices I paid a lot of money for in the way I want to use them, and not be forced to coerced to use apple's fee paying services (iCloud, iTunes).
I have used apple computers since the early 1990's, but in the last year I have gotten rid of my iPhone and my iPad and replaced them with Android devices. Much better and much less control. Perhaps it is time to switch from Apple altogether.

Hi
Read this About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature
and OS X Mavericks: If you don’t have the correct permissions to open a file or folder
Does this help?
Jim

I have installed iTunes Match on my iPhone & laptop. May I now safely delete the music files from my phone and still access my music from the phone? Thanks

I have installed iTunes Match on my iPhone & laptop. May I now safely delete the music files from my phone and still access my music from the phone? Thanks

Read this
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12492

I have music files by the same artist but they are listed in itunes in more than one album hod can i add then to just one album pf that artist

I have music files by the same artist but they are listed in Itunes in more than one album hod can i add then to just one album of that artist I am using windows 8.1 .

iTunes will group songs into an album when:
All songs have the same value for the Album and Artist field, or
All songs have the same value for the Album and Album Artist field
All songs have the same value for the Albumfield and the Part of a Compilation flag is checked.
If you want to group all the songs by one artist into a single "album" you can do so by following one of these rules. However, it may be more useful to create Playlists to group music like this and retain the original release information. One Smart Playlist for each artist you're interested in would meet this need without over-writing information about the source albums.

I had to install a new hard drive because my old hard drives boot files became corrupted, and i want to get all of my music files off the old hard drive and regain all my play counts/ratings/playlists

Greetings everyone
as the title says, ive had to install a new hard drive and i want to transfer my old itunes library onto the new drive, maintaining all playlists/play counts/ratings etc, album artwork if possible. The old hard drive is installed as a slave drive and is completely acessible, but due to the boot files being corrupted i cannot use it as the main drive and therefore operate my old itunes. Also, my ipod no longer contains my music library as itunes synced without my permission and wiped it.
The only thing i have tried is copying all of my old music files from the old drive by selecting 'add folder to library' and then the old drive, then replacing the new itunes library.itl file with the one from my old itunes. This restores all my playlists and playcounts but when i try to play any of the songs it says that the files could not be found, and i dont fancy locating 8500 music files individually!
Thankyou for taking the time to read my post, any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ah, my reply was based on the assumption that you had a default installation of iTunes.
i.e you had all your music in the iTunes media folder inside your iTunes folder.
If your iTunes folder is so small compared to the amount of music you have, you must have a different arrangement.
This complicates you situation considerably.
iTunes can cope with moving around as long as all the music is in the iTunes media folder, not not if it isn't.
Your first step should be to get iTunes working on the old drive. This will involve editing the xml library file so that the drive letter is correct and then rebuilding the library from the xml file.
Then you will need to consolidate your library which moves everything into the iTunes media fodler. After that you will be able to use my first suggestion.
Step 1
Find the iTunes folder on the old drive and copy the two library files somewhere else so you can find them again. That's iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Library.xml.
Now open the copy of iTunes Library.xml with WordPad.
Look for lines starting:
Location
These contain the paths to tracks.
You will need to use a find/replace to change the drive letter so that it is correct.
Make sure that you include enough in the "find" so that you only change the right thing.
Maybe /c:/ and replace with /d:/ or whatever.
After that, tell iTunes to use the library on the old drive with a shift key start.
Hold down the shift key and start iTunes, keep holding the shift key until you are prompted to choose a library. Navigate to the iTunes folder on the old drive and choose iTunes Library.itl.
Then use the method in the following article to rebuild your library;
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
Unfortunately the date added will be today for all tracks.
If iTunes works correctly after this, consolidate your library
File>>Library>>Organize>>consolidate
This copies all tracks into to iTunes media folder and could create a problem if you do not have disk space so don't do it if you are unsure about free disk space.
Check that iTunes works OK and then use the first method.
Message was edited by: polydorus

Updated my itouch gen 4 32g to Ios 5 and now itunes can't find music files

I did a search and could not find anything about my specific issue. I was hoping to get some help if possible.
So I did the update to IOS 5 and everything went fine..........except for one thing. I have all my music stored on an external hard drive so I changed the media folder location to my external drive. When I did the update IOS changed the location to "C:\users\name\music\itunes\itunes media folder". I figured this is why itunes could not find the files. So I switched it back to my external drive and it still could not find my music files. The weird thing is that I can sync it and it won't delete the music from my ipod. All of the music is still on the ipod but not on itunes. I know I can manually go in and find all the folders but I REALLY don't want to have to do that. I have done it before and it took 7 hours. Since I don't use all the files I can't just drag the library over and problem solved.
One other strange thing that happened: After I did the update I downloaded an app off of the the appstore in itunes. This is the first app that I downloaded off of itunes and not straight off my ipod. I then recieved an email from apple saying it had been downloaded on a computer or device not associated with my apple id (which makes no sense seeing how the id on my ipod is the same as on itunes).
If anyone has a suggestion on how to fix the music problem, I am all ears. Thanks.

Once a track is in your iTunes library, you should not touch it except through iTunes. But I guess you know that now.
iTunes, to answer your question, cannot "refresh." If you re-add those files to your library, iTunes is unable to match them with the existing library entries, and will create a bunch of duplicate entries. This is a longstanding shortcoming of iTunes (and the source of lots of traffic on this fourm).
If there are "too many to manually" reassociate, then starting over, in the sense of deleting and then re-adding, may be a good plan.

Connect the music file with the artwork file post-computer-crash?

I want to retrieve artwork after restoring my computer?
So my computer (where itunes app data was stored) and my external hardrive (where my itunes library was stored) crashed, but luckily I had my itunes library was stored on dropbox so I have that uploading to my revived computer!
I have access to all my "old computer's" files (via a mounted image file that looks just like an external drive H: )
The "old computer" itunes used my dropbox folder for the library (J:work\Dropbox\Allen's Transfer Folder\iTunes)
my "New comuter" uses a local folder but the contents are exactly the same (C:\Companies\Dropbox\Allen's Transfer Folder\iTunes)
How can I get the artwork data from my "old computer" onto my "new computer" so that itunes will connect the music file with the artwork file?
is there a data file and will they automatically sync to the artwork if they are in different locations?
Thank you for your help, Allen

pfanzier wrote:
… is there any reason i shouldn't delete the artwork folder?
All of my music is from CDs, so all of my cover art are scanned images that I added to the music files in iTunes. My Album Artwork folder is heavily populated nonetheless. Thus, it stands to reason that if you delete the folder, just like every other default item in your iTunes folder it will be recreated when you launch iTunes. If I recall correctly, that folder also holds the data files for building your CoverFlow.
pfanzier wrote:
itunes only demarcates songs whose files are missing with an exclamation point after i click on the song. otherwise everything appears as normal. if i quit itunes and reopen it, nothing is marked with the exclamation point until i click on it.
I personally have never had an issue with missing song links, but based on what I had read on the Macworld forums over the years, when links are lost, people start seeing /!\ next to several tracks in their iTunes library. Of course, most of the instances that I have read about have been after iTunes updates so perhaps it is during the library updating after a software update that causes the automatic detection of broken links. Otherwise, it does make sense that iTunes would not check a link until the user selects an unlinked song, because iTunes does not, and should not, scan your entire library for no apparent reason.

Itunes uploading my personal music files.....??

has anyone caught itunes uploading their personal music files?? as i purchased and downloaded music from the australian itunes store they uploaded my music files......when i then went to burn my own music files in mp3 format, itunes identified "MY MP3 FILES" as itunes purchases and would not allow me to burn them off in mp3 format.....has anyone else encountered this problem and can i prevent this from happening again??
please note; i am using 2 firewalls...however i have to allow access to itunes store in order to download my purchases.

i should also mention mimico that these files were stored on my computer in mp3 format prior to me accessing itunes for the first time.it was after downloading my first purchase from itunes that i went to my music library to burn some mp3`s and realized my pre-existing files had been converted to m4p format whilst i downloaded my first purchase.it appeared to me that itunes had catalogued my library,compared it with what they had available and converted my previously stored mp3`s to m4p and claimed that i could not burn them to mp3 because they were 'prior itunes purchases and could not therefore be burnt in mp3 format.the issue here is not that they changed my files [i still have the original discs] but that they covertly entered my files whilst i purchased and downloaded and catalogued what i listen to, then, to make it worse they tampered with my files [i feel] in so much as they changed the file format to their store bought format........and hence denied me access to my own files in my perfered mp3 format

Can I simply copy and paste an existing library file from XP to a Mac and then copy and paste the music files themselves? Of course, the music files will be in a different location...

Hello Gurus,
I have an aged XP machine with a large music library in ITunes. iTunes will not run any longer (tried uninstalling and reinstalling etc to no avail) but the music files are backed up onto an external drive so all safe. I have purchased a Mac which of course already has iTunes installed and I can copy the music files onto the Mac, but can I simply copy and paste the iTunes library files from the XP machine to the Mac so that all of the playlists, tags, ratings etc transfer, or do I have to start again?
Thanks for the advice.

Sounds like you have a split library. Ideally you would make this portable before attempting to move it to the Mac. See make a split library portable for details.
Perhaps you can get iTunes running on the old box long enough to sort things out...
For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.
The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down page in case one of them applies.
Your library should be unaffected by these steps but there is backup and recovery advice elsewhere in the user tip.
You will also want to deauthorize the XP system once everything is working properly on the Mac.
tt2

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