ITunes failing to reconize existing MP3 files.

Ok this has happened to me more than once, but now it has gotten really sevre and to the point I'm just not willing to fix it the way I have in the past.
Before my iTunes library approx 1600songs; 128 albums, was working fine. Every single song, from every single album was in iTunes properly, and all the tags were correct as I've spent a while meticulously sorting them out. I take great pride in the cleanliness and organization of my library.
However now my iTunes wants to be a jerk to me and refuse to play certain albums, and sometimes 1 or 2 songs from an album while the rest will work. Where the album art used to be proudly displayed, there is now ugly text that just tells me "Album art unmodifiable" and will not play the song when double clicked, or the play button is pressed.
I figured it might just be some wierd problem, so I deleted the albums in question from the library and tried to re-add them by dragging and dropping them into the iTunes window; to no avail, as iTunes fails to reconize that I have added it at all.
I decided to re-install iTunes, and delete the iTunes library folder in My Music and try again. It still will not reconize these albums, and I have no idea why.
Before it's done this with maybe say one album at a time, which I can live with as I would just gain another copy of the album, either by downloading or ripping from CD to mp3. An answer telling me to rip directly to iTunes won't do, because some of the CD's I own are currently not in my posession, and exist solely on my harddrive at the moment. What I'm looking to do is re-add the existing files back into iTunes without re-ripping, or re-downloading, as the ones I have already on my computer have completely correct tags, aswell as album artwork.
So right now iTunes seems to hate me and it's decided to do this with upwards of 10 albums out of nowhere. All my songs have had thier ID3 tags updated to the newest version via iTunes so the artwork and tags edited in iTunes would be displayed on my player (archos, at the time I don't own an iPod but this may change as killed my archos during an "operation" to fix the battery)
So I've been reading stickies and other posts but none seem to directly provide an answer to my seemingly unique case of iTunes difficulty.
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated as this has happened many times: too many to be considered funny.
I've read on the forum that burning to an audio CD and the using that to import into iTunes may work, HOWEVER so many full albums are doing this that it is not practical to burn so many CD's just to put them back onto my PC.
Is that an alternate solution where one does not have to use about 10-20 CDs?

Yeah, what stubchain said. If they play in WMP, then you've run into the bug where iTUnes can't read the MP3 tags.
iTunes has problems with v2.4 ID3 tags.
http://www.id3.org/iTunes
iTunes also has a problem with v2.2 tags and artwork/beats per minutes tags on the same song.
Try setting them to v1 in another program and then see if iTunes can read them.
Then once iTnues can read tehm, I would convert them to v2.3 tags, which seem to be the most stable & have the best features.

Similar Messages

How can I get itunes to change and update mp3 files?

Hello
basily what im asking is. i have a itunes libery with all the right artist names and all the alubem covers i got from internet and sorted into playlist. Is there a way i can get itunes to change the actual mp3 files so that it has the right artist names and arwork after editing it on the libery. as atm all the mp3 files are have missing iformation and when i send a file to my mp3 player it does not have track names or artwork? i tried doing the concert ID3 tag but did not seem to make a difference and after ive done get info and edited it. it does not seem to change the mp3 files.
can anyone help?

Flip4Mac should be able to do that
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-media-components-quicktime

Is it possible to copy the iTunes meta data to the mp3 files themselves?

I have recently began using MS Windows 8. As a long time user of iTunes, I have a very large and well organised library.
The music app built into MS Windows 8 is something which I would like to start using. Yet, it builds the music database from the mp3 files themselves; which after using iTunes for so long contain little (zero) information to describe each file.
Is it possible, to transfer the meta data stored in my iTunes library and save it to the mp3 files themselves - so that when I open the files in another media player, it contains the same descriptive information?
In advance, thanks.

Normally any meta data you edit in iTunes is copied to the tags, although iTunes doesn't always update things properly if the files in question have two or more embedded tags. You can however move the entire library without losing any information as follows.
These are two possible approaches that will normally work to move an existing library to a new computer.
Method 1
Backup the library with this User Tip.
Deauthorize the old computer if you no longer want to access protected content on it.
Restore the backup to your new computer using the same tool used to back it up.
Keep your backup up-to-date in future.
Method 2
Connect the two computers to the same network. Share your <User's Music> folder from the old computer and copy the entire iTunes library folder into the <User's Music> folder on the new one. Again, deauthorize the old computer if no longer required.
Both methods should give the new computer a working clone of the library that was on the old one. As far as iTunes is concerned this is still the "home" library for your devices so you shouldn't have any issues with iTunes wanting to erase and reload.
I'd recommend method 1 since it establishes an ongoing backup for your library.
If you have an iOS device that syncs with contact & calendar data on your computer you should migrate this information too. If that isn't possible create a dummy entry of each type in your new profile and iTunes should offer to merge the existing data from the device into the computer, otherwise the danger is that it will wipe the information from the device.
If your media folder has been split out from the main iTunes folder you may need to do some preparatory work to make it easier to move. See make a split library portable.
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 for advice on how to set up your devices with a new library with the maximum preservation of data. If you don't have any Apple devices then see HT2519 - Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store.
tt2

Music plays in iTunes, but NONE of the MP3 files are visible in Explorer

This one is a bit of a mystery.
When I open up any of the folders in my iTunes Music folder, they appear to be empty. No MP3 files are listed at all. Yet, iTunes can still play the music.
Here are the details:
1. I keep my iTunes media content on an external hard drive, and iTunes is working fine. Some albums have disappeared but most of my music shows up in iTunes and plays properly. Therefore, the music files have to be there.
2. When I right-click on my iTunes folder in Windows Explorer and choose "properties" I get a result: Explorer scans the folder and tells me I have 98.8 gigabytes in 18,279 files, (though when I look around, I see that a LOT of albums are missing). Yet, Windows Explorer is finding a lot of files even though I can’t see them.
3. However, when I right-click on a folder inside my iTunes folder and choose “properties” (the folders for each artist and for each album are still there and still visible) I get weird results. It says that there is some small amount of data in each folder (27 kilobytes or 35 kilobytes) and some random number of files (2, or 5, or 6). It doesn't matter how many songs are actually on that album, it just gives me this small unrelated number. Yet, I can’t see any files listed at all.
4. Under the View tab in Folder Options, everything looks fine to me. I don’t see a setting there that would hide MP3 files.
5. I tried checking “show hidden files” and all that sort of thing, but nothing changed.
6. I did a virus scan and it revealed no threats.
7. I also went into the Command Prompt and used the dir command to see what was there. I could see all of my folders including my iTunes music folder. I have pictures, Word documents, Excel files, etc on this external folder as well. I can see all of these files no problem. I can also see all the Artist and Album folders in my iTunes music folder. However, even using the dir command, I can’t see any songs – there are no MP3 files visible. I reveal hidden and system files (dir /ah), I then see some files like these:
desktop.ini
AlbumArtSmall.jpg
Folder.jpg
8. I tried to play the music from VLC media player and Windows Media Player, but that doesn’t work because the files can’t be seen by those programs either.
9. However, when I open iTunes, all the music is there and playable. Only iTunes sees the music.
Anyone have any idea what could have happened? The one thing I changed recently is that I ran the iTunes Genius function. It scanned my music and did what it was supposed to do, and it worked fine. I doubt that Genius could have done this to my external hard drive. I’m guessing I picked up a computer virus somehow, but my virus scan doesn’t reveal anything.
Anyone have any ideas about what is going on?
Thanks!
Doug

OMG!!!!!!!!!!
You were absolutely right, Rob. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. I've got nearly 200 Artist folders with 1,000 or so Album folders - and they are all completely empty of music.
But in the middle of that long list of folders, there is an innocuous looking folder labelled "Music." I looked inside that folder and, bam, there they were - all 92 gigabytes of my missing music files in a complete copy of all those Artist and Album folders.
I thought I was going crazy! How could iTunes be playing all this music when as far as I could tell, it had all vanished? But there it was. As you said, iTunes had simply moved it down a level in the folder hierarchy and then didn't delete all the original folders.
And as I scanned the original list of Artist folders, I also saw the other folders: Podcasts, Audiobooks, iPod Games, etc. I hadn't even noticed them before. I just assumed that all the folders I was looking at were Artist folders.
Thank you so much, Rob. I'm not sure I would have ever solved this "case of the missing music files" on my own. I would have continued to bang my head against "hidden files" settings and all that. Perhaps I would have tracked these files down by looking for their location using "Get Info" in iTunes. But maybe not. I had no reason to suspect that I didn't know where the music files were: after all, the Artist and Album folders were all right there. They were just empty! I was so focused on the folders being empty, it never occured to me that iTunes had created exact duplicate folders somewhere else.
Do you know if iTunes had any practical reason for leaving all those empty folders behind? I'm just wondering if it is safe to manually delete them. I noticed, for example, that they aren't completely empty. They contain hidden files of Album Art and various ini files. I wouldn't want to delete them and then find out that I just deleted all my album art and a bunch of important settings files.
Thanks again. You saved my neck with this one.
Doug

ITunes Won'r Recognize Some MP3 Files

I have 2400+ MP3 files in My Music folder. All were ripped using the same DVD-+RW drive, same software (WMP 10.0) and same settings (192Kbps). All were ripped within several days of each other, all from purchased CD albums.
When I tried to add these files to my brand new iTunes library (in order to transfer to my brand new 5G iPod) iTunes only recognized 1802 files. I attempted to manually add the files that weren't recognized, no joy (no error messages either, nothing). I researched the issue; I made sure the file folder permissions were appropriately set; I scanned the hard drive for physical defects; I defragmented the drive; I ran several ID3 tag verifier utilities; I played the "problem" MP3 files on every other music player software I own (WMP 10.0, RealPlayer, MusicMatch) and they played flawlessly. Lastly, I attempted to re-rip the files directly to iTunes from the original CDs; that worked, so I can safely assume there are no copyright or protected-file issues to deal with.
Short of re-ripping 600+ music files to iTunes manually, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to get these files onto iTunes?
HP 7160 Windows XP
HP 7160 Windows XP

I have the same problem.
I've had these songs in itunes & on my ipod before for awhile & they played just fine. I upgraded itunes & everything seemed fine, until I auto synced my ipod & I get this message saying that five files aren't copied to the ipod because the ipod won't play them. Then I try to play them in itunes & itunes won't play them, even though they show up in the library & are MP3s. Quicktime player & VLC both play these files still...
I have no idea what could cause the error for these random 5 songs, which are not related to each other & come off the same CDs as other songs which are still able to be played...

How do I extract album art from an existing MP3 file?

I have a folder of MP3s that all came from a rare out-of-print album. The album is so rare, I can't find an image of it anywhere on Google in any countries. I lost the cover artwork for the album, but it's embedded in the MP3 file because it pops up when I play the song or in the preview window. Fine good-resolution picture, too.
How do I extract the image so I have a separate image file again?
...hopefully without buying new software to do it?
I've got iTunes v.10
-JOHN

I've got iTunes v.10
PowerBook G4 running 10.4.10
You might want to update your information since 10.4 can't run iTunes 10.

ITunes no longer imports 320kbs MP3 files

I have been using iTunes for several years. I am a professional audio engineer and make my living doing it.
For years, I have been able to load 320kbs MP3 files into iTunes and load them into my iPhone to check my mixes.
All of this has come to a complete stop since this last update with iTunes.
For those of you who might have an answer for me, here is some things you might need to know:
1. Yes, these are valid 320kbs MP3 files
2. Yes, they play in Quicktime
3. Yes, they have proper Meta, ID Tags (all versions)
4. Yes, they load and play just fine in ALL other players (Windows, other iPhone, iPad, iPod players ect) EXCEPT they do NOT load in this version of iTunes.
5. Yes, I have uninstalled and re-installed iTunes - no help
6. Yes, I have deleted my play list and rebuilt it from scratch - no help
7. Yes, I have turned off iCloud - makes no difference
8. Yes, OTHER PEOPLE (including my clients) are having the SAME PROBLEM with the new iTunes
9. No, they do NOT load into iTunes - iTunes does not allow me to drag and drop them, nor does it allow me to use the 'add to playlist' function.
iTunes simply will not load my 320kbs MP3 files.
I have been doing this same routine using the same method for years and it has ALWAYS worked until this last version.
Something has seriously gone wrong with iTunes
Anybody have a work around? I really really need to be able to listen to my mixes on my portable devices (and so do my clients) and this bug is a show stopper.
Thanks.
Larry

Go to iTunes preferences
General Tab
Import Settings
Change Import using to Wav Encoder
Change Setting to Custom
Now you will,have options to set everything
How files are sent to iTunes is dependant on how you setup the bounce in Logic Pro itself
In Bounce Dialog, select MP3 and then on right of Bounce Dialog box are settings for MP3 output file...
or,,,,
of course, you select any of the other formats like PCM Wave and give it's settings...
You can actually bounce to many different output files at the same time by checking the appropriate boxes on left hand side..

Itunes "Ignoreing" some of the MP3 files

Afterthe latest issue of Itunes that i have slapped into my system a while ago,
I realize that Itunes won't recognize some of the properly tagged, legally bought, or ripped mp3 files from my own collection.
I am a year old Itunes and Vista user
didn't have any problem with both software until the latest patch from apple, I have downloaded.
Note that, I did "NOT" have any probelms with these files until the latest automated patch that i have installed a while ago.
In description.
I click on "Add Folder to Lib." -> I go to my MUSIC folder and then click on the album of "Norah Jones - Not too late" -> Itunes skips the first 3 of the tracks from these folder.
so I click on "Add File to Lib." -> click on specific files to be added. -> does not respond.
Click & Drag / "Right click" on the file and "open with" Itunes / alternating the name of the file and its tag / Re-installation of Itunes / Formatting the Window
All my efforts seems nothing
Again, these ignored files are formatted to MP3 and properly tagged.
I personally bought or ripped legally from my own collection.
These files does not have any kind of expiration date or restrictions.
Lastly, these ignored files work great on other media players
please advise
Computer Spec.
Cpu - Duo t7200
HD - 160 gb
mem - 2048mb
os - vista biz
Message was edited by: monako

+these ignored files are formatted to MP3 and properly tagged.+
+I personally bought or ripped legally from my own collection.+
+These files does not have any kind of expiration date or restrictions.+
+Lastly, these ignored files work great on other media players+
As is clear from that set of facts, the problem is in iTunes. It has been reported many times here.
If the file is already in your library but has stopped being able to play, use Advanced > Convert ID3 tags and change it to one of the versions iTunes will accept.
If it not already in your library, as seems to be your case, you will either have to re-rip from CD with the new iTunes, or else find another program that can clean up the MP3. Audacity or Switch can do this. I have also heard, but have not tried, that mp3Trim or VBRfix can clean up the files to iTunes's satisfaction.
Pls let us know if this helps.

Itunes refuses to import some mp3 files.

Hi,
Can someone please advise. I have an album of MP3 tracks. For some reason Itunes refuses to import all but 2 of the songs on the ablum. I have the files on the hard drive in my music folder which should be auto sync to Itunes. This does not happen with these mp3's. Also if I try to do it manually nothing happens. Any suggestions?
P.s I am using the latest version of Itunes and the MP3's play fine with media player etc.

Yeah, what stubchain said. If they play in WMP, then you've run into the bug where iTUnes can't read the MP3 tags.
iTunes has problems with v2.4 ID3 tags.
http://www.id3.org/iTunes
iTunes also has a problem with v2.2 tags and artwork/beats per minutes tags on the same song.
Try setting them to v1 in another program and then see if iTunes can read them.
Then once iTnues can read tehm, I would convert them to v2.3 tags, which seem to be the most stable & have the best features.

Itunes will not open new mp3 files in Recently Added playlist

I just downloaded the newest update from itunes.
Before this, whenever i downloaded an mp3 file (not from itunes) it would open in itunes in my Recently Added playlist.
Now, when i click open in Itunes, the itunes window opens up but the file isnt in the playlist or in my library at all. I have to find the file and add it to my library. Is there a way i can fix this?

neilipodharris wrote:
Before this, whenever i downloaded an mp3 file
Do you mean using Safari?
Safari prefs > General.
Tick Open safe files after downloading.

How can I have iTunes find its newly converted mp3 files?

Hi,
I am not a power user. I have a playlist that is apparently composed of different file formats. So when I tried to burn them to a CD it gave me 92 songs that could not be burned as an mp3. I then chose to convert them to mp3. It apparently did it because I looked for the files in finder and saw the mp3 versions.
How can I now have iTunes use THOSE new mp3 files for burning? There must be a simple way to do that.
Thanks,
Jorge

Thanks Jim,
Is there any way to list them by "type"? I made the playlist from several playlists and I am sure that some of the offending songs are from several of those playlists.
I tried tricking iTunes into writing them onto a cd by just dumping the new MP3 duplicates into the same list and then telling it to burn. I then expected it to tell me the same 92 songs could not be written and planned to just tell it to skip those since now had them in as MP3s but it is now telling me that it will require more than one CD. Is that because the files are now bigger or because it is counting the 92 files that it will not be writing anyway?
Thanks,
Jorge

Help: How do I mass point iTunes to all my original mp3 files on e: drive?

This seems pretty straight forward but I can't seem to figure this out. When I try to play a song on my iTunes library I get a "The song XXX could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" The source is on my external hard drive on E:. But I have over 3,000 songs and most of which now require I locate the source individually. Is there a way that I can point iTunes to look for all songs on my e:drive? The songs are categorized and separated in folders by artist and album name. This makes it harder to point in mass. Looking for some answers here?

I just did this myself with my 6000-odd MP3 files.
First, make a new Library - hold down "Shift" as you launch iTunes and you'll get a dialog box that says "Choose Library / make New Library". Make a new library and call it "All MP3s from E:" or something you'll remember. iTunes will launch with a BLANK playlist.
Then, go to "File -> Add Folder To Library" and select the master folder that all your MP3s are in. When you say "OK" iTunes should scan all your files and add them to this new, blank library. So long as you do not tell iTunes to "Consolidate Library" all your files should remain in their current location (Consolidating seems to copy all your files into the iTunes Music folder which will take up extra hard drive space). KEEP IN MIND that if the E: drive is a remote hard drive that it must be switched on and connected to the PC or the link to the song in the Library will break (perhaps this is what's happening to your current library list)?
When you re-launch iTunes it should automaticallly re-load your newly made Library file - see "Using Multiple Libraries" in the iTunes Help area for info on how to restore the default Library if you ever need to.
Let me know if this works - it did for me anyway.
Message was edited by: ImagoX

Importing existing MP3 files from my My Music folder to iTunes

I added a bunch of music from cd to my My Music folder using WMP. How can I get the iTunes program to import all of the music (60 or 70 cds worth) and convert it without having to do it one song at a time? Didn't it do the same thing the first time I installed iTunes?

I have all of my music on a dedicated hard drive in hierarchal folders for artist then albums & etc. If I add new music, assuming all of the new music I add is not from the same artist, I would have to do the add folder menu option for each new artist or album (Holding Shift or Ctrl while selecting folders does not select folders cumulatively). The only way I'd be able to add multiple folders at one time is to choose my highest folder 'My Library' but I'm afraid if I choose this, I will create duplicate copies of the thousands of songs I already have.
Is there a better way choose multiple folders to add new Artist - Albums - Songs to the iTunes Library?
Will iTunes copy a song if it already knows that song is in your library?
Thanks,
Steve Schumsky
Pentium 4 2.8GHz, 512MB Ram, 60GB iPod Video Windows XP Pro
Pentium 4 2.8GHz, 512MB Ram, Windows XP Pro

Playback position on iPod not Syncing to iTunes. Nano 5, long mp3 files. I have remember playback position selected in Options, and that works fine. But position (45 minutes) on iPod and 2 minutes on iTunes do not get together

Long audio files (mp3 books) on ipod nano 5 play fine, Ipod remembers playback position (I set the flag in info-options) but after listeniong for a while on ipod, I expect that a sync to PC should update the playback position in iTunes. Thus I should be able to subsequently sync a second device to iTunes and have the position passed along to the second device. This is not working for me. I have the latest nano software, and iTunes 11.1.2.32. Have just re-installed iTunes per troubleshooting suggestioons on support web page.
Is this a format problem (mp3 issue) or something else?

Reply seems to be theway to elaborate on my origi;nal post.
I have now tried turning off Manually manage music and video on the iPod. One of the 3 long audio files (books as mp3) reloaded to the iPod when I made the chnge, but no loss in my case.. Playback position on iPod seemed to load into iTunes (looked good while iPod was connected in Playlists and Library/Music, but as soon as I disconnected the iPod the saved positions reverted to the old values. One more theory shot down. Since my goal is to keep several playback devices in step, I am back to jotting down the latest position and manually forward spacing the alternate device to pick up where I left off.
This seems so logical a use that I am baffled about why it is so hard (impossible?).
Jack

Is there a way to have itunes recognize music ratings in mp3 file

I have a large collection of music and I use a different program to save and organize my music. When I open the folders of many of my songs, the ratings are there. Why does itunes not recognize these ratings and is there an addon or any way to not have to go back through everything?
Thanks for any help

iTunes doesn't embed ratings in the tracks but keeps them separately in the database. This allows it to easily transfer updated ratings been iTunes and devices without needlessly updating or copying the files themselves. I know of at least one script (mm_rating_to_itunes) that could transfer embedded ratings into iTunes but the website it lived on has closed down and for reasons unknown the script isn't included in the replacement site: https://sites.google.com/site/teridon/itunesscripts. I've posted a question to the author to see if I can find out more.
tt2

ITunes failing to reconize existing MP3 files.

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