Itunes: i want to find a single fix for missing music on itunes rather than using "iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads" on a case by case basis.

Question

recently when i was creating a playlist, i realized that i was missing music from my extensive itunes (12.0.1.26) library.  i found the solution "itunes:  finding lost media and downloads" and used the general approach to find the music in finder and copy it to itunes.  i don't want to do this every time i find i am missing music.  is there an automated fix?  i want apple to develop a way to automate the fix.  can it be that this isn't a problem for many people?
i ask this now because i just looked for music i thought i had but can't find.  maybe i am wrong about having the artist, but it has happened on another artist too.  i can't trust itunes to tell me whether i have a song or not.  i don't want to keep going back to finder, especially when the instructions in "itunes:  finding lost media and downloads" doesn't actually reflect my system (os x 10.7.5).
i don't want to try to do a restore.  i have never done a restore on my mac (previously a pc user).  and, i don't know how far back to take the restore to find the old music.  and then music i have added since i lost the old music wouldn't be there.
i understand that there are so many system variables that apple would need to take into consideration with a general fix.  but:  i am assuming that apple's changes have caused my problem and feel that apple should do something to fix it.  perhaps my assumption is incorrect.
thank you for your help.

Answer 1

limnos, i always have backups.  the problem is that i don't know how far back in time to take a restore because i don't know how long this has been going on.  and, if i take the restore back very far, i will lose what has been added since the music started to disappear. 
i don't even know what you mean when you say "you will check there aren't any broken links (use a script from the Dougscripts web site) before you do a backup."
i agree with you to some extent about not automatically installing upgrades.  i'm still running lion and was pushed to it from snow leopard.  the problem is that i have a hard time envisioning the changes described in an update to judge whether something is valuable or not. 
i have questions about your last paragraph.  i'm going to repeat it here and then insert my questions as i go.  please forgive my all caps for the moment:
"Now for your missing music, is it that there are broken links, or are things missing completely from the library?" I DON'T KNOW ENOUGH TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION.  I BELIEVE THAT THE PROBLEM HAS TO DO WITH BROKEN LINKS.  WHEN I COULDN'T FIND THE MUSIC THAT I THOUGHT I HAD LOADED INTO ITUNES YEARS AGO, I FOUND THE CD'S AND IMPORTED THEM TO ITUNES.  I GOT A MESSAGE ABOUT SOME OF THE TRACKS BEING DUPLICATES THAT ASKED WHETHER I WANTED TO IGNORE OR IMPORT.  I CHOSE IMPORT BECAUSE ITUNES DIDN'T TELL ME WHAT WAS DUPLICATED.  IT WAS ONLY AFTER RE-IMPORTING SEVERAL CD'S THAT I REALIZED THAT THERE WERE NOW DUPLICATES OF THE CD'S:  THE FILES I HAD JUST LOADED AND THOSE THAT I HAD LOADED SOME TIME AGO.  THE ORIGINALS MAGICALLY APPEARED AFTER I RE-IMPORTED THE CD'S.   I'M GUESSING THAT THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF A BROKEN LINK  I DON'T KNOW HOW TO RECOGNIZE A BROKEN LINK OR HOW TO PREVENT ONE.  AFTER I REALIZED THE PROBLEM, I FOUND THE "FINDING LOST MEDIA AND DOWNLOADS" QUIDE.  I LOCATED THE MISSING MUSIC IN FINDER AND DRAGGED IT TO ITUNES.  DOES THIS COUNT AS A BROKEN LINK? 
"If the latter and you use iTunes default settings for managing media, you can drag your media folder to Automatically Add To iTunes.  It should add anything in the folder but not in the library list but ignore things that are."  CAN YOU REPHRASE THIS LAST PARAGRAPH?  I DON'T KNOW WHAT "DEFAULT SETTINGS FOR MANAGING MEDIA" MEANS. 
FOR "DRAG MEDIA FOLDER TO AUTOMATICALLY ADD TO ITUNES,"  I THINK YOU MEAN I CAN DRAG   /MUSIC/ITUNES/ITUNES MEDIA/MUSIC   IN FINDER TO THE ITUNES ICON IN THE DOCK.  AND, THAT THAT ACTION WILL REPLACE ANYTHING MISSING IN ITUNES BUT NOT DUPLICATE THE FILES THAT ARE IN ITUNES.  IS THAT RIGHT? 
thank you for your time and help, limnos.