Missing folders in iTunes music folder.

There are several artist folders missing in my iTunes music folder, but in the song info in iTunes it says the songs are located in the missing folders. What could the problem be??

Try playing the songs and see if iTunes has the location correct. If they play then select Get Info on those songs and iTunes will show you where they are located. If iTunes can't find the songs then they have been moved or deleted. Have you been moving your music around manually?

Similar Messages

  • Missing Songs in iTunes Music folder.

    I recently found that I have missing files in my iTunes music folder. The missing songs seem to be random. For instance, Abby Road is missing tracks 3 and 6. My music folder is on my main hard drive and I also have a Time Capsule backup.
    When I look for the songs in my backup disk, I find I have to go back as far as 4 months to restore some of them and I just now found a song that was there yesterday but gone today. This leads me to believe that a few songs are randomly being deleted every day. Anyone else with this problem?
    I'm using iTunes 10.1 but apparently I've been having this problem for at least 4 months now so I believe it was an earlier version when it started happening.

    redcore,
    I got an answer from AppleCare on this one and it seems to be working as I have not noticed any more lost songs. The first person I talked to had never heard of this but his boss had and told me I needed to create a new iTunes music folder. This is a bit of a pain, but not as bad as going through TimeMachine to replace all the random, missing files (that part took a while).
    You have to Option-click (hold option while you click) on the iTunes icon and then click "Create new library". Name it something different from your old one and then drag all your old content into the new library. You will have to do this with the music, apps, movies, etc. Also, keep in mind you will have to export all your playlist info to the new iTunes as well. I didn't export them all so I'm not sure how, or if, you can do them all at the same time. I did File/Library/Export Playlist in the old iTunes... Than had to do File/Library/Import Playlist when in the new iTunes I had created.
    Hope this helps

  • Can't import songs into itunes playlist folders from itunes music folder

    Ive got to be an idiot. ive had my ipod for years and ive yet to figure this out:
    how do i put music into my playlist folders? The only playlists ive been able to successfully create and use are the ones ON my ipod. but that requires me to plug in my ipod every time i want to hear music at home.
    I've created the playlist folders. They are blue folders, found under the playlists tab on itunes. I select music from the music sections, and drag to the folder, but all i ever get is the Circle and line "No" symbol, i never get a plus sign. Ive ever tried popping the playlist folder into a new window and dragging from one window to the other, and its doesn't work. its there some ridiculous safety feature of iTunes that i need to turn off to make playlists or? I can't imagine that something would be this confusing, but i just don't get it.

    Welcome to AD!
    Sounds like you are trying to drag single music files into a playlist folder.
    You can only drag a pre-existing playlist into a playlist folder.

  • Can't see mp3 files in iTunes Music folder.

    The artist and album folders are there under the main iTunes Music folder. They contain the album name and album images, but not the actual mp3 music files.
    iTunes plays all the music fine. I just can't find the mp3 files in their folders in iTunes Music Folder.

    hexonxonx,
    Thanks for responding to my question. I'm trying to troubleshoot an audiobook that won't download from the iTunes store. It's part one of a two part audiobook. The second part downloaded properly, along with three other audiobooks.
    iTunes support has given me two sets of instructions, neither which I can carry out.
    The first set is to empty the Downloads folder and then empty the trash, and the second set to to empty the cache folder. Unfortunately, I can't find either folder. I also cannot find a folder labeled with the name of the audiobook that is hung up. If you have any further advice, I'd appreciate it.
    Caoim

  • ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive.  Not deleted...just missing?

    I store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there.  It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location.  I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro.  In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive.  When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began.  I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process.  Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there.  Is there a way to make it re-appear?  I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
    Thank you.
    Best,
    Matt

    When you change the location in preferences it tells iTunes to start, from this point on, storing new media files in the new location.  It then presents you with the option to move any old files in their current locations to the new location.  It doesn't move the library files which are not media files.  Read the links below to understand how iTunes works because you are the one with the computer in front of you and are in the better position to understand how it stands as regards to iTunes files.
    What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
    More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
    What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
    Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
    Now, did you keep the whole library on the external drive, or did you keep just media?  From your description of the situation it sounds as if you kept the whole library there and when the external was not attached it returned to default location on the internal drive.  What you should have done then was plug in the external drive, hold down the option key, and guide iTunes to the library file on the external.  At this stage you could have dealt with the mislocated new files on an individual basis. 
    I guess the key question is, did your trying to move the couple of new media files to the external drive overwrite the iTunes folder there, which because you then canceled may have also just resulted in it being deleted.  I am not going to test the theory on my system.
    How big was your library on the external?  If it was 40GB do you now suddenly have 40 GB free?
    Look for any iTunes folders on the external drive.  In view options turn on "calculate all folders sizes" and see if there are any big ones.

  • Old folders still in iTunes Music Folder

    I have iTunes set to automatically create file/folder names, but since the update (I can't remember the exact one) which changed how storage was determined (i.e. it's now by Album Artist rather than Artist), I've noticed that empty folders have been left behind. For example, I previously had the files for the album +Band On The Run+ (obviously in a folder of the same name) stored as a sub-directory of Paul McCartney. Now, due to albums being listed by Album Artist, that folder is empty and a folder was created for Paul McCartney & Wings, in which +Band On The Run+ was placed. I don't mind the albums being filed by Album Artist (although if there's a way to overide this I'd be interested), I just want to know the proper way of dealing with the empty folders in the iTunes Music Folder. Surely I can't just manually delete them as it would be picked up by and cause errors in iTunes.

    I have a similar problem, but in particular with podcasts. When I delete a podcast, even if I tell it to move the files to the trash, I often find old podcasts in my podcast folder. And as for those old empty folders, do I really have to go through and manually delete them, or is there some shortcut I can use?

  • Missing files after moving itunes music folder

    i moved my itunes music folder to my external hard drive using the directions posted here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748 to the letter. a lot of things transfered but now when i look in my itunes music folder and compare to my itunes library, i see that a lot of things are missing. i really don't want to have to go through every single artist folder and check every song. shouldn't consolidating my library have taken care of this?

    I just had a very similar issue, I moved my iTunes library from a 120Gb Drive to a 500Gb and the library was a bit corrupted because the main drive was full b/c of an error, but that's besides the fact.
    SOLUTION To missing files, that aren't really missing because they exist and were all copied no problems.
    go to the iTunes folder in your Home folder, and move the iTunes Music Library.xml file to your desktop (with itunes closed of course)
    Then re-open itunes and the library file that's not an xml doc, will re-search your files and all should be well.
    You should be able to safely delete the xml doc now, because iTunes made a new one.
    Cheers
    PowerMac G4 Dual 1Gz   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

  • Restored my Macbook Pro but my iTunes content was saved on a separate partition. When I re-setup iTunes the status bar reports 30gb less content than my iTunes Music folder. How can I find what is 'missing'?

    My Macbook Pro software was failing and the Apple Store was able to restore it without removing the partition on my hard drive that contained most of my files including all my iTunes content. Initially when I re-setup my library I simply went to file--> add to library. Shortly after I realized that was essentially copying the library to the other portion of the partition because I forgot to change the location of the library. So I deleted the content already copied & then I re-setup the library, by asking it to be pulled from the previous location using this pages advice: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
    It appeared to work & everything I thought was imported. But on closer inspection, it appears that I have 30gbs less appearing on the status bar in the iTunes app than I do when I pull up the info on the iTunes Music folder in my finder. I'm not sure if this means somehow I have 30gbs of duplicates in my finder folder or if (most likely) I somehow didn't fully import the library from that file. Any advice? Is there a way to restore iTunes to factory settings again & set it up correctly this time?
    Also I never actually trashed the original content I accidentally transferred to the other drive but when i skimmed those in my trash bin it appears they ARE indeed in iTunes, so I have no clue what didn't actually import. Any ideas?! I'd greatly appreciate it!

    You could have all the computers point to the same library but it can't be opened by more than one at any time.
    No answer for knowing which library is in use other than selecting it at startup.  This question gets asked here occasionally but I don't think it is a high-demand feature since most people have just one library.  I guess you could put in an empty playlist with the library name so you have an identifier.

  • ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive

    The store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there.  It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location.  I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro.  In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive.  When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began.  I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process.  Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there.  Is there a way to make it re-appear?  I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
    Thank you.
    Best,
    Matt

    Any ideas?  Anyone?

  • ITunes Music Folder Organization Inproperly

    After I imported music of the album "Wings Of Song", by James Galway, from my removable hard disk to "iTunes Music Folder" and had iTunes organized it, I discovered something that's a little bit wierd. All the music I just imported is put under the folder Compilation\Wings of Song. This means that when iTunes organizing the music folder, it unexpectedly "thought" all these music are by the artist Compilation. What is the reason? Could anyone tell me why? Thank you!

    The Compilation directory is how iTunes organizes albums that Gracenote (CDDB) considers works of various artists or collections of songs from the same artist, but differing albums (like "Best Of's" or "Greatest Hits").
    The CDDB is not always consistent, as some Greatest Hits are marked as compilations and others are not. This really irked me in the beginning as I was wondering why some of my albums went missing. At first I tried to manually reorganize and move the files, but it was cumbersome. I stumbled on the "Compilations" function and it made things much easier.
    For instance, if you have a Greatest Hits album of U2 sitting in the Compilations directory and would rather have it under the U2 directory (where I feel it better belongs), you would perform the process outlined below and the album and songs would move to its "improved" location.
    That's why you have folders in your Compilations directory. Some you may wish to keep there, some you may want to move to a more appropriate place. This is how. Try moving some of them to their Artist's folder (if you have any that would qualify).
    First check your Preferences:
    -- Advanced/General: Keep iTunes Music folder organized (on)
    -- Advanced/General: Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library (off) - change it back to 'on' after the song switch, if you want
    To move an Album from the Compilations folder after it was imported from a CD (or otherwheres):
    -- Highlight the collection of songs on that CD within the main Library
    -- Right-click, 'Get Info'
    -- Remove the 'Part of Compilation' check-mark - turn it to 'no'
    -- Click 'OK'
    iTunes will reorganize your PC folder structure, moving the songs from the Compilation folder to their Artist folder.
    To defeat a Compilation designation prior to ripping the tracks from a CD, go to 'Get Info' on the CD and make sure that the 'Part of Compilation' box is not checked. This will keep the album under its designated Artist folder.
    This is how I keep my music organized. I only want 'true' compilations under the Compilations folder, not some of the Artist's 'Greatest Hits'. You may have other desires.

  • Sharing iTunes Music folder on external HD but not Mobile Applications folder?

    I share the iTunes Music folder on an external HD between two separate Mac user accounts. Each user has their own iPhone and syncs within their own user account. All the media for user#1 (books, apps, etc) are in the appropriate folders in this shared iTunes Music folder, which means user #2 is seeing all user #1's stuff in their iPhone sync windows in iTunes.
    I don't want to share anything but the actual iTunes library music files between the two Mac user accounts (and the two iPhones). Everything else for each user (apps, books etc.) I want to keep separate. Both users have a separate iTunes store account. Is this possible?

    It seems that removing the apps of user#1 from user#2's library (i.e. deleting them in iTunes window, not trashing the actual file) does the trick ... this change updates the user's library .xtml file. Now user#2's apps are syncing only on their phone when they log in and use iTunes. When user#1 logs in iTunes just shows user#1 apps and syncs those.

  • Is there a way to have iTunes show what is in the iTunes music folder?

    I have several folders that I moved from an old iTunes music folder into a newer one on a different HD. I just put the music into the folder, but not into iTunes. So now, I have a huge folder of music that doesn't show up in my iTunes library. I was cleaning off the HD to make room for something else, so I deleted the "old" iTunes folder with all the music in it. The music is in my new iTunes folder, but not in my iTunes program. Sorry this is so convoluted!
    What I want to know is this: Is there a way to have iTunes recognize and check for music in the iTunes folder that is not already in the iTunes program? Exactly what does consolidate library do? Could that solve the issue? I am a little intimidated because it says that it cannot be undone.
    Thanks,
    Jim

    Chris,
    You're a GENIUS!! Thank you!! That's exactly what I was looking for. I am in the process of doing it right now. Hopefully, everything goes well. You just made my day!
    Happy 2009,
    Jim

  • How can I add songs to itunes music folder without them being duplicated within the folder (not on my hard drive)?

    I have music files all over the place and want to put them all in itunes with no duplicates and get rid of all the rest. how can I do that? Some of my playlists are missing songs. I would like to move the playlist back to itunes from my ipod without having to put the songs in my media folder yet again! I have wasted so much time fooling with this. Really what I am trying to get at through all of this is to run the songs on the ipod through ivolume so they play equally.
    Can anyone make sense of this for me?

    It sounds like you have a few different problems.
    To find all your music, try using a spotlight search. Type "kind:music" in the spotlight search (the magnifying glass in the far upper-right corner ) then choose "show all in finder". You'll end up with a window that shows all your music files, regardless of where they are on your hard drive. But don't move any files, because that may confuse iTunes (it won't be able to find files that you move, because - d'oh! - you moved them and now they're not where iTunes left them. That's usually how people end up in the kind of situation that you're in.)
    If you want to let iTunes organize your music for you, make sure those options are turned on in the iTunes preferences (in the "advanced" section), then go to the "File" menu, choose "Library" and then choose "Organize library". That will put all your music in the iTunes Library folder (but leave copies of the originals wherever they were, all over your hard drive).
    To find duplicates in your iTunes Library, choose "display duplicates" (or hold down the option key and it changes to "display exact duplicates" which might help in some cases). You'll still have to manually go through them to delete one of each duplicate.
    Now you can start combining those three techniques - if you consolidate your music and let iTunes copy everything into the music folder, you'll know that iTunes safely has a copy of all your music in the iTunes Library folder. So you can do the spotlight search, and delete any duplicate files that are not in your iTunes library folder. Anything that's left over (that is, it's not a duplicate and it's not in the itunes music folder), you'll need to add to iTunes (try using the "automatically add to itunes" folder - spotlight search to find it -  anything you drop in there will get added to iTunes without leaving a duplicate file). Then you can use the itunes "duplicates" feature to find the duplicates in iTunes and fix those.

  • Is it a MUST to have both itunes library and itunes music folder?

    I just noticed I have 22 GB of music in itunes library (itunes application) and also 22GB of music in itunes music folder. Do I need to have both folders active? What would happen if I delete all the music in itunes music folder? Should that delete all the songs in my itunes application?
    Thanks.

    The iTunes Library is a database file, it contains references to songs you've added to the library, their location on your hard drive, playlists, ratings etc. The library does not contain the actual song files. The iTunes Music Folder is the folder that contains the song and other media files. Deleting the folder that contains the songs would mean the the library couldn't locate them (because they would no longer exist) and there would be nothing to play. The iTunes application (the actual program) resides in your Applications folder. You'll get more information including the Folder/File structure in this article: What are the iTunes library files?

  • Itunes cannot see the itunes music folder on my external hard drive

    I recently put all of my music on an external hard drive to free up space on my computer,
    However, when I am in itunes and trying to point the library to the music folder, itunes still cannot see it. Instead all it can see is the E drive WD Passport, and folders named autorun, WD Sync Data Wd Windows Tools.
    Can anyone tell me how I can see my itunes music folder on my external hard drive while I am in preferences, advanced, library location, change??

    I don't know enough about iTunes for Windows to help you with this. But if you post your question in the Using iTunes for Windows forum you will get help from people who know more about this.
    (This is the forum for Apple's Mac OS X web browser, Safari.)

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