Missing tracks in iTunes album folder

This evening I downloaded a 28-track album from the iTunes store. All 28 tracks show up in iTunes and on my iPod. All 28 tracks play in iTunes and on my iPod.
I backed up the new album by copying the iTunes folder to my external hard drive.
But then.....when I checked the back-up, I was surprised to see that only 2 out of 28 tracks on the new album had been copied to my external drive. Twenty-six tracks appear to be missing.
So I went to the original iTunes folder, and found the 26 of the 28 tracks appear to be missing there as well.
I then did a hard drive search-by-name for some of the missing tracks, and nothing turned up. But they must be on the hard drive somewhere, right? Or I couldn't play them in iTunes.
Baffled.

Scratch this thread.
Rebooted the computer twice, and all missing files have magically reappeared in their folder.
Go figure!

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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?

Missing Tracks in iTunes Browser after Match activated

After iTunes Match successfully completed, not all tracks are found when using the iTunes Browser.
For example, selecting the Music icon on the left, ensuring that All Genres, All Arists and All Albums are selected within the Browser, I scroll down within the Artist window and select Artist "ABC" . Only three items appear, all of which are music videos.
However, when I enter "ABC" in the search bar, the 3 music videos appear along with all of the band's music tracks and digital booklets.
All "ABC" albums and videos were purchased thru iTunes earlier this year with the same Applie ID as I currently use within the store. None are marked as Complications and used to be found in the browser prior to activating iTunes Match.
Any ideas why they doen't appear when using the browser?

Same issue here... Found them on another disk though... iTunes will just say the files are missing and wil not process them. They'll be marked with an exclamation mark in front of the track name when in the numbers view. I first had to re-link the files (thus iTunes copying them to my iTunes Music folder) and then had to run iTunes Match again.
Sorry, iguess no workaround here. I may dsuggest you find a copy somewhere and then re-download them from the cloud.

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 I batch download missing tracks from iTunes Match?

For some reason thousands of my tracks have gone missing in iTunes. No idea what can have happened, unless it was a consequence of messing with TuneSpan...! The exclamation mark icon appears next to the missing tracks. I can play them and download them if I go through a series of clicks so I could download tham all one at a time (indeed I started to do so) but to complete this job is going to take hours and risk giving me repetitive strain injury. Is there a way to get iTunes to download all the missing ytracks from Match?

Thanks. This will save me one click per item, but I still have to click each one individually a couple of times (ie to make it 'play' in order to get rid of the and then press Escape to dismiss the dialog box that comes up about searching for other missing files. (If I select multiple items and control-click for the contextual amenu, Download does not appear – only when I have gone through all of the above to turn into the iCloud download icon.)

Missing tracks after downloading Album Art

I downloaded version 7 without a hitch several days ago and yesterday, I downloaded missing album art. Beautiful feature. Seemed to work on my 30G Video IPod perfectly. Unfortunately, later on, when I opened ITunes and tried to play a song on my computer, I got the error message: "The song "Whatever The Name of Song" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" When I clicked on "Yes", I was unable to located the song's file in any previous Library. Additionally, I noticed that this applied only to older (pre ITunes 6?)music files and that every other track is missing from these albums. This applies to music both purchased from Itunes and copied from CDs. Music I added relatively recently (Itunes 6?) seems to be safe. Basically, the track is listed in the current library but the file cannot be located. David Pogue's Blog has a suggestion to re-download V6 and delete V7 but I am afraid that this will make matters worse. I really need help here as this involves alot of music that I don't want to lose.

i don't know how to fix your problem directly, but if you're desperate, you can do what I do when Apple doesn't recognize an album of mine. I just go to amazon.com, look up the album, expand the picture, right click (or on a mac control click) and copy the photo then go to iTunes, then the album, right click on the song (or choose multiple by shift, and clicking the songs you want) go to "Get Info", then go to the artwork tab, and in the large white box, right click and paste.
its a longer process than just simply using retrieve album artwork, but if iTunes doesn't know the album, or you're having problems with their programs, this is a nice way around it.
hope this helps.

Missing tracks in iTunes U collection

For the University of Chicago "Volunteer Caucus" collection, 52 items are added on the iTunes site manager (last uploads were January 3), but only 17 appear on iTunes U. The release dates also appear to be wrong (e.g. "Reunions with Class" shows up as 11/19/10 when it should be 10/09/10).
We had an initial problem in another collection which was caused by bad/missing characters in the feeds metadata, but it doesn't seem as though there are any such characters for this collection.

We checked the collection and an invalid XML character was found in the RSS feed. Since this is an Apple hosted feed, we will need to go in and remove the invalid character. Stay tuned.
-Thanks

Anyway to automatically relink random missing song files in iTunes library? Random songs have "!" while other songs in same album folder are fine.

I can manually relink a missing song by navigating to the album folder in my iTunes media folder where all of my music is stored, but there are hundreds of "missing" songs in my 100+ GB Library. Any way to get iTunes to reconcile the library in a more automated fashion? I am fearful of solutions that may introduce a ton of duplicates.
Would also like to know why this has happened so I can prevent it in future. Why are some songs in an album coming up missing and others in the same root folder playing fine?? It's not like my library is missing, 80% of my music is fine.
My MAC iTunes library is organized by iTunes and all new media is copied into the iTunes folder (which I have "living" on an external USB 500GB hard drive, which I sometimes use with my PC Laptop when I travel - I don't do this often and it has never caused a problem before.)

UPDATE: I contact the developer fo the iTunes Track CPR script just to give him some feedback. His reply, "
Thanks for letting me know. CPR needs a good looking at. But have you tried "Music Folder Files Not Added"?
http://dougscripts.com/466"
I used that script and it found all of the MIA "missing" songs and then added them back to my iTunes library (took about 7 hours to auto add about 2000+ songs.) This process also created duplicates, but I was able to use the "Manage Duplicates" feature of iTunes under the File menu to see a list of all duplicates; then I deleted all of the songs with the"!" next to their names (took about 45 minutes.)
So I think in the end this did save me a lot of time and aggrevation.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Chris!

Complete my album downloads the missing tracks but then does not place it with the existing tracks in iTunes. i have a single song bought sat on its own and an album with a track missing, any ideas?

complete my album downloads the missing tracks but then does not place it with the existing tracks in iTunes. i have a single song bought sat on its own and an album with a track missing, any ideas?

I had this same problem and started a thread, but for the most part nobody responded and those who did somehow didn't understand what the problem was.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11504935#11504935
I'm sure the problem is sweat getting into the apple supplied headphone "remote." Basically even the smallest drop can slide down the wire and get into the unit.
Unfortunately I haven't found a solution other than to get a Belkin remote adapter and some sport headphones. This doesn't give you voice over, but you can still control the volume, skip, etc.
I've been doing this for a couple weeks now and it hasn't had a freak out since.

ITunes is missing the first track of most albums

For some time now, iTunes has been losing the first track of my albums and playlists. Not all of them, but many. I can't figure out a pattern...digital downloads, CD uploads, everything. There are a bunch of Track 1s for unknown albums listed in my Library, but when I click to listen, the files cannot be found. Any suggestions?
Thank you!

I think iTunes is screwing up the headers on some files. There's a free download called "MP3 Scan+Repair" that fixed mine. You'll have to quit iTunes, delete the library file, process your mp3s through that scan+repair utility and then re-add your mp3s.

I delete an album in itunes, and select "move to the recycle bin" the track files in itunes library get moved but the album folder stays-with nothing in it.

How do I get the album folder to move to the rcycle bin also? I have keep folders updated checked in preferences.

Welcome to the Apple Community.
Try deleting the problematic tune (electing to remove original file if/when prompted) and then re-downloading the file from the iTunes store.
You can re-download content purchased from the iTunes store (availability varies depending on location) using the purchased option from the Quick Links section in the top right corner of the iTunes homepage in your iTunes application on your computer.
You can re-download content purchased from the iTunes store (availability varies depending on location) using the purchased option at the bottom of the screen of the iTunes app on your iOS device.
If the problem re-occurs, select the content which is causing a problem and use the 'Report a problem' button in Your Purchase History using your computer.

Script for slideshow of images in folder of playing now track in iTunes?

Hi
I am wondering how easy it would be to write a script that would create a slideshow of images in the album folder of the track currently playing in iTunes. Because iTunes doesn't support the display of multiple artwork images I am looking for another method (I have a lot of albums with multiple images).
I would like to be able to view the images fullscreen on a secondary monitor whilst still having the ability to use my main monitor for other purposes (i.e. the main monitor wouldn't be blacked out).
In addition to this the following features would be nice, but not essential:
1. the script to extract the length of the song playing and the number of images in the folder and from this work out how long to display one image so that each image is displayed once for an equal length of time.
2. to have some text with info on song - artist - album etc. below the images in white text on black background.
3. transitions between the slides
Would such a script be feasible, even if just to cover the basics?
Thanks
Nick

This is what I have quickly whipped up. I did a little testing and found iPhoto is popping up a bunch of dialogs on importing duplicate images on the import. Perhaps there is a "synchronize" command I am missing or something ("import without force copy" doesn't seem to help) but the rest of the script works. I haven't worked in the looping for monitoring song change yet either. May be prettier with another stay open script which calls this one anyways.
I haven't done much with plist editing either. You can run the first set safely so long as iPhoto is closed, but changing length of slide while it is open through the plist is going to be quite risque. I can't find how to do it without plist or UI though. Anyways take a look and any outside help would be appreciated as well.
try
tell application "iTunes"
set currentAlbum to album of current track as text
set currentArtist to artist of current track as text
--set trackLength to time of current track --need to convert from 'mm:ss' to 'seconds' i believe
end tell
on error
display dialog "Try playing some music first." with buttons ("Cancel")
end try
set iPhotoAlbum to (currentArtist & "." & currentAlbum) as text
--set pathToMusic to "/Volumes/music 1/" & currentArtist & "/" & currentAlbum & "/"
(*SET UP IPHOTO DEFAULTS - dangerous to edit plist with iphoto open *)
--do shell script "defaults write com.apple.iPhoto SlideShowAutoPanAndZoom -string YES"
--do shell script "defaults write com.apple.iPhoto LoopSlides -string YES"
--do shell script "defaults write com.apple.iPhoto EnableBackgroundMusic -string NO"
(*SET UP DEFAULT SLIDE LENGTH - will need to move this down after importing*)
--tell application "iPhoto" to set picCount to count of items in album currentAlbum
--set slideLength to ((trackLength - 5) / picCount)
--do shell script "defaults write com.apple.iPhoto SlideDuration -int " &slideLength
tell application "iPhoto"
if not (exists (album iPhotoAlbum)) then new album name iPhotoAlbum
import from pathToMusic to album iPhotoAlbum
delay 5 --allowance for import as needed
start slideshow using album iPhotoAlbum
end tell

HT4914 missing tracks (broken file limatching iTunes?

I have some missing tracks (broken file links) in itunes, will these sync with iTunes match?

Reply to self: I ultimately did speak to a sympathetic iTunes support staff. But, I figured it out just by talking iot through with him. For reasons that remain unknown, large swaths of my library were "hidden" by Windows. Unhiding and clicking to apply to sub-folders does not function as intended. The Microsoft support personal left it with clicking on every single file and unhiding. But I did ultimately unhide everything by using the HIDDEN parameter in Windows Search, which makes available all files for group clicking "Off" the hidden feature. Unfortunately. major library damage already incurred before all this was figured out. Albums missing tracks, etc. With a folder by folder comparison to several backups, I managed to re-create the basic file structures. I also cleaned the hard disk by shifting old Music backups off the drive so that now there is 769 GB used, 1.16 TB free of a 1.81 TB available hard drive. Rebuilt the library using the latest download available 9/25/2012. Have gone through the shifting of the directory structure out of iTunes/iTunes Media to just iTunes. A shift which I approve of but a warning would have been nice. Have gone through the varisous corrections to Compilations, Music Videos, Audiobooks which are clearly tagged incorrectly as iTunes cannot rebuild to previous specs. And now I am stuck with ERROR, ITUNES LIBRARY CANNOT BE SAVED, -50. Continuing to iognore the message results in a "Not Responding" iTunes, with a required force shutdown. I have used the File, Library, Organize feature several times today. Weeks of effort and I am right back where I started. Steve would be turning over in his grave, where's Apple's perfection? Customers are begging for alternatives and I've just joined their ranks. I want and love my media library but my life is not structured to this type of time committment.
10.7.0.21

Importing to iTunes moves previously proper files to unknown folder. Metadata missing inside of iTunes. Help!

I've been having problems with iTunes for a long time now and have yet to find the solution.
I store my complete library on my external hard drive. When I import a CD into the iTunes on my Mac that had previously been imported on another computer, my iTunes refuses to recognize the artist and album information. It only recognizes the track number and track name.
I had imported tracks on a PC in WMA format, and converted them using iTunes on my PC to WAV. They showed up in my iTunes on my PC just fine that way. I then copied the new WAV files in their proper Artist/Album/Tracks folders from my PC's iTunes Media folder to my external drive. When I import those files now on my external drive to iTunes on my Mac, the files move to Unknown Artist folder on my external drive. I've got preferences set to place files in my external drive's music folder. What can I do differently?
I've tried "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" which then immediately takes files out of my organized locations and moves them to the Unknown Arist folder even when I'm not importing. I've also tried "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library." I tried just importing directly from a flash drive hoping it would copy files that were moments ago recognized correctly on my PC's iTunes to my external drive's Music folder correctly. Doesn't work. Still imports songs to iTunes with no artist or album data and places them in the annoying Unknown Artist folder on my external drive.
When I import a disc directly to iTunes (sending it to the computer's iTunes Media folder when my external isn't connected), it recognized the data correctly. Then if I connect my external and copy the files from the computer's internal drive to my external Music folder, delete the files in iTunes, and then import the files from their new location, they are then unrecognized as having Artist and Album information. A few years ago I had no issue moving files this way and everything stayed organized. I'm guessing Apple fudged something up in an update?
What the heck? Is there a different program I could use (whether on PC or Mac) that would import the disc information and keep the metadata attached and fix my issues? I eventually will need to transfer my external drive's files to another drive, as externals are not permanent storage solutions, so when I eventually import all my music in iTunes again I won't have the time or the energy to rename every track independently. Why doesn't the information recognized by iTunes remain associated with that file when I move the file to another location and reimport to iTunes?
Any help would be sincerely appreciated. This has been a long struggle for me with no answers and my music collection is extremely important to me.

There have many reports here of large adds not running to completion. Sometimes it will die on a certain troublesome file, and sometimes there is no obvious reason.
Since you have verified that the individual files seem to be fine, the workaround is to add the folders in smaller batches.

Importing CD to Artist folder\Album folder\file with track number and name:

I have a problem then importing my cd’s to my harddisk using iTunes.
On my previous pc I got what I want, Artist folder, Album folder and file with track number and name:
e.g.
D:\My Music\B.B. King\Blues On The Bayou\01 Blues Boys Tune.mp3
D:\My Music\B.B. King\Blues On The Bayou\02 Bad Case Of Love.mp3
D:\My Music\B.B. King\Blues On The Bayou\03 I'll Survive.mp3
But now I get:
D:\My Music\Compilations\Blues On The Bayou\01 Blues Boys Tune.mp3
D:\My Music\ Compilations \02 Bad Case Of Love.mp3
D:\My Music\ Compilations \03 I'll Survive.mp3
In iTunes my settings are Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced: iTunes Music folder: D:\My Music and checkmark in both: “Keep iTunes Music folder organized” and “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library”.
My version of iTunes is 8.0.1.11
Thanks in advance
Peter

It will depend on the album. Gracenote considers anthologies, a collection of tracks by the same artist taken from different albums, as a compilation. In iTunes the compliation setting should really only be applied to a collection of tracks by different artists.
tt2

Missing tracks in iTunes album folder

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