Music files mysteriously missing from itunes library

I have never had problems with my Itunes until now. Over 8GB of music has gone missing from my Itunes Library, there is still 2GB of random music left in the Library. Is there any way this could have happened as I have not done anything manually to move or delete any music. And how do I get the music back??? Please help as I have just had my Ipod stolen so now I have no music on computer to put onto a new Ipod if/when I get one.

I've had the same problem ... does Apple have the right to remove tunes from my hard drive?

Similar Messages

HT1451 Music has completely disappeared from ITunes library! Please Help!!

Music has completely disappeared from ITunes library! Please Help!!
Hours and Hours of renaming, adding cover photos and so on have been for nothing. Itunes cannot find the files since they're not in the library at all!
I still have the music on my computer but don't want to add it as it is, as I have spent a lot of time "fixing" it! PLEASE HELP!

Did you use spotlight to search? (I'm assuming you have a Mac as given above despite this thread being in the Windows forum). How long have you used iTunes on this computer? Is there a backup to your library, perhaps an only copy of it on a machine you've "retired". Is the media present in the media folder? (Yes, you've answered that earlier.) If so then the media files should have absorbed all the tag changes that you made and reimporting the media into a new library might not be a complete disaster, though playlists, playcounts, ratings etc. would be irretrievably lost.
tt2

Most of my songs have gone missing from itunes library leaving only 1, 2 or 3 on each album. What can I do to recover them?

Most of my songs have gone missing from itunes library leaving only 1, 2 or 3 songs on each album. How can I recover them?

Hello there, gags1246.
There are a few valuable steps recommended in the following Knowledge Base article that should help you locate your content:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1408
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro D.

FAQ: My files are missing from the Library, or How to reconnect your images?

What is the Lightroom Library?
The Library module of Lightroom can be used to arrange, codify, systemize, group, and classify your media. When you import your images and video into the Library, you are adding information about your files to a catalog. Your files remain on your hard drive where they were, unless you are importing them from a camera, in which case the files are copied to your hard drive to a location of your choosing.
What is a Lightroom catalog?
The catalog is a database that stores information about the files you've imported into Lightroom. When importing a file, the first thing Lightroom does is collect the file's name and location on the hard drive. If the file has any attached compatible metadata, such as keyword tags, these are imported as well. You can use multiple catalogs and your catalogs can be carried forward from version to version.
Why does Lightroom say my files are missing?
Since the catalog database only stores information about your file, and not the file itself, if any of that information is changed outside of Lightroom, the connection to the file is lost. There are three ways this can happen: the file name is changed, the file location is changed, or the file has been deleted. If you need to rename, move, or delete a file, you can do so within the Library module, and then the connection is not lost.
What is Reconnecting?
When a file has been renamed, moved, or deleted, the catalog database needs to be updated with that new information. The Reconnection process allows you to point out a file's new name, it's new location, or to delete the database entry on your file if the file no longer exists on your hard drive.
Where can I learn more?
The Lightroom Catalog
Introducing catalogs
Understand Catalogs in Lightroom 2
Understanding the Lightroom Catalog System
Managing Files in Lightroom's Library
Adobe Help - Importing Photos
Adobe TV - Importing Photos
Adobe TV - Using the new import window
Adobe TV - Importing and Organizing Your Images
Adobe TV - Importing Existing Images
Adobe TV - Two ways to Import
Adobe TV - Moving Files in Lightroom VS the Operating System
Adobe TV - Moving Folders Around After the Fact
Adobe TV - Move & Archive Images, and Export a Catalogue
Video Workshop - The Filter Bar
Managing Catalogs in Lightroom
Managing catalogs and files
Preference and other file locations | Lightroom 4 - 3 - 2 - 1
Catalog FAQ | Lightroom
Single or Multiple Catalogs in Lightroom
Working with Multiple Catalogs
Merging Individual Lightroom Catalogs into a "Master" Catalog
Importing an Elements catalog to Lightroom
Lightroom 3 can't upgrade Photoshop Elements catalogs
Backing up your catalog
Exporting a catalog
How to Migrate LR to Another Computer
Reconnecting Media in Lightroom
Locate missing photos
Dude! Where are my photos?

Similar happened to me when i moved my iTunes library from XP to Win 8.1. Apps were in iTunes but would not sync to iPhone - could not find oritinal file. Win Xp and 8.1 have different file paths for My Documents and My Music. Locate the folder within iTunes called Mobile Applications. It should have a file with an IPA extension for each application. Add that folder to library. That will refresh the iTunes database so that it knows where to find the apps. I had to do that to my entire library (music, podcasts, etc)

How to check what is missing from iTunes library?

Today I moved my entire iTunes library onto my external hard drive as I needed to reinstall Windows. I had 622 artists at the time. I copied over the entire My Music folder to my external hard drive before formatting my hard drive to make sure I didn't miss any files.
When the process of installing Windows was complete, and I had transferred my library back onto the PC and into the new My Music folder, iTunes now said that I have 619 artists in my library. However, there are still 622 artist folders in the iTunes Media/Music folder.
Can anyone recommend ways to accurately check what is missing, and suggest why the number is now lower? I have artists in my library with East Asian artist tags that have Sort Artist tags with English characters, so checking the folders in iTunes Media/Music against the iTunes library wouldn't be very accurate, as the orders are different.

Hi xtanto,
one more idea: I think that you can obtain some specific type of principal from the user principal object, and that type would differ for SSO and custom DB login.
E.g. FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getUserPrincipal() returns a JAZNUserAdaptor instance under OC4J, which object contains this specific type of principal object somewhere in the getSubject().getPrincipals().iterator(). Then you can tell which login module is in use by checking if you have a DBUserPrincipal or a RealmPrincipal. (Note that these classes are just guesses.)
Regards,
Patrik

How can I move the music files back into my itunes library?

Hi. I hope you can help. We bought a new computer and I was using my iPod as an external drive to move the music from one to another. This did not work, it said it ran out of room even though there was room on it...Anyway when i returned to my iTunes page the music was no longer in the library. When i check the files on my computer it is still there, yet it is not in the library. How can I get it back there? Whenever I plug in my iPod now it tries to sync it with the library which would wipe away all of the music.
Thanks

+"When i check the files on my computer it is still there, yet it is not in the library."+
Putting the files on your computer does not cause them to be added to the library. To add them, use the command File > Add Folder to Library, and point it to My Music or whatever folder(s) all the music is in.

Music on iPod disappeared from iTunes library. It stays on iPod even when I sync. Can I get it back in iTunes?

Thank you to anyone who can help me with this. When I got my iPod touch a few months ago, I first imported music from CDs into iTunes. I then created playlists and hooked up my iPod and synched it. My music library and playlists no longer appear in iTunes. When I sync my iPod, the songs and playlists still remain on my iPod. Is there any way to get the songs and playlists to show in iTunes again?

Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
Or, if the media isn't on your computer any longer...
Recover media from iPod
See this post from forum regular Zevoneer for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

My music files keep disapearing from iTunes Its all up to date

My music files keep disapearing. I have uninstalled iTunes and re installed it, works for a bit then slowly the ! keep appearing. Can someone please help me?

Check out this Apple article -> iTunes creates an empty library file in Windows
Do you have the Sony VAIO Entertainment Platform installed and running on your computer? If you do, it might be conflicting with iTunes.

Music Files are Missing- 50%-ITunes can't find Folder?

50% of my music files have an exclamation and will only work if I do a search in Vista, locate the file :C:\Users\jorge'\Desktop\Desk Top Files 8-10-09\Velocity PC\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\My eMusic\Neal Casal\Leaving Traces Songs 1994-2004
If they are in the iTunes folder, why can't iTunes find them?

That's not the normal path for the itunes folder!
It's on your desktop, where it shouldn't be.
The default path on Vista is
C:\Users\ your username \Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\

Adding music to ipod nano from itunes library

PLEASE HELP -- an ipod is connected to itunes on my windows pc and the window lights up o.k.. i want to add the itunes library to the ipod.. when i drag a title to the ipod name, i see the circle/slash symbol telling me its no good.. i have ripped the library to a cd, and still cant make it work.. any suggestions?

Ya but in your first post it wasn't clear WHERE the iPod icon was that you were dragging. So you could very well have been trying to drag stuff from the iTunes library window to the iPod icon showing on the desk top (Mac) or in "My Computer" (Win) as a disk drive. That comes up from time to time, so had to verify.
OK, next question, how is the iPod setup to update? Are you set to Auto update or manual update? If one of the auto updates, then you can not drag and drop anything onto the iPod. You "sync" it instead. If you right click on the iPod set for auto updating, you will see a "Sync" choice. Pick that and iTunes will update the iPod however it is set to update (the whole library or select playlists).
Patrick

CoreVideo.dll file is missing from iTunes.

I had numerous problems with trying to use iTunes in that it kept complaining about QuickTime. I uninstalled both QuickTime and iTunes and re-installed both to no avail. Finally, I contacted Apple support.
After removing and re-installing both QuickTime and iTunes again for the "um-tenth" time I was told it was a problem with the laptop itself and I should contact Sony.
The solution to the problem was to download both "CoreVideo.dll"; and "CoreAudioToolbox.dll" from Apple's website using "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support\CoreVideo.dll" and "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support\CoreAudioToolbox.dll" respectively and then all was okay.
Hope this might help others.
Cheers.

K,
copy and paste the following, one at a time, into your browser page address "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support\CoreVideo.dll" and "%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support\CoreAudioToolbox.dll".
As you do each one it will ask you whether you want to save the files. Say "Save" and save them to the "iTunes" directory. You will need administrator privilege to do this. If it won't let you save them in that directory, save them somewhere else and then copy and paste them to the "iTunes" directory later.
Hope this helps.
Cheers.

Error msg iTunes cannot run files are missing - reinstall itunes

I keep getting a message when i try to open iTunes 9 telling me to re-install. When I do, large portions of my music files are missing from iTunes on laptop. They are on my iPhone 3G, because I synced them from iTunes before it crashed. How do I get them to sync back into iTunes from the iPhone?

Have a look at this article in the Apple Knowledge Base and let us know if it brings you any combination of joy and/or satisfaction.

About 100 songs/items missing from iTunes on new computer

I recently used Copytrans to transfer all my music from one computer to another. After a while of using the new computer, comparing it to the other computer, about 100 tracks/files were missing from iTunes. How can I find out what's happened to those missing files?

Do you know which songs are missing? If so, search and see if they were uploaded somewhere unexpected.
If you don't know which songs they are, I would compare your library to the old computer and just burn an mp3 CD of the songs you're missing.

HT1209 My Itunes Library and iPhone have fallen out of sync on music over the yearsare - how can I compare my itunes library with my Iphone to see what songs are missing from my library so I can then bring my Library up to date

My Itunes Library and iPhone have fallen out of sync on music over the yearsare - how can I compare my itunes library with my Iphone to see what songs are missing from my library so I can then bring my Library up to date

Hello Solid Buck,
Thank you so much for providing the details about the duplicate song issue you are experiencing. It sounds like you would like to remove the duplicate songs that will not play on your iPhone, but when you connect it to iTunes, iTunes only shows you one copy of the song on your iPhone.
In this situation, I recommend deleting the individual songs that do not play directly from your iPhone. I found the steps to do this on page 61 of the iPhone User Guide (http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/iphone_user_guide.pdf):
Delete a song from iPhone: In Songs, swipe the song, then tap Delete.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

Why is music ripped from CD's missing from my library?

I have seen this in other forum posts and I hear this from many of my friends: tracks ripped from CD's eventually go missing. Entire albums and entire artists. This is not unusual to me nor is it unique.
Granted, I hear tons of complaints about how bad iTunes is at managing a library to begin with (Why can't I sort by missing tracks?, and what on earth is "Display Duplicates" for other than to prove my point?).
How do I get iTunes to stop deleting imported music from CD's? Afterall, I OWN the music. Does Apple think I don't?
Very disappointed in this product overall.

Is your post simply a series of trick questions?
devedsmith wrote:
...Why can't I sort by missing tracks?, ...
Er... because they're missing.
devedsmith wrote:
what on earth is "Display Duplicates" for other than to prove my point?).
To help you find any song that you have duplicated in your Library because it is on on two different albums.
devedsmith wrote:
Granted, I hear tons of complaints about how bad iTunes is at managing a library to begin with
I don't suppose it might be that some people simply don't know how to use a computer and or they try to use iTunes in exactly the same way as other music players instead of learning how to use a programme that's new to them?
It's rhetorical question - I already know the answer. If you tried to use two different photo editing programmes, music editing programmes or even two word processor programmes, you would find differences between the two, every time. One needs to learn how to use a new programme, not simply try to do it the way it was done in the other programme.
Now, down to your problem.
Why would iTunes delete your music, do you think Apple simply want to annoy you? There are reasons why music goes missing from iTunes. It might help to list them. That way, we might be able to identify the cause of your issue.
Another programme has renamed, moved or deleted the song's file after you imported it into your iTunes Library.
You have renamed, moved or deleted the file in question, outside of iTunes, since you imported it.
I don't think there is a number 3. I stand corrected, by tt2. (That's fine by me!)
The first thing to do is check to see if the file is still on your computer. Pick one missing song, preferably on a single-artist album, not a compilation.
For example, Ride Across The River by Dire Straits, from the album Brothers In Arms.
If you have a look in your music folder (the filepath may be slightly different to mine, depending on your current and previous versions of Windows), you should find a folder for "Dire Straits". In that folder will be a folder for the album "Brothers In Arms". In that folder are the songs, by title, possibly with a track number preceding the title. Since that song is in my Library, here's screenshot of the entry in iTunes, from the Summary tab:
and you can see the artist name\album name\song number song title.
So can you find your missing song, the album or even the folder, either for the one I suggested you pick, or for any of your other missing songs?
Compilation albums are listed under "..\iTunes Music\Compilations\Album title\song title.
Use the Windows Search facility to look for the songs. Think about whether you have moved part or all of your Library to an external drive, a popular pastime for some reason. Do you use Windows Media Player or any other music player/mangement programme that may have altered the songs?
You should have noticed that my tough guy approach at the start of my post has actually tried to help you.
Back to the tough guy now though.
Try helping yourself instead of assuming Apple is to blame for every single problem in your world! It isn't.
Message was edited by: the fiend

Music files mysteriously missing from itunes library

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for