Please help - since upgrade to 9.2.1.5 I cant find my tracks!

Question

Hi
Since I upgraded to iTunes 9.2.1.5 I seem to have a '!' next to every track.
If I try to play a track it comes up with an error message saying
'the song xxxx could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it now?'
If I highlight my iTunes folder 'myname/music/iTunes/iTunes music' only my really old tracks are there.
Can anyone please help me?
Thank you !
Hayley

Answer 1

Hi,
The initial *file://localhost/* bit simply means it's looking on your local hard drives. I'm going to assume a couple of typos means that the next bit is equivalent to *D:/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Compilations/<Album Name>/## <Track>.<ext>*. Have you tried searching for one of these missing files? If *iTunes media organisation* is part of the problem then the file is likely to be at *D:\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Compilations\<Album Name>\## <Track>.ext* basically the same address but without the Music folder inside iTunes Media.
If you can track down the actual address of a typical file I can probably tweak one of my existing scripts to check for dead tracks, "guess" where they will actually be and, if found, reconnect iTunes to them.
Backing up shouldn't have affected anything, although I suppose it depends on exactly what steps you used to make your backup. Ideally you should simply copy the entire iTunes folder and, if you don't keep your library inside the iTunes folder, the iTunes Media folder and any other folders you have media stored in.
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*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
Grab SyncToy 2.1, a free tool from MS. This can be used to copy your entire iTunes library (& other important data folders) onto another hard drive or network share. You can then use SyncToy periodically to synchronise or echo your library to the backup. A preview will show which files need to be updated giving you a chance to spot unexpected changes and during the run only the new or updated files will be copied saving lots of time. And if your media is all organised below the main iTunes folder then you should also be able to open the backup library on any system running the same version of iTunes.
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Not sure about the download issues.
tt2