Random songs are missing from iTunes folders from CD's I converted.

The dreaded exclamation point has shown up on a number of random songs that were converted from my music CD's and are completely gone from my hard drive, including the iTunes folder. The titles and descriptions are there, just not the music. Even stranger, after I've reloaded the affected files back into iTunes, the same songs keep disappearing over time. It's maddening, any idea what's going on?

It has always been very basic to alway maintain a backup copy of your computer for this very occasion.
Have you failed to do this?

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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.

I update my IPhone4 to IOS6 from IOS4.3.3. My all songs are missing in the Iphone4. How to get those songs into my Iphone from ITunes. Even after sync also not coming to IPhone.

I update my IPhone4 to IOS6 from IOS4.3.3. My all songs are missing in the Iphone4. How to get those songs into my Iphone from ITunes. Even after sync also not coming to IPhone.

The iphone is not storage/backup device.
The sync is one way - computer to iphone.
The only exception is itunes purchases. File>Devices>Transfer Purchases
You should copy everything from your old computer, or your backup copy of your old computer, to your new one.

I have a iPod Nano, when it is connected to my laptop all my songs and books are there but when it is disconnected from laptop, some books and songs are missing from the library

I have a iPod Nano, when it is connected to my laptop all my songs and books are there but when it is disconnected from laptop, some books and songs are missing from the library

I have a simlar issue like this when loading my movies to my iTouch. iTunes says that all of your wanted content is sync and your iPod says that all content wasn't synced, is that what you are saying?

How can it that half of my songs are matched in iTunes Match where the other songs from the same CD (ripped by Itunes) are not matched but uploaded?

I started with ITunes Match a few days ago (I have the latest versions of all OS's etc)
- The whole process took more then two days to complete for the first time.
- Half of my songs are matched in iTunes Match where the other songs most of the time from the same CD (most ripped by ITunes) are not matched but uploaded(?)
- Complete CD's are not recognized, they are however available in the ITunes store (songs in my library not available in ITunes are an exception).
- The match part overall is less then 50%, which is a complete disappointment.....
- When I activate ITunes Match on my IPod, IPhone and IPad the art-work does not load or only partly.
- Loading songs on iOS is extremely slow... and that is definitely not due to my internal network.
- ICloud (ITunes Match) on the apple TV stops working after every 15 seconds because it losses connection to the ITunes server....
I am a real Apple fan for the last decade but what a disappointment is this......before I started with ITunes Match everything worked seamlessly.

The number of Songs that 'matched' is simply a function of the current iTunes Match service process. It is not unusual to have multiple Songs in an otherwise perfectly matched album be uploaded - often it is very possible to find the album in the iTunes Store.
The Artwork does tend to reappear for many over a few days / weeks - however, if your library backup has all Artwork present it would be wise to save the Album Art separately and reapply to Albums not showing art work in the library grid view.
Many of the other performance issues you mention are not typical - though during the past working week or so the Apple Infrastructure has been very heavily loaded with multiples countries having service go-live symultaneously.

I would like to copy all the songs from one Ipod into another. All the songs are into my Itunes account, I tried to drag and drop the songs from the old Ipod to the new one but it doesn't work. Is there a way to do it ?

Hello everybody,
I would like to copy all the songs from one Ipod into another. All the songs are into my Itunes account, I tried to drag and drop the songs from the old Ipod to the new one but it doesn't work. Is there a way to do it ?
I share one Itunes account with other people from my family and one person would like to keep the same songs on the new Ipod as the ones which were on the old one.
Thanks in advance for your answer.
Yan

Hello Chris,
Thanks for your answer. I was hoping for an easier answer. Too bad there is no drag and drop solution, it would have been much easier.
Thanks for answering so fast.
Bye.
Yan

HT1689 i have over 5000 songs on my computer. Which is from songs bought from iTunes and from cd. i had all the songs on my iPod. went to download new songs and only 1500 songs are download . please help

i have over 5000 songs on my computer. Which is from songs bought from iTunes and from cd. i had all the songs on my iPod. went to download new songs and only 1500 songs are download . please help

Since all of your music came from your computer in the first place, then it should still be there and should be included in your backup copy of your computer.
" it told me when i pluged hers in 2 ipods could not use the same account"
This is not true. You have misunderstood.
You can sync as many ipods/iphones/ipads as you like to one one library.

How do I permanently delete music files from itunes AND my computer (without going to the folder to delete each item)? It's a windows system. I've tried 'reset all dialogue warnings' as I've been told to do but no luck. Files are still in Itunes folders.

How do I permanently delete music files from itunes AND my computer (without going to the folder to delete each item)? It's a windows system. I've tried 'reset all dialogue warnings' as I've been told to do but no luck. Files are still in Itunes folders. I would really appreciate help!

Solved! Music was in Itunes folder but not in Media folder within that. It doesn't seem like a very user friendly system so far!

Itunes seems to be unable to locate original file to play songs. Songs are in the itunes media file and playable direct from file. Preferences/advance file location is correct. Some files are playing and others aren't with no obvious pattern.

Itunes is unable to locate original file when attempting to play music. Songs are in the itunes media file and playable direct from there. Preferences/Advanced file location pointer is correct. Some songs play but most don't. I did move files around a bit in an attempt to share music with another account on same computor, however this did not work so have returned file to original location. Please help, I am way outside my feild in this one. Ta.

I have solved the problem. i think when I moved the media file back out of public to my account, I put it back into the wrong place and ended up with a media file inside a media file, inside another media file!! So I moved it again and fixed!! Now I just need to work out why i can't share with another account user of same computor.

Songs that I have purchased are missing in iTunes (file not found/exclmation point), and do not show up in the iTunes Store for download.

I have a laptop that has (or had) pretty much all of my music, both burned from CDs and downloaded from iTunes. My 17 year old son on occasion syncs his iPhone and iPad with this laptop. As of the last sync (as best I can determine), many songs that I purchased in the past few years are now missing, in that they have an exclamation point to the left of the song title, and when I try to play the song, I get an error message that says "The song could not be used because the original file could not be found" or something to that effect. As it turns out, the file seems to be erased. This has happened multiple times, and I could be wrong, but I believe that there are some songs that had the exclmation point last time he synced that now don't, and vice-versa. There is not an obvious correlation or grouping as to why these songs are missing (e.g,. they were not all purchased on the same date, not all songs from one artist are missing, etc.).
Since most of these songs have been purchased through iTunes through my account, my reaction was to go to the iTunes store, log in with my account, and re-download them. Problem is, all of these songs instead ask me to purchase the song, instead of displaying a "cloud" logo. Therefore, it appears that I have to re-purchase these songs, which does not sound correct.
Questions: Does anyone know, most importantly (to get an immediate fix):
1. How can I re-download these songs and why doesn't iTunes Store recognize that I have already purchased them?
and perhaps as important (more of a long-term question):
2. Why does this happen and how can I prevent this from happening again (since it has happened multiple times)?
Thanks.

1. iTunes won't offer cloud downloads for songs that it "thinks" are in your library, even if it "knows" the files are missing. If you've exhaustively searched for the missing files and there is no prospect of repair by restoring to them to their original locations, or connecting to new ones, then delete that tracks that display both the missing exclamation mark and are of media kind Purchased/Protected AAC audio file. Don't hide from iTunes in the cloud when asked, close iTunes, then reopen. You can download from the cloud links or iTunes Store > Quicklinks > Purchased > Music > Not on this computer > All songs > Download all.
2. Why? Not sure, perhaps 3rd party tools or accidental key presses combined with previously hidden warning messages when trying to organize the library. There is a hint that using the feature to downsample media as it is synced to a device may also be involved, though I've not replicated it. Whatever the reason a backup would protect your media.
tt2

ITunes thinks songs are missing when they are NOT...

I've written about this in the past and I thought I had fixed it manually. For some reason a large number of my songs (about 1300) in iTunes are not able to be found on the drive when I try to play them. Once I try to play them I get an error message saying "The song "song name" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it" and then the "!" symbol shows up next to the song. The songs files ARE there though.
In the past I thought I solved this problem because I "re-added" using all the songs in my library (about 4500) "File->Add To Library". If the song was one of these "missing" songs it was re-added to the library. The songs that were not "missing" were not re-added. (and again, the song files iTunes is re-adding are the exact song files it is saying aren't there in the first place) After the "re-add" I essentially had two of all the missing songs. One with the "!" and one without it. The newly added songs did not have any of the stats the original song had. So I used a script I was told about that goes through and syncs the song's statistics. Then after the song stats were synced I removed the "!" song from the library. I had to do this one song at a time. Of course, this took a VERY long time and I don't really want to go through it again... especially now that I know it may not be a permanent fix anyway!
However here is something new I noticed now that I have Leopard: The files that are showing up as missing are also the ones that don't have a "thumbnail" icon of the album cover in the finder. Also, if I go into coverflow view in the finder those files don't have the album as the other files do. However, there should be no differences between the files. For example, one album where each song was ripped at the same time in the same way will have some songs that have the cover icon and some that don't.
As I reported last time, this is not specific to one machine and has noting to do with the drive the songs are on. This also was happening on both 10.5.1. and 10.4.11 and lower.
So, why is this happening and how can it be fixed. I'm not going to re-import the songs because then I loose all my stats, ratings, etc and have to re-do the long method of fixin the stats.. There needs to be some way to permanently fix this problem. Is it with the song files or the library? Is there some sort of validation script that can be run?
Oh, on a side note... pre-leopard the "!" would show all the time. Now, if I close iTunes and re-open the "!" are gone until I try to play the song that should have the "!". This makes things even more challenging because I can't quit iTunes if I want to know which songs are "missing".
Jeff

I have this same issue. I use an external HD connected to an Airport Extreme Base station to store my music. On Tiger 10.4.11 iTunes created a music database just fine and found every mp3. I just installed Leopard last night and left iTunes to create its database overnight. It found every song, but there are plenty with the exclamation just as you described. If I want to play these songs I must hit "Yes" to locate the song manually. I can then play any other song with an exclamation point in that particular album, but if I go to try to play another song with an exclamation point from another album I must repeat the process again.
It's definitely a problem with Leopard as I just got my mac back from the Apple store with a replaced hard drive. I created the iTunes database in Tiger on one day, then the next decided to purchase and install Leopard. So one day passed between each instance of building the database and it worked fine on a clean install of Tiger but not on a clean install of Leopard.

Random songs are stopping early when playing in iTunes 11.2.2, any ideas as to why?

I've never had this issue before now, and it's only doing it to random songs. I checked the stop time and it's set to the end of each one, but iTunes still ends it earlier than it should. Any ideas? Thanks...

Hey bgrsox,
Thanks for the question. I understand that random songs are not playing back fully in iTunes. The following resource may assist you:
Songs in iTunes may not play back completely
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4357
Symptoms
Occasionally, if a song purchased from the iTunes Store on a Mac or PC was not downloaded completely, the song may not play back fully. The song may abruptly stop during playback, and iTunes may start playing the next song in your library or playlist.
Resolution
If iTunes in the Cloud is available in your country, try the following steps to resolve the issue:
1. Delete the purchased song that is exhibiting the problem from your iTunes library.
2. Click on the Purchased link in the iTunes Store to view your previously purchased music.
3. Download your previously purchased song from this list.
Note: iTunes in the Cloud, which allows you to download previously purchased songs from the iTunes Store, is not available in every country. Learn if iTunes in the Cloud is offered in your country.
Additional Information:
iTunes 11 for Mac: Delete songs, playlists, or other items
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12159
Download past purchases
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
Thanks,
Matt M.

I recently deleted many duplicate files. In the midst of it my Itunes songs are not in Itunes. They are in two different folders. One under 'Music' in my ID. And two under a MyMusic file in Documents. How do I know which one to import?

I recently deleted many duplicate files. In the midst of it my Itunes songs are not in Itunes. They are in two different folders. One under 'Music' in my ID. And two under a MyMusic file in Documents. How do I know which one to import?

Thanks, this is not an ideal answer but probably the most sensible one in my case.
I will try it unless someone has a better suggestion, but I'll wait a bit as it will take me a few days anyway (I had actually tried to create a new smaller playlist or download by album, but at this stage the music app is not letting me queue a list of songs for download - I think I will have to disable and re-enable iTunes match which will probably delete all the songs).
I have to say I am not very impressed with Apple here - having an online backup of all your data and beeing able to restore it to a new device easily was a strong selling point of iCloud. For music, they are Definitly not delivering at the stage.

I have been trying to dl itunes on a computer thats used my songs are missing

have been trying to dl itunes on a computer thats used my songs are missing?

I do not understand what you are saying

No iTunes exclamation marks, but iTunes still says 70 songs are missing

Hi all,
I have had this problem for a while now and haven't found it addressed anywhere online (tried searching in this forum as well as other forums through Google Search for quite a while).
Here is the issue:
My music library occasionally shows exclamation marks due to me having moved some file or folder around. I am a very organized person, so I always make sure to locate all files and make all of the exclamation marks disappear. I go through my whole music library (a little over 3000 files) until I make sure there are no more exclamation marks. As I am on the last exclamation mark, and I am 100% sure I have checked all of the files and there are no other exclamation marks except for that one, iTunes still says that it wasn't able to find 70 songs in the dialog box after it has located the one with the last exclamation mark.I double-check and triple-check, but I am totally not able to locate any other exclamation marks after that final one.
What is going on here? Why does iTunes claim songs are missing when there are no exclamation marks?
Please don't suggest that I repopulate my library by deleting and then re-adding the songs to fix this issue. I am not willing to do that as it will lose my library, which is a highly customized one (not all songs on my drive are included, only the ones I want to have on my iPhone).
Looking forward to hearing any other suggestions.
Thanks guys!

Lost & Found Playlists
Create a playlist called Found, select everything in Music and drag it into the Found playlist (it may take some time to count the tracks that are to be dropped). Create a smart playlist called Lost matching All the rules Playlist is Music and Playlist is not Found. Your lost tracks will be in this playlist.
If the missing files can be tracked down are in vaguely standard artist & album folder I have a tool called FindTracks that could help repair the broken links. Alternatively if you just want to remove them then in the Lost playlist use Ctrl+A followed by Shift+Delete.
I assume you've determined that these links must be in music rather than say podcasts or audiobooks? Widen the search if required.
For the long run why not make a playlist for what goes on the iPhone and then import all of your media to the library?
tt2

Random songs are missing from iTunes folders from CD's I converted.

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