Re Linking Music Files

I had my whole tunes library on a usb hardrive that crashed however i have recovered my itunes music folder and have it saved to a new hardrive, how can i link the music files in itunes to their new home without having to import everything again ?

hi. i've just been posting about this issue in quite a number of threads and i see choosing a new library seems to work for most people, but it's not doing it for me.
this is the situation, hope someone can give me a hand here and helps if somebody else has been having this problem:
since i ran out of disk space on my computer i decided to migrate my whole iTunes Music folder over to my external drive. i created a folder on my usb drive (same name, iTunes Music), copied all my music to it, then set the "iTunes Music folder location" to be the new one. then i deleted the original folder on my computer, and restarted iTunes. it played a track properly.
today i started up the computer with the usb drive already connected, tried to play a track and iTunes couldnt find the file. i checked the iTunes Music folder on the usb drive, and all the music is there; then checked the "iTunes Music folder location" in Preferences > Advanced > General, and it was the one in the external drive. so i hit reset (that changed the location back to user:Music:iTunes:iTunes Music), and then set it back to the external drive. still the same thing: cant find the files, so i manually locate one, but it doesent automatically locate not even the other tracks in the same album...
anyways, i tried this, changing the playlist. when i chose the folder i had created on the usb drive and copied my music into, it said there was *no playlist file there*. so i copied the original playlist file into it and it would still not find mp3 files +(i'd guess cos the playlist file has the mp3s located in the computer and not the usb drive, right?)+. so i tried again, but this time i created a new playlist. and itunes came up totally empty. right...
so i opened itunes holding option again, and went back to choosing the original playlist file on my computer (i wiped the mp3 files from the computer, but not the iTunes Music folder nor the playlist file). came up as usual, with all my playlists... and, obviously, it once again couldnt find the mp3 files +(i'd guess, again, because the playlist file has the mp3s located in the computer and not the usb drive)+
basically, i have the original iTunes folder (Album Artwork, iTunes Music, Previous iTunes Libraries, and playlist file in it) on my computer, but with no music there. i also have a folder in my external drive called iTunes Music with all the music in it, and no playlist file.
so i want iTunes to realize that all the music is now located in a different drive, without having to start over from scratch with a clean playlist file and create playlists and drag files into them again.
is this possible?
thanks in advance
(and sorry about the huuuuuge explanation)

Similar Messages

Linking music files from Windows Media Player to Itunes

How do you link music between WMP (this is where I download my music) and ITunes without having to copy all the files so I don't need to use up hard drive space?

iTunes will not accept Window Media player tracks that are protected. If you imported them off your own CDs, did you check the option to apply protection to them? If so, your only choice is to re-rip those CDs.
Patrick

Linking music files on an external drive to a new mac

Hi,
I have recently bought a new macbook, replacing my old ibook, all my music tracks are on an external hard drive, I want to keep them there, but I want to be able to play them on my new macbook, how do I do this?
I have changed the folder so itunes is looking at the right one, but my new itunes is empty. do I need to copy the track listings somehow into the new library?
I can only find instructions for physically moving the media, which I don't want to do.
I had wanted to be able to hook up the hard drive to both computers, is that possible?
thanks very much
vbw

You should be able to do a File -> Add and then point to the iTunes music folder on your external drive and it should fill in the iTunes library for you. Since you are already telling iTunes to use that location, there shouldn't be any copying or moving of files about.
As to hooking it to two different computers, while you can probably get away with it, each iTunes treats the library as its own, so you could end up in trouble when one library alters the library somehow that the other one might not be happy about.
Patrick

ITunes changes links to music files to the wrong (and random) location

Recently, I've noticed that iTunes (8.2) skips certain songs in my iTunes library. No ! shows up to indicate it cannot find the file. Rather, the file link is to a completely random location on my harddrive where no music files exist. I'll link to a photo a previous poster put on the web which has the same odd file links. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/327398302018d78347a5o.jpg
Two questions:
1. How do I stop this?
2. How can I fix this short of reimporting each file and deleting the improper one?
Thanks in advance for any insights.
Dan

Remove the compilations indicator from the tracks and iTunes should relocated the files for you. Make a playlist to pick up all the tracks in the album, highlight all the songs and right click on the selection, choose Get Info and when you are asked if you want to edit multiple items say yes, In the box that opens change Compilation to "No" and press OK.

I have an Iphone 4, I have music files that appear on my phone that I want to delete, when I link it to my computer the songs on the phone will not appear in Itunes so I can delete them, Is there any way to delete these song off the phone without going th

I have an Iphone 4, I have music files that appear on my phone that I want to delete, when I link it to my computer the songs on the phone will not appear in Itunes so I can delete them, Is there any way to delete these song off the phone without going through Itunes?

Nope, it either needs to be plugged in or turned on with the power button.
A replacement iPhone 4 is $149, but at least the whole phone is replaced.

How can I use links to open music files (aiff)?

I want to create a pdf file with links to a large number of music files (too many to embed in the pdf). When I create a link in the normal way Adobe Reader gives me a message that it cannot open the files. How can I get round this?

I am using the link tool to open a file. The error message -

Need an expert help solve linking original music files

All my iTunes music files now have an exclamation mark ( ! ) next to them. The error says unable to loacate original music file. I choose to locate the file, and I am able to find the file. When I find the file in "my music" folder, I see all my albums. If I open the album file I can find the original music file and I can link it successfully so that that particular song will play correctly from iTunes.
My problem is that I have almost 4,000 songs listed in my iTunes library. I can't possilby take each file and link each one manually through the My Music folder to the Album folder and then find the song. There must be an easier way, or I am doing this incorrectly.
I would certainly appreciate anyone's expertise.

I believe I followed the directions: I closed iTunes. I renamed the MY MUSIC file to MY MUSIC 1. (this is where all the music files were located). I reopened iTunes, then dragged the MY MUSIC folder into the open iTunes window. Now I have duplicates of all my music files in iTunes, but both sets get the exclamaion mark that original file cannot be located. Perhaps this works for MAC, but not Windows.
Still looking for any solutions. Thank you.

How to link itunes library to music files on another drive

this thing seems to be very easy at first but I have been trying to find a fix for this for quite some time now. It started when my stupid SSDrive just stopped working after one year (they say that is not unusual). I lost my windows install and my itunes library file.
Since my music is on another drive it sure was annoying but I found a not too old backup of itunes.itl. However after I reinstalled windows and Itunes I found out that the old itunes.itl was was looking for my music files on drive D:\ - so the easiest thing would be to change the drive where my .mp3s are (currently F:\) to drive D:. However D:\ drive is now the Win7 System drive and I read I am not allowed to change anything and leave it as it is or it would mess up my win7 install.
The itunes.itl is not plaintext so I can't change anything in it. I could go through my thousands of songs and relocate each and everyone by hand but that is not really an option.
I googled my problem quite a bit and found some step by step guides but they often start with "activate keep Itunes Music Folder organized" or "consolidate". But I don't want itunes to change anything to the way my mp3s are stored. I have been using the same file structure for years and don't want itunes to manage it for me.
Is it really so difficult to relocate all files at once?
Any ideas anyone?
PS: I still have the iphone that I always synchronized with the library before I lost the library. Is there a way to get a .itl out of the iphone and use it on the computer? That library would be up to date.

My script FindTracks can probably sort you out. To keep things simple in future I'd suggest you move the library folder to F:\iTunes and put the media folder inside it as F:\iTunes\iTunes Media, that way when the library is repaired it will be easy to move it to any other location as and when required.
tt2

WRT350N - Data Link - Streaming Music Files Problems

I have a hard drive attached to my WRT350N by USB. I also have a Apple Airport Express (wireless function disabled) attached to the WRT350N by ethernet cable. The Airport express is used to connect my stereo to the router so I can use the data port connecting a hard drive to store/play all my music.
Music files are accessed on the hard drive and sent to my laptop that plays it clearly. However, when it is then sent from the hard drive...to my laptop ...and then sent back to the router to be sent to the Airport to be sent to the stereo...I get gaps in the music.
You'd think that so many connections would be the issue, but if I connect an ethernet cable ...directly from Router to my laptop, it plays perfect on my stereo. So, my thought is that the wireless configuration must be adjusted. Any thoughts...does this make sense?

Try changing the Wireless channel on the router ...
Also try changing the MTU size under Setup page from 1500 to 1300 ....
See if it works ....

How do I find, at-a-glance, the sample size used in several music files?

How do I find, at-a-glance, the sample size used in several music files?
Of all the fields available in a FInder Search, "Sample Size" is not available. Finder does offer a "Bits per Sample" field, but it only recognized graphic files and not music files.
Running 10.8.5 on an iMac i5.
I did search through a couple of communities but came up empty.
Thank you,
Craig

C-squared,
There is no View Option to allow display of a column of sample size.
For WAV or Apple Lossless files, it is available on the Summary tab (one song at a time, as you know). For MP3 and AAC it is not available at all.
You can roughly infer it from the files that are larger than expected for their time.
99% of the music we use is at the CD standard of 16-bit, so I can guess that displaying it has never been a priority. However, if you want to make a suggestion to Apple, use this link:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

How do I use one external HD for two Macs to play music files?

I have an External HD linked to my iMac with all my music files. I want to use that same portable Ext HD to use with my MacBook.
Changing the location from MacBook/iTunes Preferences doesn't work, nor does File>Library>Organize Library. The music files don't show up in iTunes. I'm on iTunes 10.6.1.

On each computer:
Open iTunes. Select Preferences from the iTunes menu and click on the Advanced icon in the toolbar. At the top you will see a box showing the path to your iTunes library. Click on the Change button, navigate to the location for the library on your external drive, select it and click on the Open button. Note this permanently changes the library's location on that computer. That means you cannot access your music unless the external drive is connected.
If you don't want a permanent change, then press the OPTION key and hold it down while you launch iTunes. iTunes will then prompt you to select the library you wish to open for that session.

Music files missing? Seems like iTunes bug...

I recently noticed that many of my music files are missing, and that the selection appears to be somewhat random. They are retained in iTunes, but have the ! next to them. So, doing the logical thing, I tried to locate them, and the files themselves are missing, but their iTunes link is preserved.
In an effort to continue to do the logical thing, I then systematically went through my CD library, re-loading all the missing material back into iTunes. This was extremely tedious, but appeared to fix most of the issues (obviously, the ones were the CD case was mysteriously empty were left unfixed). The files played fine at that time. Then I carried the computer upstairs to my home office, where I proceeded to plug it in to do a time machine backup on the newly transferred files.
Now here's where it gets really strange... The time machine backup went swimmingly without hitches, to a relatively new USB 3.0 drive. I then set about organizing the music, so that it would all be in the iTunes music folder (User(me)/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/ directory, the one automatically made by iTunes on installation). Many of the songs linked perfectly, and I didn't have to re-link the songs to their new location, as one might expect. So, I then thought I would sit down to enjoy this new library that I had spent a day bringing up to speed and organizing again. And, low and behold, songs are missing--again. Not just the ones that I couldn't replace, but some of the newly replaced ones. For example, Track 12 of an album might be missing, but the files for Tracks 1-11 and 13+ are all present.
As other people who have experienced this problem previously have noted, there does seem to be a slight preference for songs whose artist and/or title include accented characters, although my detection ability is more limited now, as I have since lost many of these original CDs, and so the songs were not replaced within the library. But, while they account for about 5-10% of my overall library, they accounted for about 50% of the songs missing at the beginning of yesterday's overhaul.
And what makes matters really strange is that when I tried to look up the missing files--which I know myself to have imported yesterday--in the fresh time machine backup I made right after importing all that music, they are all missing.
So, it appears that iTunes is systematically deleting files at random. While I'm tempted to try to put the missing ones back on (fewer are "re-missing" than I was able to replace, so it's a little better), this doesn't exactly seem fruitful, given the fresh deletions.
The original music files were encoded a long time ago, and have been copied and re-copied (and recopied... ad infinitium). It appears that everything that I encoded on the really old system (before iTunes really became popular for this sort of thing) were preserved; however, the issue seems to temporally localize around the time I started using iTunes for most of my music encoding needs (except, of course, for the little issue about files that were imported less than 24 hours ago).
A few other notes:
- I did not delete these files accidentally. I'm more careful than that.
- The files are not there (they're not just hidden--I already checked for this).
- iTunes has retained the link to where it believes the file should be.
- The issue appears to have originally arisen quite some time ago, as these files are systemically missing from all backups made by time machine. However, it wasn't all that long ago that I deleted my entire library and started over (about 2 years, so the files should have been natively present on 2 of my macs) by re-importing all the files in my music folder. This newly created library has since become the "master" library that is propigated to all my other computers (although I don't trust iCloud for obvious reasons, given this fiasco--Thanks, Apple...)
- I have not elected to have iTunes manage my music folder, or automatically copy things to the iTunes music folder when importing (although this is the default destination, so they are imported there, but not duplicated there when imported from elsewhere on the hard drive).
- I am currently running OS X 10.6.8 on an Intel Mac (yeah, yeah, I'd upgrade the OS, but software that cost more than the computer isn't 10.8--or even 10.7--compatible).
If anyone has any thoughts on how to prevent this issue in the future, I'd really appreciate it. I think the music files themselves are just... gone. But, I would like to be able to have them stick around for a bit when I get around to dedicating another day to trying to import them from their CD.
Does anyone know a piece of third party software that allows you to sync and update iDevices? Hopefully one that doesn't take over my music library and decide to delete things of its own accord?

I was lucky to be able to use a PC, that after trying numerous times actually read the external hdd, I quickly copied all files over to a backup hdd and recovered all files. After that I ended up in contact with Western Digital about the incident and they recommended to completely erase (7-pass erase) of the hdd, which ended up taking over 5 days to do. They gave me no reason as to "Why" it would have happened but if I erase and reformatted of the hdd and the problem reoccurred they recommended to get the unit replaced.
I was lucky to recover all my files.....keep trying on different computers if you can, and copy what you can get hold of. The 7-pass erase will delete pretty much every trace of information on the hdd with no chance of recovery.
So far since the incident its been running ok but I not longer trust the hdd to be stable. Not a simple nor quick process / solution I'm afraid.
Good luck!
Once you have recovered your files (or as many as you can get hold of) and ready to erase the hdd:
(THIS WILL ERASE ALL YOUR DATA, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP BEFORE PROCEEDING)
Connect the drive directly to the Mac, open Disk Utility.
Select the drive and click on the "Erase" tab Select the "7-times zeros" to completely erase the drive.
Once the erase have completed format the drive to your selection.

ITunes update corrupted some of my music files so iTunes can't find the file, nor music I bought from the iTunes store.

After an iTunes generated update of iTunes, some of my music can't be accesed any more. When I try to play the file, iTunes says it can't find the link. This also happens with music I purchase from the iTunes store, so I've lost all this music; do I have to re-buy the purchased music again? My iTunes program is on my C drive, and the music library is on my D drive. In iTunes, I've set the ripped music to be placed in my D drive. The lost links are on some music files, but not others which do play music. Some compilation music files were split up into individual files, usually without LP art attached. Some album art was placed on wrong albums as well. Music with lost links have a ! mark beside the song name. File info says the link is on my C drive, but I can't find it there. Any ideas on how to get these lost files back. Thanks, Moizy.

Try this...
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.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

Music files still on Ipod... But Music does not show up

Here's my problem:
I plugged my Ipod (30gb 5g) into the computer the other day and put a few songs on it with iTunes. After I disconnected it, I went into my Music menu on the actual Ipod, and there was no music showing! All my Playlists, Music, and Video were gone. (But not any other information, photos, ect.)
Anyway, I plugged the iPod back in to the comp and opened it up in My Computer. The Music files and everything are still in the Ipod_Control folder. All the space is still taken up on the iPod by the music files, but Itunes doesn't seem to read it. When I plug the iPod in, iTunes tells me that it can't read the information from my ipod, and to Restore it to Factory Settings. Now, as I don't have all of my 1000 songs in iTunes anymore (actually very little of them, my comp only has 30 gigs) I really don't want to do that.
I'm figuring this has something to do with the itunes database file... but it's size is about 2 mb, which i think is about normal for a music library my size.
So I'm very confused. Thanks to anyone who took the time to read that. Even greater thanks to anyone who might be able to help.
bro2

I had this problem some time ago...it's easy to sort out just as long as your itunes content matches that of your ipod. You need to follow this:
The so-called 5-R's will cure 90% of iPod users problems. They're really easy to do so give them a try and if they fail to solve your issue post back in this forum - there are many willing helpers who I'm sure will be able to offer further assistance. Click this LINK.
MB67
Once you've completed this just resync your ipood with itunes.
Alternativley you could try this:
As well as being a great backup tool Tune Tools has loads of other handy and useful utilities:
http://www.valusoft.com
Tune Tools for iPod (PC/Mac)
Tune Tools for iPod: Easily perform back-ups, transfer songs, videos and podcasts, instantly recover lost songs and files, clean-up and sync your iPod library, detect and fix problems, back-up and restore media and view and edit song information with this robust software.
System requirements:
PC
Windows® 2000/XP
500MHz processor
128MB RAM
100MB free hard drive space
CD-ROM drive
Working USB 2.0 or FireWire connection to iPod®
Mac
OS X (10.1.5) or higher
G3 400MHz processor
128MB RAM
100MB free hard drive space
CD-ROM drive
16-bit color, 800x600 screen resolution
Mouse, keyboard

Have lost original iTunes music files on my MacBook Air

Hi, can someone help?
My purchased music files are no more aviailible on my mac, probably i have deleted them. Although on iTunes they are indicated under "purchased" but unfortunately I cannot access them. The list of music albums and songs still is availible, and if i want to activate one of songs, i receive the information, that the file could not be found, would i like to locate it? But when i go to "locate", the file appears to be empty at the end. Have i lost all my music files without a possibility to recover them? Any suggestions?
Appreciating your suggestions.

iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
The easiest way to get back missing items? Restore your whole hard drive with all your irreplaceable things like photos in about 20 minutes from the backup clone you make on a regular basis because you know for sure one day your drive will stop functioning, probably without warning.
Downloading (using iOS or computer) past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519 - enabled with iTunes 10.3 and newer; not all media formats are available in all countries (see: iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, and iTunes Radio availability by country - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5085); apps, books (not audiobooks), music, t.v. shows, and movies (some - not all studios have permitted this). Downloading previously purchased movies and TV shows requires iTunes 10.6 or later. Discontinued items not available. For items not included in the iCloud list (e.g., ringtones, audiobooks), or locations or computer systems where iCloud is not (yet?) available, you only get one download per fee paid. Apple recommends, "You always back up your iTunes library in the event that a purchased item is no longer available on the iTunes Store," (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519).
Additional tip at https://discussions.apple.com/message/24176756
Select the iTunes Store on the left side of iTunes if you have the sidebar displayed, or with the button at the top right.
Click on Purchased on the right side under Quick Links.
You can re-download your available previous purchases.

Re Linking Music Files

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for