# iTunes Forgot where my music was.



## Jason H (Feb 1, 2004)

Its forgot the locations for all of my music files. How can I get it to find them again? 

I keep all my music on an external drive and for some reason its just completely blanked out on where anything is. Its all organized according to iTunes. How can I do this without manually pointing iTunes to all 7432 files?

At this moment I really really hate iTunes!



In a related note I've been having trouble recently with keeping my library on an external drive. Everytime I start iTunes without the drive it points my library back to /users/me/music/itunes/itunes library and then i point it back to the external drive, and the hit consolidate and it MOVES EVERYTHING BACK TO MY MBP'S HARD DRIVE. Its doen this a couple times where its filled the hard drive and then dumped the remainder. I'm missing a few hundred songs, and that is pissing me off because I dont want to redownload/rerip all my cd's....


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## teeterboy3 (May 22, 2005)

I have been having the same problem. Ever since upgrading to Leopard. My library resides on a LaCie over Airport using Airport Disc. Also the library is on my AppleTV.

Every so often (pretty much when I quit and relaunch iTunes), it loses track where the library file is. I have to go through the annoyance of reminding iTunes where it is. And sometimes the Airport Disc is slow to show up or be accessible.

I think the problem (for me anyway) is in how the disc reads over the AEBS.

But imagine how much fun it was the one time iTunes couldn't find the library, opened blank and then proceeded to zero out the AppleTV… only so I could re-load all 18,200 songs again later when I found out.


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## wandaowen (Nov 13, 2007)

It sometimes happens to me too that when I relaunch iTunes it starts off with a completely blank library...
In that case just quit iTunes and relaunch (click on the iTunes icon *while holding the Option key*). iTunes will ask you for the location of the library and everything will work as before....
You should NOT need to go through any library consolidation steps!

Hope that helps


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## Jason H (Feb 1, 2004)

wandaowen said:


> It sometimes happens to me too that when I relaunch iTunes it starts off with a completely blank library...
> In that case just quit iTunes and relaunch (click on the iTunes icon *while holding the Option key*). iTunes will ask you for the location of the library and everything will work as before....
> You should NOT need to go through any library consolidation steps!
> 
> Hope that helps


The problem is I'm not starting with a blank library. I'm starting with a list of 7500 songs, with ratings, playlists etc. The problem is none of these database items are linked to the actual file on my hard drive.

How the hell can I make them match up?


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

iTunes Preferences/Advanced/General Tab/iTunes Music Folder Location

Select where your files are. That should do it.


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## Jason H (Feb 1, 2004)

Vexel said:


> iTunes Preferences/Advanced/General Tab/iTunes Music Folder Location
> 
> Select where your files are. That should do it.


First thing I tried. Thats not the problem.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Jason H said:


> The problem is I'm not starting with a blank library. I'm starting with a list of 7500 songs, with ratings, playlists etc. The problem is none of these database items are linked to the actual file on my hard drive.
> 
> How the hell can I make them match up?


Ah. I understand now. You have the LIST of songs, but iTunes doesn't seem to know where the actual file is!

Here's what to do:

1. Locate where the "missing" music files actually are. Yes, they're probably right where they should be, but humour me. Know the path of the actual location of those files.

2. Open iTunes, select a song that has a ! icon next to it (indicating that the original file is "missing"). iTunes will ask if you want to locate the song. Yes you do.

3. Navigate it right to the "missing" song file. iTunes should then say that other "missing" song files are there and do you want to reconnect to them? Yes you do.

4. If for some reason that doesn't work, or it wants to do this one song at a time, this link will give you an Applescript that will save the day. Don't thank me, thank Doug.


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## Jason H (Feb 1, 2004)

chas_m said:


> Ah. I understand now. You have the LIST of songs, but iTunes doesn't seem to know where the actual file is!
> 
> Here's what to do:
> 
> ...


Dougs scripts seems to be down. I'll check it out later. Thanks


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## Jason H (Feb 1, 2004)

Jason H said:


> Dougs scripts seems to be down. I'll check it out later. Thanks


Its working. I love you chas!


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