Reemed by iTunes (help! related)

captainplanet

So I use a macbook pro with external lacie drive for just about everything I do. And ever since I got microwave, I've been relying on it for dj-ing too. Haven't had anything much to complain about with the setup until a couple days ago.tried to press play on a song in my itunes playlist, and a little gray exclamation point appeared next to the song title. pop-up asked me to locate file. I did. now this is happening with tons of songs, with no apparent order to which ones it is still able to find, and which ones are missing. In addition, sometimes when I go to locate the MP3 file, that shit is actually missing from my hard drive even though I KNOW I didn't delete it. DJ-ing last night I was caught in a bind several time when staple tracks I was planning on dropping were nowhere to be found. WTF! Anyone had this happen / know of a fix? In the past when stuff like this has happened, I locate one file and the computer atomatically recognizes that location for all the files again. But I'm wondering if maybe a bump to the lacie might have actually made certain files dissappear altogether.ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED

funky16corners

Did you ever unplug/replug the external and get prompted to relocate your iTunes library?

captainplanet

tried that. went into preferences and hit "reset location" and re-assigned it to my external. still no go.

also, some of these files aren't even showing up on my external anymore, like they actually have been deleted. but it seems pretty random which ones are no longer there. compilations or albums with V/A as the artist seem to be hit the worst, but I can't really make sense of how those files coulda been erased.

could a bump to an external make files dissappear like that? any hope of recorvery?

Snagglepus

Do you maintain two libraries (one on your MacBook and one on your external)? If so, did you delete any files from your MacBook library recently? I only ask because I've accidently deleted files from the library on my external thinking I was in my MacBook Pro library (it defaulted to the external library without my realizing it).

funky16corners

tried that. went into preferences and hit "reset location" and re-assigned it to my external. still no go.

also, some of these files aren't even showing up on my external anymore, like they actually have been deleted. but it seems pretty random which ones are no longer there. compilations or albums with V/A as the artist seem to be hit the worst, but I can't really make sense of how those files coulda been erased.

could a bump to an external make files dissappear like that? any hope of recorvery?

Maybe the external has problems. Can you run a defrag/error check on it? I've been running iTunes for along time and never saw anything like you're describing.

captainplanet

Do you maintain two libraries (one on your MacBook and one on your external)? If so, did you delete any files from your MacBook library recently? I only ask because I've accidently deleted files from the library on my external thinking I was in my MacBook Pro library (it defaulted to the external library without my realizing it).

I keep just one library which is on the external. just installed the iTunes update and tried again. I'll locate one file that it claims is missing, and then it still wont be able to locate the next file down. reset disk location again, still no go.

and yeah, I'm realizing that almost all my compilations have vanished!?!

Snagglepus

Do you maintain two libraries (one on your MacBook and one on your external)? If so, did you delete any files from your MacBook library recently? I only ask because I've accidently deleted files from the library on my external thinking I was in my MacBook Pro library (it defaulted to the external library without my realizing it).

I keep just one library which is on the external. just installed the iTunes update and tried again. I'll locate one file that it claims is missing, and then it still wont be able to locate the next file down. reset disk location again, still no go.

and yeah, I'm realizing that almost all my compilations have vanished!?!

Can you find the files by looking for them "manually"? Maybe this is too obvious, but I'm guessing you've looked in you iTunes Music folder?

If the files are in there, then somehow the iTunes Music XML file got screwed up (this is the file that keeps track of what songs you have and where they're located). To rebuild your library, you can delete everything within iTunes (making sure you "keep files") then just drag your iTunes Music folder back into iTunes. WARNING: you will lose all of your playlists if you do this.

If you have many playlists, perhaps you should just drag the iTunes music folder into iTunes without deleting anything. I'm pretty sure that, if you select "keep library organized" within the Advanced Preferences menu (I believe ... I don't have my computer in front of me), then it won't create a bunch of doubles of everything on your library. Not 100% sure about that.

captainplanet

thanks snaggle. I'm gonna try that. I know where all the files are on the hard drive (the ones that didn't disappear at least), and I could technically re-find them one by one, but that would take a month. and if I lose my playlists, my DJ-career would take a huge hit.

Snagglepus

Another option to play around with is to "Consolidate Your Music Library". I know it places all of your music files into one place (your iTunes music folder) though I'm not sure if it searches around your computer for any MP3 file (even ones not currently in your library) or not. May help, though.

captainplanet

I did the copy whole iTunes folder from external back into iTunes program, and it appears to be working! Now I just have to go through and delete all duplicates... arrrrg. but at least the music and playlists aren't gone.

thanks.

Snagglepus

If you go up to View, you can select Show Duplicates. That makes it a bit faster anyway.

prof_rockwell

you should check to see if any of your 'compilations' settings got changed.


There is a 'browse by compilation' setting in the preferences, and also a 'this song is part of compilation' setting on the individual song info page as well.

captainplanet

DONE! and somehow all the compilations re-appeared!!! Still don't really get what happened in the first place, but by dragging the entire contents of the iTunes folder into the itunes program, everything is back in place! I'm very very happy

viewed duplicates and deleted. it's fixed!

big thanks folks!